Due-East.org

Lu, 妳怎麽樣？

孙智谦 — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:38:15 +0000

Lu,

妳好！妳還看我的Blog嗎？我等inLove出新專輯。我給我的幾個朋友聼你們的專輯。他們都很喜歡。你們會什麽時候出新專輯？請留言吧！

謝謝！

孫智謙 (Chris)

Increase your exposure to Chinese with PPStream

孙智谦 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:42:41 +0000

To learn a language effectively, nothing beats total immersion. The problem is that many learners of Chinese don’t live in an area where total immersion is practical or even possible, so a lot of learners help themselves along by watching Chinese TV shows. The problem is that in many countries, very few markets have Chinese TV channels available. That’s where PPStream comes in. It’s basically a streaming video service that allows users to watch all kinds of video content from China on their computers for free. The interface is all in Chinese, and this can’t be changed, but Tokyobit has posted a nice tutorial on how to set up and use PPStream. Check it out here.

Please note: Much of the content on PPStream runs afoul of copyright laws and is thus illegal. I do not endorse watching this kind of content; howver, PPStream also features content that is broadcast freely over the airwaves in China and that is virtually impossible to find in other countries.

Fill in your conversational Chinese gaps a bit

孙智谦 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:52:10 +0000

It seems like the longer you study a language, the harder it becomes to improve in your ability to speak it. You get into a rut where you’re comfortable talking about certain subjects, and that’s what you talk about, so you hit a plateau. It’s really easy to get stuck on these plateaus and stop progressing. And then you find that, while you can express some pretty complex thoughts on certain subjects, you’re essentially lost as to what to say in some of the most basic situations. “Nciku Conversations” helps fill in some of the gaps. It’s a section of nciku.com that features short, basic Mandarin conversations. Each conversation is given in Pinyin and Chinese characters and has an idiomatic English translation underneath. You can also click on the “Listen” button to hear the conversation read aloud by a not-quite-natural-but-pretty-close computerized person. Using the site in conjunction with the excellent Firefox extension Perakun, you can analyze the meaning of each word and phrase within each sentence to get a better grasp on the grammatical structure of the conversation. Check it out here.

Wang Li Hong: So much talent, it makes you sick

孙智谦 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:55:38 +0000

It’s always interesting to find out how creative people get started creating their works of art, what drives them in their craft, and how their personal creative process works. I came across this article and interview about Wang Li Hong/Leehom Wang on Berklee University’s web site this morning, and I thought I’d share it because Leehom addresses a lot of those points directly in the interview. I knew he was talented, but I’m finding out that it’s pretty much to the point of being ridiculous. How do you pack so much talent into one person? Seriously. Not only does he play several instruments (the guitar, piano, drums, violin, multiple traditional Chinese instruments), he also composes and produces all of his own music as well as directing some of his music videos. He’s also an accomplished actor and screenplay writer. I’m starting to wonder if the cause of so many people being uncreative is his family hogging all the good genes.

Top 10 Reasons to Learn Cantonese

孙智谦 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:29:49 +0000

The awesomeness that is Hong Kong: Reason enough to learn Cantonese.

A friend of mine just sent me a link to a New York Times article about how Cantonese is slowly dying out in New York’s Chinatown. I couldn’t help but get a little sad reading it. Sure, it’s a ridiculously difficult language to learn (which is why it should be spelled Can’t-onese), but it’s also an amazingly interesting language brimming with character. So, here I make my case for why people should try to learn it in addition to Mandarin. Here you are: My top 10 reasons to learn Cantonese!

Reason 1: The Wow Factor – As I said above, Cantonese is ridiculously difficult. Nobody seems to agree on exactly how many tones it has. Some people say 7. Some say 9. And some say over 11, referencing so-called silent tones. Sorry, but if it’s silent, it’s not a tone. But the insistence on the existence of these so-called silent tones only ups the ‘cool factor’ of Cantonese. If you can master it, you’re pretty much an unstoppable language learning force. Native speakers will lavish you with praise, giving your self-esteem a temporary boost (at least until you say something wrong and get made fun of. See reason number 8). And also, I’ll be really jealous of you.

Reason 2: The Pronunciation – Mandarin pronunciation requires more precision than Cantonese. To speak Mandarin fluently and quickly, you have to train your tongue to make some pretty drastic motions in rapid succession. Cantonese, on the other hand, makes heavy use of the throat, and some words you don’t even really have to open your mouth to pronounce correctly. How cool is that?

Reason 3: The Slang – Cantonese is chock-full-o-slang and plays-on-words. Because there are 7 (or 9 or 11 or 7.5 billion or whatever) tones in Cantonese and because of the way the tones work, there are gobs of opportunities to coin new slang terms because so many words sound exactly like other words in every way, save for the pitch of the tone. It’s kind of like singing a word on an A instead of an A-flat changing the meaning of the word entirely. Yes, it’s hard, but don’t think about that…it’s also super cool.

