Studying Mandarin Chinese

[ChimpGrip]

Since I have been on my journey of becoming a polyglot and a worldly man who has great knowledge of hundreds of cultures and languages, I have come to find Chinese to be quite interesting. Not just the language, but everything that makes up the culture. It’s history, feats of engineering, and the discipline of their academics. Up to this point, i have (and continue to) study German (standard German along with the Bavarian dialect version), Icelandic, And was going to dive into Greenlandic culture and the Afrikaans language. After a brief conversation with my accounting professor, I have an interest in learning Mandarin Chinese (Cantonese and the other major three will come later!).

 

has anyone here ever studied Mandarin? I already find it quite a bit more intimidating  than Icelandic.

[Belly Bob]

1 hour ago, ChimpGrip said:

Since I have been on my journey of becoming a polyglot and a worldly man who has great knowledge of hundreds of cultures and languages, I have come to find Chinese to be quite interesting. Not just the language, but everything that makes up the culture. It’s history, feats of engineering, and the discipline of their academics. Up to this point, i have (and continue to) study German (standard German along with the Bavarian dialect version), Icelandic, And was going to dive into Greenlandic culture and the Afrikaans language. After a brief conversation with my accounting professor, I have an interest in learning Mandarin Chinese (Cantonese and the other major three will come later!).

 

has anyone here ever studied Mandarin? I already find it quite a bit more intimidating  than Icelandic.

I doubt that anyone but those who have very rare talent for languages can learn to speak it well from studying it in school alone. 

I dated a Chinese-American girl when I was younger, and I remember getting drunk with her mom and her mom trying to teach me some Mandarin. It went something like this...

Her: Say, "ma'ah"

Me: "ma'ah"

"No. "ma'ah"'

"ma'ah"

"No. Listen:"ma'ah""

"ma'ah"

"No, no. Listen: it's "ma'ah.""

"ma'ah"

"No."

"FUCK!!!"

As you know, it's not like English where you can butcher the pronunciation and still be understood. In Mandarin, to mispronounce a word even a little bit is often to speak a different word entirely. 

[noonereal]

6 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

has anyone here ever studied Mandarin?

I went to the school board about 10 years ago and asked that Mandarin be taught so my kid could take a useful language.

They thought I had two heads and felt Spanish was useful.

Morons. 

Meantime my school taxes are over $1,000 a month.

 You just can't make this stuff up. 

[Horsefly]

1 hour ago, noonereal said:

I went to the school board about 10 years ago and asked that Mandarin be taught so my kid could take a useful language.

They thought I had two heads and felt Spanish was useful.

Morons. 

Meantime my school taxes are over $1,000 a month.

 You just can't make this stuff up. 

😳😳

[DarterBlue]

9 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

has anyone here ever studied Mandarin? I already find it quite a bit more intimidating  than Icelandic.

One of my sons has lived and worked in China for the past 2.5 years. He speaks and reads the language well enough to work as both a translator and a teacher of English at a local high school. He is married to a Chinese national, so it is possible he may make China his permanent home. 

[NicholasMalibu]

9 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

Since I have been on my journey of becoming a polyglot and a worldly man who has great knowledge of hundreds of cultures and languages, I have come to find Chinese to be quite interesting. Not just the language, but everything that makes up the culture. It’s history, feats of engineering, and the discipline of their academics. Up to this point, i have (and continue to) study German (standard German along with the Bavarian dialect version), Icelandic, And was going to dive into Greenlandic culture and the Afrikaans language. After a brief conversation with my accounting professor, I have an interest in learning Mandarin Chinese (Cantonese and the other major three will come later!).

 

has anyone here ever studied Mandarin? I already find it quite a bit more intimidating  than Icelandic.

I’ve dabbled in Arabic and Amharic(Ethiopian). Mandarin is very interesting to me as well. If you figure out the best route to learn, other than full immersion, please share. 

