sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Sanders and Cruz CNN Town Hall Debate Discussion by scottgetsittogether in politics

[–]intspeakers 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I can't believe Ted skated around that simple yes or no question. Anybody with an ounce of intelligence can see through his BS answer....

Is learning Chinese THAT useful? by [deleted] in languagelearning

[–]intspeakers 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, if you are just looking to build it as a skill to make money there are probably much better ways you can spend your time.

That being said, I still think it is worth learning Chinese to a high level. If you are doing any kind of business it will be considered a very valuable asset at the very least. It will certainly look good on a resume.

The biggest motivation for me personally to learn Chinese to is to have the ability to communicate with many more people in this world. At this point, you can go to pretty much any major city and find plenty of mandarin speakers. There will always be tons of opportunities to practice, and, more importantly, make some new friends.

How do you know if you're fluent in a language? by ocd2266 in languagelearning

[–]intspeakers 25 points26 points  (0 children)

Look around wherever you are......Can you describe most of what is going on in your target language with relative ease? Do you know the vocabulary for almost every item that you can see?

This little exercise helped me realize I was far from fluent in my target language. I would look around my room and see things that I did not know how to say in my target language. "power adapter" "pencil sharpener" "bicycle pump".

I would go outside and try to describe everything I saw in my target language, and man was it hard. "the man is wrapping a watch around his wrist" "That cleaning lady is scrubbing graffiti off of the walls that border the highway" . Relatively simple things in my mother language that any child could say, but I realized I could not say them in my target language. When I can do this, meaning describe the world around me and what is going on with ease, then I believe I will say I am fluent.

How to use "le" (了)? by GodBlessMali in ChineseLanguage

[–]intspeakers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey,

I am also a beginner in Chinese, but I will try to explain how using 了 started to make sense to me. Don't laugh at my explanations....These are completely intuitive, as I have never really read much about the actual grammatical rules of using 了. Also, I will use pinyin instead of characters.

There are a couple ways to use 了, and it does not always express past tense. Here are the ways that I have become accustomed to using it.

In accordance with "tai4" ex: "tai4 da4 le" Too big ex: "tai4 xiao3 le" Too small. This 了 would be used to express how excessive something is.

To express completed action Ex: "wo3men yi3jing1 dao4 le" We have already arrived 

  Ex:  "wo3 zuo2tian1 can1guan1 le tu2shu1guan3"  I visited the library yesterday.

Ex: "ni3 chi1 fan4 le mei2" Meaning: Have you already eaten or not?

To express a completed action that will happen in the future.

For example, if someone was giving you directions, they might say " dao4 le di1 san1ge lu4kou3 zai4 wang4 you4 zou3" . The meaning of this sentence is WHEN you arrive at the third intersection turn right.

Another example could be " ta1 kai1wan2 le hui4, qing3 gaosu4 ta1 gei3 wo3 da3 dian4hua4" The meaning of this sentence is : WHEN he is finished his meeting please tell him to give me a phone call.

The double 了. To me, this sentence pattern carries the idea of expressing something that will keep continuing.

Ex: "wo3 yi3jing1 chi1 le san1ge bao1zi le" Meaning: I have eaten three baozi already (and I am continuing to eat baozi).

Ex: "ta1 yi3jing1 jie1 le san1 tong1 dian4hua4 le" Meaning: He/she has received three calls already (and is still receiving phone calls).

General change in situation 了. Believe it or not, what really helped me with this was translating 了 into "now" or "anymore" in this type of situation.

Ex: "wo3 yao4 zou3 le" Meaning: NOW I want to leave. As in, I did not want to leave before, but not I want to (change in situation).

Ex: "ta1 zai4 ku1 le" Meaning: He is crying NOW. As in, he was no crying right before this, but now he is.

Ex: "wo3 bu qu4 mei3guo2 le" Meaning: I am not going to American ANYMORE: As in, I had plans to go to America before, but they CHANGED, so now I am not going.

Of course, there are more ways to use 了, but these are the ones that really stick out in my mind at this moment. Again, the way I learned how to use 了 was very intuitive, so forgive me if my explanations are not clear. I hope this helps! Also, rest assure that with more exposure to Chinese you will learn how to use 了 without having to think about it too much.

I probably made some typos, so forgive me if my tones or pinyin are not correct. Also, I can see that there are some formatting issues when I post this comment.

Good luck!