alanna
Junior Addict
Posts: 81
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Post by alanna on Jan 4, 2005 11:26:15 GMT -5
Can you tell the difference between Korean and Chinese when you hear it? I heard some westerners have trouble identifying Korean to Chinese to Japanese - not that I expect them to understand those languages but can people here figure out at least when a language is not Chinese? Click the play of the music at the top of this blog: blog.naver.com/kindness23.do?Redirect=Log&logNo=100008506831
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Post by pearblossom on Jan 4, 2005 11:50:50 GMT -5
that sounds like a pretty good mandarin interpretation of a k-drama theme. better than the version of the janggeum theme imho
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Post by galacticchick on Jan 6, 2005 17:57:54 GMT -5
Can you tell the difference between Korean and Chinese when you hear it? After listening to it for so long, i've been able to tell Korean from Chinese from Japanese. The only trouble I have is telling mandarin from cantonese apart. Chinese sounds like they use a lot of X's when they speak.
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Post by TheBo on Jan 7, 2005 12:03:41 GMT -5
Well, I always think I can tell the difference, but since I don't have the nerve actually to approach people and ask, my ego remains intact! ;D
I do believe I can tell Korean when I hear it, there are some markers (like "sumnidah" and "dei" for instance), but I am not enough familiar with Japanese or Chinese to know if they use these words or no.
I like gal-ck's remark about the Xs. That's a good description.
Bo
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Post by hachiue on Jan 7, 2005 12:35:02 GMT -5
On a language note, which is why I'm putting it here, sometimes I can tell them apart. I'll have to listen to the song later (when I'm not at work but still at a high speed comp) to figure out for Chinese, but I can definitely tell Korean and Japanese. Yesterday on the Korean world news thingie that they had on when MPC was supposed to be on, they had two people on there, one, a girl, who sometimes spoke Korean and sometimes Japanese, and a guy who always spoke Japanese. This was during their Olympic sport conference thingie. Of course I might be fooling myself - I eventually figured out that they only gave English translations when the subjects were talking in Korean and they gave Korean ones otherwise.
Just excited to figure that out. Korean seems to be the most melodic of the three; Japanese seems to be shorter (don't think I'm describing that right, but with plainer syllables b/c of the tonality); and Chinese does use X's and it's also kind of choppy b/c of the syllabic accents.
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Post by galacticchick on Jan 7, 2005 13:51:54 GMT -5
Whenever they interview Japanese stars on television (on International Channel), they always seem to talk in a very hush-hush kind of tone. The only way I can think of describing it is, it seems like they are sucking on air. Seriously.
Koreans use a lot of “hhhhhhhhhh” sounds like kamsahhhhhhhamnida, especially when they are showing conviction in something.
Hachiue, you are talking about that "Two Women in Seoul" that replaced Gallus from Englad, right? I was going to start a thread on it, but I'm pretty sure it will be ending either today or tomorrow so there's no use for it now. I thought that was so frustrating because I couldn't understand what the Japanese people where saying when the interviewer asked them questions. They could have put the subtitles at the top if they didn't want to block out the Korean. Se-min, Yim's daughter (the main one, coach) was so cute! I was amazed how when they laid her at the edge of that, what was it, division/gate/what have you she didn't fall off!
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Post by Lucy on Jan 7, 2005 14:27:37 GMT -5
Hey, youse guys, since we're talking about how languages sound (and I find Korean pretty distinct from whatever Chinese they're speaking on TV because of its even pitch and lack of nasality--personal perception), what is that sound that you find them making occasionally at the start of words? It sounds like a gutteral kkkkkk. I couldn't believe it the first time I heard someone on a K-drama make it; it sounded as if they were deliberately overemphasizing for comic effect. But then I realized they weren't.
