Couple of 中文角 questions

[geraldc]

Hmmm my developed sense of empathy suggests that a user guide for 中文角 is required.

I'll have a go at knocking one up tomorrow...

[nipponman]

User guide? Like a sticky for posting procedures, rules, etc? I could write one of those things if need be...

[necroflux]

中文角.. I assume 角 is jiao3, "to chat", but I can't find it listed in any dictionaries under that meaning. What's up with this character? I'm sure I'm doing something completely stupid here.

[skylee]

角 means 角落 (corner).

[in_lab]

Not to be confused with 中文腳, as in 我在公廁感染了中文腳,癢得很厲害.

[necroflux]

Ahh, okay makes sense. 謝謝!

[HashiriKata]

中文腳, as in 我在公廁感染了中文腳,癢得很厲害.

“中文腳”是什么东西/意思？

[nipponman]

“中文腳”是什么东西/意思？

Chinese athlete's foot maybe?

[HashiriKata]

Chinese athlete's foot maybe?

That's very likely to be correct but I'm just not sure why the word 中文 is attached to it, and whether “中文腳”is widely understood at all (It's not in some dictionaries I've looked at).

[wai ming]

“中文腳”是什么东西/意思？

I've heard of 香港腳, but not 中文腳...

[in_lab]

中文腳 was just a joke. When I looked at 中文角, my first thought was "Chinese horn"? Is this some kind of net speak? How about 中文區? Should all posts in the 中文角 be in Chinese?

[carlo]

Would 汉语角 be more transparent? (most people will have heard of 英语角)

[nipponman]

Should all posts in the 中文角 be in Chinese?

Yes they should. Otherwise you'll get a friendly reminder from me.

[elina]

I’m busy and lazy, in addition I think the discussion about 中文角 here can be the same as this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/6461-%e4%b8%ba%e4%bb%80%e4%b9%88%e5%be%88%e5%a4%9a%e7%9a%84%e6%b1%89%e8%af%ad%e5%ad%a6%e4%b9%a0%e8%80%85%e5%9c%a8%e8%bf%99%e9%87%8c%e4%b8%8d%e7%94%a8%e6%b1%89%e8%af%ad, so I do not translate the following into English to save some time.

大家认为“中文角”里的帖子真地有必要必须用中文来写吗？就我个人的观点，设立“中文角”的目的是为了让更多的外国人尽量去练习和运用所学的中文，这包括两个方面：

1．阅读中文

2．用中文写作

如果非要求每个人必须在这儿用中文写帖子，恐怕会阻碍一些阅读水平已比较不错、但中文书写水平还不太好的人的参与（我估计gougou, geraldc等会员属于这一类，不过也许我低估了他们的水平也不一定）。

我觉得，“中文角”完全可以比现在搞得更好、更热闹。那么，为什么要设立必须用中文这个规矩呢？对于新生事物，我想，不应该做一个完美主义者，做半个完美主义者比较合适。如果鼓励会员们尽量参与到“中文角”中去，最开始可以有一些句子甚至段落都用英文来写，而中文母语者仍然用中文发帖子，这样可能中文角的人气会兴旺起来，而人们的中文水平也能够得以慢慢提高。

当然，这只是我个人的一点不成熟的想法，也许会把“中文角”搞得看起来很乱，不过，我考虑的是人们学习中文的效果，而不是形式。

在此，我觉得HashiriKata很难得，刚开始用中文写作，居然还能保持其一贯的“耍贫嘴”作风。

[anonymoose]

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole of this thread to see what others have said, but regarding disallowing grammar questions in 中文角, I think this is a bad idea.

Firstly, it is restricting the range of topics which are allowed, for no reason other than they should be accessible to English speakers with poor Chinese.

Secondly, if someone has good enough Chinese to be able to ask their question in Chinese, chances are that it will be advanced enough not to be of interest to the beginner.

Thirdly, there are probably a number of Chinese users who may not have good enough English to explain complex aspects of Chinese grammar, and so will be less likely to contribute if it has to be in English. This, I believe is an important point. I know whenever I've asked questions, I've had more responses from other learners of Chinese than native Chinese speakers themselves. Now, it's not that I'm not grateful for responses from other learners, but sometimes I would also appreciate more native perspectives on the issue in question.

On balance, I don't think allowing grammar questions in 中文角 is likely to have a negative effect on the other forums, but disallowing them will have a negative effect on 中文角.

That's my 2分's worth.

[nipponman]

I'm sorry I haven't read the whole of this thread to see what others have said' date=' but regarding disallowing grammar questions in 中文角, I think this is a bad idea.

[/quote']

Well, I don't think that asking questions in chinese is really all that helpful. Its a waste of time b/c someone might use the expression you're querying. Plus, it would undermine the grammar and vocabulary section. Look, I understand where you're coming from, it does seem like a good idea. But, you have to remember the purpose of that section, which is to provide a n alternative to the much unused chat-room and to specialize the Chat and Language Exchange into a chinese only section. If you remember that, it seems kinda redundant to have another section with grammar questions.

If all this still doesn't disuade you, think about this, you and I can read/understand chinese, but Joe Newbie may not be able to understand our linguistical jargon, let alone in chinese! So, I think it is a good idea to keep the two things seperate, and hey, push come to shove, you can always write a thread in chinese and ask for chinese only responses.

nipponman

[gougou]

I've had more responses from other learners of Chinese than native Chinese speakers themselves

That might be a language problem; more likely, I believe, is however that the foreigner went through a more formalized study of Chinese grammar.

A Chinese person places 了 at the end of a sentence because it feels right, a foreigner places it because he needs to indicate a change. Or a completion.Or emotion...

[roddy]

Postings in the Chinese Corner are currently pretty much entirely by native speakers and a couple of very advanced learners. This was not the original intention. If anyone's got any ideas on some kind of practice area that would be of value to a wider range of learners I'd like to hear it.

At the moment I'm thinking it might be best left to the dedicated language exchange sites.

[anonymoose]

I think the Chinese corner is OK as it is. Yes, it doesn't get a lot of participation from non-native speakers, but at the same time, it's not doing any harm by being there either. At least I appreciate the opportunity to contribute every now and then.

[roddy]

It's not doing any harm, but it kind of makes sense to have somewhere lower-level learners can practice on here if possible. I think it might need quite a bit of day to day input though.