CeliVega

It sounds great, but I don't think the "higher-ups" are going to encourage something like that. Think about it, if there exists one language that everyone can understand, then sure, communicating will no longer be a problem for people from different countries, and going to foreign countries will be a lot easier as there's no need for translation of anything. But......having something like this means the other languages will be rendered useless in the long run. What about the translators? The teachers? Businesses involving languages matters? A lot of people will be jobless if there's a language that everyone on Earth can understand.

Hmm.....Let's see...... "I am letting you go" instead of "You are fired". "I am not fat! I am big-boned!" "Swing the other way round" instead of "Homosexual" "Between jobs" instead of "Unemployed" I think there's a lot more of these in chinese but I can't seem to think of any right now

Starts young. Babies are amazing at picking up minor traits and mimicking those movement or traits. The way you interact with your surroundings, the way you speak, the way you show your affections......babies learned about them without you knowing it. Which is why it is essential to watch your language and what you did in front of babies or children, as sometimes they absorbs new knowledge faster than an adult. For your case perhaps you could try something like interacting with your daughter in Spanish in the morning, then english for afternoon......or Spanish on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Then English on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday...... Try to teach her new words in both language too. Showing her an apple, and teach her the pronunciation of it in both the languages you use, something like that.

I have actually experienced languages that works differently with their wording as well. For Indonesian language, a car is called "kereta" and the color red is called "merah". Some languages place their adjective in front of the noun , like "a red car" for english, and "红色的车" for chinese. But a "red car" being translated into Indonesian would be "kereta merah", in which the adjective is place after the noun. "A beautiful car" in English. "美丽的车" in Chinese. "kereta yang cantik" in Indonesian.

Yes, it's definitely possible. These guys prove that it's possible for us to master up to 20 or 30 different accents if we got the heart and passion for it:

Exactly when will you be going there? If there's sufficient time left then yes, reading books and watching movies to get the "feel" of the language, it helps a lot if you got a good language guide book (You know, the kind that teaches you how to pronounce some commonly used words in Chinese like "Hello, how much is this, You are welcomed, etc"). If you are running out of time then I think it would be wise to take a quick look through these sites and try to memorize the important phrases: http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/mandarin.php http://www.tour-beijing.com/beijing_travel/Chinese_Phrases_for_travelers.php#.UxL9lfmSxqU Practise your pronunciation with this site: http://www.neospeech.com/ Just copy the chinese characters to the middle left section and start practising by saying the phrases out loud.

Huh......didn't see that coming It's actually quite rare for people to appreciate old songs these days. Back then people actually sings with pure SKILLS instead of relying on things like autotune or vocal modified into a techno sounding songs. Here's my absolute favourite song from the era that I wasn't even born yet: 劉文正 - Liu Wen Zheng - Wai Po De Peng Hu Wan - 外婆的澎湖灣

Cantonese songs can be really nice too! From what I see, there's too many love songs in both chinese and cantonese songs. They should come up with more varieties! But I guess the same can be said about songs in other languages too >_>

Oh yes, Cantonese! They kind of have their own way of writing as well. From what I know: 你们好吗？ = 你哋好嗎？ 吃过饭了吗？ = 吃咗饭未？ I remember these subtitles from some old Hong Kong movies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_varieties_of_Chinese As shown by the link above, there's more to Chinese than just Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese (some of the more well-known dialects). It's actually quite troublesome when people from both side can only communicate with their own dialects. Even though we learn and read the same language, the way the language is spoken is different >_>

I am confuse about which one is the correct. Technically speaking the "what" never happen, so should it be in present tense? Or should past tense be used because we assumed the "what" has already happened? Same thing with "What might have happen" or "What might have happened". Which one is the correct one? Thanks in advance for the replies everyone!

From what I see the "official" translation that I see on my local tv is sadly inaccurate sometimes and they are definitely not being translated seriously. I get that sometimes it's hard to translate to another language when it involves wordplay, pun, double entendre, or innuendo that didn't work that well in another language, but don't just leave things blank man! I have noticed that fansubs are usually better because it's translated by the fans, and they actually put in more effort to explain the jokes that wouldn't work that well in other languages.