Reason 4: The Particles – This is probably the coolest thing about Cantonese. There are tons of particles that native speakers slap on to the ends of sentences to stress emotion, and it sounds just plain cool. You know you’ve heard it in movies or on the streets: “something-something-something aaaaaaaahhh…something-something gaaalaaaaaahhh….something-something-something waaaahhhhh.” Total. Awesomeness. I swear, if I could can that and sell it, I’d be a rich man.

Reason 5: Hong Kong Movies – If you like Chinese movies, especially older ones, then you’ll enjoy them more after learning Cantonese. Let’s face it, sometimes subtitles don’t convey the same meaning as the spoken dialogue. So if you can learn enough Cantonese to follow along with the actors on the screen, you’ll enjoy Hong Kong movies more. Plus, remember the slang and plays-on-words? Yep, you’ll get a lot more of the jokes if you understand Cantonese.

Reason 6: The Music – If you’re a music lover like I am, learning Cantonese in addition to Mandarin (or any other language you may learn) will just open up that much more music to you. And who doesn’t want more music to listen to? Pretty much only deaf people. And maybe people who don’t like music, but I can’t understand that kind of person, so I don’t expect them to understand why I like Cantonese and thus don’t expect them to read this post.

Reason 7: The Food – Cantonese food is good. There’s a huge variety of tasty dishes to choose from, all full of flavor. Most are relatively tame, so you unadventurous people should be ok. But Cantonese food has those of you who like to try eating things you can’t quite identify but obviously came out of some animal’s nether regions covered as well. There’s something for everybody!

Reason 8: The Humility – Feel like you’ve got a problem with pride? Looking down on other people? Try learning Cantonese! Unless you have perfect pitch and unparalleled language learning abilities, you’re going to speak incorrectly. A lot. And you’ll get laughed at. Often. And may never be told why. And getting laughed at without intentionally being funny is a really good way to keep yourself humble.

Reason 9: Preserving Culture – I’ve heard that Cantonese is much more closely related to ancient Chinese than Mandarin is, so for you cultural purists out there, Cantonese is a good way to go.

Reason 10: Widening Your Horizons – Technically, this applies just as much to Mandarin as it does Cantonese, but this post isn’t about Mandarin, so let’s pretend Mandarin doesn’t exist for now. Learning another language is a great way to widen your horizons. Every culture has some distinct ways of thinking that other cultures just don’t have, and Westerners could stand to learn a lot about loyalty, hard work, and thrift from the Chinese.

Extra reason: To Get a Date – I hate to resort to this because I think learning another language for the purpose of getting a date is the epitome of lame (actually creepy), unless you’re doing it for the sake of impressing someone that you’re already interested in regardless of his or her cultural background, in which case it’s sort of romantic, so go with it. But in the interests of getting more people to learn Cantonese, I’ll go ahead and say it in the hopes that your motivations will change: girls and guys alike love it when you put forth the effort to learn to speak their native language. There, I said it.

Well, that’s it. Those are my 10 reasons for learning Cantonese. Interested? Then I suggest the following few methods to begin your learning:

Pimsleur Cantonese – Pimsleur is a great start for learning any language, and Cantonese is no exception. It’s expensive, but you can get it for about half price here. There’s only one level of Cantonese to learn (compared to Mandarin’s 3 levels), but it’s a start.
Teach Yourself Cantonese – This is a pretty good program for learning Cantonese. It includes a text book as well as CDs for you auditory learners. I never finished it because of getting sidetracked with life (only got through like 15 pages at most), but it’s a solid program. You can get it from lots of places, including Amazon.com. I’ll warn you; the binding on these books used to be pretty shoddy, but when I wrote the publisher to complain after my book fell apart for no reason, someone wrote back assuring me that their next editions would have upgraded binding. That was about 6 months ago, so hopefully it’s better now.
Cantonese Help Sheets – It’s not exactly a course, more of a tutor in learning Cantonese. It’s well worth a look. Check it out.

There you have it, my 10 plus reasons for learning Cantonese. Get started now, because it’ll take a lifetime to master…

File under ‘duh’: Electric shock doesn’t cure anybody of Internet addiction.

孙智谦 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:26:34 +0000

Electric Shock: not as effective as once thought…by people who don’t bother to check things out scientifically

Way back in 2007, I blogged about a government-sanctioned program at a hospital in China trying to cure people of Internet addiction using electric shock therapy. Well, apparently the government has had a change of heart. The Health Ministry has ordered the hospital to stop using electric shock therapy to treat Internet addiction, citing a lack of evidence that it does any good. Ya think?!

