Thoughts on Using the Internet for Language Learning

maribel

昨晚突然在想，到底中文是不是世界上最难学的语言？

为什么很多摩门教的美国小伙在中国学习中文1-2年，可以说的如此流利；为什么一些俄罗斯姑娘在中国4-5年 也可以做到
而我很怀疑我们在同样的时间里在某英语国家生活学习 讲英语能否达到跟他们讲中文一样的水平？:-)

起码我的英文水平达不到“本地人”的中文（写作)水平--没有听过他中文口语水平，呵呵  只能从他字里行间对中文的熟练驾驭来对比

jay550

+1.

munchkin

咱们学英语是被迫的，要是有外国人学汉语是人家真有兴趣。学习效果就不同了。

peaceful

thanks for sharing!

MissPearl

can't agree more!

pomer

原帖由 jay550 于 2011-7-15 12:52 发表
Even if he throws in a better structured and worded essay,  you would still go " Gee, doesn't that sound chinglish?

I appreciate your view on this but please don’t speculate what I am going to say. And even if I said that , it would be just my 2 cents. As in a forum, you would normally expect divergent opinions , wouldn’t you?  As I speak and write Chinglish everyday, I wish to improve my own English language skills through spending time on this thread and expect to see more from the OP as I have yet seen it.

jasonliu234

Apparently Oursteps is not the web forum for OP to learn Chinese

is it possible to share any of the internet forums where OP learned Chinese from?

WTFAUS

what is OP?

jasonliu234

楼主

dynamix

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2011-7-15 15:45 发表
what is OP?

学会了教你们家周立波去。。。。

本地人

we should be able to make comments on what he wrote here or even pick on his grammar errors regardless whether he is a true local.

I agree with this completely.

本地人

is it possible to share any of the internet forums where OP learned Chinese from?

Many different ones.  I haven't actually spent much time at any one forum though (oursteps would be the place where I've spent any time actually participating in the community).

本地人

请问第一和第五虾米意思??

wk - 我靠
rpwt - 人品问题

Do you have a Chinese name?

Yes, but forgive me if I don't want to mention it here :-)  

I could imagine only sky is the limit for his future, a prospect to beat Canadian Dashan at least….

Dashan is definitely an inspiration for all serious Chinese learners, but I'm not sure in language learning how to beat others or even if it's necessary.  Like maribel, I see language as a tool for communicating.  That's mostly how I learnt my Chinese, by communicating regularly with Chinese people.

dynamix

原帖由 本地人 于 2011-7-15 17:39 发表

wk - 我靠
rpwt - 人品问题


Yes, but forgive me if I don't want to mention it here :-)  


Dashan is definitely an inspiration for all serious Chinese learners, but I'm not sure in language learning  ...

well....if i do not misunderstand here, you are a person with a low profile... do you know one of the Chinese cross-talk kings Guo Degang will be  touring Melbourne?...a great opportunity to meet up with a generation of cross talk master. If you are ambitious enough to challenge Dashan, you have good chance....haha

本地人

if i do not misunderstand here, you are a person with a low profile..

Bingo :-)  I really didn't think my other post would ignite so much controversy.

do you know one of the Chinese cross-talk kings Guo Degang will be  touring Melbourne?

I saw the advertisement in the other thread, but a lot of cross-talk still goes over my head.

maribel

原帖由 pomer 于 2011-7-15 11:31 发表
we should be able to make comments on what he wrote here or even pick on his grammar errors regardless whether he is a true local

学你，挑个错吧

以前斑竹曾组织过英文挑错活动，一些这个帖子里的评论家都不曾见冒泡  以后一定要多来英文版 帮助广大诚心想提高英文的朋友哦

lycans

原帖由 pomer 于 2011-7-15 11:31 发表
I admit my wrong judgement on this matter but I do reserve my opinion that the OP still has a room to improve his writing skills unless he can show us a better structured and worded essay.  And this t ...

Nicely put. I totally agree with you.
At first, I really thought OP just was a pretender trying to make funs in this forum and that's why I picked on his grammar and wording.
This is an English learning forum, and people come here to either learn or polish their English skills. I think it's actually a good thing to have someone help you correct your errors for free :-).
Even though OP turns out to be a true "local" and English is his native language, it doesn't mean he can write prefect sentences without making mistakes. Regardless of what OP's real identity is, people have their very rights to express their opinions. Isn't that how we learn?

[ 本帖最后由 lycans 于 2011-7-16 23:17 编辑 ]

pomer

good pickup. 正确的语法确实要加个of, 不过也有人不加of这么用的，应该算不上一个绝对的语法错误吧

jay550

Not when you have a "whether" following it.

you would generally go " regardless of whether" , "regardless whether" just sounds weird to me.
Though you could use "regardless" at the end of the sentence, e,g, i would go there regardless.

just my 2 c though.

本地人

Regardless of what OP's real identity is, people have their very rights to express their opinions. Isn't that how we learn?

Absolutely.  That's certainly how I've learnt many things.  Although I guess it also depends on whether or not people change their opinions after realising they were wrong.  Some people don't do that very well, or very graciously, and end up learning nothing.

wx_wxr

我们这些从小学开始学英文，学了20，30年的人啊。而且以前学校里每年要考英语，工作后评职称还要考英语，移民考英语。

强烈要求搂主推荐一下八卦、聊天的本地网站。

本地人

强烈要求搂主推荐一下八卦、聊天的本地网站。

Unfortunately I don't really know that many.  You might find http://www.boingboing.net interesting.  It's a self-proclaimed "directory of wonderful things"

lycans

原帖由 wx_wxr 于 2011-7-16 19:27 发表
我们这些从小学开始学英文，学了20，30年的人啊。而且以前学校里每年要考英语，工作后评职称还要考英语，移民考英语。

强烈要求搂主推荐一下八卦、聊天的本地网站。

我们从小学英文， 没错， 但我们同时还要学数学，语文， 历史， 生物，物理，化学等等。时间精力很分散的说。
楼主专门去中国学了几年中文了， 有这样的水平其实很正常啦。
我们震惊， 是因为原来我们对鬼佬的设定标准太低了，觉得鬼佬会中文就是件很了不起的事。 不过大家试想这位楼主的中文水平真的比我们自己的英文水平高吗？他的中文能力是否能达到和中国大学生同堂上课程度。我们有这么多人在澳洲的念书， 而且大多数都念得很好，对于这些同学， 我们表示震惊了没有？ 鬼佬表示震惊了没有。 为啥我们偏偏要对会些中文的鬼佬表示震惊？难道大家都认为鬼佬的iq很低， 突然出现个和我们差不多的， 就震惊了？？？
对楼主， 适当表扬一下就好， 太过就是和阿谀奉承没啥两样了。

lycans

原帖由 本地人 于 2011-7-15 21:24 发表
Absolutely.  That's certainly how I've learnt many things.  Although I guess it also depends on whether or not people change their opinions after realising they were wrong.  Some people don't do that  ...

You article has given us some nice tips on learning a foreign language and I think they indeed are quite practical to follow. Many Chinese people are good at reading but come short in terms of writing and speaking. Actively participating into online discussions with native speakers is an excellent way to improve our writing skills, and it may even change our ways of thinking. Just like you said, we can learn all sorts of vocabulary, such as salngs, idioms, acronyms and etc., which are often absent from our textbooks but commonly used our daily life.
Anyways, thanks a lot for sharing your thoughts with us.

wx_wxr

好歹这个老外是有自己的专业方向的，不是学中文文学的。很惭愧，表扬他是因为我的英文没有达到他那样的水平。对语言的应用能力没有那么灵活。我是在做对比。大家年龄差不多，他是专业人士，我也是专业人士，我一直认为在专业上时间花得多了，语言差一点是可以原谅的，因为人的精力是有限的。但是看到同样是有专长的人，别人的第二外语学得很好。那就需要看看是否是学习方法上出了问题。

起码一个要自己开公司的人，在技术上要花费的时间不会少，不然出来的东西没人买。

lycans

原帖由 wx_wxr 于 2011-7-16 22:22 发表
好歹这个老外是有自己的专业方向的，不是学中文文学的。很惭愧，表扬他是因为我的英文没有达到他那样的水平。对语言的应用能力没有那么灵活。我是在做对比。大家年龄差不多，他是专业人士，我也是专业人士，我一直认为在专业上 ...

这里很多英文很好的人也是理科出身。 楼主曾经去中国专门学过中文， 如果你也有机会到这里的语言班进行一到两年的系统学习的话。 估计你的英文应用水平也不会低。 起码上网打几行字，写个cv是不成问题。
我不是说楼主不行。 但他做到的， 其实很多同学也都已经做到了，甚至超过楼主。 我觉得， 这里很多人对他的崇拜的根源， 不在于楼主真的学习能力很强， 而是因为他是鬼佬。

He is gifted and so are you。 呵呵。

本地人

但他做到的， 其实很多同学也都已经做到了，甚至超过楼主。

这一点我很同意。其实我并不觉得自己有语言天分，只是对学习外语感兴趣，在这方面也下过点功夫。是任何人都能做得到。还有，可能比那一年的语言培训更重要的是我在中国时经常跟中国人交流。那时，我朋友圈里面的人大部分都是中国人，我的语言水平是通过经常跟他们交流而培养起来的。你得给自己创造一个良好的语言环境，这样你的进步会很快。

dvd_y

原帖由 cindy1000 于 2011-7-12 13:20 发表
:si91 我都看不懂英文，是进来膜拜的

(paopaobing(68))  笑死了

wx_wxr

回复 lycans 116# 帖子
1.首先楼主从25岁开始学中文的，这个就打破了学好语言必须是从小开始的神话。至少我认为语言要地道，必须从小开始，小时候记忆力好，记的东西多。但是他那么大的年纪开始学，还学得不错。就给我们很大的鼓舞，学习语言，年龄不是问题。
2,多看，多读，多写，多说。当然能学好语言，如果你的人生一直在学习，学得很好，这个没有什么话说。但问题在于如何利用有限的精力，不花力气学好，或者说维持英语水平，才是我关注的东西。
3。我相信很多人跟我一样，都是羊头上碰碰，狗头上挠挠的，包括兴趣爱好都不会强到要去找个专业的英文网站去答疑 ，即便是工作上的专业问题都只会高兴起来答两句。每天去路透看看新闻，听听英语广播，虽说只要半小时，但要坚持下来也很难。但是要每天上足迹泡半个小时，看看东家长，西家短，那我乐意的，也坚持得下来。所以找个像足迹一样的本地网站逛逛是一个很好的办法。
4。就这样表扬一个老外既谈不上献媚，也谈不上是因为他是老外，而在于他写的东西让人觉得有中国的痞味。你的英文写得很好，但是我的英文水平还不够，所以不能读出其中言语中的乐趣。
5。如果楼主的英文能写出，类似cindy 1000这样的话来，我也膜拜你。
原帖由 cindy1000 于 2011-7-12 13:20 发表
我都看不懂英文，是进来膜拜的
6。论坛中就是有很多这样善意逗趣，才变得有意思。

乘物以游心

二话不说,强贴留名!