[ChimpGrip]

9 hours ago, Belly Bob said:

I doubt that anyone but those who have very rare talent for languages can learn to speak it well from studying it in school alone. 

I dated a Chinese-American girl when I was younger, and I remember getting drunk with her mom and her mom trying to teach me some Mandarin. It went something like this...

Her: Say, "ma'ah"

Me: "ma'ah"

"No. "ma'ah"'

"ma'ah"

"No. Listen:"ma'ah""

"ma'ah"

"No, no. Listen: it's "ma'ah.""

"ma'ah"

"No."

"FUCK!!!"

As you know, it's not like English where you can butcher the pronunciation and still be understood. In Mandarin, to mispronounce a word even a little bit is often to speak a different word entirely. 

I study languages just for fun, as a hobby. I’m actually an accounting major. 

 

Lol! I can see how that went haha. And you are right, you have to be careful with pronounciation otherwise you could really embarrass yourself. I have already found it to be rather hard.

[ChimpGrip]

4 hours ago, noonereal said:

I went to the school board about 10 years ago and asked that Mandarin be taught so my kid could take a useful language.

They thought I had two heads and felt Spanish was useful.

Morons. 

Meantime my school taxes are over $1,000 a month.

 You just can't make this stuff up. 

Mandarin should be taught. Nothing against Spanish, but Chinese is far more interesting. Same with the culture. As is German and many others. 

But yes Mandarin is widely spoken, and kids who are ambitious enough to take it should have that opportunity, instead of being stuck with plain ol’ Spanish or French.

[ChimpGrip]

1 hour ago, DarterBlue said:

One of my sons has lived and worked in China for the past 2.5 years. He speaks and reads the language well enough to work as both a translator and a teacher of English at a local high school. He is married to a Chinese national, so it is possible he may make China his permanent home. 

Wow that is really cool. I talked to my teacher last night about studying in China for a semester (he actually brought it up too). Immersion and a desire to learn is the best way to go.

[ChimpGrip]

1 hour ago, NicholasMalibu said:

I’ve dabbled in Arabic and Amharic(Ethiopian). Mandarin is very interesting to me as well. If you figure out the best route to learn, other than full immersion, please share. 

Wow Amharic. I’ll have to read into that one. What made you want to learn that? 

And yes if I figure out a “method” that works, I will report back to this thread and share it with you. 

[DarterBlue]

2 minutes ago, ChimpGrip said:

Wow that is really cool. I talked to my teacher last night about studying in China for a semester (he actually brought it up too). Immersion and a desire to learn is the best way to go.

If you are really interested in learning Mandarin, spending four to six months in China, especially if you stay with a Chinese family, would be very helpful. 

[ChimpGrip]

4 minutes ago, DarterBlue said:

If you are really interested in learning Mandarin, spending four to six months in China, especially if you stay with a Chinese family, would be very helpful. 

Oh yes no doubt. I thought about it for Germany too, but I was never presented an informal or formal opportunity to do so. 

OT for this thread, but do you work in the finance field?

[DarterBlue]

Just now, ChimpGrip said:

OT for this thread, but do you work in the finance field?

I used to. I retired in 2017. That is why I find time to post on this forum. 

[NicholasMalibu]

2 hours ago, ChimpGrip said:

Wow Amharic. I’ll have to read into that one. What made you want to learn that? 

And yes if I figure out a “method” that works, I will report back to this thread and share it with you. 

There’s a large Ethiopian community in Washington DC, where I’m from. I always noticed how hard working they were without the need for flash. The initial wave of immigrants started working in the taxi and gas station industries and now they own the majority of those businesses in the region. The food is also great if you don’t get too far into the extreme tribal stuff. The women(east Africa in general) are easily the most attractive from the continent. All that kind of pushed me to learn a few conversational phrases and then I took off with it. I’ll be completely honest, the attention I get when people see a white guy blasting off Amharic is pretty cool too. 

