linguaholic

Well if that happens, I try to navigate through in the "foreign language". I really don't like to use something like Google Translate to translate a whole website.... :frozen:

Oh god, that's embarrassing. Here is the link! Enjoy. http://www.u-bunkyo.ac.jp/center/library/image/kyukiyo9_177-188.pdf

Hey Daimashin You could just post your things here : http://www.chinese-please.com/index.php/forum/2-learn-mandarin-chinese/ I will create more and more sub forums and will move the threads to the according (new sub forum) at a later stage, if necessary!

You are completely right shamz. As I said, I created the forum a couple of days ago, so rest assured that it will change A LOT in the next few weeks / month. I am currently working on a really nice design for it and my friend will even draw something for it. thank you for having a look at it and telling me what you think about it.

Thank you Peninha The layout is still very basic though. A new, custom-made design is already under construction and might also contain some real "hand-drawn" symbols and banners. :grin:

As for the idomatic expression 'Plenty more fish in the sea', please note that we have a whole thread dedicated to it here: http://linguaholic.com/english-idioms/more-fish-in-the-sea-d/ There is some really interesting discussion going on about it there, make sure to have a look at it :wacky:

Thank you for those kind words JohnSword. Rest assured that the forum will grow pretty fast :grin: It's brand new now, it's online since yesterday, so obviously it is still terribly empty :=) :grin:

Dear all As it is my passion to learn and study Chinese, I created another website, namely a "Chinese language learning forum". The website URL is www.chinese-please.com If you are studying Chinese (or if you are just interested in the language or maybe would like to learn it in the future) and of course if you are native Chinese speaker, it would be highly appreciated if you could register and support this new forum ! I will do my best to make this forum as popular and enjoyable as www.linguaholic.com! Thank you for the support! URL: www.chinese-please.com Support this forum from DAY ONE :grin:

You are absolutely right Denis, and I would just like to let you know that I am working on this! Thank you for that great suggestion.

I would like to share some rather new Chinese slang terms: 拔份儿 [bá fènr] Explanation of meaning in English: show off one's strength or power; demonstrate one's power over others Explanation of meaning in Chinese: 炫耀自己的威风. 显示自己比别人厉害。 Sample Sentence: 我看不起那些好在人群前拔份儿的人。 English translation: I look down on those who like to show off in front of others. 把势 [bǎ shi] Explanation of meaning in Chinese: 就是武术的意思。 Explanation of meaning in English: martial art(s) Sample sentence: 瞧他那把势练得多地道。 Moreover, in some cases, 把势 can also mean skill, technique (拔术的意思)。 白鼻在 [bái bí zǎi] Explanation of meaning in Chinese: 指好吃懒做，游手好闲，贪图享受的人。 Explanation of meaning in English: A so called "white-nose boy" --> A term for a vagabond or someone who is fond of eating but not willing to work or idle but seeking a life of pleasure. Sample sentence: 你得尽快找份差使干，不能再这样闲下去了，想个白鼻仔。

[Wrong side of the tracks] Etymology: This idiom is based on the idea that a poor area is often divided by the rest of a town by railway tracks. I don't really know when this idiom came into life. I would guess around 1900.

I am also having a hard time to understand this question. I read it all over again and I just don't get it....I am happy to see that I am not the only one having problems to decipher that question/statement :=)

When I was younger I was sometimes having a hang over after going out and then the next day, I just really had a hard time speaking (especially in a foreign language). That was always kinda embarrassing.

That's a really tough question. My answer to this would be, "it really depends". On the one hand, native speakers are obviously always good/perfect in terms of pronunciation. However, talking about grammar, native speakers are often not that good at it as they are simply not "aware" of all those grammar rules related to their language. They might be able to create perfect sentences in perfect grammar, but when having to explain the rules of syntactical structure (syntax) to foreign people, they often lack a deeper knowledge about this kind of thing. This obviously holds true for different aspects of the language as well.

