British Received Pronunciation (RP) Lesson 2

A quick lesson number 2 would be on the vowels, especially A. in a British accent, it would normally be pronounced as “Aah” (as in Arm) instead of the American “Eh” (as in A, B, C)

The video in the previous lesson demonstrates this. Drag to the 3:50 minute of the video.

P.S. if this is in someway helpful, do drop me a comment.

British Received Pronunciation (RP) Lesson 1

Thought of writing something regarding accents. Am personally fascinated by the localisation of languages.  I’ve found the following video from youtube

First thing first,  you got to learn the British ‘O’.  To me, it’s the most fundamental step to learning the RP. You’ll listen to it in the video for the first few minutes, learn to pronounce just the same way as the speaker.

Pronouncing the letter O lets us focus on the position of the vocal apparatus. The sound seems to come from the front of the mouth, unlike an American O, which to me, is a bit to the centre.  So once you manage to pronounce the British O, maintain the same “shape” of your mouth and try speaking other words. It just might do the trick.

There are many other elements in learning an Accent. This is just the beginning. Hope you enjoyed the lesson.

Chinese Zodiac and the Cat

This was an old child story that my grandma used to tell me, it was about why is the cat not included in the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac.

Once when a emperor was to decide the final list of the 12 animals of the zodiac, he read his decree out and asked the all the animals to come.

The mouse and the cat used to be good friends. The cat was feeling sleepy on its journey with the mouse to see the  emperor, so it asked the mouse to wake him up when they start off on their journey again, after they had enough rest.

As the story goes, the mouse left the cat to nap, while itself ran fast to the emperor. Eventually, the mouse was the first to reach, while the cat didn’t manage to get there in time.

From that day onwards,  the cat always wanted revenge on the mouse and hunts it unceasingly

P.S. I don’t believe in the Chinese Zodiac, it’s just culture to me.

OK, it seems that this post is indeed getting the most attention from my blog. So i decided to expand it.

Apparently, in Vietnam, there is a Year of the Cat. It replaces the Year of the Rabbit.

Any Vietnamese friends care to share a bit?

Chinese Dialects Distribution

Found this piece of cool chart from wikipedia. (Under the creative commons license) Shows the distribution of the various Chinese Dialects in China, HK, Macau, and Taiwan. I think some might still disagree, e.g. should there be a difference between the wuhanese, szechuanese and some other dialects and the standard mandarin?

Sumimasen! Jap 6

I thought the lesson would continue on with shopping, but i was wrong. Instead, the lesson headed for numbers and time.

First, some small phrases/words that will help you along the way.

Dare to? [ da re to] : With Whom?
Suzuki San to: With Mr Suzuki
Watashi to: With me

Watashi to nani ka nomimasen ka?: Wouldn’t you have a drink with me?
Soretomo hirugohan o tabemasen ka? : Or, wouldn’t you have lunch?

Soretomo: Or, Or else. [In front of a sentance]

Nan ji ni?: At what time?
… ji ni: At … o’clock
ichi ji ni: At 1 o’clock
ni ji ni: At 2 o’clock
hachi ji ni: At 8 o’clock
ku ji ni: At 9 o’clock

hachi ji ka ku ji ni. At 8 or 9 o’clock.

Origins of “hello” and a story of a scientist

We’ve taken this word for granted. But little do we know that this word is linked to one of the great inventions of all times — the Telephone. (duh, that’s why it’s the first word we say everytime). This is an article taken from the Budapest Pocket Guide.

To start with let me ask you a couple of questions:- Do you use the telephone?
- Do you know how to say in Hungarian
- I hear you!?

The answer to the first question is almost certain to be „ yes ”.But what about the second question?I’ll tell you the answer right away it’s the word „hallom”. Yes this word without the letter „m” is the word we use every time we speak into a telephone receiver. How did this Hungarian word become part of the world’s vocabulary? For the answer we will need to take a brief look at the eventful life of
the Hungarian inventor Tivadar Puskás

He was born in Pest on September 17th 1844. His family was part of the Transylvanian nobility. Puskás studied law and later technical subjects. After living in England and working for the Warnin Railway Construction Company he returned to Hungary. In 1873 infected with the age’s passion for travel on the occasion of the World Exhibition in Vienna he founded the Puskás Travel Agency – only the fourth in the world and the first travel agency to be established in Eastern Europe.

After this he tried his fortune in America. In Colorado he opened up a mine and began to dig for gold. It was while he was in America that Puskás exposed the American inventor Keley as a fraud who with his so-called „energy machine” swindled crowds of qullible spectators. Puskás in addition to being an entrepreneur was an inventor of genius and was continually puzzling over technical problems. He was working on his idea for a telegraph exchange when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. This led him to take a fresh look at his work and he decided to get in touch with the great American inventor Thomas Edison.

