Chinese Teacher

[Aaronxue]

I am Aaron . Here who want to study Chinese .Plz email me by [email protected]

[kenkannif]

What languages can you speak other than Chinese (and I didn't actually think there was a Chinese language per se? Rather different dialects?)?

[Aaronxue]

English and Thai.

[kenkannif]

Which is best for you English or Thai and which Chinese dialect can you speak? And also what are your quals to be able to teach?

[ZOVOX]

I think he doesn't know any chinese dialects at all, but wants to learn. If you want to learn a Chinese dialect, there are only two worth learning and that's Mandarin and Cantonese. Cantonese, only because they speak it in Hong Kong, but most Hong Kong Chinese speak Mandarin now, so you should learn Mandarin. As for a teacher, i recall someone advertising Mandarin lessons in the Bangkok post a while ago - not sure if he's still doing it.

[kenkannif]

^ God I'm like so stupid sometimes....thanks mate it's all become clear now....sorry OP my mistake and then some.

[ZOVOX]

^ God I'm like so stupid sometimes....thanks mate it's all become clear now....sorry OP my mistake and then some.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Maybe you are not so stupid, because i've just noticed the guy's e-mail address - sounds very chinese to me ! Maybe the OPs english is not to good, and wishes to clarify whether he is a teacher or a student looking for a teacher.

[kenkannif]

Well I've got someone that can teach the OP Chinese if that is the case, so I'll PM to see and post accordingly once I know.

[kenkannif]

Okay I'm not totally thick (well!), the OP does indeed wish to teach Chinese.

So my questions stand, what quals do you have to teach Chinese?

[Aaronxue]

I need go to class right now . reply later

[Wei]

If you want to learn a Chinese dialect, there are only two worth learning and that's Mandarin and Cantonese.

hahahah....mandarin is NEVER a dialect. its a language...... it has been around for a few thousand years...

[meemiathai]

Can someone explain to me what the difference is between language and dialect?

[kenkannif]

I can't but I have a friend that can called Mr. Dictionary (sorry it's a bit messy):

Dialect:

A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English.

A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek.

The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon: the dialect of science.

The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.

A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance dialects.

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[French dialecte, from Old French, from Latin dialectus, form of speech, from Greek dialektos, speech, from dialegesthai, to discourse, use a dialect : dia-, between, over; see dia- + legesthai, middle voice of legein, to speak; see leg- in Indo-European Roots.]

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dia·lectal adj.

dia·lectal·ly adv.

Synonyms: dialect, vernacular, jargon, cant, 2argot, lingo, patois

These nouns denote forms of language that vary from the standard. Dialect usually applies to the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation characteristic of specific geographic localities or social classes. The vernacular is the informal everyday language spoken by a people. Jargon is specialized language understood only by a particular group, as one sharing an occupation or interest. Cant now usually refers to the specialized vocabulary of a group or trade and is often marked by the use of stock phrases. Argot applies especially to the language of the underworld. Lingo is often applied to language that is unfamiliar or difficult to understand. Patois is sometimes used as a synonym for jargon or cant, but it can also refer to a regional dialect that has no literary tradition.

dialect

n : the usage or vocabulary that is characteristic of a specific group of people; "the immigrants spoke an odd dialect of English"; "he has a strong German accent" [syn: idiom, accent]

Language:

Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.

Such a system including its rules for combining its components, such as words.

Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect.

A system of signs, symbols, gestures, or rules used in communicating: the language of algebra.

Computer Science. A system of symbols and rules used for communication with or between computers.

Body language; kinesics.

The special vocabulary and usages of a scientific, professional, or other group: “his total mastery of screen languagecamera placement, editingand his handling of actors” (Jack Kroll).

A characteristic style of speech or writing: Shakespearean language.

A particular manner of expression: profane language; persuasive language.

The manner or means of communication between living creatures other than humans: the language of dolphins.

Verbal communication as a subject of study.

The wording of a legal document or statute as distinct from the spirit.

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[Middle English, from Old French langage, from langue, tongue, language, from Latin lingua. See dgh- in Indo-European Roots.]

language

n 1: a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written" [syn: linguistic communication] 2: (language) communication by word of mouth; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets" [syn: speech, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, voice communication, oral communication] 3: a system of words used in a particular discipline; "legal terminology"; "the language of sociology" [syn: terminology, nomenclature] 4: the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding linguistic communication; "he didn't have the language to express his feelings" [syn: linguistic process] 5: the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; "language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals" [syn: speech] 6: the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number; "his compositions always started with the lyrics"; "he wrote both words and music"; "the song uses colloquial language" [syn: lyric, words]

[meemiathai]

I'm afraid it's too difficult for me to apprehend.

[kenkannif]

Nicked from the 'net:

A dialect is usually spoken by people who live in a certain region of a country. Those people speak their mother tongue in their own individual way. For example, many Scottish people have a dialect.

An accent usually describes the way people pronounce words of a language that is different from their mother tongue. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger speaks English with an Austrian accent

And:

There are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference.

Language varieties are often called dialects rather than languages

solely because they are not (or not recognized as) literary languages,

because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own,

or because their language lacks prestige.

