Daimashin

For my third language it only took me three years because I'm already familiar with it before I took the course. It's also helped by the fact that I really like it and never once felt board learning it.

I have bought a few Dragon Ball comics that did something similar. The dialogs of both languages are cramped in the same speech bubble making it look messy. Other than this, I haven't had any because I find myself only reading the English part and completely missed the original text.

雞犬升天 (Jīquǎnshēngtiān) - Benefit from knowing someone influential. Literal meaning - Chicken and Dog ascend into heaven. During the Han dynasty, there was this Emperor's brother that loved to research on how to become a deity. One day, a real deity appeared and warned him that the Emperor had ordered for his arrest citing that he was planning a coup. He begged the deity for a solution so the deity told him to bury his gold under a tree and pray there. The gold turned to a gourd and inside it were magical pills. The Emperor's brother quickly swallowed one. When the guards were about to caught him, he levitated to the sky. While at it, he accidentally dropped the magical pills. A chicken and a dog happened to be around and ate the pills and they too ascended into the heavens. This story is a folklore. The Emperor's brother actually committed suicide. 雞犬升天 (Jīquǎnshēngtiān) means people who know influential people is benefited as well. Example: "你的哥哥當了官. 你肯定「雞犬升天」, 大把好處!"

Yes, learned is American while learnt is British. Both are correct and can be used when conversing in English. Actually, I think that learned has become more mainstream than learnt. I've seen more people use learned than learnt nowadays. Personally, I prefer learned even though I studied British English because I think it's less confusing.

I never thought of this subject before. English has been implanted in me as a kid that it's the international language. I can't imagine any other language taking the helm actually. In fact, I don't think I would want it any other way.

Yes I did all the time in college actually. One of my course mates spoke China Mandarin and the Chinese here couldn't understand what he was saying so I had to translate them to English for the other students. I didn't find it hard, I guess I was already used to both languages.

In some way yes, I decided to learn a language and wanting to understand movies and books in said language was one of the reasons that made me do it. Being able to understand what some parts of the novel are writing about is a nice bonus but it wasn't a major influence.

南轅北轍 (Nányuánběizhé) - Objective and action doesn't match. Literal Meaning - South rope, North trail. During the Warring States, Yi and Zhao are about to go to war. In order to stop the King of Yi, his adviser told him a story, "One day Gui Liang was walking on a road, a carriage came from the opposite direction and blocked his path. The merchant asked Gui Liang to get out of the way as he was headed to Chu Kingdom. Gui Liang told him that he was headed for the wrong direction, Chu Kingdom was on the other side. The merchant then kept boasting on how his horse carriage was the best there was and how rich he was. The merchant claimed that with such prowess, surely he will reach Chu Kingdom. Gui Liang said to the merchant, 'It's not about your power, it is that you are on the wrong side of the road. No matter how long you go, you'll not reach Chu Kingdom.' The merchant did not listen and continued down the path." The King of Yi said that he didn't know such a foolish person existed. His adviser than told the King that he was in a way similar to the merchant. The adviser told the King that war was not a way to win the people's trust and the King was headed the wrong path. 南轅北轍 (Nányuánběizhé) means what someone is doing isn't what he/she is aiming for. Example: "你說的跟做的大大不同，這不是「南轅北轍」嗎？"

My worst language habit is that I'm lazy. I'm lazy as in whenever I speak, I don't speak long and elaborate. I tend to speak short, and straight to the point. Sometimes, people don't understand what I'm talking about because of this and I have to repeat myself which kind of negates my effort to speak less. This is something I'm working to change because I realize that speaking once clearly is better than speaking multiple times short sentences.

千里送鵝毛 (Qiānlǐ sòng émáo) - It's the thought that counts. Literal meaning - One thousand li send goose feather. Once upon a time a bunch of villagers stumbled upon a goose but they had no idea what it was. The villagers thought that the goose was some kind of creature from heaven so they decided to catch it and present it to the Emperor. They sent a representative to bring the goose to the capital. On his way, the goose escaped by flying away and left him with only a feather. The villager had no choice but to continue since he's already half way there. Once in the castle, he presented the feather to the Emperor. The Emperor was furious and thought that he was pranked. The villager went on to say that it's not the price of the present, it's their sincerity that counted since the villager took such a journey just to deliver one feather. The Emperor understood and told the villager to send his regards to the villagers that were double the sincerity the villagers brought the Emperor. 千里送鵝毛, 物輕情意重 (Qiānlǐ sòng émáo, Wù qīng qíngyì zhòng) means it's not the present, it's the thought that counts. Eaxmple: "你來和我的喜酒只送了一枝筆. 真的是「千里送鵝毛, 勿輕情意重」的啦."

If I were a student, I'd want to do something fun when learning. Back then, everyone at class loved quizzes and riddles. Our teacher will have quizzes where the group that won gets free of homework. I think what's important is to find things that the students can relate to and love to talk about.

Yes, I find it annoying as heck when someone calls me a boy, rookie, slick, and junior. They think just because they're at it longer, it automatically makes them the expert on things.

