I M A CHINESE, WHY I CAN SPEAK 3 LANGUAGES OF CHINESE?
MOST OF THE CHINESE CAN SPEAK SEVERAL DIALECTS.
I CAN SPEAK HAKKA , CANTONESE, ADN PUTONGHUA
why?
Re: why?
XD
I think it's because you somehow magically learnt them thru immersion when you were a young child.
Somehow, you seem to have left your English skills at that age as well XD
Well, as this is a Hakka forum, I guess you don't really need to know English. But, if you are going to post in English, please try to make some sense.
If you mean most Chinese know more dialects than you, too bad for you! Quite a few of the peoples of Earth only know-- get this-- ONE LANGUAGE! Don't you feel lucky now?
Zaijian
I think it's because you somehow magically learnt them thru immersion when you were a young child.
Somehow, you seem to have left your English skills at that age as well XD
Well, as this is a Hakka forum, I guess you don't really need to know English. But, if you are going to post in English, please try to make some sense.
If you mean most Chinese know more dialects than you, too bad for you! Quite a few of the peoples of Earth only know-- get this-- ONE LANGUAGE! Don't you feel lucky now?
Zaijian
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James Campbell
Re: why?
Isn't there a saying that the people who know only one language are called American?
Most the people of the earth are multilingual. In fact, in most countries there is exposure to more than one language, and most everybody growing up today studies English. So it's safe to say that most people in the world know at least one or two local languages in addition to their study of English.
Most the people of the earth are multilingual. In fact, in most countries there is exposure to more than one language, and most everybody growing up today studies English. So it's safe to say that most people in the world know at least one or two local languages in addition to their study of English.
Re: why?
That's quite true, however there are still a few places where exposure to multiple languages is uncommon for those who speak a more standard language such as Putonghua as their native language in an area where it is spoken widely as a native language. This could perhaps be Standard German, or one of a few others.
However, most of these people learn ENGLISH as a second language, ruling out basically everybody /but/ Americans, and even nowadays many Americans are bilingual *gasp*
I think the Americans that are bilingual are mostly Hispanics and people who learned a second language in school, such as German, French, Spanish, or a LCTL (ie Mandarin, that's taught in my town at secondary school for 4 years, so is Japanese, as is Navajo, with Russian, French, Spanish, Latin, and a few more)
However, most of these people learn ENGLISH as a second language, ruling out basically everybody /but/ Americans, and even nowadays many Americans are bilingual *gasp*
I think the Americans that are bilingual are mostly Hispanics and people who learned a second language in school, such as German, French, Spanish, or a LCTL (ie Mandarin, that's taught in my town at secondary school for 4 years, so is Japanese, as is Navajo, with Russian, French, Spanish, Latin, and a few more)
Re: why?
Coming back after my leave of absence due to not checking this site regularly since about 2 weeks since it went down, I look upon this topic and I can't stop laughing.
"I M A CHINESE, WHY I CAN SPEAK 3 LANGUAGES OF CHINESE?
MOST OF THE CHINESE CAN SPEAK SEVERAL DIALECTS.
I CAN SPEAK HAKKA , CANTONESE, ADN PUTONGHUA"
My answer to you, Ji, is:
The reason you can speak 3 Chinese languages is because you know the rules of grammar and vocabulary to the extent of at least the average high school student (probably, although this cannot be said of your English skills which seem to be quite a few years lower), as well as having knowledge of idiomatic expressions (probably).
I'm surprised anybody had to explain this to you... DUH.
"I M A CHINESE, WHY I CAN SPEAK 3 LANGUAGES OF CHINESE?
MOST OF THE CHINESE CAN SPEAK SEVERAL DIALECTS.
I CAN SPEAK HAKKA , CANTONESE, ADN PUTONGHUA"
My answer to you, Ji, is:
The reason you can speak 3 Chinese languages is because you know the rules of grammar and vocabulary to the extent of at least the average high school student (probably, although this cannot be said of your English skills which seem to be quite a few years lower), as well as having knowledge of idiomatic expressions (probably).
I'm surprised anybody had to explain this to you... DUH.
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James Campbell
Re: why?
Since you bring it up and I don't mean to boast but if you think 4 is special:
I speak English, German, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, Minnan, and Wu, in addition to reading ability in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Malay, and Indonesian. In addition to those I have basic ability in Cantonese, Hakka, Arabic, Mongolian, Uyghur, Turkish, Hungarian, and Hindi.
If you add them up, that's 7 languages I speak, 19 more I comprehend, and 8 more with basic abilities. That's 34, so, 3 or 4 languages in comparison is nothing special.
Those 19 languages of comprehension would only require about 3 or 4 weeks in that location for me to acquire a good speaking ability, since I have already studied much of their related vocabulary and grammar. So if I had the time and money to do about 20 months of globe-trotting in the right spots with the right environment and regimen, I would be able to speak 26 languages within 2 years. I don't find it very difficult if you have your own system of categorizing vocabulary and a good memory.
I also claim that I can learn an unrelated language I've never touched before in 5-6 weeks as long as I have full-time available, and contact with a native speaker.
So to answer the question WHY? Because it's fun and a very pleasant experience that opens you up to new cultures and peoples. For somebody like me, it's great because I'm in constant contact with multinationals every week.
Hey, Mark, how about yourself? I was under the impression that you know quite a few yourself, including the Chinese ones. Kannst du auch einige Europäische Sprachen? Hoantsai, goa ma guanyi ka li sia banlam-oe e phoe, tse si kong, nasi li u chhubi, tioh ka goa lianlok. Goa chin hoaNhi u chit-e kihoe ka li anne liansip!
I speak English, German, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, Minnan, and Wu, in addition to reading ability in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Slovenian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Malay, and Indonesian. In addition to those I have basic ability in Cantonese, Hakka, Arabic, Mongolian, Uyghur, Turkish, Hungarian, and Hindi.
If you add them up, that's 7 languages I speak, 19 more I comprehend, and 8 more with basic abilities. That's 34, so, 3 or 4 languages in comparison is nothing special.
Those 19 languages of comprehension would only require about 3 or 4 weeks in that location for me to acquire a good speaking ability, since I have already studied much of their related vocabulary and grammar. So if I had the time and money to do about 20 months of globe-trotting in the right spots with the right environment and regimen, I would be able to speak 26 languages within 2 years. I don't find it very difficult if you have your own system of categorizing vocabulary and a good memory.
I also claim that I can learn an unrelated language I've never touched before in 5-6 weeks as long as I have full-time available, and contact with a native speaker.
So to answer the question WHY? Because it's fun and a very pleasant experience that opens you up to new cultures and peoples. For somebody like me, it's great because I'm in constant contact with multinationals every week.
Hey, Mark, how about yourself? I was under the impression that you know quite a few yourself, including the Chinese ones. Kannst du auch einige Europäische Sprachen? Hoantsai, goa ma guanyi ka li sia banlam-oe e phoe, tse si kong, nasi li u chhubi, tioh ka goa lianlok. Goa chin hoaNhi u chit-e kihoe ka li anne liansip!