Anthropological linguists define dialect as the specific form of a language used by a speech community. In other words, the difference between language and dialect is the difference between the abstract or general and the concrete and particular. From this perspective, no one speaks a "language," everyone speaks a dialect of a language. Those who identify a particular dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language are in fact using these terms to express a social distinction. Often, the standard language is close to the sociolect of the elite class.

In groups where prestige standards play less important roles, "dialect" may simply be used to refer to subtle regional variations in linguistic practices that are considered mutually intelligible, playing an important role to place strangers, carrying the message of wherefrom a stranger originates (which quarter or district in a town, which village in a rural setting, or which province of a country); thus there are many apparent "dialects" of Navajo and Apache, for example, geographically widespread North American indigenous languages, by which the linguist simply means that there are many subtle variations among speakers who largely understand each other and recognize that they are each speaking "the same way" in a general sense.

Modern day linguistics knows that the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development. Romansh came to be a written language, and therefore it is recognized as a language, even though it is very close to the Lombardic alpine dialects. An opposite example is the case of the Chinese language whose variations are often considered dialects and not languages despite their mutual unintelligibility because they share a common literary standard and common body of literature.

Political factors

Max Weinreich has provided this definition: "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy". However, this also leads to inconsistencies and controversies, as political frontiers do not neatly follow lines of linguistic usage or comprehensibility. Depending on political realities and ideologies, the classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent. English and Serbo-Croatian illustrate the point. English and Serbo-Croatian each have two major variants (British and American English, and Serbian and Croatian, respectively), along with numerous lesser varieties. For political reasons, analyzing these varieties as "languages" or "dialects" yields inconsistent results: British and American English, spoken by close political and military allies, are almost universally regarded as dialects of a single language, whereas the standard languages of Serbia and Croatia, which differ from each other to a similar extent as the dialects of English, are being treated by many linguists from the region as distinct languages, largely because the two countries oscillate from being brotherly to being bitter enemies. The Serbo-Croatian language article deals with this topic much more fully.

Parallel examples abound. Macedonian, although mutually intelligible with Bulgarian and often considered to be a Bulgarian dialect, is touted by Macedonian nationalists as a language in its own right. In Lebanon, the right-wing Guardians of the Cedars, a fiercely nationalistic (mainly Christian) political party which opposes the country's ties to the Arab world, is agitating for "Lebanese" to be recognized as a distinct language from Arabic and not merely a dialect, and has even advocated replacing the Arabic alphabet with a revival of the ancient Phoenician alphabet.

There have been cases of a variety of speech being deliberately altered to serve political purposes. In the nineteenth century, for example, Norwegian nationalists created Nynorsk from a number of selected dialects spoken in the west of the country, which had been less influenced than eastern dialects by Danish and Swedish during centuries of Danish and Swedish rule. Another example is Moldovan. No such language existed before 1945, and most non-Moldovan linguists remain sceptical about its classification. After the Soviet Union annexed the Romanian province of Bessarabia and renamed it Moldavia, Romanian, a Romance language, was transposed into the Cyrillic alphabet and numerous Slavic words were imported into the language, in an attempt to weaken any sense of shared national identity with Romania. After Moldavia won its independence in 1991 (and changed its name to Moldova), it reverted to a modified Latin alphabet as a rejection of the perceived political connotations of the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1996, however, the Moldovan parliament, citing fears of "Romanian expansionism," rejected a proposal from President Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language back to Romanian, and in 2003 a Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published, purporting to show that the two countries speak different languages. Linguists of the Romanian Academy reacted by declaring that all the Moldovan words were also Romanian words. Even in Moldova, the head of the Academy of Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Bărbuţă, described the dictionary as a politically motivated "absurdity".

The historical linguistics point of view

Many historical linguists view every speech form as a dialect of the older medium of communication from which it developed. This point of view sees the modern Romance languages as dialects of Latin, modern Greek as a dialect of ancient Greek, and Tok Pisin as a dialect of English. This paradigm is not entirely problem free. It sees genetic relationships as paramount; the "dialects" of a "language" (which itself may be a "dialect" of a yet older tongue) may or may not be mutually intelligible. Moreover, a parent language may spawn several "dialects" which themselves subdivide any number of times, with some "branches" of the tree changing more rapidly than others. This can give rise to the situation where two dialects (defined according to this paradigm) with a somewhat distant genetic relationship are mutually more readily comprehensible than more closely related dialects. This pattern is clearly present among the modern Romance tongues, with Italian and Spanish having a high degree of mutual comprehensibility, which neither language shares with French, despite both languages being genetically closer to French than to each other: French has undergone more rapid change than have Spanish and Italian.

[meemiathai]

Thanks for the explanation Ken. But it is still too abstract an issue for me to tell what is a language and what is a dialect.

And for this topic,

Cantonese is only mainly spoken in the Guangdong province of China whilst mandarin is an official language for China. But not all chinese can speak mandarin, most of them speak their own dialect. For example, in Shanghai they speak Shanghainese, and in HK they speak Cantonese.

[jingjingna]

I can't understand why the OP is having difficulty in distinguishing between language and dialect? Is it me or is he just pulling our leg?