???

I'm surprised how almost everyone continues to write in English even after they have been skrittering for a while. Why is that? Don't you want to show off your new abilities?

actually I think it's a bit annoying when people write in Chinese here, because it should be about sharing information (which are probably interesting for beginners, too) and not about showing off your awesome Chinese skills...

As above. Plus how happy would you be if people started answering this in Japanese :p?

As above. Also, I would much rather spend the time I have skrittering than trying to piece a letter together or try to figure out what somebody else said.

It's fine to practice your Chinese/Japanese here, but I'd recommend adding an English translation, too.

I don't write in Chinese because I don't know enough to do so yet. :)

謝謝. 再見!

I feel self conscious about writing here. It is kind of like speaking in Chinese. If I am in a room full of foreigners who speak Chinese at the same skill level as I do or better, I feel awkward. If my Chinese is the best in the room, I don't hesitate.

If you put me in a room that only has Chinese people in it, I can talk all day long in Chinese and I won't bat an eye. Some of my friends are the same way.

Also, what everyone else has said has merit. It is kind of rude to the beginners even if we don't acknowledge the traditional/simplified divide.

@icecream: Why aren't YOU writing in Chinese? ;)

すみません、中国語が分かりません。
(I'm sorry, but I don't know Chinese.)

:-D

Please don't, as I wouldn't be able to follow it and I like to read forum posts when my brain is too fried with skrittering.

Actually,if you want to start (new) erudite posts in Chinese that would be fine, as I'd be able to see from the title which ones I should avoid.

Rachael.

@jw1066
I'm nowhere near the thousands of characters you know.

I actually tried writing a few sentences – with the help of Google translate – to see how people would react. I stopped when I came to the conclusion that it was basically “cheating”: if I can’t do it by myself I don’t really know it. And yes, like most of you, I’m self-conscious about my ability. Writing is hard.

Honestly, though, I do know, in the back of my mind, that if I want to take my ability to the next level, I will need to start writing sentences to consolidate and solidify my understanding.

On a side note, I cringe whenever I read old posts that I wrote a few years ago (on other sites). It’s amazing how naïve and stupid I was – and I’ll probably feel the same way about any posts I make in Chinese (or possibly even in English) in a few years.

@icecream I don't really know "thousands", more like "about 1,800". But your point is a good one. To be able to communicate, we should be able to compose sentences that are a) intelligible b) grammatically correct and c) idiomatic, probably in that order. I personally practice that sort of thing with my Mandarin tutor, not on the Skritter forum. While I'm sure many of the more-advanced students here could help me with intelligibility and grammatical correctness, I doubt they could help me write idiomatically as they're mostly not native speakers.

One exercise that I found amazingly helpful when I was learning Spanish was bilingual composition. You write a text in your native language, then translate it into the language you're studying. The next time, you compose in the second language and then translate into your native language. Going from your native language into the second language forces you to figure out how to express new things in the second language, while composing in the second language helps develop fluency and a feel for idiomatic style.

However, if you don't have a native speaker helping you, you won't know if your compositions are intelligible, grammatically correct, or idiomatic. And if the native speaker is not inclined or able to give you good, constructive feedback, you might be making many mistakes without realizing it.

James

"I feel self conscious about writing here. It is kind of like speaking in Chinese. If I am in a room full of foreigners who speak Chinese at the same skill level as I do or better, I feel awkward. If my Chinese is the best in the room, I don't hesitate."

I feel only if our Chinese is on the same level that I would feel uncomfortable in speaking to them in Chinese. But as for talking between friends, I'd add another condition - that their English wasn't very good, and Chinese was a more convenient language to talk in...

(err, feel comfortable, not uncomfortable)...

