which chinese dialect(s) do you like most?

[赫杰]

Oh, yes it is really cool. It is so cool in fact that I really really really really really wish I was a Singapore(an?) or a nationality with a similar background...I have meet many outstanding people from Singapore like you, that is people with a ridiculous capacity for languages, and have always been impressed. And I believe as you study Japanese, such a language background will greatly help you in your studies. Good luck!

F***, I can only speak english, and bad english at that and as I finish another 12 hour study day on my winter break here, I really wonder what it would be like growing up with a second language and how much easier this f***ing process would be. I'll stop my bitching now as its not my thing, but I am sure a great number of posters here have similar feelings.

[Ferno]

Oh' date=' yes it is really cool. It is so cool in fact that I really really really really really wish I was a Singapore(an?) or a nationality with a similar background...I have meet many outstanding people from Singapore like you, that is people with a ridiculous capacity for languages, and have always been impressed. And I believe as you study Japanese, such a language background will greatly help you in your studies. Good luck!

F***, I can only speak english, and bad english at that and as I finish another 12 hour study day on my winter break here, I really wonder what it would be like growing up with a second language and how much easier this f***ing process would be. I'll stop my bitching now as its not my thing, but I am sure a great number of posters here have similar feelings.[/quote']

赫杰, it looks like you are native speaker of English... you really shouldn't be upset. English is the most important language of the world. Literaly millions of Chinese are busting their balls to learn this language (with their entire careers and futures depending on it) - with highly irregular (70%) spelling and irregular grammar.

and I don't know why you'd want to be a Singaporean or something when so many Asians envy white people... (you're white, right?)

[赫杰]

Indeed, I am as white as they come...while maybe a light brownish tan that never goes away (well I guess I should be thankful for that)...but yes I am an ol' white boy.

I envy those who grew up with such a language background, which includes a great majority of Singaporeans. Yes many of the struggles chinese studying english are similar, oh believe me do I know.

I am sure many people here know what I am talking about, I mean, how often do you just sigh and get (momentarily) depressed after studying so much, giving up so much, just to learn 1, just 1, single foreign language and then you meet a person who is like a slack 14 year old or something and can speak four different languages because of his surroundings/school/parents/a talent or whatever reason.

But envy and bitching gets you no where I know and I actually don't do it often, I just recently feel like expressing my feelings as I am sure such feelings must be commonly felt by many posters here. These posts are just rants, please ignore them. My apologies, I sometimes just feel a little better after venting a bit. Lastly I say this in all seriousness, I would give up anything, go through anything, to have grown up in such an eviroment.

This has gotten off topic, s*** my bad guys! hey if any wants to continue to comment on such things (its defenitately not worth a thread starter) send it to my PM or something. F*** I'll shut up now and resume studying. My bad.

HJ

[wushijiao]

From a language geek point of view, I also envy Singaporeans and Malaysians. I knew a Malaysian woman who spoke perfect English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Malay. All of this mainly because of her surroundings, although I’m sure formal studying in English and Chinese improved those quite a bit.

As far as Chinese dialects, I suppose I like what little I know of Shanghaihua. I think Hakka sounds cool as well.

But envy and bitching gets you no where I know and I actually don't do it often, I just recently feel like expressing my feelings as I am sure such feelings must be commonly felt by many posters here.

Don’t worry! I once snapped and threw a Chinese book at the wall as hard as I could! Sometimes it’s frustrating to study one’s ass off and see no apparent improvement whatsoever. For me at least, I have depressing plateaus that last a few months, and then giant “great leap forwards”, if you will, in which it my progress has become evident.

[yorkie_bear]

I have to agree that Shanghainese does really sound like people are having a right argy bargy (and often they are!).

I like Cantonese, but what I love about it are the Chinglish words like diksi, baasi, feelum, paasii - It's so cute.

I also like Sichuanhua - it's intelligible enough to understand most of it as a Putonghua speaker, but just odd enough to not quite understand all of it!

[chenpv]

Don’t worry! I once snapped and threw a Chinese book at the wall as hard as I could!

