Learn
Foreign Language - Build Bridge to Friendship
Many of us finds ourselves travelling to a foreign country or receiving visitors from foreign countries who do not
speak or speak little English. The ability to speak foreign language would allows for better communication and lay the bridge for friendship. Some of the common non-English language are German, French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Malay, Tagalog and more. To learn more about foreign language one may consider enrolling in foreign language classes which may incorporate examinations. As an alternative here is what i can share in term of how to learn to speak basic conversational foreign language (especially the ever popular Mandarin).
It is easier and useful to start by learning to pronounce
numbers in the foreign language. Numbers are essential when making purchases like when
buying food, taking a cab or buying souvenir. This can be combine with sign language to facilitate the communication. In terms of pronouncing numbers in Mandarin, here is what i can share :
- Yi (one)
- Er (two)
- San (three)
- Si (four)
- Wu (five)
- Liu (six)
- Qi (seven)
- Ba (eight)
- Jiu (nine)
- Shi (ten)
- Bai (hundred)
- Qian (thousand)
It is important to learn the pronounciation of major roads, food, accomodation and attractions. This would facilitate travel, having meals and finding accomodation. Many of them incorporate numbers in their name.
It is useful to learn basic conversation in foreign language. This would include greetings (eg Ni Hao in Mandarin), thank you(eg Xie Xie in Mandarin), yes/no (eg You/Mei You in Mandarin). One should try to communicate as much as possible while listening to the response from the other parties and not be afraid to make mistakes. It is with more practice that one can improve.
Learning foreign language can be fun but tough and the reward would be in the form of a bridge to friendship.
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