From now on, I'm going to go all Chinese all the time (and English when at work ) - so I guess that means I'll be stop frequenting these boards. I'm just about at the stage where I can understand a fair chunk of what's going being said or written, and that's enough to fully take the plunge. Actually, I find that I spend quite a bit too much time on here when I could otherwise usefully be studying, so it's a way of stopping procrastinating! It's so much easier talking about language than actually learning it...

In any case, whether anyone cares what I think or not, I'd just like to say what a great crowd there is here - I've learnt and lot about languages and the best ways in which to acquire them, and I really appreciate the time that everyone puts in to share useful resources and help out.

So, without further ado - 再見, さようなら and がんばって! I wish you all success!

chinese eh? Are you learning mandarin or Cantonese? Because Chinese is a race, not a language. For some reason a lot of people make that common mistake. There are a lot of dialects within china, so they all have separate names and such. But none the less, I wish you good luck!

I'm planning on learning mandarin after Japanese. (All the knowledge of kanji will come in handy when going into mandarin)

ta12121 Wrote:chinese eh? Are you learning mandarin or Cantonese? Because Chinese is a race, not a language. For some reason a lot of people make that common mistake. There are a lot of dialects within china, so they all have separate names and such. But none the less, I wish you good luck!

I'm planning on learning mandarin after Japanese. (All the knowledge of kanji will come in handy when going into mandarin)

Actually, Chinese referring to Mandarin isn't incorrect. Chinese refers to the official language of China: Mandarin.

Thanks very much! I'm learning Cantonese mostly, but I'm not avoiding Mandarin. In any case, they're linked, and there's just so much good TV, films and music in both that I wouldn't want to preclude one or the other.

Kanji knowledge is handy too for Chinese in general, although some characters have slightly different meanings. Some have the same or similar readings as Japanese as well, so it's way easier than starting from scratch good luck!

@tobberoth
That does make sense. The national language in china is mandarin, but it isn't correct to say either way in certain situations.

@donjorge22
Yea np! I was always interested in cantonese in the beginning, but after a while i gave up because i didn't feel like i would get anywhere. Then it went to japanese. Which i took a level one course and i found it ineffective in certain ways. I didn't feel i would reach any high levels anytime soon with that method. Then i found AJATT site, and this site,which changed my mind completely on languages such a japanese and mandarin,Cantonese,etc. They can all be learned to a high level. I'm pretty happy so far with my japanese reading+understanding. All those kanji seemed so hard to achieve but so far it's been smooth sailing nowadays.