[Horsefly]

8 minutes ago, NicholasMalibu said:

There’s a large Ethiopian community in Washington DC, where I’m from. I always noticed how hard working they were without the need for flash. The initial wave of immigrants started working in the taxi and gas station industries and now they own the majority of those businesses in the region. The food is also great if you don’t get too far into the extreme tribal stuff. The women(east Africa in general) are easily the most attractive from the continent. All that kind of pushed me to learn a few conversational phrases and then I took off with it. I’ll be completely honest, the attention I get when people see a white guy blasting off Amharic is pretty cool too. 

I use to like an Ethiopian woman in college, prettiest girl I've laid my eyes on.  For some odd reason though we were playing some cat n mouse game with each other, never got a chance to really date.  

[ChimpGrip]

On 4/19/2018 at 9:45 AM, DarterBlue said:

I used to. I retired in 2017. That is why I find time to post on this forum. 

What do you think about the vanguard VOO etf’s? I’m a beginner investor and I want to have a quality diverse portfolio one day. 

Did you or anyone you know sit for the CFA exam?

[ChimpGrip]

On 4/19/2018 at 11:49 AM, NicholasMalibu said:

There’s a large Ethiopian community in Washington DC, where I’m from. I always noticed how hard working they were without the need for flash. The initial wave of immigrants started working in the taxi and gas station industries and now they own the majority of those businesses in the region. The food is also great if you don’t get too far into the extreme tribal stuff. The women(east Africa in general) are easily the most attractive from the continent. All that kind of pushed me to learn a few conversational phrases and then I took off with it. I’ll be completely honest, the attention I get when people see a white guy blasting off Amharic is pretty cool too. 

That is too cool. I’ll have to add that language to my list of ones to learn. 

[DarterBlue]

1 hour ago, ChimpGrip said:

What do you think about the vanguard VOO etf’s? I’m a beginner investor and I want to have a quality diverse portfolio one day. 

Did you or anyone you know sit for the CFA exam?

In general, I like all Vanguard funds. The company keeps its costs down. Jack Bogle set the tone, and though he is retired, the company still stands for what he did. The VOO is an S&P 500 ETF. In general, all of the S&P 500 ETF's very closely track the S&P 500 index. I have not taken an in depth look at the VOO, but would be surprised if did not pretty much mirror the S&P.

I never sat for the CFA exam. A number of my friends/classmates did. But I would imagine the exam has changed a lot since the 1980s. Back then, if you worked for an investment bank it was a requirement. I assume it probably still is.

[DarterBlue]

1 hour ago, ChimpGrip said:

What do you think about the vanguard VOO etf

I just overlaid the S&P 500 (SPX) on a chart of the VOO. There percentage performance is literally the same. Thus you can conclude that even after fees, this ETF pretty much delivers the S&P's rate of return. Pretty impressive.   

[ChimpGrip]

1 hour ago, DarterBlue said:

In general, I like all Vanguard funds. The company keeps its costs down. Jack Bogle set the tone, and though he is retired, the company still stands for what he did. The VOO is an S&P 500 ETF. In general, all of the S&P 500 ETF's very closely track the S&P 500 index. I have not taken an in depth look at the VOO, but would be surprised if did not pretty much mirror the S&P.

I never sat for the CFA exam. A number of my friends/classmates did. But I would imagine the exam has changed a lot since the 1980s. Back then, if you worked for an investment bank it was a requirement. I assume it probably still is.

Ah that’s good then. And I actually have Jack Bogle’s Book, good read so far but still in the early part. 

I bought into the VOO at the end of last month and it’s doing alright so far. How much of my spare savings should I dump into it? One friend of mine suggests putting all of it in, while the other says to dollar cost average. 

What is your opinion on buying stock in a company simply because they’re a good company and or you’re a fan of them?

My portfolio right now consists only of: VOO, and shares of stock in Exxon, Disney, General Mills, And General Electric.