arizona

Coucou tout le monde! je suis super heureuse d'etre parmi vous! Je suis Arizona de L'ile Maurice. Connaissez-vous L'ile Maurice?

Beautiful language as is it, Sanskrit is complex to learn (in my opinion). Therefore, I am searching for someone who can teach me -I have a basic knowledge-studied it before but that was long time ago. If not, any good sites which I can use?

thanks!!

Hey there- well, that's a really nice post out there. Well, in my opinion I would still consider them dialects rather than a new language because the origin is still Hindi. I do not know about other languages like haryani and all but I do understand bhojpuri because it is really close to Hindi therefore making it a dialect.

I studied simplified Chinese over the years. And I was wondering how hard is traditional Chinese? What's the difference between simplified and traditional Chinese? 

I think that the most difficult skills in Chinese is the use of measure words. Every noun has specific measure word that is used to refer to it. The most commonly used measure word in Chinese is ge 个 which can refer to almost anything. However, the use of proper measure word is more proper. Here is a list of some measure words and the nouns for which they are used:

Ben 本 used for books/magazines/dictionary

Zhang 张 used for maps/ table/ photo/ painting

Ba 把 used for chair/keys/knife

zhi 支 used for writing tools

Tai 台 used for machines

liang 辆 used for vehicles

Feng 封 used for letters

Jian 间 used for rooms

Jian 件 used for garments/dresses

Kuai 块 used for money

Tiao 条 used for long, linear objects (example fish)

Please do correct me if I am wrong!

I remember one of our Chinese teachers use to teach us tricks for remembering chinese characters. I'd like share one among all the tricks she showed us: look at the character 大 which means big in chinese. So, imagine a man standing spreading his arms and legs on both sides trying to be big.

Another example is the character 男 denoting male so imagine a man extending his hand for to shake hands!

Thank you so much for sharing 

What I meant to say was- "is slang preventing us from using "proper" english/french or any language?"

I remember an author saying that "slang is a metaphor and metaphor is poetry".

However some of my English teachers claim that by using slang we are "corrupting" English/french or whatever language. I wanted to know your opinion.... what are views?

I think it depends on the langiage too. YOu ended up in a place that has a difficult language to learn.

I think it was more difficult and challenging for me as no one commonly speaks English in China- Besides hello, bye, thank you!!

I remember when I used to learn Chinese, I would try to recognize the characters while walking on the streets (it was easier since I was in China). I would apply whatever I learnt in my daily life. 

Hi there!

I have been a part time English teacher in China- I was in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. I know there are some schools who help you get a visa. I even knew  some people who were allocated apartments to stay. It all depends on the school/ company you are dealing with. I hope this helps!

Omg-- I remember my first days in chinese classes Thanks for sharing ! It made me laugh

I imagine slang exists in any language- so far I know there are american slang/British slang/creole slang/ french even- Youngsters prefer to use slang because it sounds "cooler"- is slang good or bad according to you? 

I am very glad to hear that there are organisations out there to raise the awareness that some native languages are becoming endangered. I would like to take an example of my country- our native language  here is creole, which is not well-known in the world. People were more encouraged to learn french instead until recently the government took the decision to integrate creole in the educational system- we are encouraged to read/write/sing in creole thus preserving our native language.

The question should be more precise.

The oldest written language? Or the oldest surviving written language that is still spoken?

The oldest is the Sumerian. Aramaic is the oldest written language that is still in use.

I meant to say the oldest written language-- Aramaic? pretty interesting fact- which part of the world still use this language?

Hello everyone,

I was in China for the last couple of years and I remember very well that during the first few months I had a lot of problems adapting mainly because of the language barrier. Here are a few things I did besides learning the language/culture:

-I started making new Chinese friends 

-I started watching more Chinese movies

-I would try to read everything/recognize Chinese characters that I learnt while travelling

Did anyone had the same experience? What did you do?

That's an interesting combination of languages! I am happy to see that quite a lot of people that actually registered on the forum can speak Chinese. Hopefully we can make the chinese forum busier and busier and learn more together about this fascinating language 认识你我很高兴！linguaholic 欢迎你 ：＝）

Thank you for the warm welcome 

The Chinese Idiom 爱屋及乌 （ài wū jí wū）-  means that if you do love someone,you will  love people and things relative to him as well. There is a story behind this idiom and I think it is a good idea to share it with you guys here:

There was once a state called (zhōu 周) in the chinese history. One day, the king of zhou asked his officials for advice on how to deal with prisoners of the war.One of the officials said, "I once heard if you love someone, you will be likely to love even the crows on the roof of his house; if you don't like someone, you are likely to hate even the walls and the everything else of his. The prisoners of war were enemies fighting against us. I think, it would be better to kill them all."

But the king, after all, did not agree with him ."I think we should not treat all the prisoners the same and we should make a difference about the prisoners of war that are guilty and about those who are not. The guilty people should be sentenced to death in order to avoid future disasters." Another official suggested something else. Also the king did not like that idea.Then a third official said, "Your majesty, i think it would be best  if all the prisoners should are set free and sent back home to work in the fields and support themselves by their own labor. What's more, you should keep strictly the rules for reward and punishment and treat your relatives and friends impartially.The people are sure to admire  you if you are reigning your country by morals and laws." The king thought that the proposal of the official was quite reasonable and so he accepted and followed it. Consequently, the domestic situation soon settled down and the country gradually got more and more equal.So what is the meaning of this idiom now exactly?

Well, as mentioned above already, the idiom means  that if you love someone,you will love people and things relative to him as well.

In Mauritius, English is the official language and all the courses offered at school are in English. But, it's pretty ironic that we do not use English as frequently as a common language. The common language used over here is french and creole which is french dialect. I wish English was more commonly used as spoken language. 

Hi there- I am originally from a small island called Mauritius and over here we are taught (since day 1) to use both English and french at school. Actually, the official language of my country is English and the language that we use in everyday life is French. Plus, we are highly encouraged to learn a third language- therefore since I was at school I studied Hindi and I have recently learnt Chinese- So, yes I can speak more than 2 languages

There are several languages that make the list of the world's oldest languages,and according to be they are:

Egyptian,

Sanskrit,

Chinese

What do you guys think?

Hello guys, I am new on this site. I am very glad to be here. I am fond of learning languages since it's a great means of meeting people and making great friends from around the world. I can fluently speak English, French and Hindi. I have been teaching English in China for the past three years and at the same time I took the advantage of learning chinese. I also followed a sanskrit course for 3 years when I was young. well ,that's about me.

Catch you on the threads