Episode 23: Learning Chinese Episode 23: Chinesisch lernen Επεισόδιο 23: Μαθαίνοντας κινέζικα Episode 23: Learning Chinese Episodio 23: Aprender chino Épisode 23 : Apprendre le chinois Episodio 23: Imparare il cinese 第23話：中国語を学ぶ 에피소드 23: 중국어 배우기 Aflevering 23: Chinees leren Odcinek 23: Nauka chińskiego Episódio 23: Aprender chinês Эпизод 23: Изучение китайского языка Avsnitt 23: Att lära sig kinesiska Bölüm 23: Çince Öğrenmek Епізод 23: Вивчаємо китайську мову 第23集：学中文 第23集：學習中文

Nick: Today Wendy and I are talking about learning how to speak Chinese. Nick: Heute reden Wendy und ich darüber, wie man Chinesisch spricht. Nick: Hoje a Wendy e eu estamos a falar sobre aprender a falar chinês. Uhh, so it will be mainly you who will be talking, but before we get into that, a little-known fact is that we once made a deal that I would learn Chinese and you would learn Russian. Ähh, also werden hauptsächlich Sie sprechen, aber bevor wir darauf eingehen, ist eine wenig bekannte Tatsache, dass wir einmal einen Deal gemacht haben, dass ich Chinesisch lernen würde und Sie Russisch lernen würden. Uhh, así que serás principalmente tú quien hable, pero antes de entrar en materia, un hecho poco conocido es que una vez hicimos un trato: yo aprendería chino y tú aprenderías ruso. اوه، پس این شما هستید که صحبت خواهید کرد، اما قبل از اینکه وارد این موضوع شویم، یک واقعیت ناشناخته این است که ما یک بار قراردادی بسته بودیم که من چینی و شما روسی یاد بگیرید. 주로 당신이 이야기하게 되겠지만, 그 이야기를 시작하기 전에 잘 알려지지 않은 사실을 하나 알려드리자면, 우리는 한때 내가 중국어를 배우고 당신이 러시아어를 배우기로 약속한 적이 있습니다. Uhh, então vais ser principalmente tu a falar, mas antes de entrarmos nisso, um facto pouco conhecido é que uma vez fizemos um acordo em que eu aprenderia chinês e tu aprenderias russo. Гм, тож говоритимете в основному ви, але перш ніж ми перейдемо до цього, маловідомий факт полягає в тому, що ми одного разу домовилися, що я буду вивчати китайську, а ви – російську.

Wendy: Yep.

Nick: And it was at a time when we hadn’t been to China or a Chinese-speaking, uhh, country, uhh, or to Russia or to a Russian-speaking country, but we thought in our travels that that was going to be quite a big part of the years to come and so we made this agreement. Nick: Und es war zu einer Zeit, als wir nicht in China oder einem chinesischsprachigen, ähm, Land, ähm oder in Russland oder einem russischsprachigen Land waren, aber wir dachten auf unseren Reisen, dass das gehen würde ein ziemlich großer Teil der kommenden Jahre sein und so haben wir diese Vereinbarung getroffen. Nick: 당시에는 중국이나 중국어권 국가, 러시아나 러시아어권 국가에 가본 적이 없었지만, 여행을 다니면서 앞으로 몇 년 안에 중국이나 러시아어권 국가가 상당히 중요해질 것이라고 생각해서 이 계약을 체결하게 되었습니다. Nick: E foi numa altura em que ainda não tínhamos estado na China ou num país de língua chinesa, uhh, uhh, ou na Rússia ou num país de língua russa, mas pensámos, nas nossas viagens, que essa seria uma grande parte dos anos vindouros e, por isso, fizemos este acordo. Nick: Çin'e ya da Çince konuşulan bir ülkeye, Rusya'ya ya da Rusça konuşulan bir ülkeye gitmediğimiz bir zamandı, ancak seyahatlerimizde bunun gelecek yılların oldukça büyük bir parçası olacağını düşündük ve bu yüzden bu anlaşmayı yaptık. And I’m not sure how we decided who got which language. Und ich bin mir nicht sicher, wie wir entschieden haben, wer welche Sprache hat. E não sei bem como é que decidimos quem fica com que língua.