I once tore an English book into pieces, but bought a new one and resumed learning afterward.

And one more thing, if only I could speak English as fluently as some of you who could speak decent Chinese after years of learning. (is this a weird sentence? )

[ala]

I have to agree that Shanghainese does really sound like people are having a right argy bargy (and often they are!).

they probably were arguing.

shanghainese isn't known for being loud and argy bargy, it's a 吴侬软语 (wunong ruanyu) dialect, part of the same family as suzhou-hua. in fact, shanghainese today is closer to the suzhou-hua spoken a hundred years ago.

native speakers will think shanghainese is quite soft as well (compared to mandarin dialects and other southern dialects, with exception of suzhou-hua).

[HashiriKata]

so many Asians envy white people... (you're white, right?)

Not really, but I do envy your apparent intellect!

[aspen]

i like schichuanese. it's understandable if you know mandarin and is more an accent than a totally new dialect. a lot of comic evil characters in film/tv uses this dialect.

[Ferno]

Not really' date=' but I do envy your apparent intellect! [/quote']

I'm flattered if you're serious

I think asians do kind of look up to white people in some physical/pop culture respects. A guy I know in Shanghai said they admire their skin. and then there's all the eyelid surgery going (not just for women either!) on to get caucasian-like folds in the eyelid, as well as other procedures. Look at Ayumi Hamasaki! And when my best friend (living here) went to visit family in Hong Kong with his parents, he was told by his mom to speak English as much as possible because it's a sign of higher status.

this is probably because Asians have adapted a lot of western culture but don't actually see that many westerners that aren't on a TV screen or in a magazine. The Shanghai guy said there are many white people living there, so it's not that much of a big deal there. Aww, I guess I won't be anything special if I ever go there some time

btw are you an ethnic Japanese living in the UK?

[ala]

I think asians do kind of look up to white people in some physical/pop culture respects. A guy I know in Shanghai said they admire their skin. and then there's all the eyelid surgery going (not just for women either!) on to get caucasian-like folds in the eyelid, as well as other procedures. Look at Ayumi Hamasaki!

the "double" eyelid fold (双眼皮) being preferred is not a product of Western civilization influences, it was preferred a thousand years ago. There are hundreds of millions of Chinese with the Caucasian ("double") eye fold since birth. It is a common genetic phenotype amongst the Chinese. Same thing with fair skin. Fair skin was preferred over dark skin in China since antiquity. Suzhou/Hangzhou girls were considered beautiful in Chinese literature for their fairer skins and large eyes. These longheld aesthetic preferences in East Asian cultures allowed Western aesthetics to be more easily accepted in modern times. They do not, as you suggest, imply a complete aping of Western standards of beauty.

Hehe, to give you a contrary example, Westerners' hairy backs are not aesthetically beautiful or even pleasant to most East Asians. It's not "looking up to white people", but more like sharing through parallel development or cultural exchange aesthetic preferences common to both civilizations. If the former "looking up to white people" were true, then hairy backs would be worshipped too.

[Ferno]

true. But 50 years ago...hell, 30 years ago (in China) you didn't have western culture and western faces everywhere. Now you turn on the TV and you see celebrity news and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (well, actually she's part chinese, isn't she? ) and beautiful white models in magazines and on Loreal hair products in stores and of course the enormous amount of stuff on the internet. The large exposure of these phenotypes has to have some effect..

[Quest]

true. But 50 years ago...hell, 30 years ago (in China) you didn't have western culture and western faces everywhere. Now you turn on the TV and you see celebrity news and Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (well, actually she's part chinese, isn't she? ) and beautiful white models in magazines and on Loreal hair products in stores and of course the enormous amount of stuff on the internet. The large exposure of these phenotypes has to have some effect..

But for every one of the caucasian celebrities, there're 10 times more Chinese/Japnese/Korean models... I think the number of Chinese that are actually into American pop culture is very limited, because there's enough homegrown and Asian alternatives.

