Posts: 1,449
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
Reputation:
23
China is still the Great Unknown
03-06-2013, 09:20 AM
Nice one mate, thanks. Your blog looks great too.
If you haven't already, you should check out the book "Delaying the Real World"- lots of ideas and case studies of cool little job opps while travelling. Worth a read.
Posts: 962
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2012
Reputation:
28
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 01:01 AM
I have a club I go to where I get free drinks because the manager likes to show off foreigners in his club. A woman I met gets paid for bringing foreigners to her club. China is ridiculous sometimes.
If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.
Data Sheet Minneapolis / Data Sheet St. Paul / Data Sheet Northern MN/BWCA /
Data Sheet Duluth
Posts: 581
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 02:11 AM
i get free drinks at the majority of clubs i go to. pretty convenient
Posts: 1,449
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
Reputation:
23
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 10:13 AM
Haha that's awesome. Osiris, what's your take on learning Mandarin for opportunities in China? Are you conversational in it, working towards it, or don't see a need for it? Do you think being conversational in it opens valuable doors - in terms of these kinds of jobs, or business ventures?
Posts: 962
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2012
Reputation:
28
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 12:02 PM
You don't need it whatsoever. My Chinese is better than many foreigners who haven't studied it formally, and that's because it isn't needed. There are more opportunities for people who can both read and write to a decent extent, especially in the business world, however just about anybody who's anybody can speak basic English. If youre looking to do business here, I'd recommend a translator until you can seriously hold your own in a conversation and read a contract. Or find a business person in your field that can speak decently.
It's a hard language to learn. It's tonal, which is a total bitch at first - say a word right but in the wrong tone and no one will understand you. "Si shi si, shi shi shi, shi si shi shi si, si shi shi si shi". Tones turn that into a sentence. It's largely monosyllabic, which is also a pain in the ass. Many words sound the similar to western ears - si, she, shi, zhe, zhi, ji, je, ju, jie, etc... Laoshi is teacher, laoshu is mouse, Lao hu is tiger. I work with small children, making any of those a possibility for what they're saying.
I've been here for 8 months, most of my coworkers who arrived at the same time have largely given up on learning the language. I've learned some basics, animals (thanks children), vegetables, fruits, meats, common dishes, family members, colors, basic directions (left, up, front), tongue twisters, baby songs, and basic expressions (I want/need/have/must/eat/like/love/go to). I'm starting to learn characters, I can recognise about 100 or so, and write maybe 70.
The US State dept says it takes 3000 hours to become fluent in Chinese. It's a fun language to learn, but it's frustrating at times. If you like a challenge, I say go for it.
If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.
Data Sheet Minneapolis / Data Sheet St. Paul / Data Sheet Northern MN/BWCA /
Data Sheet Duluth
Posts: 4,451
Threads: 0
Joined: Mar 2010
Reputation:
140
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 04:16 PM
Thanks for the intel Osiris. Have you been taking any courses to learn the lingo or just on your own and with a pillow dictionary?
Posts: 992
Threads: 0
Joined: Feb 2012
Reputation:
24
China is still the Great Unknown
03-07-2013, 08:00 PM
The tones are very important to get right, but their difficulty is relative and varies from person to person. Each individual learns the tones at a different rate. Fortunately, it was never too much of a big deal with me, just took practice. Luckily, Mandarin only has only four tones to remember. It really depends on whether or not you're the "pronunciation type", someone who learns to imitate sounds easily.
On the plus side, the grammar is also fairly simple, since it's an isolating language with no case endings, no declensions or verb conjugations, usually no real tenses, practically no differentiation between singular and plural (except in personal pronouns i.e. I/we, you/you [all], etc.).
For me the real pain in the ass is the characters, since there are just so many to learn, and if you don't constantly use them, you forget half of them in a relatively short time. Add to that the difference between Mainland China's Jianti-zi (known as "simplified Chinese" in English, as "short-characters" in German) and Fanti-zi ("traditional Chinese characters" in English, "long characters" in German) used in Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau. Just take for example: simplified "学习汉字" and traditional "漢字學習" for a comparison.
On the plus side, though, if you can read Chinese characters, you'll have a much easier time reading Japanese, since they use lots of Chinese characters/Kanji (you just won't know how to pronounce it), and there are a lot of Chinese loan words found in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, making it somewhat easier learning the vocabularies of these languages.
Also, the Kanji-opener is probably an endlessly abundant and infinitely practical way to open Chinese and Japanese (and to a lesser extent, Korean girls) in almost any situation.
Posts: 581
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
China is still the Great Unknown
03-08-2013, 11:03 AM
vip free of charge
Posts: 1,449
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2011
Reputation:
23
China is still the Great Unknown
03-08-2013, 11:55 AM
haha cool. And how are you swinging that clever_alias?
Posts: 581
Threads: 0
Joined: Jul 2012
China is still the Great Unknown
03-08-2013, 12:01 PM
white man in china speak chinese + good venue selection
Posts: 962
Threads: 0
Joined: Nov 2012
Reputation:
28
China is still the Great Unknown
03-09-2013, 09:05 AM
I have a shit ton of resources I could share.
If you are going to impose your will on the world, you must have control over what you believe.
Data Sheet Minneapolis / Data Sheet St. Paul / Data Sheet Northern MN/BWCA /
Data Sheet Duluth
![[Image: banana.gif]](https://rooshvforum.network/images/smilies/new/banana.gif)
