I still find it absolutely amazing the grasp you have on English. Honestly, you put most college educated Americans to shame. That may not mean much to your Mother, but tell her I said that anyway. You may be influenced by our culture in the movies you watch and even the "foreign" ( feh, like English is foreign anywhere anymore ) language you speak, but most Americans are truly brainwashed by our culture. At least you have readily available foreign viewpoints and morals and a decent English education. Most people here are raised 100% by the TV, and it shows in their language. Hell, every time I use a word not typically used in sitcoms, game shows, newscasts or cartoons I get blank stares. It's rather disheartening. And don't even get me started on world politics! Most Americans wouldn't know communism from fascism if they were pulling on opposite arms. *sigh* You wouldn't believe how many people here always use communism for any form of government they don't understand...I've heard everything from dictatorships to other representative democracies called Communism because they're not American. The cold war and our closed bubble of information has done wonders to this country's intelligence[/sarcasm]
As far as Asian languages go, they completely dumbfound me. I don't think I could even begin to take on the monumental task of memorizing all the letters or words or characters or whatever it is they call those glorious hand-painted symbols. I've managed to tackle German relatively well, but heck, all they've got are some modified greek letters like umlauts and ess-zett. Not to mention pronunciation. The subtle variances in inflection and timbre that can modify an entire word or chain of thought into another meaning entirely. We just don't have anything like that in our blunt western languages, unless you count the heavy-handed inflection changes of sarcasm. I had often thought of tackling Japanese while at college ( mainly to get a better grasp of video games and anime, tee-hee ) but the prospect of not only learning the entire character system of mainland China, but also the other 2 Japanese systems quickly turned me off of that path. I think it's absolutely wonderful that you're making an effort to maintain your heritage in this sea of exported culture. I think it's vitally important as more and more youth are swayed to the intoxicating rhythm of America's New World Order. Our culture is indeed our most valued export, and also the one most detrimental to the diversity and individuality of the other regions of the world.
In closing, good luck in your revival studies, and a Happy New Year! May the coming year see you well =)
Hell, every time I use a word not typically used in sitcoms, game shows, newscasts or cartoons I get blank stares. It's rather disheartening.
Oh, tell.me.about.it. Haha, I get that sometimes too, but you know, I've kind of mastered the art of communication whereby I try to mind the type of speech a person uses and go ahead with it. That way, the conversations get simplified and things wouldn't get too confusing, heh.
And I get you on the Jap thingers! My bro has gotten some cool Playstation games that only comes in the Japanese version, so eh, some education in that area would be good, no? ;) However, Jap sounds even more difficult than Mandarin. There are some similarities between these two, but I think Jap is a tad more difficult. (But you know, I have a slight suspicion that I have been labelling nearly everything foreign to me as "difficult". I know, I know, I'm just teeming with self-confidence..*sarcasm*) ;)
As far as Asian languages go, they completely dumbfound me. I don't think I could even begin to take on the monumental task of memorizing all the letters or words or characters or whatever it is they call those glorious hand-painted symbols. I've managed to tackle German relatively well, but heck, all they've got are some modified greek letters like umlauts and ess-zett. Not to mention pronunciation. The subtle variances in inflection and timbre that can modify an entire word or chain of thought into another meaning entirely. We just don't have anything like that in our blunt western languages, unless you count the heavy-handed inflection changes of sarcasm. I had often thought of tackling Japanese while at college ( mainly to get a better grasp of video games and anime, tee-hee ) but the prospect of not only learning the entire character system of mainland China, but also the other 2 Japanese systems quickly turned me off of that path. I think it's absolutely wonderful that you're making an effort to maintain your heritage in this sea of exported culture. I think it's vitally important as more and more youth are swayed to the intoxicating rhythm of America's New World Order. Our culture is indeed our most valued export, and also the one most detrimental to the diversity and individuality of the other regions of the world.
In closing, good luck in your revival studies, and a Happy New Year! May the coming year see you well =)
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Oh, tell.me.about.it. Haha, I get that sometimes too, but you know, I've kind of mastered the art of communication whereby I try to mind the type of speech a person uses and go ahead with it. That way, the conversations get simplified and things wouldn't get too confusing, heh.
And I get you on the Jap thingers! My bro has gotten some cool Playstation games that only comes in the Japanese version, so eh, some education in that area would be good, no? ;) However, Jap sounds even more difficult than Mandarin. There are some similarities between these two, but I think Jap is a tad more difficult. (But you know, I have a slight suspicion that I have been labelling nearly everything foreign to me as "difficult". I know, I know, I'm just teeming with self-confidence..*sarcasm*) ;)
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