I was desperate for a hobby, desperate for a heroin-replacement (granted: Chinese wouldn't make a good heroin-substitute for most people, but it does for me).
I was also desperate to educate myself. I wish to speak Chinese and Japanese fluently. There is nothing new about this goal, which has been with me since my teens. So I have decided (or fixated) on training myself up as a translator. To be a qualified translator, you need a postgraduate degree on top of a language BA. Most translators can offer at least two languages on top of their own, so there is no conflict between improving my German and French and studying Chinese. Especially as I could do that post-grad in Germany, which would effectively qualify me to translate Chinese into German as well as English. German is the number one business language of Europe (after English, of course) and Chinese, as we all know, is the most-spoken language anywhere on earth. So I doubt I'd be out of work...
I've been looking into BA courses in Chinese actually in China. Annual tuition fees start from about £1600 ($2500US) pa for four years.
One of the websites I consulted complained that many of these courses concentrate on reading and writing at the expense of listening and speaking. But who cares, when you can pop outside to an authentic Chinese noodle-stall and listen and speak to your heart's content?
One major major hurdle is that every course I have looked at imposes a meximum age limit of between 30 and 40 years ~ I am 39 next spring.
But where there's a will there's a way. I have a cunning plan up my sleeve that might hopefully put some oomph behind my appeal against this ridiculous regulation.
Oxford, Cambridge and London universities offer Chinese and Japanese studies, but the prospectuses state rather bafflingly that a prior knowledge of the language won't help your application that much. Plus they specify that their courses aren't suitable for native speakers. Looking closer I see why: these courses promise only to take you to about a year past A-level ~ which is where my German is now! Which all in all suggests that if I cannot do Chinese in China I may as well get on to a "Sinologie" course in Germany, killing two linguistic birds with one stone.
I desperately need a copy of Hammer's German Grammar (the standard advanced reference work). My written German is still pretty dire ~ despite my daily blogging attempts. I'm having less and less trouble reading zentraleuropäische books and websites as time goes by, which shows I'm at least making some progress. (And I do know the German for a corpse (eine Leiche), which means I can describe my face in the mirror at six in the morning...)I do apologize once more if my whittering is boring. I have a slightly obsessive temperament, you might see... Which also might explain why I've found heroin so very hard to kick.
Right from the word go I had a sense that my drug addiction had turned my strengths against me ~ so now my strengths were weaknesses. When I love something I give it everything. I have loved "B" like nothing else. So I gave my entire life to heroin.
And that, my friends, has been the crux of my problem...
Illustrated: Chengdu (top), home of the University of Sichuan... famous for its Szechuan chicken (bottom)!
Chinese for today:
Zhe4 这=this shi4 是=to be ren4shi 认识=recognize
zhen1 真=really gao1xing4 高兴=happy bei1 杯=cup
jiu3 酒=alcohol ba 把=suggestion particle
ne 呢=question particle hui4 会=know how/can/will
ju2zi 桔子=orange 橘子 also = ju2zi, orange
ju2zi-zhi1 橘子汁 / 桔子汁 = orange juice
ma 吗 = question particle
The numbers refer to tones: 1 high level; 2 high rising; 3 mid-low-mid dipping 4 falling. No number=neutral tone (the de facto 5th tone).
Chinese names
12 comments:
I hope that you will pursue the interest and study of languages. It sounds like a great goal. Keep putting it into action.
I find it hard not to. Only "proper" hobby I got.
Have a great weekend, Gledds. Have fun studying.
Love,
SB
Well if you must have an obsession better it be languages than heroin Gleds. Good Luck with it all. x
Cheers m'dears. And a wondrous weekend to y'all!
There are many drugs that cause addiction as that found in Findrxonline: Vicodin(which relieves Chronic Pain), which should be taken with medical supervision as well just avoid addiction.There are many drugs that cause addiction as that found in Findrxonline: vicodin (which relieves chronic pain), which should be taken with medical supervision as well just avoid addiction.
Something I noticed from my time online and talking to addicts across the Pond: abuse of pharmaceutical painkillers there is far more rife than it is here. In fact I don't know anyone who has abused "oxy" or "dilaudid" or anything similar in the past couple of years... if ever.
Here, street opiates means heroin and methadone as a poor substitute.
I take methadone because I (now) WANT to be opiate clean, though it's still an uphill battle. But heroin and methadone are the only choices. Methadone ampules for injection occasionally arise as 50mg in 1ml - they are ordinarily scripted by private doctors (and why on earth would you want to sell something like that? But that's just me: I'm a drug user not a drug dealer...) The other heroin substitute occasionally seen, which also used to be more common is dihydrocodeine pills - aka "DFs" (short for DF118, which it (apparently) used to actually say on one side of the pills... As far as the UK and opiates goes, that's about it...
Perhaps I should add that the figures I read put the UK, with its 60 million population AHEAD of the US (with 300 million) in heroin consumption at 35 tonnes annually, compared to about 20.
Which figures I personally find hard to believe, but I have encountered them more than once...
Hey mate, I'm glad to see you have such a passion for languages. I hope they manage to keep your thoughts of the dope a bit more, it can only be good for you no?
I hope you're well!
V.
Damn Gleds...all this talk of heroin has made me get another shot of this nasty, sticky, but highly potent black tar ready for injection. Right-O then...time to soothe the receptors! Later Old Chap.
Hi, you visited my blog in June! i havent done any blog since then, been busy and (boring)!
what an amazing blog is yours :)
as for Sea Horses, i have got a link on the blog to a Sea Horses website, but the reason is because i like them, and was first taught to count (to 3) by my mother using the 3 seahorses on the wall (red, green, blue) (like flying ducks etc) in our house in Brazil where we lived for a bit. and i like them. oh i said that.
and thank you for visiting blog and comment - am in Scotland btw.
Can they do the age thing these days? I'd have thought that was illegal. It ought to be any road
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