How long have you been learning Chinese/Cantonese?

DEmeant0r

I learned it when I was 1 til 6, then I moved to back to Ireland and haven't really used it since, but my oral is sufficient enough, how about you?

ezpzie

Well.. I've been speaking it all my life (parents) but I've got a fierce Irish/fan qwai accent laced into my cantonese.

Has anyone actually successfully tried learning it as an adult/teenager?

Grand_Izer

Parents are both native speakers although i would consider my Cantonese to be limited. I can watch most Chinese films without the need for subtitles (very handy since the subtitling on a lot of HK films is horrible) and hold small conversations with family and cousins.
Reading/Writing ability is non-existent though - the best i can manage is some horrible scrawlings which are supposed to represent my Chinese name.

SKWei

I started learning Mandarin when I was 18, as my University degree. I'm now 23 and I can communicate fairly well, with spoken or email/IM etc, though people still have to struggle sometimes to get what I'm saying!
As for Cantonese…aaargh! I can barely make out a word. Sometimes watching a HK movie with the subtitles on I can see some similarities, but that's mostly clutching at straws! And I had a look at (an old) copy of Xingdao daily from London the other day, where all these stars are quoted, it must be from cantonese as there a loads of characters I haven't seen since classical class!!
This is my first post, this was the thread that finally made me register instead of just browsing! So thanks for the motivation!
:cool:

DEmeant0r

Welcome on board boards.ie! Glad this made you register, and hope you will continue posting. Anyways where did you do your mandarin degree in?

SKWei

Thanx for making me feel welcome!
I did my degree at SOAS,in London. That included second year in China, in Beijing Normal University (yes it is a goofy English name, I know! And there isn't a Beijing Abnormal University anywhere that I know of!). Then last year after graduation I went back there and brushed up a bit more.
One of my teachers in SOAS was the external examiner for the course in Dublin, I forget if it was Trinity or UCD, and he said it was very well designed, better than the SOAS course in some ways!
Have any of you gone to China or HK to use your Chinese?

DEmeant0r

I just came back from HK from a month holiday in there, didn't use much cantonese, gotta start relearning how to write in the next few weeks.

SKWei

I only ever spent one weekend in Hong Kong, but during that time I found it really frustrating how I had to eat in places with an English menu, 'cos in the other places, I could read the Chinese but couldn't use the Cantonese pronunciation!
Did you learn to write Chinese at home, or did you go to a Chinese Sunday school or something? I've heard of those in UK and america, but not in Ireland.
There were a few funny scenes about that in the movie ??????Be There or Be Square!

DEmeant0r

Alot of the people in Hong Kong knows Mandarin so I wouldn't have thought that was a problem.

SKWei

:eek: Oh no! Don't tell me that only now! No really I guess I'm not the type to step forward and do something brave like speak Mandarin in HK! Back then my Mandarin was pretty poor too, it must be said. But you are originally from HK, right? You must have seen a change in Ireland over the past few years, a Malaysian recently told me he used only hear Cantonese in Ireland, but these past few years many more Mandarin speakers have appeared.

jimhenson

There is a chinese sunday school in just off Abbey street, behing the epicurian food hall, Its part of some chinese/malay christian church.

I'm actually looking for somewhere in Dublin at the moment to teach my kids manadarin, my wife is chinese and we speak it a little in the house, but alot of the time we just use english....

SKWei

I can't help on that one I'm afraid! Maybe there's a notice-board in the Asian Market on Drury Street which might have something…though I really don't know, as I'm not based in Dublin!
If you want children's books, one of the bookshops in Chinatown in London has an OK range and OK prices. It's not the one on Garrard Street, the one around the corner opposite the little pagoda, but I forget the name. And unless you have reason to be going there, there are probably easier methods using the internet! Come to think of it, you could try someone at the National Office for the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language, www.hanban.edu.cn, they had an Irish delegation over there earlier this year I think. Maybe someone there can point you in the direction of a recognised and/or well funded institution!
Also don't forget you can get CNE Pheonix Mandarin on Sky Digital (or the BBC Free to Air) and I think CCTV 4 on Hot Bird Digital Satellite, China Radio International on Shortwave etc. I've always been a fan of learning by osmosis

DEmeant0r

Originally posted by SKWei
If you want children's books, one of the bookshops in Chinatown in London has an OK range and OK prices.

Hehe that's exactly what I'm doing, got the books from my cousins in HK.

ezpzie

There's a chinese school in William Street which is closed for the summer currently and it teaches cantonese although it is strictly for kids. I went there as a kid (it was based on Harcourt street).

If anyone wants something a bit different check out the icic on Merrion Square (Irish Chinese Information Centre), currently my sister is learning different forms of dancing there (fan, mongolian and traditional chinese)... again seems to cater only for kids but I think if enough adults register for interest they will open a class on almost anything. I know a few chinese adults who've been asked to run classes.

ezpzie

Also, regarding the movies

I think that the translations are always hilarious!!! If there are english subtitles on, I will switch them on for double the laughter value.. some of the translations are hilarious! Cantonese movies tend to be witty or outright stupid.. making sense if you understand their context due to current affairs/really old traditions and basically taking the piss which doesn't translate to english well which means that the translations have to compensate the humour with something similar.. any jackie chan movie will reflect this.. I think the funniest translation I've watched was from hard boiled cop.. although most of it was violent and not that funny the translations made it a comedy and a classic for me

ezpzie

Hey Peeps....

Just learned that the ICIC that I mentioned previously do the following classes:

mandarin for children
mandarin for adults
mandarin for parents & children

and for children it's beginner classes
adults have beginner and intermediate classes
and parents and children only have beginner classes.

DEmeant0r

where are these classes in? Are there any courses in Galway if anyone knows?

ezpzie

Sorry... I can ask but I very much doubt that there's a chinese centre in Galway. Activity seems to be confined to Dublin although I think that someone's trying to set up an information centre in Limerick.

The ICIC is based on Fitzwilliam Square (not Merrion Square as previously posted.. sorry!) South in Dublin 2 and it's tiny. First turn left off Pembroke Street to the Square.

DEmeant0r

Thanks, please try and see if there are any centres in Galway!

ezpzie

hi,

Just checked out with for you. There's nothing in Galway. I'm afraid the closest would be Cork or Limerick for you. I'd probably advise contacting the ICIC to see if they have any contacts in Galway.

DEmeant0r

Ok. thanks for checking for me anyways.

Contradirony

Well I basically grew up with Cantonese and decided to officially learn Mandarin last summer when I was in HK for the summer! So, that makes 19 years of Cantonese and a year of Mandarin. Though I'd have to say that my Cantonese is mostly spoken, enough reading for tabloid-type magazines and even less written.

On the side, Mandarin is much easier to learn compared to Cantonese mostly because of pinyin (assuming English is one's first language of course), whereas pronounciation of Cantonese is not a language to 'pick-up' spoken-wise. Also, you'd be amazed how much of a language you can learn just from listening to songs in that language. As much as I dislike canto-pop, I managed to listen to tolerable ones enough to learn a good chunk of words (even if it is about how sad and hurt you are from an unrealistically tragic 'relationship').

Contradirony

...and before any smart-asses decide to start pointing this out, I've just realised me writing/typing (I am a terrible pedant, please excuse me ) '...pronounciation of Cantonese is not a language to 'pick-up' spoken-wise.' is quite so very wrong... Ignore the pronounciation or spoken-wise, either one on its own should be correct enough.^^