channamasala Posted January 10, 2004 at 08:24 PM Report Posted January 10, 2004 at 08:24 PM What motivates you guys, especially you guys in countries that are not China or Taiwan, and most especially you guys with no formal class or tutor in Chinese, to keep studying vocab, grammar, etc? I ask because I need some motivation right about now, knowing it may be years before I get back to Asia and not knowing how my proficiency in Chinese will help me now, except to impress the cashiers at random Chinese groceries in Seven Corners. Quote
芳芳 Posted January 11, 2004 at 06:19 AM Report Posted January 11, 2004 at 06:19 AM Oh, I quite figure out what you mean... I realized I was not improving my chinese when I noticed the sentences I was saying the most of the time were: 那个东西你卖多儿钱？ ...quoi? 太贵了！便宜便宜！ Not really enough to speak about the importance of probabilities in image segmentation (比如说。。。) but as I noticed my chinese colleague, working 3 meters on my left, and how cute and friendly he was (but desperately unable to say more than three words in english at a strech, even if he can master a very thick book about computer sciences in english), I decided that something had to be done. Well, this can be called errr..a motivation, isn't it? Quote
Quest Posted January 11, 2004 at 08:42 AM Report Posted January 11, 2004 at 08:42 AM 那个东西你卖多儿钱？ ...quoi? 太贵了！便宜便宜！ adorable Quote
channamasala Posted January 11, 2004 at 02:50 PM Author Report Posted January 11, 2004 at 02:50 PM :? This computer doesn't read characters, so I haven't a clue what you just said...to me, it looks like ????...quoi? ????? Quote
pazu Posted January 11, 2004 at 03:47 PM Report Posted January 11, 2004 at 03:47 PM Why don't you ask yourself? You should know it. ;) Quote
PollyWaffle Posted January 12, 2004 at 11:27 AM Report Posted January 12, 2004 at 11:27 AM What motivates me is the aversion to being in a position where i make a fool of myself. For example, I am out shopping & my chinese tour guide friend sees me & introduces me to a bunch of fat beijing bureaucrats. They all start talking at me in that hideous er er er er accent & I am a deer in the headlights. Like a No. 8 frozen chicken. As the shopping centre I frequent has chinese tour groups everyday (lead by someone or another i know), this has motivated me to improve my listening skills. Now I understand their innane questions. ("is your girlfriend chinese or something?" - "no, she's maltese") cheers polly. Quote
Lu Yi Si Posted March 2, 2004 at 02:23 PM Report Posted March 2, 2004 at 02:23 PM I was more motivated before. The reason was I was here last year staying in apartment with another European, our simplistic Chinese was at a similar level. He was better at characters, I was better at speaking, at least at first. After a year of competitiveness he was better, to be honest. Luckily our rivalry spurred us on to be better at Chinese in the end, although we sort of hated it if one of us knew something the other didn't, we would always use words we thought the other didn't know, when using Chinese conversation, to annoy each other. The best motivation therefore, is probably mild, non-violent hatred. Quote
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