Puskás now began to concentrate on perfecting his scheme to build a telephone exchange. According to Edison „Tivadar Puskás was the first person to suggest the idea of a telephone exchange” Puskás’s idea finally became a reality in 1877 in Boston. It was then that the word „ hallom „ which later became the word „hallo / hello” so familiar to us all was used for the first time in a telephone conversation when on hearing the voice of the person at the other end of the line an exultant Puskás shouted out in Hungarian „hallom” „I hear you.” In 1879 he set up a telephone exchange in Paris where he looked after Thomas Edison’s European affairs for the next four years. In Paris he was greatly helped by his younger brother Ferenc Puskás (1848–1884) who established the first telephone exchange in Pest.

In 1887 Tivadar Puskás introduced the multiplex switchboard which was a revolutionary step in the development of telephone exchanges. His next invention was the Telephone News Service he began in Pest which announced news and „broadcast” programmes and was in many ways the forerunner of the radio. According to a contemporary scientific journal at the most 50 people could listen to Edison’s telephone at the some time but if a 51st person was connected up none of the subscribers could hear anything. With Puskás’s apparatus by contrast half a milion people could clearly hear the programme coming from exchange.

In 1890 Puskás took out a patent for a procedure for carryng out controlled explosions which was the forerunner of modern techniques. He experimented with this procedure when he was working on regulating the Lower Danube.

Despite his many brilliant inventions including his telephone news service which was in use a full 30 years before the advent of radio. Tivadar Puskás did not achieve the enormous success that he might have. This was partly a result of his early death in 1893 before he had reached the age of fifty and partly a result of his character – he was an inventor who worked through inspiration and his flights of fancy did not suit the hard-headed men of business.

Like many other Hungarian scientists and inventors who came before and after him Tivadar Puskás’s name slipped into oblivion instead of receiving the fame and recognition that were his due.

Sumimasen! Jap 5

It’s been long since i last posted on Japanese. And i must tell you that the lesson i’ve learned is, do not stop learning. Once you stop learning/using something, you’ll tend to forget. It took me quite some time to recall back some of the things that i’ve learned. Anyway, here’s more on food:

Biru : Beer
Osake: Sake

Biru ga hoshi desu: I want [some] beer
Osake ga hoshi desu: I want [some] sake
Biru ga hoshiku arimasen: I don’t want beer
Hoshiku arimasen: I don’t want [anything]

Ka : or
Biru ka Osake: Beer or Sake?

hong: Bottle-counter.
Biru, ni hong: 2 bottles of beer.
Biru, ni hong, onegaishimasu: 2 bottles of beer, please.

Onegai: Favour
shimasu: to do

Hiroguhan: Lunch
Hiroguhan o tabemasu: Having Lunch, I’m eating lunch

Let’s now focus on an action, and ask questions regarding that action. Let’s take “to drink”

Nani o nomimasu ka? : What are you going to drink?
Nani ka nomimasu ka? : Are you going to drink something?
Nani ka nomimasen ka? : Won’t you drink something?
Itsu nomimasu ka? : When are you going to drink?
Doko de nomimasu ka? : Where are you going to drink?

A recap/summary of English words learned so far:
Hoteru: Hotel
Restoram: Restaurant
Biru: Beer

Let’s now start with a new word, opening up possibilities to a whole new topic. Let’s buy something
Kaimasu: to buy
Nani ka kaimasu: I’m going to buy something

Vocabulary/Word Creation

It’s interesting to analyse how people/communities form language. This post aims at displaying the various methods using dimensions. Let’s first take English. English is a non-tonal language, so to simplify things, the 2 main components to make a word is the consonants and vowels.

So the total number of words in English, say, N, is equal to

N = (Consonants*Vowels)*all permutations and combinations 

We then take Japanese. Although Japanese is thought by some to be tonal, let’s just assume it isn’t. The basic building blocks for Japanese are the fundamental alphabet set itself, from A, E, U, E, O to Wa, Nn. And these sounds don’t combine to from “another, new” sound. They combine directly to become words. So the total number of words in Japanese, say, N is equal to

N= alphabet*all permutations and combinations 

Now let’s take the Chinese language. This is interesting because Chinese actually adds in a new dimension, which are tones. So the diagram would look something like this 

 

But actually after adding tones, that’s not the end of the story. There’s also the difference in characters. For words can be the same in pronunciation, but differ in their Chinese characters. Say, 鹏 and 彭 can mean totally different things. This means that Chinese actually uses 4 dimensions in their word creation. 

