Japan calling

[Valmy]

Not poet.  Poem.  And there are actually three different words for those three meanings.  The only common element is that their pronounciations are similar.  Different tone though. 

Your language sounds like hell for a Westerner to learn.  Our way of speaking is way to lazy to have to pay attention to that sort of nuance.

[Monoriu]

It's Chinese for lion.  And Poet.  And 10.

not very original, are they?

They aren't eh? When coupled with their lack of standard alphabet & only 500 last names. They are fucked.

It is a lot worse than that.  I've read somewhere that 20% of the Chinese population (that's 1.3 billion people) share only three surnames. 

[Monoriu]

Not poet.  Poem.  And there are actually three different words for those three meanings.  The only common element is that their pronounciations are similar.  Different tone though. 

Your language sounds like hell for a Westerner to learn.  Our way of speaking is way to lazy to have to pay attention to that sort of nuance.

Imagine how difficult it is for Chinese to learn English then.  If Chinese can do it, so can you

[Monoriu]

BTW, Tyr, you must already know that if you move to Japan, you will encounter a lot of Chinese characters, right?

[Valmy]

Imagine how difficult it is for Chinese to learn English then.  If Chinese can do it, so can you

Heck I haven't even learned Spanish yet and that is one of the easiest languages around

[Valmy]

BTW, Tyr, you must already know that if you move to Japan, you will encounter a lot of Chinese characters, right?

I could be wrong about this but doesn't Japanese use the same characters as Chinese?

[Razgovory]

Not poet.  Poem.  And there are actually three different words for those three meanings.  The only common element is that their pronounciations are similar.  Different tone though. 

Your language sounds like hell for a Westerner to learn.  Our way of speaking is way to lazy to have to pay attention to that sort of nuance.

I had several friends who tried to learn Chinese.  They all said it was really fucking hard.  The only one who stuck with it did so because his wife is Chinese.  He still doesn't do it well.  English is much easier.  Hell, Marty figured it out.

[Monoriu]

Imagine how difficult it is for Chinese to learn English then.  If Chinese can do it, so can you

Heck I haven't even learned Spanish yet and that is one of the easiest languages around

Chinese have a responsibility to learn English to communicate with you; you only need to know English 

[HVC]

Imagine how difficult it is for Chinese to learn English then.  If Chinese can do it, so can you

Heck I haven't even learned Spanish yet and that is one of the easiest languages around

so easy that that say some letters and figured screw it, we're taking out the consonant sounds and just winging it. Who needs to pronounce j's anyway.

[Grey Fox]

Imagine how difficult it is for Chinese to learn English then.  If Chinese can do it, so can you

Heck I haven't even learned Spanish yet and that is one of the easiest languages around

Apparently Romanian is even easier to learn if you already speak French or Italian.

[Monoriu]

BTW, Tyr, you must already know that if you move to Japan, you will encounter a lot of Chinese characters, right?

I could be wrong about this but doesn't Japanese use the same characters as Chinese?

The Japanese use a ton of Chinese characters - for naming, every day language use, everything.  The characters are 90% similar, but not 100%.  But they also use their own alphabets. 

[Monoriu]

Not poet.  Poem.  And there are actually three different words for those three meanings.  The only common element is that their pronounciations are similar.  Different tone though. 

Your language sounds like hell for a Westerner to learn.  Our way of speaking is way to lazy to have to pay attention to that sort of nuance.

I had several friends who tried to learn Chinese.  They all said it was really fucking hard.  The only one who stuck with it did so because his wife is Chinese.  He still doesn't do it well.  English is much easier.  Hell, Marty figured it out.

Then quit learning it.  You should be sending native speakers over to train people how to speak English properly, not trying to learn Chinese. 

[HVC]

Apparently Romanian is even easier to learn if you already speak French or Italian.

i work with a romanian woman. and no, no it isn't. It's like a latin and slavic had a love child and then beat it mercilessly.

[Valmy]

Apparently Romanian is even easier to learn if you already speak French or Italian.

Speaking of Italians during my stay in Villefranche-sur-Mer some  Italian would show up knowing nothing and be practically fluent in French in just a few weeks.  Drove me nuts.  The languages may not sound much alike but clearly if it is that easy they must be really similar.

[Valmy]

Then quit learning it.  You should be sending native speakers over to train people how to speak English properly, not trying to learn Chinese. 

Everybody here thinks China is going to dominate the world soon so there are lots of people trying to learn Mandarin.  I am sure hilarity will ensue.  I will make sure to tell them not to bother.