Post: #101

My laptop's being an ass (it's been on its deathbed for months), however I managed to track it down. Proof reading/editing, teaching English, teaching everything else, modeling, singing, dancing, hosting, serving, acting, anything and everything. Even some stuff for Spanish speakers.

http://www.foreignercn.com/info/index.ph...lassifieds

Post: #102

Nice one mate, thanks. Your blog looks great too.

If you haven't already, you should check out the book "Delaying the Real World"- lots of ideas and case studies of cool little job opps while travelling. Worth a read.

Post: #103

Awesome link! Thanks for posting it!

(03-06-2013 09:03 AM)Osiris Wrote:  My laptop's being an ass (it's been on its deathbed for months), however I managed to track it down. Proof reading/editing, teaching English, teaching everything else, modeling, singing, dancing, hosting, serving, acting, anything and everything. Even some stuff for Spanish speakers.

http://www.foreignercn.com/info/index.ph...lassifieds

Post: #104

haha, from that site...

http://www.foreignercn.com/info/index.ph...49&id=2472

Job = turn up in suit, eat dinner. Get $100 and free food for looking like someone important that is attending their function. Love it.

Post: #105

Good one Richie! That's what I love most about Asia and more particularly, China, is that you can expect to see some crazy stuff. Gotta love China and Asia!!!

Post: #106

I have a club I go to where I get free drinks because the manager likes to show off foreigners in his club. A woman I met gets paid for bringing foreigners to her club. China is ridiculous sometimes.

Post: #107

Which city is that Osiris if you don't mind me asking? I'd love to check out that city!

Post: #108

PM.

Post: #109

i get free drinks at the majority of clubs i go to. pretty convenient

Post: #110

Haha that's awesome. Osiris, what's your take on learning Mandarin for opportunities in China? Are you conversational in it, working towards it, or don't see a need for it? Do you think being conversational in it opens valuable doors - in terms of these kinds of jobs, or business ventures?

Post: #111

You don't need it whatsoever. My Chinese is better than many foreigners who haven't studied it formally, and that's because it isn't needed. There are more opportunities for people who can both read and write to a decent extent, especially in the business world, however just about anybody who's anybody can speak basic English. If youre looking to do business here, I'd recommend a translator until you can seriously hold your own in a conversation and read a contract. Or find a business person in your field that can speak decently.

It's a hard language to learn. It's tonal, which is a total bitch at first - say a word right but in the wrong tone and no one will understand you. "Si shi si, shi shi shi, shi si shi shi si, si shi shi si shi". Tones turn that into a sentence. It's largely monosyllabic, which is also a pain in the ass. Many words sound the similar to western ears - si, she, shi, zhe, zhi, ji, je, ju, jie, etc... Laoshi is teacher, laoshu is mouse, Lao hu is tiger. I work with small children, making any of those a possibility for what they're saying.

I've been here for 8 months, most of my coworkers who arrived at the same time have largely given up on learning the language. I've learned some basics, animals (thanks children), vegetables, fruits, meats, common dishes, family members, colors, basic directions (left, up, front), tongue twisters, baby songs, and basic expressions (I want/need/have/must/eat/like/love/go to). I'm starting to learn characters, I can recognise about 100 or so, and write maybe 70.

The US State dept says it takes 3000 hours to become fluent in Chinese. It's a fun language to learn, but it's frustrating at times. If you like a challenge, I say go for it.

Post: #112

Thanks for the intel Osiris. Have you been taking any courses to learn the lingo or just on your own and with a pillow dictionary?

Post: #113

The tones are very important to get right, but their difficulty is relative and varies from person to person. Each individual learns the tones at a different rate. Fortunately, it was never too much of a big deal with me, just took practice. Luckily, Mandarin only has only four tones to remember. It really depends on whether or not you're the "pronunciation type", someone who learns to imitate sounds easily.

On the plus side, the grammar is also fairly simple, since it's an isolating language with no case endings, no declensions or verb conjugations, usually no real tenses, practically no differentiation between singular and plural (except in personal pronouns i.e. I/we, you/you [all], etc.).

For me the real pain in the ass is the characters, since there are just so many to learn, and if you don't constantly use them, you forget half of them in a relatively short time. Add to that the difference between Mainland China's Jianti-zi (known as "simplified Chinese" in English, as "short-characters" in German) and Fanti-zi ("traditional Chinese characters" in English, "long characters" in German) used in Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau. Just take for example: simplified "学习汉字" and traditional "漢字學習" for a comparison.

On the plus side, though, if you can read Chinese characters, you'll have a much easier time reading Japanese, since they use lots of Chinese characters/Kanji (you just won't know how to pronounce it), and there are a lot of Chinese loan words found in Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean, making it somewhat easier learning the vocabularies of these languages.

Also, the Kanji-opener is probably an endlessly abundant and infinitely practical way to open Chinese and Japanese (and to a lesser extent, Korean girls) in almost any situation.

Post: #114

(03-07-2013 08:00 PM)Sargon of Akkad Wrote:  For me the real pain in the ass is the characters, since there are just so many to learn, and if you don't constantly use them, you forget half of them in a relatively short time. Add to that the difference between Mainland China's Jianti-zi (known as "simplified Chinese" in English, as "short-characters" in German) and Fanti-zi ("traditional Chinese characters" in English, "long characters" in German) used in Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau. Just take for example: simplified "学习汉字" and traditional "漢字學習" for a comparison.

Of course they look different, you flipped the characters around in the traditional one compared to the simplified one.
Should be comparing 学习汉字 with 學習漢字. Now you see the similarities between the characters.

Post: #115

(03-07-2013 04:16 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Thanks for the intel Osiris. Have you been taking any courses to learn the lingo or just on your own and with a pillow dictionary?

My company offered a mostly useless class that got cancelled because everyone stopped showing up. Mostly I've been learning on my own and practicing with the Chinese staff I work with and a friend who's studying Chinese.

In the words of Mao, "Good good study, day day up."

Post: #116

(03-07-2013 10:36 PM)Pacific Wrote:  Of course they look different, you flipped the characters around in the traditional one compared to the simplified one.
Should be comparing 学习汉字 with 學習漢字. Now you see the similarities between the characters.

My bad.
I was using a friend's computer and it couldn't read Chinese characters, so I was basically left looking at empty squares, and had to guess which ones I was using.

Post: #117

vip free of charge

Post: #118

haha cool. And how are you swinging that clever_alias?

Post: #119

white man in china speak chinese + good venue selection

Post: #120

I'm thinking we could have a Chinese language section thread for us to practice? Much like VP's Portuguese language thread.

What do you all think ?

Post: #121

Awesome idea! Count me in!

(03-09-2013 01:33 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  I'm thinking we could have a Chinese language section thread for us to practice? Much like VP's Portuguese language thread.

What do you all think ?

Post: #122

I have a shit ton of resources I could share.

Post: #123

Thread created!
/thread-21588.html

(03-09-2013 01:33 AM)FretDancer Wrote:  I'm thinking we could have a Chinese language section thread for us to practice? Much like VP's Portuguese language thread.

What do you all think ?