Subj : Re: HOLY CRAP! To : alt.tv.farscape From : weirdwolf Date : Wed Sep 21 2005 23:10:14 From Newsgroup: alt.tv.farscape "Finnigann" wrote in news:4331CEB3.3097.farscape@bnb.synchro.net: > To: weirdwolf > -=> weirdwolf wrote to alt.tv.farscape <=- > > we> From Newsgroup: > alt.tv.farscape > > we> Nick wrote in > we> news:Xns96D84D9FDC02Fndtcm@204.153.244.170: > > > Jim Larson wrote: > > > >> 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.) > >> > > > > I used to work with a guy who told me he could teach me to read > > chinese in about 3 weeks. I am waaaay dumber than that. > > we> It's not as hard as it looks, if you can learn some of the > radicals, we> sort of root words like for example in English,(well > latin,) you know we> that sub means beneath. So when you see the word > for sub combined with we> marine you know that it means beneath the > water. The same thing works we> for some Japanese, they have three > alphabet systems, the one we are we> talking about is the one they > got from the Chinese. When you see the we> pictogram for wood, boku, > it looks like a little tree, if you see three we> trees together in a > triangle then you have the pictogram for we> forest,shin. > we> I've forgotten most of the ones I knew because of lack of > practise and we> I could only really read to the level of a junior > school kid, say grade we> 6. > we> The teacher told us last night that if you can read say 2,500 > symbols we> you can read 96% of an average newspaper. You could hear > the sound of 9 we> rectums collectively tightening. That was the most > relaxed I was all we> night. > > > Will this help me play Mahjong? > Dunno can you play mahjong now? Ted -- Stare too long into the abyss and the abyss looks like a nifty place to hide the bodies .