N = (Vowels*Consonants*Tones*Characters)*all permutations and combinations

Cantonese Tones and How to Remember Them

Credit must definitely be given to Dylan W.H.S. for coming up with this page. This is one clearest way of explaining the 9 tones of Cantonese [some say that there are only 6 tones].

The Cantonese dialect of Chinese has more tones than either Hakka or Mandarin. They can be remembered rather nicely by noting the pronunciation of the numbers in the three columns under the yellow highlighted box of the table below. (Click on it to view a bigger/clearer table)

I hope to come up with an audio attachment to follow this soon. But at the meanwhile, there is a column on Cantonese numbers that most beginners will learn, and that will be the corresponding tones.

Once again, do give me some comments and feedback on how to improve this.

Hallo

Hallo! Goede dag! Guten Tag! (Especially to Spyder)

Thanks for browsing my site. It’s my interest to learn languages.

I live in Singapore where i have the chance to meet many people from different and diverse background everyday. Communicating with them in their mother toungue is one way of showing hospitality and respect.

I was a bit slow these few days as i was in vacation back to my home country in Malaysia. But along the way i have recorded an introductory post on Cantonese Chinese (medium of instruction: Mandarin Chinese) and will post that up soon.

Yup, i’ll also be adding the Japanese lessons soon. Watch this space for more. Thanks for browsing.

^_________________^

Hokkien 101 Lesson 2

Hokkien 101

 A post on the Hokkien Mandarin dialect. Medium of instruction in Mandarin.

Sumimasen! Jap 4

Thought of coming up with a short summary of the past 3 posts on Japanese. Here’s a set of tables, that let you “mix and match” between words and phrases of what we have learned in the past 3 posts.

It’s actually something to let you familiarize with the various parts of speech of the language.

Sumimasen! Jap 3

Tabemasu : Eat
Tabemasen : Not eating
Nomimasu : Drink
Nomimasen : Not drinking

Nani ka: Something
Nani ka? : Anything? Huh?

Nani ka tabemasen ka? Wouldn’t you eat something? (invitation)
Doko de? Where (at)?
Watashi no tokoro de : At my place
Anata no tokoro de: At your place
Watashi no tokoro de nani ka tabemasen ka? : Wouldn’t you eat something at my place?

Iie : No
Iie, keikko desu : No thanks
E : Good/Yes (informal)
Ii desu : alright
So desu ne…. : Hm….

 

Sumimasen! Jap 2

Hanashimasu : Speak
Jouzu ni hanashimasu : Speak well/skilled
Yoku : well/really
Yoku wakarimasu : really understand

Shinjuku: A place in Japan
Ueno : A place in Japan

Eki : Subway/Train/MRT station
kouen : Garden/Park

Ueno eki wa doko desu ka? : Where is Ueno station?
Ueno kouen wa doko desu ka? : Where is Ueno park?

Koko : Here
Asoko : There
Koko ja arimasen : Not here

Sumimasen! Jap 1

I’ve just re-started my Japanese learning. After so long. Last time i learned in a formal/structured way was during my primary school years. I’m currently using an audio method.

Sumimasen: Excuse me
Eigo ga wakarimasu ka?: Do you understand English?
Iiee (or something like that): No
Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka? Do you understand Japanese?
Haii: Yes

Anatawa Amerika jin desu ka?: Are you an American?
Anatawa Nihon jin desu ka?: Are you a Japanese?
Watashiwa Amerika jin ja arimasen: I’m not an American.

Demo: But

Nihongo ga sikoshi wakarimasu: I understand a little Japanese.
Demo mata joju ja arimasem: But i’m not skilled at it.
Eigo ga yoku wakarimasu: You understand English well
Nihongo ga yoku wakarimasen: I don’t understand English well

joju desu ne: you are skilled, aren’t you?

Ii otenki desu, ne? Nice weather, isn’t it?
So desu ne: So it is
Yana otenki desu, ne? Bad weather, isn’t it?

domo arigato gozaimasu: Thank you very much

Ohaiyo gozaimasu: Good morning
Konichiwa: Good afternoon
Ja, matta: Good bye

Hello world! Hello word!

Welcome to WenFang-WortPlatz-WordSquare. A place where i share my thoughts and lessons learned in languages of the world.

I’m a language enthusiaist, learning and learning continuously. Among them are: English, Chinese, Malay (Malaysia, Indonesia), Hokkien(Taiwanese), Hakka, Teowchew, Wuhanese, Japanese, Hindi, Korean and last but not least, Deutsch.

 I’m also an avid learner of English Accents. Learning and communicating in Standard American, British RP, Irish, Indian, Singlish, Manglish(Malaysian) and African.

 This will be the place, i hope to summarize and categorise all the things that i learn in languages and accents. Hope you’ll find this site useful. Drop me a comment and i’ll be verye happy. =)