我本來就沒臉可丟了，想寫啥就寫啥，不怕有人會在乎我的錯誤，更不怕有人會說我在吹牛。。。我就是這麼一個人，天不怕，地不怕。。。大不了我被版主批評了，但我警告你們啊，一旦敢批评我這個想法，我再也不給你們一分钱。

Nick，
兄弟啊，你不用怕，你說我要翻譯，我就專門為你翻译：

简体字

我本来就没脸可丢了，想写啥就写啥，不怕有人会在乎我的错误，更不怕有人会说我在吹牛。。。我就是这么一个人，天不怕，地不怕。。。大不了我被版主批评了，但我警告你们啊，一旦敢批评我这个想法，我再也不给你们一分钱。Nick, 兄弟啊，你不用怕，你说我要翻译，我就专门为你翻译：


英文 (machine translation)

I had no face can be lost, and wanted to write to write Han Han, afraid someone will care about my mistakes, but some people will say that I am not afraid of bragging. . . I was such a person, day fearless. . . I was a big deal Moderator criticism, but I warn you ah, if I dare to criticize the idea, I will not give you a penny. Nick, brother, ah, you do not be afraid, you say I want to translate, I'll translate for you specifically:

@ 穆兒 - 我看你的回答的时候我没见过哪个英语是被电脑翻译的。我刚看就纳闷儿了。“穆兒的英文没有那么不好啊！”我以后看了那句话。。。machine translation.哈哈！

小问题：因为你什么都不怕，我就可以问你一个问题吗？你认识多少简化字？你认识多少繁体字？你给我们简化字和繁体字。那个真不错！


我知道我的手感还很臭。 囧

@穆兒- 我不明白

That's as long as my sentences will get. I know if they get any longer I will start to sound like that machine translation whenever I write in Chinese.

@冰淇淋- 你刚回答了你自己的问题。就是看的人看得不明白。就算只是四个字，也得要东翻西翻的找答案。曲高和寡嘛。

@pts 我是丑陋猕猴，就有尾巴。很有意思！

@James - The explanation for 曲高和寡 given by Nciku is “原指知音难觅；现多比喻言论或作品艰深，不能为众多的人所理解或欣赏。” So, what I meant in my last message was that if I write in Chinese, it will be too difficult for most to understand or appreciate. It has nothing to do with money or tail. Please accept my apology if you felt being slighted. No, I don’t mean that, not even in the slightest sense.

@pts 我为是猕猴感到自豪，而不是为我感到羞愧！！！

@jww1066

我是猿

你是猴子

对各位的捕风捉影也没办法。不过这也突出了用中文在这里沟通的另一个难点。 就是无论写的、看的、两方面的人对中文都只是一知半解，只是凭着所知的一鳞半爪去表达、去解读，就很容易会引起各种各样的误会。

@pts: 对不起，没明白。天不怕地不怕就怕洋鬼子说中国话。

Just don’t know how to deal with those thoughts based on hearsay. But it also highlights another difficulty in using Chinese to communicate in this forum here. That is, neither the one writing it nor the one reading it, has a full mastery of the Chinese language. They are just grabbing the mere crumb that they know to express and to interpret. So it is very easy to cause a wide variety of misunderstandings.

Some years ago I was studying Spanish in Guatemala and was hanging out with a very charismatic, loud, entertaining Hungarian who had arrived in the country six months earlier without speaking a word of Spanish or English, and had become remarkably fluent in that same amount of time. He insisted on calling all waiters and waitresses "seño", which I was pretty sure was only appropriate for use with women, and when I asked him he was quite certain on this point. Later I spoke with my Spanish teacher and he was horrified that anyone would say "seño" to a man; it's the equivalent of saying "Miss" to a man in English, in a culture which is even more macho, and counts as fighting words.

I love to practice languages every chance I get, but I keep in mind that other non-natives might be teaching me something just as crazy as the Hungarian guy was.

James

IMHO it would be great if the native Chinese speaker users, when they make comments in forums, would also give a Chinese "translation" (or the original, hehe). hopefully it doesn't entail much additional effort, and it's much appreciated by the learners, i'm sure.