knowledge is power
So I read my first Chinese book since I left China. 91k words in ~3 days, give or take, while waiting for firefox to unfreeze to read more Naruto fic, and I've forgotten the beauty that is the Chinese language on paper. I read a lot of science books and folktales when I was young and even a pretty thick history book, but never a work of literary nonfiction (if that even makes sense).
It's different because there are terms that appear predominantly in literature but not in everyday conversation, and I probably won't remember them until the next time I read them in some other text, but I've forgotten (or maybe never knew) just how concise and descriptive the language is, the depth of meaning that can exist in two mere characters. Great poems are made from four lines with five characters each, and that's something English just can't accomplish.
A friend of mine studying linguistics told me that English could be a native language of mine, given that I learned it while I was still young enough, but I struggle with English some times because my syntax is off at times and my choice of prepositions as well. With Chinese, it's pure instinct, especially the sandhi, and it's something I've never felt when I use English.
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Hi, people I friended recently. I've been hanging around Naruto fic lately, and so I did some author friending and some from chuunin's friending meme. I like Akatsuki and Gaara/Naruto. :)
It's different because there are terms that appear predominantly in literature but not in everyday conversation, and I probably won't remember them until the next time I read them in some other text, but I've forgotten (or maybe never knew) just how concise and descriptive the language is, the depth of meaning that can exist in two mere characters. Great poems are made from four lines with five characters each, and that's something English just can't accomplish.
A friend of mine studying linguistics told me that English could be a native language of mine, given that I learned it while I was still young enough, but I struggle with English some times because my syntax is off at times and my choice of prepositions as well. With Chinese, it's pure instinct, especially the sandhi, and it's something I've never felt when I use English.
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Hi, people I friended recently. I've been hanging around Naruto fic lately, and so I did some author friending and some from chuunin's friending meme. I like Akatsuki and Gaara/Naruto. :)