SaySomethingin Chinese (Beta)

Perhaps more of a general question - how come the accompanying sentences in Chinese in the app are in, well, Chinese, but in the Japanese course they’re written in Latin? Is that deliberate?

We’re figuring things out :wink:

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Again very thank you for all the stuff you’re doing. It is amazing to have the prospect of relatively easy access to so many languages. Not that I don’t still find the back-to-school teacher-knows-best approach irksome and less efficient than a greater degree of learner autonomy, but I’m still hanging on to the promise of paradise in the end.

A comment on the English-language cues. I’m assuming that sentences such as “I feel did many things” are not deliberate perversions of the language in order to approximate to the target language, but just part of the flotsam of an AI produced course. If they are deliberate, I think they’re a mistake, as they make it difficult to relate to the English sentence, let alone the target. One of the features of this course, I feel, is the lack of real “emotional colour” - it’s a set of scientifically (?) manufactured conglomerations of language, rather than real language. If it works and can be used for each of us to develop our own personal living version of the language through contact with the real world, fine. At least I’m reassured by the belief that you are painstakingly going through the course to eliminate unnecessary oddities, all the “if and’s” and “feel did’s” that constitute blocks to learning. Given greater flexibility in moving back and forth in the course, I’d be happy to contribute to that process.

“I feel did many things.”

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t really see what’s wrong with that sentence. It sounds like a perfectly normal, if rather formal, sentence to my ears. Of course, it’s not exactly colloquial; but it does sound like a fairly normal (formal) sentence to me.

I haven’t done the Chinese course, but I did finish the Italian course and I can confirm that you are building up to lots of sentences with plenty of emotional color. At least if it follows the same kind of track as the Italian course did.

Edit: I just noticed the missing “I”. Ignore the first part of what I said. :joy:

Yes, thanks for the encouragement, Martin. I ain’t giving up any time soon, but it’s good to see people coming out satisfied the other end.

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Oddity at 89%green white belt:

That would be great, trouble you.

The Chinese is I think a direct translation of this illogical combination.

Is it “ma fan ni(le)”? If so, it’s a politeness formula and makes sense in Chinese. They presumably just translated it literally into English.

Yes, I recognise ma fan as an expression of irritation, translating roughly as “oh bollocks!”
but it obviously has other possible uses, and thanks for the clarification. My point really was that the two parts of the English cue don’t make sense and need to be altered.

In this case, it doesn’t express irritation.

I get the point about the English, but the course is a work in progress. My experience with the Italian course was that these things are easy to figure out once they get to whatever big sentence they are building up to.

Yes, it’s because it’s a work in progress that I was pointing out the oddity, in order to help out whoever has to “clean” the course in the end. But maybe all that will be done by the magic of AI, and in any case I should just butt out and get on with the course …
But thanks for all your comments, of course.

Why would you have to butt out? I bet the team are probably grateful for the feedback. Sorry if I came across as implying that.

Fei chang gang xie, Ah MaTin, luguo ni xiang, hen kwai women hui nang zhung wen shuo hua, wo he ni.

The course taught you that “a”, did it? :joy:

That’s a good sign! Very natural, but rarely taught.

From your transcription, it does sound like at least one voice has a non-standard accent though. Not necessarily a bad thing if what you want is to talk with Chinese people (think how RP is a good choice if you are learning English for your career but not necessarily a good choice at all if you want to make British friends).

Sadly no, the Ah was from elsewhere. I felt I might’ve been taking a bit of a liberty giving you a Chinese name which as far as I knew could have any number of possible meanings to do with horses, mothers and Cantonese heavens or whatever, so it was an indication of respect.

As for the shaky pinyin, I’m used to reading it but not writing it, and I was just slovenly about it. There could just be some mix of Cantonese or Hakka or Hainan dialect, but I think it was just sheer laziness.

Green-black belt 23% presented without previous introduction: Much appreciated/Hen gan xie
(I take Tom’s point about such things happening in the real world.)

Green-black belt 27% You like drink tea?
Another un-English expression, and not clear that it’s a question unless you’re reading the text.

Green black belt 28% enough many = enough

Green black 30% this much. Man’s cue garbled.

32% shenme Man’s cue garbled
And
You don’t like to drink tea now? (Illogical inclusion of “now”)

37% I like (TO!) add milk

Green black 79% Can I? (not “I can”) translating “wo neng”

81% hai you hen woman’s version garbled.

83% “I ge na ge” pronounce as " i ge nei ge"

86% “I want one that” and "I want one that, please " Presumably this is supposed to mean "I want one of those ". Why echo the Chinese to the detriment of clarity and even understanding?

91% “not bag” doesn’t mean anything “it’s not a bag” does. (Bu shi bao).
“That is bag” is also meaningless. (Na sho bao)
“Not Jane’s” should read " it’s not Jane’s "
“Wo xiang yao i ge nage” should translate “I want one of those”

93% “but or” is a very unlikely combination, either in English or Chinese.
100% woman misspeaks Hai you hen