Skype Learn Chinese--the bridge: A New Way to Mandarin Chinese
This book is written for English-speaking students who are taking Skype Learn Chinese courses. A basic level vocabulary and understanding of Chinese grammar and culture is presented in this Skype Learn Chinese series. It is an effort to introduce the Skype Learn Chinese students to the language by explaining its basic principles in simple steps. The purpose is to prepare the student with a foundation on which to build, with confidence, its ensuing complexities.
Skype Learn Chinese A New Way to Mandarin Chinese Lesson 12
Cultural Differences
A Summary
Skype Learn Chinese A New Way to Mandarin Chinese Lesson 11 Part I
The cultural (ideas and customs passed on by generations) differences between Eastern and Western philosophy (theory of principles underlying conduct) are fundamental. Simply stated, it is their ‘frame of mind’ that produces their mores (general observance of ‘folkways’ considered beneficial). The Western tradition (stories, beliefs) is intellectual (frontal lobes for ‘reasoning’, knowledge). The Eastern tradition is enlightenment (rear brain, ‘feelings’ for understanding). This has produced two different styles of language.
Western word-representations have dictionary definitions (as indicated above). Eastern ideas for words have dictionary examples of their use in different contexts. In Western language, a word takes a meaning to the sentence. In Eastern language, the sentence, or context, provides the meaning of its words.
For example: the Western greeting, “How are you?” has ‘how’ (in what state or condition), ‘are’ (continue to exist), ‘you’ (the person addressed), with a rising tone, indicating a question. In China, “Ni hao”, has Ni ‘you’, (the person addressed), hao ‘good’, with tones that are specific to the word’s meaning and don’t indicate a question or statement. So, the implication, the feeling, of “you” and “good” (or not good) is conveyed in concepts, a generalized idea, stretched to fit the situation.
In our Skype Learn Chinese lesson, you will acquire some knowledge about Chinese cultural, which will helps your Chinese language learning.
Skype Learn Chinese A New Way to Mandarin Chinese Lesson 11 Part II
When Chinese is taught in Skype Learn Chinese lesson using Western grammar, the Western need for a verb in a sentence imposes a verb ‘to be’ on the hao, calling hao a stative verb, and thereby making it a ‘special’ case for the student in Skype Learn Chinese lesson to remember. This Western grammatical requirement (to adjust Skype Learn Chinese lesson to fit its defined meanings and grammatical structure) has the effect, then, of making ‘special’ cases a standard feature of Western teaching methods and significantly increasing the complexity of the language for students in Skype Learn Chinese lesson.
Here, then, is the student’s dilemma. To learn Skype Learn Chinese lesson according to the Western standard or by the “Chinese” system of ‘ideas’. For the student it is difficult to abandon previously proven means and methods of study Skype Learn Chinese lesson, but, not only does the natural Chinese system simplify the study of the language in Skype Learn Chinese lesson, its form, ’ideas and their concepts in use’ is the way that memory produces recall and recall is the most important part of language. So the natural system of Skype Learn Chinese lesson, rather than the Western standard, has been chosen as the basic means of instruction in this book.
Skype Learn Chinese lesson is not just another form of English, it is a fundamentally different form of language whose structure never needed “grammar” because it follows the way the mind works naturally. An understanding of how words are ‘stretched’ in meaning, or ‘used’ in normal conversation, therefore, is what the student needs to understand, and how the context of ideas provides the structure of Chinese. This is a ‘rear brain’ feeling which comes with familiarity rather than character memorization, but, let it be understood, the characters in Skype Learn Chinese lesson are the basis on which the language has developed.
So, the English-speaking student of Skype Learn Chinese lesson has a broad prospect of study ahead. But what a delightful challenge: a brand new aspect of language. Let’s get to it.
Compared with English, Skype Learn Chinese lesson is quite different. You may have some problems about understanding the way of Chinese language's logic, we wish our Skype Learn Chinese class could help you out!