Thank you for that wonderful explanation Denis! Really appreciate it...and as far as I can see, other people appreciated it as well :grin:

We have already seen a lot of beautiful french words. Why not add a few beautiful french quotes then? Here we go: English: Man's greatest weakness is his love of life. French: Le plus grand faible des hommes, c'est l'amour qu'ils ont de la vie. [ Molière ] English: It is difficult to master your passions and impossible to satisfy them. French: Il est difficle de vaincre ses passions, et impossible de les satisfaire. [ De La Sabliére ] English: I have often regretted having spoken, but never for having not. French: Je me suis souvent repenti d'avoir parlé, mais jamais de m'être tu. [ De Commynes ] English: There is only one happiness in life, to love and be loved. French: Il n'y a qu'un bonheur dans la vie, c'est d'aimer et d'être aimé. English: What man fears most is what suits him. French: Ce que l'homme redoute le plus, c'est ce qui lui convient. [ Henri Frédéric Amiel ] English: I reinvented the past to see the beauty of the future. French: J'ai réinventé le passé pour voir la beauté de l'avenir. [ Louis Aragon ] Please do not hesitate to post your favorite and most beautiful french quotations, phrases and/or words in here.

I will have to give this a go as well. I will see whether I can use this "feature" or not and will let you know Czawronica!

The title of this thread is just so confusing, as it is highly ambiguous...or is it just me?

:grin: You would be surprised about the amount of "totally wrong translated texts" you can find in Mainland China in a single day :grin: You just need to go to a restaurant and have a look at the English Menu (if available). :wacky: Of course, the quality of translations gets better now, China included, but completely wrong translations are still all over the place there.

You wanna have a good laugh? Then please have a look at those 30 hilarious Chinese-English translation fails. This is definitely NOT a fake. http://www.boredpanda.com/funny-chinese-translation-fails/ :grin:

Collection of idioms about "war & weapons" I feel like it is time to start another idiom thread. Let's have a look at "war & weapons" idioms! I will do the start this time: 'a battle of nerves' 'bite the bullet' 'a double-edged sword' 'loose cannon' 'shoot down in flames' 'to open old wounds' 'a knight in shining armour' It would be appreciated if some of the native speakers could give some short and concise definitions of the idioms that I just mentioned. It's pretty difficult for me so I will just let the pro's do it. thank you :grin:

I am living in Switzerland and we do speak French here as one of the 4 official languages in Switzerland. Moreover, I am living in a city called Biel, where we speak both German and French. Therefore, my French is pretty good (but still far from perfect). I also noticed that French people can be really "bitchy" about their language on several occasions---> When I was younger, I was often working part-time jobs in call centers and my last call center job was actually working for "Swarovski" (jewelry). I had to answer customer calls in English, German, and French. While English and German customers were still quite friendly and polite, I had a lot of arguments with French people. It happened maybe once or twice that some French clients asked me to get someone else on the phone, as they possibly had the impression that I am actually not understanding/speaking French at a very high level...so they would just tell me: "Give me someone else on the phone". This just happened once or twice to me; however, this happened pretty often to some of my call center colleagues :=) So in conclusion: French people really care a lot about their own language and they have a lot of expectations about people speaking French as a "second language". :grin: But please don't get me wrong. I do not have any problems with French people and I must say that their language is very interesting and in many ways quite fascinating.

Finnish for Beginners / Names of occupations, such as pianist, musician, politician, etc... A few days ago, we have learned how to "write" different nationalities and countries in Finnish. For instance, we learned that Finnland in Finnish means "Suomi" and that Switzerland in Finnish is "Sveitsi". Moreover, we have seen that the people from Finland are called Suomalainen and the people from Switzerland are referred to as Sveitsiläinen (note the different suffixes: lainen and läinen). Now, let's tackle today's topic: Occupations. Same as for nationalities, names for different occupations are usually based on derivations of other words (nouns). Two very popular suffixes when "building" up Finnish names for occupations are the suffixes -isti and -ikko. So let's have a look at some of those occupation names in Finnish. Please note that they are usually derived from the according noun (stem) in Finnish (in those examples here, the Finnish version is also always very close to the English equivalent). For instance, piano in Finnish is also piano. Music in Finnish is musiikki and so on. Occupations English Finnish Pianist pianisti Politician politiikko Mechanic mekaanikko Botanist botanisti Academic akateemikko Musician muusikko Mathematician matemaatikko Linguist lingvisti

Hey G2narat I am happy to hear that you are excited about posting here at www.linguaholic.com. I hope you will be able to improve your skills in Visayan. I don't know anything about the language/dialect, however I know that we have quite a lot of people from the Philippines here in the forums! So good luck with that! Thank you for introducing yourself

I have just stumbled upon this website here: http://polyglotclub.com/ It claims to have almost 500'000 members from all over the world..that sound nice, but actually I have never heard about this page and I don't know anyone who is a member there. What about you guys? Did you hear about the page? Are you already a registered member maybe? :shy: