Daimashin

狼狽為奸 (Lángbèiwéijiān) - To conspire together to do bad things. 狽(bèi) according to Chinese legends is a kind of wolf than has short front legs, they usually lean on the back of the wolf to travel. I don't know that it's called in English. Literally means - Wolf and (bèi) do bad. This is another Chinese folklore where one time while a boy was travelling down a road, he was ambushed by a pack of wolves. In order to save himself he ran atop a bush of dry straws and stood there. The wolves had no idea how to reach the boy so they consulted their advisor, a (bèi). The advisor scold the wolves, "You idiots, do I have to do everything myself? Just take away the straws and he will fall!" The boy saw that the wolves are taking away the straw and began to scream loudly for help. A group of hunters nearby heard the screams and rushed in to kill the wolves and saved the boy. 狼狽為奸 (Lángbèiwéijiān) is used to describe people that conspire together to do bad things just like how the wolf needs a bèi's intelligence while it needs the wolf to walk. Example: "你明知他不是好人， 你還跟他一起「狼狽為奸」合起來陷害我!"

I missed "自" in the translation. It's actually Self Show Spear Shield. As you know, one word in Chinese has many meanings. "相" in this context means to reveal, to show. This can be compared to "相親" which is to see, or to reveal oneself to another gender which actually means a blind date. I hope I cleared it up because sometimes Chinese words have meanings that are hard to explain in English. You'll understand through experience with the language.

Never heard about it but after looking at the link, it seems like a viable technique. It mentioned that shadowing needs to be used with other techniques as well. All in all, I think it's a good way to learn proper pronunciation of the language I'm learning. Best not to use materials that speak too fast or the one shadowing won't be able to keep up.

自相矛盾 (Zì xiāng máodùn) - To contradict oneself. Literally means - Show spear and shield Once upon a time there was a weapons merchant. One day he goes to the market to sell his weapons, he brought out a spear and claimed that it's the sharpest spear ever made and can penetrate any type of shield. Among the crowd was one nosy guy, he said, "Doesn't look that impressive to me." The merchant then replied, "Oh, nevermind the spear then, let me show you this shield instead." The merchant put away the spear and told the guy that the shield is the strongest there was and no spear could ever hope to break it. So the nosy guy thought and asked, "Since you claim that the spear is the sharpest and the shield the strongest so what happens when the spear hits the shield?" The merchant panicked and didn't know the answer and had to leave in embarassment. 自相矛盾 (Zì xiāng máodùn) is used to describe when someone's actions contradict what he/she said. Example: "刚才你有说乱丢拉级是不對， 你現在自己又丟。 你這樣不就是「自相矛盾」？"

I think so as children are generally easier to absorb new things, as their brains are developing and learning at same time. When people get older, their ability to absorb new elements begins to dwindle kind of like a computer harddrive filling up.

If you consider English to be foreign than I started learning it at the age of four. My parents will teach me ABC, and some simple words like A for apple, B for boy that sort of thing. Their teaching made it fairly easy for me during elementary.

I think Thai and Indian are two of the hardest ones, I could never make heads or tails of it. Another one is Sanskrit, it looks so complicated I don't even know how people managed to study it.

I think being qualified as a teacher isn't enough. A teacher should be approachable and pleasant. Just like any other teacher, a language teacher especially should interact with the students more since communication is key when learning a language. I absolutely hate those teachers that pretend to be cool and threaten students with fails as though we're primary kids.

鵲巢鳩佔 (Què cháo jiū zhān) - To take others properties or belongings. Literal meaning - Magpie's nest Dove takes This one is a folklore that goes like this. A magpie worked hard to build a nest for itself and its youngs. One day while it was raining, the mother magpie saw a dove trying to find shelter so the magpie offered to take the dove in until the rain stops. The next day while the magpie flew out to look for food, the dove threw the magpie's babies out. The mother returned, realised what had happened and confronted the dove, "Why did you kick out my boys? I let you into my nest and this is how you repay me!" The dove replied, "Your nest??? Where's the proof? Is your name written on it? Get lost!" Seeing that the dove is larger than the her, the mother had no choice but to leave with her babies. 鵲巢鳩佔 (Què cháo jiū zhān) is used when describing someone who forcefully takes other people's belongings. Example: "這個位子是屬於我的， 你想「鵲巢鳩佔」嗎?"

Mostly because I like their culture very much, learning Japanese is the best way to understand Japan. I love animes and dramas so it would help if I know what they're talking about without using subtitles. I also find the Japanese language to be very elegant and respectful.

I want to try to learn Japanese and have a better understanding of the language. I've been thinking about it but never did find the time so next year I'll try to allocate some time to learn.