[wushijiao]

I agree that many Chinese aesthetic preferences have ancient origins. But what about, say, check bones? If you look at the women in the Tang, they were more plump and also seemed to have 瓜子脸’s, more round faces. In fashion magazines today, it seems that the emphasis is on skinniness and high check bones, which many Chinese don’t naturally have. I wonder to what degree did the introduction of the white standard of beauty have on influencing how modern Chinese determine what a beautiful Chinese face is. I don't know.

[ala]

That's still highly speculative. Cantonese people generally have very high cheek bones (at least relative to the rest of the Chinese population), and much of Chinese pop culture comes from Hong Kong.

Also the white standard of beauty hasn't always been skinny and angular either, this was a modern development. The plump face, curved figure was cherished in Western civilization as well.

Of course modern western fashion preferences have had an impact on East Asian societies, but I feel a lot of it is only able to take off and become popular because of an already existing indigenous preference.

[Ncao]

That's still highly speculative. Cantonese people generally have very high cheek bones (at least relative to the rest of the Chinese population), and much of Chinese pop culture comes from Hong Kong.

Actually,there are many HK entertainers who are of Shanghaiese descent.

[HashiriKata]

I'm flattered if you're serious

No, I was being sarcastic (AND you were supposed to feel offended! )

btw are you an ethnic Japanese living in the UK?

Is it conceivable for a Japanese to be still alive & happy on this board?

[amego]

Oh, yes it is really cool. It is so cool in fact that I really really really really really wish I was a Singapore(an?) or a nationality with a similar background...I have meet many outstanding people from Singapore like you, that is people with a ridiculous capacity for languages, and have always been impressed. And I believe as you study Japanese, such a language background will greatly help you in your studies. Good luck!

F***, I can only speak english, and bad english at that and as I finish another 12 hour study day on my winter break here, I really wonder what it would be like growing up with a second language and how much easier this f***ing process would be. I'll stop my bitching now as its not my thing, but I am sure a great number of posters here have similar feelings.

赫杰, you are too kind =) its never too late to start! learning a new language is very fun, don't be despaired that you only know a single lang...you're not alone! anyway Chinese is relatively easy to speak as grammar is a hell lot less complicated than English, only the tones need some mastering, although writing is another story....well 加油!

anyway you have a nice name here =p (really im not kidding )

PS Singaporean is correct.

[赫杰]

Thanks, I will 加油

I agree english is much harder than chinese (especially since I don't SPEAK it much these days...), though I get funny looks when I give such an opinion to the few foreigners I do know...

Yes, my writing sucks but thanks to QQ/MSN and such programs my typing speed and character recognition is ...acceptable...

Thank you, it is a nice name aint' it? haha I love it actually, I am very lucky and fortunate to have it...I will continue to do my best to live up to it, haha

I'm not too kind, just speaking the truth. Take care and good luck

O! O! just noticed the "which chinese dialect(s) do you like most?" okay ummmm...this is going to sound funny, but I really do enjoy the Wuhan dialect here! My friend is teaching it to me now and it's very comical and a lot of fun to use! Also "fierce" is the word most chinese use to describe this. Well, I live with Wuhanese and man..."fierce" is not strong enough...haha 晕 It's crazy, anyway, when I hear it now I feel at home, really, feel real comfortable, weird huh?

HJ

[amego]

Thank you, it is a nice name aint' it? haha I love it actually, I am very lucky and fortunate to have it...I will continue to do my best to live up to it, haha

Yea man!!! 这样才对 That's the way.

O! O! just noticed the "which chinese dialect(s) do you like most?" okay ummmm...this is going to sound funny, but I really do enjoy the Wuhan dialect here! My friend is teaching it to me now and it's very comical and a lot of fun to use! Also "fierce" is the word most chinese use to describe this. Well, I live with Wuhanese and man..."fierce" is not strong enough...haha 晕 It's crazy, anyway, when I hear it now I feel at home, really, feel real comfortable, weird huh?

I'm glad that you can feel the warmth in Wuhanese, its not weird man, haha, I also feel more comfortable speaking Singlish than pure Mandarin or English (the latter two reminds me of classrooms haha) Anyway is Wuhanese similar to any other dialect? I wanna have a feel of what is it like.