Hey lads!
I’m a freshman around here, very pleased to meet ya all, at last
I never had this bloodlust so to speak to languages, but quite recently, i fulminantly had this puissant gush to absorb some chinese knowledge
Seeing the multifariousness of Chinese languages and their rapid proliferation, I thought it’d be worthwhile to delve deeper into this immense and beautiful structure
I was born in Russia, immigrated to Israel in 1994 and compelled myself to properly assimilate into the Israeli community ever since. For the past month, i’ve managed to grub up an extensive Mandarin material (i received word of advice by an expert to follow it’s guidelines closely), intimately related to the renowned “Pimslyer Series” of Language Studies, and have been trying to adhere to it’s guidepost and rules of thumb and striked off a series of efforts to get properly acquainted with this amazing language. Thus far, i’ve encountered oodles of impedements in the way, namely, the dumbfoundly complexified tonal scheme, and the unimaginative (at least to my taste), sentence forming pattern (word order, etc), to the highest degree though, i discovered a novel transcend territory, unprobed by my roots in the past, which differentiates itself significantly from anything else i’ve grappled during my lifetime (three languages my mindset is aware of are Hebrew, English, and my mother tongue, Russian). So far it’s all nice and dandy, but notwithstanding, i continually scuffle with the immense difficulties confronted with this wondrous language, and can attest to it’s immense learning curve.
Strictly on a personal level though, i’d lean towards Cantonese as a preferrable colloquial framework, as it’s tonal scheme and the intermingled vocabulary is much more ingratiating to my ears and learning it’s intricacies would truly be both a triumph and a challenge for me!
On a related note, does anyone know whether the Pimsleur series is a viable and practical way to study Cantonese (Mandarin, or any other language while we’re at it)? I’m almost finished with the first unit of Mandarin, but still not quite there (feeling wise) on a colloquial side of this whole affair (i assume a myriad of people would advice me to push on in my studies, but my ubiquitous nature, at least to this moment, has inhibited my progress, by obliging me to translate the sentences in my mind for a couple of seconds before spouting away (without bringing forth the “not quiet dead-on” sentence pattern and tonal haps and mishaps i’m continually being haunted by).
Also, i contemplated some time ago, what difference is there between Japanese and Cantonese for instance? Is any one of the aforementioned languages requires arduous and backbreaking labor?
Thanks for you support guys.
Dima