Adventures in Language Learning

[ServusMariae]

The language has four tones that denote differences between words aside from pronunciation. That's why there are those familiar up and down sounds we hear when it is spoken. It's also not as hard as Cantonese I would guess since that has seven tones, if I'm not mistaken. Mandarin and Cantonese are only among several dialects or variations of Chinese.

The characters are pretty interesting and neat to learn. I prefer the traditional characters myself, but the simplified versions came around with the advent of communism in China sadly. I tried to write the story of salvation in traditional Chinese characters several years ago. I only wrote so much though.

^Kepha is 100% right on the Chinese language in general.

(P.S: I'm Chinese too. )

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I’ve been thinking about studying Chinese. When I was younger I could speak it at a very basic level, but I could never be bothered to learn to read or write. But now I find myself interested in the calligraphy. It seems to have a very meditative quality. If only I could get over my impatience to progress quickly, I think I might enjoy it.

Servus, do you think there’s room for me in that “special” class you were in? 

[Fleur-de-Lys]

My Chinese books were completely destroyed in shipping. I’m taking it as a sign.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I spent some time recently studying Arabic. It was an interesting experience, but I don’t think I’ll pursue it further.

I’m looking forward to the Scottish Gaelic course that is in development on Duolingo.

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I started studying Hindi just because I really like the way the Devanagari script looks. It’s challenging though. There are a lot of subtle sounds that we don’t have in English. And it’s hard to learn the symbol for a sound, when you can’t quite identify the sound itself or distinguish it from others that are similar! I’ll sort it out eventually, Deo volente.

[Daniel]

I started studying Hindi just because I really like the way the Devanagari script looks. It’s challenging though. There are a lot of subtle sounds that we don’t have in English. And it’s hard to learn the symbol for a sound, when you can’t quite identify the sound itself or distinguish it from others that are similar! I’ll sort it out eventually, Deo volente.

Why not learn Sanskrit instead? That's what I'd choose if I wanted to use the Devanagari script for something...


Anyway, I am back to learning Japanese. Because I am in need of a language in order to graduate next semester... and Latin won't do, due to schedule conflicts. Plus, Japanese is probably something I'd get more benefit out of. (Latin seems relatively easy to pick up through self-study, if I ever need to learn it more than I already do. But Japanese is so different from what I'm accustomed to that I wouldn't even know where to start... and I'm probably going to need to learn it for my job in the near future...)

I'd tried (Mandarin) Chinese in the past but never made any progress. The tones were just too difficult for me, and I never made it to the grammar. I don't mind the writing system though. I'm currently having a fun time learning the thousands of Chinese characters (but for Japanese).

[Fleur-de-Lys]

I started studying Hindi just because I really like the way the Devanagari script looks. It’s challenging though. There are a lot of subtle sounds that we don’t have in English. And it’s hard to learn the symbol for a sound, when you can’t quite identify the sound itself or distinguish it from others that are similar! I’ll sort it out eventually, Deo volente.

Why not learn Sanskrit instead? That's what I'd choose if I wanted to use the Devanagari script for something...

You are the second person who has said that to me!