虎口餘生 (Hǔkǒu yúshēng) - Escape from death. Literal meaning - Survived from the tiger's mouth. Once upon a time, there was a man who chopped woods for a living. Everyday he has to go throug the forest in order to do business. One day while he was passing through a tiger jumped on him. He ran and the tiger gave chase. He then reached a temple and tiger caught him. The deity inside saw what was happening and knew that the man was a filial son. He intervened and pulled the man out of the tiger's mouth and chased the tiger away. The man was saved. 虎口餘生 (Hǔkǒu yúshēng) means to escape from certain death. Example: "你遇到悍匪竟然沒有死，你真的「虎口餘生」險過剃頭."

I pretty much in the same shoes as SarahRTW. I find it hard to differentiate between advice/advise and practice/practise. Even though I understand their meanings but applying them into the context I'm conveying always gets to me. Others are same words different spelling for American/British English.

Other than what is depicted in the video, I think English would sound like every other language we don't understand. It'll definitely sound like a language but I'll not know what they mean other than sounds coming out from people's mouth.

For me, the hardest to learning English has got to be the grammar. As long as I've used English, I can never get the grammar right sometimes. It's just too confusing for me to determine how to write a sentence. Grammar is something that I can never get perfect at.

臥薪嚐膽 (Wòxīnchángdǎn) - Remember the hardships. Literal meaning - Undercover logs tastes gall. During the Spring and Autumn period, Kingdom of Yue was defeated by the Kingdom of Wu and its ruler "勾践"(Gōujiàn) became a prisoner of war. In order to survive and fight another day, Gōujiàn was willing to do anything, including a slave. After many years, Gōujiàn was finally released and he returned to his kingdom. One day, his servants snuck into his room to see what it looked like. Servant A jumped on the bed and was surprised that it was filled with logs of wood underneath the bed sheet. Servant B noticed something was hanging on the side and remembered that Gōujiàn licked it every night. He thought it must've have tasted great so he took a lick himself only to find it bitter to the gut. Gōujiàn walked in and explained to them the reason was to remind himself of the hardships he had endured so that he could become stronger. In the end, Gōujiàn managed to avenge his defeat and beat Wu. 臥薪嚐膽 (Wòxīnchángdǎn) means to take a failure and uses it as a form of motivation to do better next time. Example: "你輸了比賽沒關係，就當「臥薪嘗膽」, 下一次做好一點."

I think it's a common thing to lose grasp of something when we start to neglect it. Like any skill, a language needs to be used often and practised all the time to be good at. I too have the same issue when I don't speak English as often and forget about words sometimes.

I wonder if retard is an explicit language. I think it's a great way to insult somebody without resorting to swearing. I think retard doesn't mean as offensive as people thought it is, I don't get why some get so upset about it.

I learned a second language because I had to. English and Malay are two compulsory subjects that every student will have to study at school. Luckily for me, both the languages use alphabets so they are not too hard to learn and I did great on both. I picked up a third language out of interest though because it's my native tongue.

意氣揚揚 (Yìqì yángyáng) - Too proud. Literal meaning - Emotion skyrocketting. During the Spring and Autumn period was a good Prime Minister. He had a driver that was arrogant. The driver thought that just because his boss was the Prime Minister, he could just drive his carriage recklessly. One day the driver nearly ran over an old man, the Prime Minister got off the carriage and helped the old man while the driver watched with no remorse. At night when the driver came home he saw that his wife was leaving him. It turned out that his wife saw what he did at the market and felt disappointed hence wanted to leave. The driver felt bad and pleaded his wife not to leave while promising to change. From that day onwards, the driver became a different person. He changed for the good and became a humble and polite person. 意氣揚揚 (Yìqì yángyáng) means someone that is too proud of himself just because he/she achieved something great. Example: "原來你贏了比賽難怪你「意氣揚揚」的. 不過要記住, 做人要謙虛一點比較好."

Still plenty of time. I suggest you go take up some quick lessons to learn about the basics. Watch movies in Chinese to get a picture of how the language sounds so you won't mess it up. You probably won't be able to master it so just focus on learning some greetings and common phrases.

Books. There are plenty of language books designed for beginners and they are not very expensive. I'm sure there's an "I***t's Guide ... " (apparently the word is censored for some reason) somewhere that covers the language you want to learn. During the old days, we had audio tapes for language learning. I think there are similar things available at book stores nowadays.

I like the word Wind. I think it'd be really cool to have a name called "Wind." Sounds like some hero in a mythical world. Same reason why I named the protagonist "Wind" for my novel last time.

再作馮婦 (Zài zuò féng fù) - Get back into old business. Literal meaning - To become Féng fù again. Once upon a time, there once was a famous hunter by the name of "馮婦"(Féng fù). He was an expert in hunting tigers. One day, he decided to retire from hunting because he thought that hunting tigers was too cruel. He changed to another career selling vegetables at the market. One day, a rich man approached Féng fù hoping that he would help him hunt a tiger for its skin. Féng fù refused no matter how much money the rich man offered. Suddenly, an old man was attacked by a tiger. Féng fù immediately intervened and chased the tiger away. The rich man accused Féng fù of pretending making Féng fù angry saying that he only attacked the tiger to save the old man. Féng fù then chased the rich man away as well. 再作馮婦 (Zài zuò féng fù) means getting back to the business that was once left. Example: "你之前不是已經辭職了嗎? 幹嘛又「再作馮婦」從事故業?"