Welcome to Denaz's News in Foreign Languages!

Hello and welcome! I'm Denaz and I am interested in learning foreign languages. This blog will inform people who are interested of my progress as I master foreign languages. I will note what resources I have tried and my opinions of them.

No one can ever really master a language completely, even in English we are continuing to learn new words as we grow and gain in experience, and hopefully, wisdom. However, I will give it my best shot. :D

A bit about me:
I have spoken English ever since I was born, as I was born in Indiana, USA. in 1981. In high school, I took two years of German (Deutsch) and two years of Spanish (Español) and have continued these languages on my own ever since then. I can speak, read, and write these languages, though I continue to learn something new each day. I am not as fluent as I want to be yet in either foreign language, but with each day I get closer still. :)

This year I have decided to add another foreign language to my list. I started to focus on learning Chinese, Mandarin to be exact. I will give updates on my progress in my foreign languages here. The Asian languages are the most difficult to an American because there is no "relation" between the character (written word) and its pronunciation. However, it is said that even though a person cannot say the word, they can understand it, which to me is fascinating. :D

I love to read, and this has helped me in my journey of learning languages because it makes me "well-versed". I was taught from the King James Version of the Bible, which is considered "old English" nowadays and my peers consider it "hard English", meaning that to them it is difficult to understand. Since I was raised on this style of English, it is understandable to me.

I have learned that every foreign language has their archaic versions and their modern versions of their language. Knowing the archaic style of English helps me understand the archaic style of the foreign languages better.

Chinese, as you may or may not know, has two main styles of writing: Simplified and traditional characters. The Traditional form is what most people used originally and it is akin to American's Old English in comprehension. A bit hard to chew at times. So the Simplified was created with the hope of increasing the literacy rate in the People Republic of China. This year's goal is to learn to read and understand Traditional Chinese Mandarin.

I know what you're thinking....why didn't I start with the Simplified characters. Well, I have researched different websites on the subject and talked to various chinese natives and have deduced the following:
The chinese characters are, in essence, pictures...they are like the Egyptian hieroglyphs, where a picture doesn't mean a specific word per se, but rather an idea or a concept. There are base roots to the characters they call radicals. and depending on where these radicals are placed in the character, it can mean different things.
Now, simplified characters were created so that it is easier to write. They are a version of the traditional characters but specifically designed for writing less strokes. It is like "shorthand" English. For example, when you take notes and you abbreviate your words so that you can keep up with the teacher in writing down the things she is saying, otherwise you would have to ask the person to repeat themselves so that you don't "miss" anything. :D
Another thing I have learned is that a simplified character can mean more than one traditional character, which can often lead to confusion for me if either traditional character will work in the sentence I am trying to read. :)
Also, the simplified form is not accepted in all countries where chinese is spoken, which is important to know.

Now, to me this tells me several things. The first and most important is that though the Simplified version is easier to write, it can be a bit confusing.
The second is that it is not accepted in some countries. This means that not all chinese-speaking countries will understand a person who uses Simplified characters. However, all countries used to use the traditional characters, and so understand them when used.
The traditional form requires more strokes on the written form, but is more easily understood than the simplified. The reason it is more easily understood is that those extra strokes give a deeper understanding. This reason alone makes me believe that a foreigner should learn the traditional first. For that deeper understanding is a key ingredient in learning what makes the language "tick". Then, after learning the traditional, one can learn to write its, err, "shorthand" version. :D


All for now,
-Denaz