I got a few quotes by C.S Lewis: You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

Well, I believe most story must happened first before they can be written into a story. So in a sense, every story is an event from the past. But you see that in novels they usually stick to present tense during the storytelling, and then switch to another tense based on the sentences. I plan to write something akin to an autobiography in the future, how do I know when I should use past tense or present tense in my sentences?

This applies to every languages ever. How do you improve on a language? You read about it, you write about it, you hear how it is spoken, and you talk in that language. Why is your proficiency in your native language much better than a language that you are not familiar with? Because you practise writing, hearing, reading, and speaking in that language for every single day of your life. You have unconsciously practise in mastering your native language for every single day of your life, which is why you have a great command of whatever your native language is. So to improve on the oral test of TOEFL, you have to practise speaking in English in your daily life too. If you are lucky there may be native speakers of English living nearby so befriending them is a way of improving your English orally too. If there's nobody like that in where you live, try those online video chatting sites. The more you speak in English the more confident you are in communicating with it.

Well, not necessary birds, but types of birds in general: as proud as a peacock as a duck takes to water as free as a bird as graceful as a swan as wise as an owl That's all I got at the moment. And I actually don't know about "birds and bees" before I read the posts above >_>

i think it's actually pretty good for something that costs no money at all. Translating softwares, no matter how good they are, never seems to be perfect when translating a large amount of sentences at once. Every languages has their own rules, grammar, ways of saying things, and to translate them well into another language requires extensive knowledges on the languages that are being used. Google translate works pretty well if you are only translating a short sentence or a few words. But who knows what might happen in the future? There's always room for improvement for Google.

You become more proficient in a language when you hear them a lot, read them a lot, write them a lot, or use speak them a lot. It's the same with any other language, and especially Chinese. I think it helps if there's chinese people around you. Try to befriend them, speaking chinese with them, ask them to teach you the basics or correct your mistakes. If there's nobody who is fluent in chinese nearby, perhaps you can try some youtube channels that teach people how to speak well in Chinese.

I guessed an accurate translation of 三字经 while still putting emphasis on only three words isn't that easy eh? Well, all is good as long as the moral values are properly translated and spread to all those who got the chance to read and learn about them.

This is awesome! I am actually thinking of starting a tuition class but I know that it's important to have a set of guidelines and instructions on how and which sections you should teach according to order, which is actually what I lack. I have the knowledge, but I don't know how to start! But with this, I am one step closer to starting my own tuition class! After going through these I am sure I can teach in a more effective and efficient manner! Thanks for sharing this!

I consider myself an "impatient reader". I always try to skim through an article without fully reading it if it was too long for my interest. Which is actually a bad habit. It's rude to not thoroughly read through something that someone has put efforts into writing it out. Also when I try reading faster I usually find myself missing some important messages or information that an article contained. Only by reading at a slower pace that I can fully understand something that I am not familiar with.

I think subtitles are perfect for learning English. Preferably those that display two subtitles at once. One in English, and one in the native language of whoever that is watching. The subtitles in English will help you with learning new words, the correct spelling, and the proper pronunciation of them. The subtitles in native language will then helps with understanding the meaning of the words and the proper usage of the words. Of course, both the subtitles have to be accurate for this to work.

I think I am not guilty of this. I mainly use "Hahaha" when I found something funny so I am safe I guess

Indeed! With so many different dialects for the Chinese language, there's bound to be slangs that are made specifically for a certain dialect. From what I know, Hakka, Hunan, Chaozhou all have slangs that only the common speaker can understand.

I find it very inspirational that there are so many multilingual people out there. It shows that learning a foreign language is very possible, as long as your got the heart, environment, and dedication for it. I noticed that a lot of people became fluent at a foreign language because they got a lot of exposure from that specific foreign language. It may be due to being stationed at a foreign country, or born in a place that most people are multilingual.