I'm really excited for the Beijing trip. It's the area of China I've wanted to go to the most since I've been here. I just wish the stay there was longer.... We're leaving tonight, probably getting back Monday, so all should be good. =)
Random grammar note: (because I constantly think about grammar...what, you don't?)
In Chinese, to make a yes/no question, they either repeat the verb with a negative marker between the repeated verb (是不是，有没有, with 不 and 没 being the negative markers) or add 吗 at the end of a sentence. In English, we simply move the verb to the front of the sentence ("He is American" compared to "Is he American?"). There are notable exceptions to this, of course, such as not needing a "do" in "He likes to ride bicycles" as compared to the question "Does he like to ride bicycles?", but for the most part, it's moving a verb to the beginning of the sentence that immediately makes us aware that the next sentence is interrogative. We also use tones in our speech to indicate (emphasis on the verb and a rising tone at the end of "He likes to ride bikes" makes it "He likes to ride bikes?") but that's more us being lazy than anything, I think. Not that there's anything wrong with lazy; all languages do the lazy thing. I get annoyed with double third tones in Chinese.... Just something to think about, really.
Anyway, just wanted to tell all y'alls where I'm going to be for the next few days in case ya miss me.
再见！
杜楷
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2 comments:
So what are you using to make the cool-looking ideographs? - and how are tenses handled in Chinese? I have more questions but they may have to wait ... I think you would like the book "The Man Who Loved China" - by Simon Winchester, well written and a very interesting story even if it wasn't!
btw - I am currently taking classes in Latin. Its interesting in some respects, but I'm struggling with the "dead" part of it, meaning that nobody actually speaks it except in a few unusual circumstances. Its interesting to see its influences, especially wrt to English and Spanish. - Cheers and have fun in Bejing! - Craig
In Japanese, all you need to make a sentence negative is slap a か at the end of it. You can also do the lazy thing and just change the inflection, but that's super-informal, only for use with close friends. Sounds like Chinese is a lot more complicated :(
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