Subj : Re: HOLY CRAP! To : alt.tv.farscape From : Jim Larson Date : Wed Sep 21 2005 02:16:05 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape weirdwolf wrote: > Jim Larson wrote in > news:Xns96D7AAA33CD743v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: > >> weirdwolf wrote: >> >>> Jim Larson wrote in >>> news:Xns96D7A60C6A75F3v234oiwofui3284af93@130.133.1.18: >>> >>>> weirdwolf wrote: >>>> >>>>> I went to my first Mandarin lesson tonight. >>>>> I think my brain has melted and is running out of my nose..... >>>> >>>> Ni hau! >>>> >>> >>> Wo hen hao xiexie! >>> Blergh I want a v over certain letters but all I can find is ^ >>> Ted >>> >> >> By the way, can you hear differences in tone? >> > > When the teacher talked slowly I could just about manage it. I found it > interesting that she was saying that when in certain words there are > repeating syllables with the same tonal sounds that they might either be > pronounced with a different tonal stress or not at all. I had a Chinese acquaintance try it out on me for about 10 minutes. I couldn't really get it. (Of course, he mentioned that in Cantonese they have 9 tones instead of 4, and the average Mandarin speaker has about as much success distinguishing those as I had with Mandarin. Made me feel less stupid.) -- Jim .