Really good chinese brands or products

Pavle said:
Still confused on Xiaomi pronunciation. Lots of people have their own versions!
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Simply replace the X by a C then pretend it is Italian, works for a lot of things that start with X!

With a lot of these things, unless you hear them pronounced properly before your are 4 years old then you will never get them right as your brain isn't programmed to be able to hear them.
 
Seeing you westerners tied up in knots with Chinese names tickles. I'm surprise no Chinese chimes in on this. These names means something in Mandarin. BTW all Chinese, written or spoken are monosyllable. Should see how they write "Elvis Presley" or "MacDonald" in Chinese.
 
Nigel said:
With a lot of these things, unless you hear them pronounced properly before your are 4 years old then you will never get them right as your brain isn't programmed to be able to hear them.
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Many would disagree with your remark, such as linguists, professional actors and speakers of more than one language. It is merely a function of careful observation (tuning your ears to sounds and rhythms), practice and vocal control.
 
Dashmellow said:
Many would disagree with your remark, such as linguists, professional actors and speakers of more than one language. It is merely a function of careful observation (tuning your ears to sounds and rhythms), practice and vocal control.
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I'm sure many would disagree, but there are also many scientists that would say that it has been well proven that the brain stops learning new language at sounds around 4-5 years old.

Teaching a Chinese person to correctly pronounce "Flied Lice" normally takes a long time to get nowhere because there is no 'r' in Chinese and they can't hear that they are getting it wrong, if they are under 4 years old then it is easy.

Teaching an English person to correctly pronounce "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll" is even harder because if they read it then they think it is full of 'l's when there isn't a single one and when they listen to it they think it starts with a 'c' which to a Welsh person is far from the case, in English there isn't a sound that is anything like the welsh letter 'll' and again they simply can't hear that they are getting it wrong.
 
Nigel said:
I'm sure many would disagree, but there are also many scientists that would say that it has been well proven that the brain stops learning new language at sounds around 4-5 years old.
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Can you tell my wife this to explain my awful Spanish?

Dashmellow said:
Many would disagree with your remark, such as linguists, professional actors and speakers of more than one language. It is merely a function of careful observation (tuning your ears to sounds and rhythms), practice and vocal control.
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I agree, living in the country with the language helps. I think the issue is pronunciation and old habits, so yes a good amount of practice, getting it wrong and patience helps. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to pronounce a simple word like "Gracias" correctly. The Spanish R is more similar to an American D, yet not exactly.
 
Nigel said:
I'm sure many would disagree, but there are also many scientists that would say that it has been well proven that the brain stops learning new language at sounds around 4-5 years old.

Teaching a Chinese person to correctly pronounce "Flied Lice" normally takes a long time to get nowhere because there is no 'r' in Chinese and they can't hear that they are getting it wrong, if they are under 4 years old then it is easy.

Teaching an English person to correctly pronounce "Llanfairpwllgwyngyll" is even harder because if they read it then they think it is full of 'l's when there isn't a single one and when they listen to it they think it starts with a 'c' which to a Welsh person is far from the case, in English there isn't a sound that is anything like the welsh letter 'll' and again they simply can't hear that they are getting it wrong.
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The brain may lock onto particular language sounds at an early age but it is fully capable of learning new sounds and how to pronounce them.

Your Welsh example assumes pronunciation is based on how it is spelled rather than how it actually sounds when spoken. As I've already stated, but you are choosing to ignore, learning new language pronunciation requires tuning your ears to sounds and rhythms along with practice and vocal control.
 
Xiaomi according to their video is pronounced Show (as in shower) me.
 
Dashmellow said:
You forgot the second vital question! - "Dónde está el baño"?
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The funny part of that, after living 5 years in Mexico, is the signs for the bathrooms. They use many different words to distinguish between the male and female room so sometimes it's a challenge. One McDonalds just put a big M and H on the doors, some use Cabellero, and those are the easier ones.
 
I was in Budapest a couple of weekends ago and for some reason I really struggled with pronunciation of their word for thank-you (köszönöm) - they all appreciated I was making the effort but it did keep raising a few smiles from the bar women :)
 
I pronounced the place where I lived inMexico so badly that the taxis drivers didn't understand me, I had to write it and show them. I always laughed at myself, and everyone was nice, so all part of the experience.

Don't try that in Manhattan. I had a friend visit here from Mexico, he raised his hand to get a taxi, it came, he opened the door and an old women ran into him with her shoulder pushing him out of the way. She said "tourist" as she shut the door and left. He is not a small guy, he said he was so shocked that he didn't even react. Welcome to NY, now go home :p
 
Dashmellow said:
Your Welsh example assumes pronunciation is based on how it is spelled rather than how it actually sounds when spoken. As I've already stated, but you are choosing to ignore, learning new language pronunciation requires tuning your ears to sounds and rhythms along with practice and vocal control.
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Well Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is pronounced exactly as it is spelt, but most English people can't pronounce it even if they have only heard it and never seen it and most never learn to pronounce it even if they move to live there.
 
Nigel said:
Well Llanfairpwllgwyngyll is pronounced exactly as it is spelt, but most English people can't pronounce it even if they have only heard it and never seen it and most never learn to pronounce it even if they move to live there.
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Maybe so, but this seems like an absurdly obscure example used as an argument about a vastly more generalized question.
 
It's a clutch problem :p
 
GJHS said:
The funny part of that, after living 5 years in Mexico, is the signs for the bathrooms. They use many different words to distinguish between the male and female room so sometimes it's a challenge. One McDonalds just put a big M and H on the doors, some use Cabellero, and those are the easier ones.
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eggssausage.jpg

:D
 
GJHS said:
Xiaomi according to their video is pronounced Show (as in shower) me.
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Xiaomi literary mean "small rice", Yi means 1 (one) in mandarin.
 
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