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Re:Help me with Romanian
hello
my name is aniela and i'm from romania. i can help you with some romanian if you want. unfortunatelly i'm not a gold member so if you can contact me i'd be glad to help.
take care
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Language pair: English; All
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Lea
February 25, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:How to say how are you in Mandarin
In Mandarin, to say hello, it's "ni2 hao3", which literally means, "you good!" When you want to make a statement into a question in Mandarin, you add a question word at the end, "ma"
So in Mandarin, when you say, "ni2 hao3 ma," it means, "you good?" And that's how they say "How are you?"
I don't know how much Mandarin you already know, but you may be wondering how one pronounces a 2 or a 3 in Mandarin. The thing is, Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that the tone of voice you use when you speak affects the meaning of what you say. This is really important to get familiar with, becuase if you don't use the right tones, your friends will be very confused when you want to say, "I want to go to bed" and you end up saying, "I would like some dumplings" instead.
So here's what the tones mean:
Second tone (2) is the tone of voice we use when we're asking a question. In Mandarin, it's called a rising tone, but in English, the tone of voice we use when we're asking a question: "what?" "Who?" We always ask our questions with a rising tone of voice, and that's what the second tone in Mandarin sounds like. So when you say, "Ni2 hao3 ma," Make sure that the Ni2 sounds like you're asking a question "Ni?"
Third tone is the tone of voice you use when you're thinking really hard about something you don't want to do, and you're about to be convinced against your better judgement, your voice goes down really low, and it goes down even a bit lower and then back up to where it started: (weeeellllll......I know I'm going to regret this, but o.k...) Notice that the "ma" has no tone. It's neutral, so you just toss it out there real quick like any small unimpoartant word in a sentence, like "the" and "of" in "The United States of America" The important words are United States America (the words that show up when we abbreviate, USA, and the other words we shoot past really fast because their not important. That's what neutral tone sounds like, just quick spit it out and move on. So, again, How are you, in Mandarin: "Ni? Haaooooo.... ma."
"Zhu ni hao!" (Good wishes to you!)
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: English; Chinese, Mandarin
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Mark S.
February 25, 2005
# Msgs: 7
Latest: April 5, 2005
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Re:Help Wanted
Hi, I'm French and me I want to learn English. I live in Paris. If you want you can send me a message in french and I answer in english. I will tell you your mistakes and why and you will do the same for me. What do you think about this?
Take care
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Language pair: English; French
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chanaelle
February 23, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Amalia C.
February 22, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: February 22, 2005
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yiorgos
February 22, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 25, 2005
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Re:Corrección de un texto sobre la EZLN
¡Cielos!
Srta Leela, ¿puedo cartearme con usted? No soy hablante nativo, pero escribo español bastante bien, en nivel intermedio o tal vez empezando a escribir como adelantado, de vez en cuando.
Hace poco, leí a su artículo sobre el EZLN en Mexico, y me impresionó mucho. Tiene el vocabulario tan sofisticada, el voz muy profesional. Por supuesto, puede tener errores que no notaría--Pensé que estaba equivocado usar inclusive, que pensía que debe ser inclusivo, pero el diccionario me mostró incorrecto.
También, lo vi en su articulo una palabra nueva, que no he visto antes--desmentar, "to deny".
Por eso, creo que puedo aprender mucho de usted. Ojalá que tal vez puedo también puedo ayudarle en algo manera. Y también, como usted, me encanta estudiar lenguas, y lo sé hablar las básicas de alemán, francés, español, y inglés (que es mi lengua nativa).
A proposito: Lo sí vi una cosa muy pequeña: Un error mecanografío: Hay que agregar un "o" en la palabra "rganizaciones" cuando escribó, "Llama la atención de rganizaciones internationales"
Gracias por ese artículo tan informativo, interesante, y educativo. Ojalá que hablaremos otra vez.
Con recuerdos,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 21, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: February 27, 2005
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Re:translate Zeugenschaft
Gute frage!
Es ist "Testimony" auf Englisch.
Auf Wiedersehen,
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA
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Language pair: German; English
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Mark S.
February 20, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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can someone help me..
i love korean hip-hop and i really need help quick so i can translate some info dealing with taebin my favorite korea singer.
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Language pair: English; Korean
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Phylicia
February 19, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Where to begin
In my message 44785 in reply to Adam's question about reading materials, I talked some about my own experience, and how I worked up from reading very basic stuff to reading Medieval Spanish poetry in just a couple of years.
What I keep running into over and over again as a graduate student in a discipline where language is a fundamental part of our work, is that teaching grammar rules and doing drilling exercises, according to the research and literature, isn't particularly helpful for developing language skills (certainly not in English). On the other hand, my thinking and my experience, both as a student and as a teacher suggest that paying attention to grammar rules and being aware of how they work can and does help move the learning process along.
The point of all of this is, I learn the rules, and then I throw the book away. The bulk of my work is just picking stuff up and reading it, and looking up only those words I have to look up in order to understand what I'm reading. I read books voraciously. I watch movies and listen to radio, and I do all of this in Spanish as much as I can. My brain will take it all in over time if I give it the chance.
I don't know if that makes any difference or not. Anyway, let me know more about your confusion if you'd like any suggestions.
Have fun!
Mark
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 18, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 18, 2005
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Joo P.
February 17, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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