Category: Chinese (中文)

Polyglot chat

By Simon

Last night there were three of us at the polyglot chat group, which I’ve renamed Bangor Language Learners and which now at different times in a different venue. When I set up the group earlier this year my idea was that it would give me and other polyglots a chance to get together to chat in a variety of languages. Some weeks there have been enough of us to have several different conversations in different languages, other weeks there have been only a few of us and we have talked mainly in English, or in other languages we all had in common, like Welsh or German.

During the summer quite a few of the regular attendees were away and the meetings petered out. Then with the start of a new academic year I thought I’d change the focus of the group and make it for anybody who is learning a language, rather than just people who already speak several languages. After discussion on Facebook we came up with better days and times and so far we’ve had two meetings, which have gone well. Last night, for example, there were three of us and we spoke mainly in Welsh and French, which are the languages we have in common, along with English. I’m hoping numbers will increase as more people hear about it.

After the language learners group last night, I went to Global Café, a group run by Bangor University Christian Union which aims to bring together international and local students, and others. I started going to it while I was a student, and have been going on and off since then, though haven’t been regularly for a few years as it clashed with the ukuele club. The ukuele club has now moved to another night and I can go to Global Café again. It’s a great way to meet people from many countries and to practise a variety of languages – as well as English I spoke Mandarin, French, German, Spanish and a bit of Italian, Cantonese and Hungarian last night. I really enjoy opportunities like this. Is there anything similar in your area?

Which language next?

By Simon

As today is the 1st October it’s time to change my focus to a different language on my Multilngual Musings blog – but which one? During the past three months I’ve focused on Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx – a different one each month – and have found the exercise of writing something and recording it every day very useful for my proficiency in them. While my knowledge of each of these languages has improved, there is still plenty more to learn.

As for the next language to focus on – I could continue the Celtic theme and choose Welsh or Breton, or go for one of the other languages I want to brush up, such as German, Chinese, Japanese, Esperanto, French or Spanish. I feel confident writing in Welsh, and fairly confident in French, but the it would be a struggle with the others, which is one reason why I’m doing this as I need the practice.

Have you undertaken any language-related project like this? If so, how successful have they been?

Mandarin in China

By Simon

An article on BBC News reports that according the the Chinese Ministry of Education, some 30% of the people in China don’t speak Mandarin, of the 70% who do speak it, “many do not do it well enough”. As a result the Chinese government has apparently “launched another push for linguistic unity in China”. They will be promoting Mandarin particularly in rural areas and among ethnic minorities. A move that might not be welcomed by all.

China’s current population is 1,359,830,000 [source], so there are some 407,949,000 people in China who do not speak Mandarin, and around 951,881,000 who do – a very large number of people, though not as many as is generally believed. The idea that over a billion people speak Chinese is true if you count all varieties of Chinese, but not for Mandarin.

Math math

By Simon

This week I discovered that you can emphasize adjectives in Scottish Gaelic by repeating them. For example:
– bha e math math air faclan a chur ri chèile ann am bàrdachd (he was very good at putting words togther in poetry).

Emphasis can also be indicated with glé (very) – bha e glé mhath – with uabhasach (terribly) – bha e uabhasach math – or with fiadhaich (wild) – bha e fiadhaich math. Another example, which is mentioned in Leabher nan Litrichean by Ruairidh MacIlleathain, concerns an overheard conversation between two boys. One says “An robh an t-isag mòr?” (Was the fish big?), and the other replies, “Bha! Bha e mòr mòr mòr mòr mòr!”. (Yes! It was very very very very big!).

This doubling isn’t very common in English, though some people might use it. Alternatively you can elongate the adjective, it was biiiiig!. Do you double or enlongate adjectives at all, in English or other languages?

Eavesdropping

By Simon

One day last week I was walking through town and saw a couple walking nearby – a Chinese woman with a Western man. I wondered what language they were speaking to each other, so I eavesdropped and heard that it was Mandarin. This surprised me as it’s rare, in my experience, to hear non-Chinese people speaking Mandarin, especially round here. I was considering going over to introduce myself and finding out how the guy had learned Mandarin, but by that time they’d gone off in different direction.

