Free Chinese lessons inside!

[HEyHEY]

I was getting one of the SO's signature Chinese lessons last night, I forgot my book at her place so she emailed me three of the things I wanted to know so I could go over them again. Here, I copy pasted them. Any questions?

当……的时候=when

dang1.....de shi2 hou4
当我从上海回来的时候=When I returned from Shanghai.
dang1 wo3 cong2 shang4 hai3 hui2 lai2 de shi2 hou4

自从=ever since
zi4 cong2
自从我离开加拿大=since I left Canada
zi4 cong2 wo3 li2 kai1 jia1 na2 da4


从来不=never

[REP]

1. Cantonese?

Either that or my pinyin sucks even harder than I think it does.

[HEyHEY]

2. Nope, that's mandarin

[REP]

3. The 'wo' is 'I'?

I'm used to the wa/wada ta/tada ni/nida but then again, I almost always just hear it.

First Chinese I learned: Wai mai! (to go; I worked in a restaurant)

[HEyHEY]

4. Wo is I, yup... I think you've studided Cantonese, not mandarin

Wai Mai sounds more Cantonese, as far as I know, in Mandarin "to go" would be "Wo Qu"... or it Wai Mai could also be a variation of "Ma Shan"

[REP]

5. "Studied"? You're sweet!

Picked up working and from friends. Maybe a dialect of Mandarin, but definitely not Cantonese - it's beautiful, but my tongue is too clumsy.

[HEyHEY]

6. Know where your friends are from?

Yeah, they could be from one of the places that speak Fuzhou or maybe it's Shanghainese.

[REP]

7. All over, but mostly Shanghai and Sichuan province

Both here and in KC, all Mandarin speakers understand me ... :shrug: I'd say they're being polite, but they understand what I'm saying!

Also HK, and I know they speak Cantonese there. At least I think I know that.

[HEyHEY]

8. Must be Shanghainese you're learning

It is mandarin but a certain dialect of it. I actually speak Beijinghua, which becomes a pain in the ass when I go elsewhere.

[REP]

9. Aha! I know Beijing has its own dialect but my brain isn't working tonight

Well, no surprise there!

Have you been there long enough to be completely over all the ancient stuff already? I know I'd be a typical tourist - museums, archeological sites and and all the shishi (can't do the accents on my phone - stone lions) I could stuff in my suitcase.

[HEyHEY]

10. I've been around

What I've found is, in genreal, you seen one temple you've seen em all/

But, I have been to a large cross-section yeah.

[tigereye]

11. hmm, there are evening Mandarin classes at my son's school - tempting..

[rug]

12. I am confident that is one language I will never learn.

[REP]

14. No conjugating verbs - big plus for Chinese

All verbs have one case: present. And even native speakers don't always get the tones right (sometimes on purpose, such as the Grass Mud Horse ... Said slightly differently, it becomes Your Mother's Cunt). I know a lot of native speakers, and they're always so encouraging, even if you're just saying 'Thanks.'

Reading it is a whole 'nother thing.

[HEyHEY]

16. Yeah, the tones are a bitch

But I like how all I need to do is add "bu" or "Mei" to make a verb negative and "Guo" or "Le" to make it past tense. Pretty simple. Now if only I could convince them to not care about the tones.

[Richardo]

13. "Ever since you left Canada you never ..." what?

Don't leave us hanging, man.

:hi:

[HEyHEY]

15. "Speak french" is the end to that phrase!

[cwydro]

17. I just want one of those Obama T-shirts

dang it.

[jobycom]

18. Is item 3 vegetarian?

:shrug: