hi all!! a introduction of yours truly " WAN PAK HIN"

[wan pak hin]

ok where to begin, well i am a british chinese living here in tokyo, more precisly motoazabu, came here on 16th of june this year with my father as he had to do some business and on 18th birthday this saturday, the little house i am living in is all mine!, hmm.. when i say i am chinese to people here in tokyo, they automatically think i am MANDARIN but nope my family is from HONG KONG, so i speak CANTONESE and HAKKA, and of course i speak ENGLISH, and JAPANESE and currently learning KOREAN and MANDARIN hmm... maybe i am possibly the only cantonese speaking chinese person here in japan as in china town in yokohama, all chinese their are from mainland china, now study i am going to be studying from 30th september at WASEDA UNI... and i am going to be studying ASIAN ECONOMICS, and JAPANESE LANGUAGE! now moveing swiftly on music i like at moment have to be most of the artists on AVEX, TOSHIBA EMI, SM TOWN and SONY MUSIC HONG KONG. Ahhh i may be only chinese teenager who does tai chi every now and again! Now relationship wise, i do have a really cool and pretty (in my eye's) japanese girlfreind she even has a cool name "KAORI", that is well.. not so much a brief introduction but my little autobiography next time i will go on writing about my life history lol

 

[jeisan]

hiya wan pak hin and welcome, have fun on the forum and good luck with your languages, i wish i knew all of those you mentioned.

 

[wan pak hin]

thanks for the welcome

ahh.. languages are my strong points, as my mother and father are very strict people their little saying is "more languages you know the better jobs you get in later life" and i guess it is true to extent and thanks for the luck!! i will certainly need it, as... at the moment i get confused with meanings of kanji, and cantonese so i look at signs and posters etc.. with kanji on them and i laugh thinking "how stupid" but i confuse meanings with cantonese clumsy me

P.S anybody can learn any language! i give you hint of easiest asian language to learn!! KOREAN!!!!

 

[Erik]

What is Hakka?

 

[jeisan]

i was actually learning vietnamese for abit from my girlfriend. i actually heard that about korean but i think id rather take a hard one before i go after something easy.

 

[teardrop]

Hiya wan pak hin! Wow, u are sure multilingual !!!
I'm a chinese singaporean and understand a little cantonese. I'm actually of Hakka descent but i speak no Hakka and understand none of it. Well, Erik, i guess i'll be able to answer that question for wan pak hin. Hakka is actually a dialect group for the chinese. Something like in Japan, where u have people from the Kansai and people from Kanto region who speak slightly differently. Hmm... hope i'm making sense... and am not confusing u further...

 

[Erik]

Originally posted by teardrop
Hiya wan pak hin! Wow, u are sure multilingual !!!
I'm a chinese singaporean and understand a little cantonese. I'm actually of Hakka descent but i speak no Hakka and understand none of it. Well, Erik, i guess i'll be able to answer that question for wan pak hin. Hakka is actually a dialect group for the chinese. Something like in Japan, where u have people from the Kansai and people from Kanto region who speak slightly differently. Hmm... hope i'm making sense... and am not confusing u further...

I understand. Thanks.

 

[wan pak hin]

ahhhh... ok i will explain into more detail!

and wow jeisan vietmanese wow!! cool!!, well... teardrop as you are chinese singaporean you will know what i am about to say and erik should understand also, in southern china..... their is a few chinese dialects spoken which are. cantonese (the most used dialect in south china), hakka (hakka is mainly used in certain provinces and used in taiwan) and hokkien is also used in south china but is mainly used by elder people! and in mainland china, the majority of people speak mandarin and min nan chinese, and as teardrop said they are basically based on same language but with slightly different pronounciations like kansai ben!, chinese equivalent to that is the way people speak in shanghai, people like me who's roots are from south china have difficulty hearing what they say as they kinda speak to quick! well i hope that helped you erik and anybody else intrested in chinese language and dialects!

 

[Rachel]

Welcome

Wecome,
There are some good people here. I hope your one of them too.
Huggy love, Rachel

 

[wan pak hin]

ahh ok rachel!!! i will try my utmost best!

ok rachel i always try to keep a nice personality! as if you act like a jerk in life you will not have any freinds and have a horrible life! so i will do my utmost best to be one of the "good people" ok! and ohh.. you are from england, when i lived in england i lived in place called HOLLAND PARK AVENUE but now i live here in motoazabu but missing england a bit! by the way is heatwave still present in england?

 

[Ami]

Hi wan pak hin! Welcome and Nice to meet you! WOW ~~~ O.O Your learning Korean. I always wanted to learn that language. So is the Korean language any similiar to the Japanese language?

 

[wan pak hin]

hi ami! well.... not really korean is a slightly strange language really as i am chinese it is hard for me to explain, well korean (HANGUL) is probably easiest asian language and as i cannot explain exact difference here is a website which got me into learning korean!! you can even take test online!!

http://www.interedu.go.kr/indexe.html

registration to this online korean learning is FREE!! so if you are intrested in korean language in anyway i advise you to sign upto it and start many fun interactive hours learning korean! also when you are registared you will read about background of the korean language!! even i learnt something!! before koreans had their own language they used chinese!! well hope it helped all the korean learners out their!! and i hope it helps you ami!

 

[jeisan]

korean is easier than other asian languages becuase its not tonal, meaning that how you say a word doesnt affect its meaning. for example in chinese, "mﾃ?i" = "to sell" while "mi" = "to buy" it all depends on how its said. japanese isnt tonal either but i think the number of homophones makes it more difficult.

 

[wan pak hin]

wow! jeisan spot on!! and wow you know some chinese!!, yeah indeed you are spot on, when i speak in cantonese i have to emphasize certain words, and shout them out, or even depending on word i have to change pitch of my voice to make it go into little boys voice but when i do that my voice hurts next day so me not change pitch to much keep to high, normal, and low, and try to avoid super high hehe... and thanks jeisan for giving detailed explination about korean! i appreciate it!

 

[Iron Chef]

Greetings and welcome.

 

[wan pak hin]

thanks iron chef, and by the way cool toyota logo!

 

[Iron Chef]

Thnx

 

[alvin]

Hi there,
I am also a Chinese but born and bred in Malaysia!!!. As a Malaysian Chinese we too are often multilingual as there quite a number of dialects spoken in addition to the national language. Hence, I speak English, Malay, Cantonese, Hokkienand of course a little bit of Japanese - still in the learning stage.
It is good to be able to speak a few different languages!!!

 

[alvin]

Hi there,
I am also a Chinese but born and bred in Malaysia!!!. As a Malaysian Chinese we too are often multilingual as there quite a number of dialects spoken in addition to the national language. Hence, I speak English, Malay, Cantonese, Hokkienand of course a little bit of Japanese - still in the learning stage.
It is good to be able to speak a few different languages!!!

 

[alvin]

Hi there,
I am also a Chinese but born and bred in Malaysia!!!. As a Malaysian Chinese we too are often multilingual as there quite a number of dialects spoken in addition to the national language. Hence, I speak English, Malay, Cantonese, Hokkienand of course a little bit of Japanese - still in the learning stage.
It is good to be able to speak a few different languages!!!

 

[wan pak hin]

cool alvin!

hmm.. malaysian chinese! cool!!, hmm.. you indeed speak many languages like me!, but i wonder if you can write in cantonese (traditional chinese) because most chines in singapore, malaysia, and other south eastern asian countries write in mandarin (simplified chinese) which can you write alvin as i am pretty intrestead to know??, and hmm.. is the malaysian national language based on chinese chracters?? or western characters like vietminese alvin?? well.. cool hokkien chinese!! not even i can speak that! to tough for me to pronounce for me! and no one in my family speaks it!

 

[alvin]

Hello,
To answer your question, I do not know how to write in Chinese characters actually. All I know is to communicate in those dialects. Not all Malaysian Chinese know how to write in Chinese characters as most of us make use of the language for communication. Malay writing is based on the English alphabets. It actually has its origins from Arabic characters. Being Malaysians it is very difficult for the language to retain its Arabic character usage as we are a multiracial society. Therefore, it has also been made easier by following the alphabets so as everybody can make use of the language nationally when communicating between different races.

Hope that answers your question!!

 

[wan pak hin]

ahh.. ok alvin!! indeed it answers my question!, WOW!! malay has origin of arabic characters wow!, and indeed malaysia, singapore, and thailand aswell have many cultured people living in their countries! even my familys home in HK has many different people from different nations aswell!!, although they live in the city of HK and not the little suburban areas, hmm.. malay seems like an intresting language alvin!! and yet you speak cantonese, hokkien etc.. and yet you write in malay!! surely it is confusing i think!

 

[alvin]

....Yes!!! It can get confusing at times especially at the beginning when I first learned those languages. At home we speak English and Cantonese and when I started schooling I started learning Malay and even hokkien. That is mainly because the students in school tend to speak more hokkien than cantonese.
I had difficulty when I first went to school.....didn't want to go to school mainly because couldn't get people to speak Cantonese. I guess with time I got adapted and started picking up the language. I find that the mainthing with all these languages is that you have to be confident in speaking and never feel shy to speak up especially at the beginning in order to be 'comfortable' using them. How about you--did you have any problems trying to speak or even communicate in various languages at home or with friends?

 

[keithd]

hello wan pak hinﾂ｣ﾂｬI am from mandarin,Dalianﾂ｡ﾂｭﾂ｡ﾂｭ
I am a newer too,welcome^_^