Link to article

Best news in a long time…

孙智谦 — Tue, 19 May 2009 15:11:57 +0000

The news is depressing lately. Well, it’s actually pretty much always depressing. But I just got some great news to offset some of the doom and gloom! After almost 4 years, InLove is finally releasing a new album in July! The singer, Lu, kindly stopped by the site to leave a message about it. Here are her comments (in part) below:

。。。inLove的新專輯將會於七月中推出, 到時會有發佈演出, 場地是香港藝術中心的一個小型演奏廳。

我們都很興奮, 因為已經接近四年沒有推出專輯, 所以今次有點緊張, 但也會盡力做好。希望也能得到Chris你的支持。^－^

最後想說的是, H1N1病情似乎愈來愈嚴重, 敬請大家都要保重身體, 也一起祈禱, 希望病者早日康復, 以及全球病情盡快得到控制。。。

Lu

I’m really excited about this because their first album was awesome. Every song on it had a certain warmth that kept me wanting to listen again and again. If this were the 80s, when all we had were records or cassette tapes, I’d probably be on my 4th or 5th copy of it because I would’ve worn out several copies already from listening so much. Check out the video below for a taste of their sound:

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

A turn…for the worse

孙智谦 — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:19:51 +0000

[There is a video that cannot be displayed in this feed. Visit the blog entry to see the video.]

When I first heard the opening piano of this song, I thought, “Wow, this is gonna be good!” But then Wilber Pan started to sing, and I quickly realized that this was going to be a case of a great song ruined by a bad vocal performance. Like I said, the piano is very nice, and the melody is nice, too. But who gave the recording of the vocal track the green light? And how close was he standing to a jet engine when he did so? I’m not saying it’s an absolutely horrible vocal performance, but it’s more suitable for karaoke in a private room with friends than being put on an album for the whole world to hear. It’s just a very amateur performance. His vibrato sounds forced, it sounds like he’s having a hard time singing as low as low as he does in the verses, and his tone isn’t very good in the chorus, either. Even the background vocals sound rough to me. It could be that it was done on purpose so that they didn’t overpower the lackluster performance on the main vocals, but if you have to do that, either key the song differently for the singer, or just have someone else sing it. I haven’t heard any other of Wil’s ballads, but if they’re all like this, he needs to avoid them in the future and stick to hip hop (which he does well), for our ears’ sake.

8 mistakes to avoid when learning Chinese

孙智谦 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:48:13 +0000

I just came across a great post on TheChinaExpat.com highlighting some common mistakes learners of Chinese make, and I thought I’d post about it here. The eight mistakes highlighted by the post are: 1.) Not mastering the tones, 2.) Not learning characters, 3.) Killing yourself learning characters, 4.) Focusing on progress over process, 5.) Not making good Chinese friends, 6.) Not using the best learning materials available, 7.) Choosing poor classes, and 8.) Not using [awesome] tools for learning Chinese.

Number one, I have to say, is usually a matter of ability. Some people I know who really try hard to learn Chinese just don’t have the ear for the tones. They try and try and try but never get the tones down. Everything they say is said with a rising tone, which is pretty hard on native speakers’ ears. So for those people not to master the tones is understandable. But I’ve also met some extremely arrogant foreigners who just plain don’t care about tones and don’t try to learn them. Not long ago, I talked to a guy who had lived in Shanghai for over 2 years. I had heard he had been living there before I met him, so I was fully expecting his Chinese to be pretty amazing. But then he opened his mouth to speak, and he sounded horrible. And he went on to say that he doesn’t care about the tones and doesn’t think they’re important to the language. Tones are an integral part of Chinese! To say they’re not important is incredibly disrespectful to Chinese speakers. It’s the equivalent of someone saying, “I don’t think consonants are important for speaking English.” It’s just wrong, and if you have that attitude, you don’t deserve to be understood.

I also appreciated number four. I at times struggle with this myself. It’s easy to get discouraged by the fact that you just can’t express yourself fully in any situation, read and understand any newspaper, and follow any movie’s plot without subtitles after studying the language for over five years. But apparently it’s realistic to expect to have to study Chinese full-time (and probably live in China) for 10 to 20 years before becoming truly fluent in all respects. But if you focus on what you can’t say/understand rather than on using what you can say/understand, you’ll have a hard time progressing beyond where you currently are. The ChinaExpat post links to some pretty encouraging (or discouraging, depending on your disposition) articles about the subject.

The other points seem to me to be pretty good advice as well, so if you’re just now beginning to learn the language, go check it out. You’ll save yourself time and frustration.

Link to article

Adultery is [sort of] a crime in South Korea

孙智谦 — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:13:13 +0000

South Korean actress Ok So-Ri

Here’s something I didn’t know. South Korea is the only nation outside of Islamic states that has an actual law making adultery a criminal offense. It’s been challenged multiple times but has always been upheld based on the premise that “adultery is damaging to the social order.” Hmmm…totally disregarding a sacred institution for the sake of your own gratification…Yeah, I’d say that could be damaging to the social order. Of course, the law is apparently extremely gummy…As in this actress’ case, very rarely are people actually sent to jail for it. Ms. Ok received an 8 month suspended sentence, and her lover received a 6 month suspended sentence. *sigh*

Could she have a more fitting name for this situation?

Link to article