well i call it mandarin but most people will call it chinese. however, there
are many dialects.. like cantonese or taiwanese etc. i know mandarin and a
little taiwanese.
since we're comparing, i only speak english and croatian (which was the first
language that i learnt). although now i'm not as fluent, as i have no-one left
to speak it to. but i can still communicate well enough to be understood.
funny thing is, i was born in aust. but i knew little to no english when i
started school, because in my preschool years i was brought up by my
grandparents.
i learnt french at school for years, and did rather well at the time, but
again, due to never using it since, have forgotten nearly all of it.
isn't chinese (and it's dialects) one of the hardest languages to learn? i'm
pretty impressed, god.
oh and just for clarification.. my mandarin isn't of the beijing flavor. it's
more taiwanese kind.. in other words less of that excruciating "r" sound and
more succinct and pleasant audibly.
mazette, i completely agree with you about the forgetting their language part.
just the other day, i was talking with my uncle.. and he was saying that he's
almost completely forgotten how to read or write chinese.
so if his generation has forgotten.. i pity my generation.. myself included.
at this point, i only know how to speak it and understand most of it. it's a
shame really but if my parents' generation doesn't see the need to teach it or
enforce education on it.. then it's up to us i guess to voluntarily learn it.
which is something of a new year's resolution for me.. to take classes in
mandarin. i attempted waaaaay back when i was still in high school but i gave
up on it too quickly.
about a third of the guys in my lab are chinese manlanders, and yeah they've got
a pretty strong 'r.' i've never minded it, though. myself, i only know a little.
aussiemadman you should give it a try. most people i know who have studied it
didn't find it so hard. plus with 1.3 billion chinese, you are bound to have
opportunities to use it if you want (yeah, i know, different dialects, but
still). i had the experience of studying chinese taught in japanese - that'll
mix you up a bit. is there such a thing as a hard language? i mean, if
you are motivated, interested, and you practice. it can take time, but what's
hard when you are having fun?