English is the easiest with its level of accessibility. English is used everywhere, and it's available on almost everything. It's hard not to learn the language when English is so mainstream in our everyday lives.

I watch a lot of anime and J-Dramas too but all I could pick up are short phrases. Other than that, I can sometimes tell what they're saying based on their tones without looking at the subs. I never learnt anything complicated just by watching though.

亡羊補牢 (Wángyángbǔláo) - Take failure as a lesson to be better Translation - Lost Goat, Repair Fence Once upon a time during the Warring States, the King of Chu was an incompetent ruler that never cared for his kingdom's welfare. Soon, the Qin army began waging war on Chu. Chu got defeated badly in battle and had lost a lot of land. The King of Chu summoned his advisor and that he should've listened to his advisor and blamed himself for everything. The advisor then told the King of Chu a story. The story goes like this: A long time ago there lived a couple of herders, one day one of their goats managed to break the fence and escaped, the husband ran after the escaped goat hoping to catch it but forgot that about the broken fence. The wive then called her husband and told him to stop chasing and get back to fix the fence or all the goats will run away. After fixing the fence, the husband said that although one goat escaped, at least the others are still here. The King understood his advisors meaning and from that day onwards, changed into a better ruler. 亡羊補牢 (Wángyángbǔláo) is used to tell that one shouldn't focus on the failure alone but instead use it as a reminder. Example: "雖然這一次考試不及格， 不過只要你會『亡羊補牢』， 下一次一定會有進步的"

English isn't a big part of education in my country. Here, English is only a subject like Science and Math. English is only used during English class while everything else is taught in my national language. Because of this, students either get real good at it or they don't. There's no in between or average users.

That is why language represents the people who use it. Different ethnics and races have different languages. This difference is how a race distinguishes themselves from others. By learning to differentiate these differences like tones, sound, and way, we can tell what kind of people we are interacting with.

During some time in my life, I had thought about how nice it would be to not have to answer a lot of things. As I'm a person that doesn't like to talk so not being able to speak doesn't affect me much. I'll just write them instead.

I don't think elven language exists. If it does I've never heard about. Any language expert here can shed some light on this?

守株待兔 (Shǒuzhūdàitù) - Wait and do nothing Literal meaning - Wait for rabbit to come. Once upon a time during the Warring States, there lived a farmer. He was very lazy and always lamented, "Isn't nice if I can eat without having to work so hard." As he was working on his field a rabbit appeared. The rabbit, for reasons unknown headed straight for a giant tree and died hitting it. The farmer saw this and went over to find that dinner is served so he thought to himself, "Why do I need to work so hard when all I have to do is wait here everyday for a rabbit to kill itself." So he waited, and waited ... and waited but no rabbits ever came. In the end, the farmer died of starvation. 守株待兔 (Shǒuzhūdàitù) is used to describe a person that refuses to do anything to get something. Example: "你在這裡『守株待兔』是沒用的, 喜歡人家就去追啊"

Japanese is one language that didn't change much all these years. Kanji is still found in many Japanese materials and is still widely used by the Japanese people so no, Kanji is still very relevant to the Japanese language.

城門失火, 殃及池魚 (Chéngmén shīhuǒ, yāngjíchíyú) - to get dragged into other's troubles Literal meaning - Gates on fire, affects the fish. Once upon a time during the Sung Dynasty there was a huge gate standing between a city and a large pond. Inside the pool, there lived a lot of fish. One day, because of unknown circumstances the gate got caught on fire. The fire spreaded very quickly and the water reserve is situated far away so the citizens began taking water from the pond. As the fire got bigger, more and more water was taken from the pond. After a long time, the people finally managed to put out the fire but at the expense of the fish. Saving the gate has left nothing for the fish to live in and in the end all the fish died. Thus, from that day onwards people would use "城門失火, 殃及池魚" to describe when we inadvertantly get dragged into others misfortunes. Example: "你自己不好就算了， 幹嘛要連累我呢？這一次真的是『城門失火, 殃及池魚』！"

Actually it's "焉知非福" Yān zhī fēi fú. This idiom's story actually consisted of three parts and the entire idiom consists of sixteen words. As I pointed out the rest of it means the same thing and normally people only need to use "塞翁失馬" to point out the situation. The other twelve words are considered redundant to most people nowadays because they don't add anything to the overall meaning.

Thanks for the additional info. Sometimes, there are too many meanings that I find it a bit troublesome to list them so I would be glad if other members could add up to the explanation.

To be fair, almost all the language will have this problem. Usually, when I come across this kind of situation I'll incorporate hand hestures as well to emphasise what I'm trying to say to avoid confusion.

I wouldn't say that there are languages not worth learning. What I learn is my knowledge earned so even though the chances of using it are low, that doesn't mean that I won't get to use it in the future.