If you speak a lesser-studied language and hear someone speaking it in public, would you go and talk to them?

Archerien

By Simon

An interesting word that came up in my Breton lesson today is archerien, which means police. It caught my attention because it has no obvious connection to the word police, and because it is completely different to the equivalent words in other Celtic languages:

– Welsh: heddlu (“peace force”)
– Cornish: kreslu (“peace host”)
– Irish: gardaí (síochána) (“guards of peace”); póilíní
– Manx: meoiryn shee (“peace keepers/stewards”); poleenyn
– Scottish Gaelic: poileas

The English word police comes from the French police (public order, administration, government), from the Latin polītīa (state, government), from the Greek πολιτεία (politeia – citizenship, government, administration, constitution). It is shares the same root as policy, politics, politician and various other words [source].

Many languages use variants on the word police, e.g. Politsei (Estonian), პოლიცია (polits’ia – Georgian), Polizei (German), पुलिस (pulis – Hindi), پلیس (pulis – Persian), Booliis (Somalia), Policía (Spanish), Pulis (Tagalog), but some do their own thing:

– Bavarian: Kibara
– Chinese: 警察 (jǐngchá); 公安 (gōng’ān)
– Faroese: Løgregla
– Greek: Αστυνομία (Astynomía)
– Hungarian: Rendőrség
– Icelandic: Lögregla
– Japanese: 警察 (keisatsu)
– Korean: 警察 (gyeongchal)
– Thai: ตำรวจ (tảrwc)

Are there other examples of languages with a word unrelated to police for police?

Mandarin in UK schools

By Simon

According to an article I found today in The Independent there is a dire shortage of qualified teachers of Mandarin Chinese in the UK – only about 100 at the moment – and at the same time increasing numbers of schools want to offer Mandarin lessons. Apparently some 500 schools in the UK currently teach Mandarin, though most do so as a taster course or as an after school club.

The government has a plan to train a thousand new Mandarin teachers, but that’s going to take quite a while. In the meantime one school mentioned in the article is using video conferencing to provide Mandarin lessons, which is a good temporary solution, though not as good as having a real, live teacher in the classroom.

So if those learning Mandarin in school continue studying it at university, there should be plenty of jobs available to them as teachers, at least.

Have you heard?

By Simon

I’ve just finished a new video. It’s in English this time and has similarities and references to previous videos. I added Chinese subtitles just for fun, and because it was a good excuse to practise my Chinese. If you spot any mistakes in the Chinese, or you’d like to translate the subtitles into other languages, just let me know.

I recorded the voices using my default RP accent for one character, and a sort generic northern accent for the other which contains elements of Lancashire and Yorkshire.

Labhair Gaeilge liom

By Simon

I just watched a video of an interview in Irish that Benny Lewis did on Raidió na Life, the Irish language radio station in Dublin. Benny mentions that he has had a t-shirt made with “Labhair Gaeilge liom” (Speak Irish with me) on it and that people who see the shirt speak Irish to him, if they can, even in places where he didn’t expect to find Irish speakers.

What a good idea, I thought. In Ireland you can’t tell if someone speaks Irish just by looking at them, so you never know who to speak Irish to, and people don’t know if you speak Irish either. A t-shirt like Benny’s clears up both uncertainties. The same is true in Wales, Scotland and other places where minority languages are spoken – you don’t know who speaks them. Similar clothing or badges could be useful for other languages as well.

It would be interesting to wander round London, for example, wearing a t-shirt with “Labhair Gaeilge liom” and/or “Siaradwch Gymraeg â fi” (Speak Welsh with me) to say how many Irish and/or Welsh speakers you could find. Or I’m sure you’d get a lot of interest if you wore a badge saying “你可以跟我说汉语” (You can speak Chinese to me).

Have you tried this for any languages?

Could you give me translations of this phrase in various languages so I can put together a new phrases page?