On 25/03/2011 04:46, RussellMc wrote:
> One of may many differences:  It is common to hear a native Chinese
> speaker swap he/she ir use them randomly or use only eg "he"
> regardless.
>

Ah, that makes sense - I have been watching (literally) nothing but=20
Chinese films for the last year, having a growing fascination with the=20
culture. Interestingly, I now prefer to watch in Cantonese (for some=20
unknown reason, apart from the older ones which I like Mandarin for) and=20
have picked up quite a few words. Would love to learn to write/speak at=20
some point (be especially useful for business visits over there)
Anyway, to get to the point, I noticed with many subtitles a recurring=20
error is that when someone refers to a "he", it may say "she" and vice=20
versa. The above could explain this nicely.

> Cantonese/Mandarin is a nice trap for beginners.

I'm sure it is - I read somewhere that Chinese is a tonal language=20
(which would explain the tones they seem to assign to English words. I=20
have noticed this in the films, any Caucasian actors sound very affected=20
- possibly for the benefit of the Chinese viewers) so different tones=20
for the same word mean different things?


--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.