Having already reached an adequate level in Mandarin, being not yet fluent but understanding more than I don't, is learning Cantonese by referring to Mandarin translations a bad idea? I usually use pictures for flashcards, choosing to learn abstract grammatical constructs separately or through context. However, is using example sentences in Cantonese with Mandarin translations actually such a bad idea? My thought process is as follows:
1) The nature of Chinese characters makes it possible to understand the content of a sentence without needing to rely on its sound, so the bad habit of thinking in terms of a foreign language vs. the target language seems to be heavily mitigated.
2) Cantonese, although very different from Mandarin, has virtually the same syntax as far as I can tell, and while Cantonese has some grammatical features that Mandarin does not, translating between the two languages/dialects seems to be trivial, meaning you do not need to make a compromise between having an idiomatic translation and having an accurate one.
3) Subtitles for film and television are overwhelmingly written in Standard Written Chinese, A.K.A. Mandarin, furthermore literary Cantonese is not dissimilar to standard Mandarin or slightly literary Chinese (correct me if I'm wrong), so on-the-fly translation might actually be a good skill to have when learning through media later on.
Thoughts appreciated.
[link] [comments]
from r/ChineseLanguage: a community for people who are studying, teaching, or interested in Chinese! http://bit.ly/2Dly2ct --------
More tips about learning Chinese
http://hellolearnchinese.com
没有评论:
发表评论