thanks, Lucy
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Post by hachiue on Jan 7, 2005 16:19:40 GMT -5
Hey, youse guys, since we're talking about how languages sound (and I find Korean pretty distinct from whatever Chinese they're speaking on TV because of its even pitch and lack of nasality--personal perception), what is that sound that you find them making occasionally at the start of words? It sounds like a gutteral kkkkkk. I couldn't believe it the first time I heard someone on a K-drama make it; it sounded as if they were deliberately overemphasizing for comic effect. But then I realized they weren't. thanks, Lucy I'm spouting off here but I think it's a verbal pause, akin to um or uh. Or maybe a stutter like people do when they're spluttering. I don't think it's an actual word. Hey, when Bubbles always says "ani" before her sentences when she's arguing, does that mean "what" or is it still "no" as in she's saying what isn't true but prefacing it with no?
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Post by pearblossom on Jan 7, 2005 17:46:27 GMT -5
ani means no
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alanna
Junior Addict
Posts: 81
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Post by alanna on Jan 8, 2005 11:53:39 GMT -5
"Ani" literally means "no" but depending on what was said before, it could also mean "but" "hey" "wait a minute", "hey, I didn't mean that" and so forth.
Sometimes when somebody cry out "ani!", it is an exclamation for something unexpected, usually in negative context.
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Post by hachiue on Jan 10, 2005 11:10:52 GMT -5
"Ani" literally means "no" but depending on what was said before, it could also mean "but" "hey" "wait a minute", "hey, I didn't mean that" and so forth. Sometimes when somebody cry out "ani!", it is an exclamation for something unexpected, usually in negative context. That's what I was thinking. I knew it meant no literally, but wasn't sure if it had another connotation when used in the manner Bubbles was using it. Thanks!
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Post by Soju on Jan 10, 2005 12:56:42 GMT -5
Spoken Japanese and Chinese are both pitch-inflected, rather than stress-inflected like English. The degree of inflection in Chinese is large; sometimes it almost sounds like singing. Japanese inflection, on the other hand, is very subtle, and, since all words are stressed equally, sounds almost like a monotone (at least to me).
Speaking of the title of this thread, I was checking out channel 48, the new home of WFBT (formerly channel 23; there's a thread about this in the 'General' section). One of the things they air is in Chinese, called "New Tang Dynasty Television", or NTD-TV (www.ntdtv.com). They had a promo about all the things they feature, including Drama (that word was in English), and brieflly pictured was Bae Yong-jun. I have no idea when this show might air here, or even if, but their Web site has a live Webcast thing, so one could probably watch it via the Internet, if not broadcast.
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Post by seven stars on Jan 10, 2005 13:48:31 GMT -5
For that reason Soju, I have long felt that Korean would be an easier language to learn than the others, especially Mandarin and Cantonese. I wonder if this is truly the case.
Any body know anything about that?
-sevenstars
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alanna
Junior Addict
Posts: 81
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Post by alanna on Jan 10, 2005 19:24:25 GMT -5
About learning Korean, since I don't know much Chinese or Japanese, I can only compare it with English.
First of all, Korean writing is relatively easy because it's a sound language. It will take some practice getting used to it, but once you get a grip of how it works you'll be able to write it easy - Korean characters have a formula of how it is mixed and pronounced. (One might misspell but it'll still be recognizable)
For English speakers to learn Korean it will take time because one'll have to get used to what style it is said. The sequence of the verb (and many many irregular and diverse style of verb) not to mention diverse vocabularies that are highly sensitive in describing. (Remember that Eskimos have some dozen ways to describe "snow"?) There are lots of onomatopoeic words and words that are rooted from old Chinese terms.
I really don't know how to describe it.
(But since I pretty much expect Japanese to be similar though, those who mastered Japanese will have less trouble. Same goes vice versa)
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Post by hachiue on Jan 11, 2005 12:14:53 GMT -5
(But since I pretty much expect Japanese to be similar though, those who mastered Japanese will have less trouble. Same goes vice versa) Especially when they're using hanja (sp? Chinese characters used in Korean language) because they look the same as they do in Chinese/Japanese, they mean basically the same thing, and they are often pronounced the same.
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