Tag Archives for languages
Language Soup
So we’re back in Turkey, en route to Bali, by way of Malaysia, and my brain just turned to language soup. Like most Britons, I only speak one language well – my own. I studied Latin and Greek and have schoolgirl French, some Indonesian and a bit of Chinese. Once upon a time I also [...]
It’s All About The Cross-Hatching
“Bwahahaha,” I say. “Did you know the Chinese for ‘writer’ is, literally, ‘sit-at-home’?” “No,” says Zac. “NOOB! The ‘zuo’ in ‘zuo-jia’ is a different kind of ‘zuo’ from the ‘zuo’ that means sit.” “Oh,” I say, racking my brains to find out how many Chinese characters for ‘zuo’ I actually know. “Is it the ‘zuo’ [...]
French Conversation
The resort beach at the far end of town has some rather fine windsurfing on offer, and I figured that, with the water relatively warm and the wind relatively low, here would be a good place for Z to learn.. So, of course, did Z. Until he got there, obviously. “WOW!” says Z. “Banana boats! [...]
Learning Mandarin: Week 4
“If you finish this book,” Sophie reiterates, “You’ll be able to get all around China with no problems.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible when we started learning Chinese. But, weirdly, I think she’s right. A month ago we couldn’t tell where one sound ended and the next one began. A Chinese sentence was a [...]
Learning Mandarin: Week 3
A week to go before we head out of Kunming into the great wide open, over 30 hours of language lessons in, and we are, both of us, beginning to wonder whether the blood and sweat we’ve invested in learning Chinese is going to work. To understand and be understood in Chinese, I’m finding, you [...]
Learning Mandarin: Week 2
So the boy and I have completed our second week learning Mandarin in China. We’ve only got a week’s more learning before we’re out on our own exploring — although I think we’ll carry on via Skype. If you’re a language geek, or planning to study Chinese, you might want to read about our first [...]
Learning Mandarin: Week 1
Learning from our experiences in Indonesia, I figured it would be wise to start our sojourn in China by actually studying a bit of Mandarin and (hopefully) learning the basics of Chinese. Z was up for this too. At least until he realised Mandarin is a tonal language. Which means that every syllable has five [...]
Me Singlish Damn Powerful One, Ah?
“You buy now,” says the girl in the shoe shop. “You buy now.” It’s less a question than a statement, less a statement than a command, and almost — not quite — enough to tip me into buying the shoes straight away. I will gain, in fact, approximately ten pounds in Singapore just through a [...]
I once ordered “fried p*ss” instead of “fried potatoes” in a restaurant. And, on presenting a landlady with her key, I announced, “I’m so sorry! Here’s your cat!”. So I’ve had my adventures with the Indonesian language. And, my Bahasa still isn’t pretty. All the same, if you’re thinking of getting off the beaten track [...]
Time For A Travel "Plan" Rethink…
We’ve crossed five Indonesian islands to get to Kupang, and had to abandon our mission to Papua. Clearly, it’s time for a travel “plan” rethink. One of the odder elements of being a one-child, one-parent family is that we tend to negotiate quite a bit. There’s only two of us in the party, after all, [...]
