India to hire 10,000 teachers from Taiwan to learn Chinese language

[Roybot]

i doubt that, although I know that my oldie mandarin prof at the univ is anti-communists since he fought in the war. but thats his personal choice. teachers are individuals after all and may present their opinions just like us

True that, university professors always have hidden agendas but its ok at uni level Iguess, cause University students aren't as impressionable as school students.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Anyway today any educated people from Hong Kong understand mandarin.

It depends really. Mandarin is still considered a "secondary language" in Hong Kong, and learning it is not mandatory. Unfortunately.

I personally think that Hong Kong should make Mandarin it's OFFICIAL language, and make sure that everyone is fluent in it. Mandarin should be standardized across the whole of China, including the SAR's.

I prefer the sound of Mandarin anyway. Cantonese is quite a "rough" dialect, whereas Mandarin sounds more civil and respectable.

 

[oct605032048]

Since I learned english as a foreign language and I learned Chinese as mother tongue, I'd always curious to know how would it like for studying Chinese as a foreign language?
What would be the most difficult part?

 

[Roybot]

Actually I'm curious about what would indian learn about characters from these taiwan teachers? Large chances that you guys would still be illiterate after learning the 'traditional characters'.

Its most probably going to be simplified Mandarin, and knowing whatever little Mandarin the students will learn is better than knowing no Mandarin. At the end of the day language is just a tool for communication.

I myself have been planning on doing a Mandarin course, but just the fact there are over 9000 Chinese characters is very demoralizing.

 

[Abhishek_]

^lol 1500 characters will make you pretty fluent. 9000 isnt needed

 

[oct605032048]

It depends really. Mandarin is still considered a "secondary language" in Hong Kong, and learning it is not mandatory. Unfortunately.

I personally think that Hong Kong should make Mandarin it's OFFICIAL language, and make sure that everyone is fluent in it. Mandarin should be standardized across the whole of China, including the SAR's.

I prefer the sound of Mandarin anyway. Cantonese is quite a "rough" dialect, whereas Mandarin sounds more civil and respectable.

Well they are same language different accents. Whether mandarin is more civil is a question really depends on time. It is the official accent for the past 3 to 4 centuries but before that the Nanjing accent was more 'civil' and official while the origin of beijing or northeast accent was considered barbarian.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Since I learned english as a foreign language and I learned Chinese as mother tongue, I'd always curious to know how would it like for studying Chinese as a foreign language?
What would be the most difficult part?

There are a lot of laowai in Hong Kong, who try to learn Chinese.

I think they have the most trouble with the characters, since there are a lot to remember.

They also have a lot of trouble, making some specific sounds. For example, when a Westerner says "qu" (&#21435 in Mandarin, it sounds like "choo".

 

[third eye]

Since I learned english as a foreign language and I learned Chinese as mother tongue, I'd always curious to know how would it like for studying Chinese as a foreign language?
What would be the most difficult part?

Albhabets / words used in Chinese

Phonetics

These are the major hurdles.

 

[oct605032048]

Do you mean 'characters' or 'words'?

I too agree the simplified characters are a better choice for the starters but if you learned one type of characters would you find it trouble or difficult in switching between the traditional ones and simplified ones during reading?

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

^lol 1500 characters will make you pretty fluent. 9000 isnt needed

That's right Abishek. You don't need to learn all the characters to be able to read a newspaper or a book.

Also, the characters are made up of components that are very intuitive.

For example, the character "jian" (to see)... is basically an eye ("mu") on top of a person ("ren").

 

[Roybot]

Say if I learn Mandarin characters, would I be able to read/speak any Japanese/Korean?

 

[oct605032048]

Yeah that is the merits of traditional characters. Alas I still find it more difficult and time wasting to write them as compare with simplified characters.

 

[Chinese-Dragon]

Say if I learn Mandarin characters, would I be able to read/speak any Japanese/Korean?

If you learned Chinese characters (there is no such thing as Mandarin characters)... you would be able to communicate with Japanese people by writing down what you want to say.

Yeah that is the merits of traditional characters. Alas I still find it more difficult and time wasting to write them as compare with simplified characters.

You're right, simplified characters are better overall.

 

[oct605032048]

You can write it down and they should understand. People can talk through writing and people did talk this way for thousands of years.

I tried it with some Japanese guy and it works well.

 

[indushek]

That's right Abishek. You don't need to learn all the characters to be able to read a newspaper or a book.

Also, the characters are made up of components that are very intuitive.

For example, the character "jian" (to see)... is basically an eye ("mu") on top of a person ("ren").

Can these be learnt from some kind of book with which you can basically teach yourself??

Is a teacher compulsorily required?? I guess speaking would be hard no doubt but to read and write may be ??