Wendy: No.

Nick: Umm, but I think I was quite interested in Chinese so I said, “OK, I’ll learn Chinese.” Uhh, and then we found out that we were going to go and live in China, we had a work project that we were doing there and we would be spending about six months in China. Nick: Ähm, aber ich glaube, ich habe mich sehr für Chinesisch interessiert, also sagte ich: "OK, ich werde Chinesisch lernen." Ähh, und dann fanden wir heraus, dass wir nach China gehen und dort leben würden. Wir hatten ein Arbeitsprojekt, das wir dort machten, und wir würden ungefähr sechs Monate in China verbringen. Nick: Umm, mas acho que estava bastante interessado em chinês, por isso disse: "OK, vou aprender chinês". E depois descobrimos que íamos viver para a China, tínhamos um projeto de trabalho que estávamos a fazer lá e íamos passar cerca de seis meses na China. And so I started to learn a little bit of Chinese. Und so fing ich an, ein bisschen Chinesisch zu lernen. Comecei então a aprender um pouco de chinês. I had a book with an audio, uhh, set as well and I was doing a little bit of Chinese. Ich hatte auch ein Buch mit Audio, ähm, und ich machte ein bisschen Chinesisch. 오디오 세트가 있는 책이 있어서 중국어를 조금 하고 있었어요. Também tinha um livro com um conjunto áudio e estava a fazer um pouco de chinês. And I made a little bit of progress, still very much at the beginner level. Und ich habe ein bisschen Fortschritte gemacht, immer noch sehr auf Anfängerniveau. 그리고 저는 여전히 초보자 수준에 머물러 있지만 조금씩 발전했습니다. E fiz alguns progressos, ainda muito no nível de principiante. Umm, but then actually when we got to China, then I started working full-time and I just didn’t have the motivation - even though we were in China, so it would have been very useful to continue and to improve - umm, I just didn’t have the energy to come home from work and study Chinese, basically. Ähm, aber als wir dann nach China kamen, fing ich an, Vollzeit zu arbeiten, und ich hatte einfach nicht die Motivation - obwohl wir in China waren, also wäre es sehr nützlich gewesen, weiterzumachen und uns zu verbessern - ähm, Ich hatte einfach nicht die Energie, von der Arbeit nach Hause zu kommen und Chinesisch zu lernen. Umm, but then actually when we got to China, then I started working full-time and I just didn't have the motivation - even though we were in China, so it would have been very useful to continue and to improve - umm, I just didn't have the energy to come home from work and study Chinese, basically. 하지만 사실 중국에 도착한 후 풀타임으로 일하기 시작했고, 중국에 있었기 때문에 계속 공부하고 발전하는 것이 매우 유용했을 텐데도 불구하고 퇴근 후 집에 돌아와서 중국어를 공부할 에너지가 없었어요. Humm, mas depois, quando chegámos à China, comecei a trabalhar a tempo inteiro e não tinha motivação - apesar de estarmos na China, teria sido muito útil continuar e melhorar - humm, não tinha energia para chegar a casa do trabalho e estudar chinês, basicamente. And so that was the end of my brief experience with Chinese. Und das war das Ende meiner kurzen Erfahrung mit Chinesisch. And so that was the end of my brief experience with Chinese. 그렇게 중국어에 대한 저의 짧은 경험은 끝났습니다. E foi assim que terminou a minha breve experiência com a língua chinesa.

Wendy: Yeah. Wendy: Yeah.

Nick: And then we found that China became a big part of our lives for a while, because the following year we went back to China and we had about three more months, again related to a work contract that we were doing there. Nick: Und dann stellten wir fest, dass China für eine Weile ein wichtiger Teil unseres Lebens wurde, weil wir im folgenden Jahr nach China zurückkehrten und noch drei Monate Zeit hatten, wieder im Zusammenhang mit einem Arbeitsvertrag, den wir dort machten. Nick: 그리고 다음 해에 다시 중국으로 돌아가서 3개월 정도 더 머물렀는데, 이 역시 중국에서 진행하던 업무 계약과 관련된 일이었기 때문에 한동안은 중국이 저희 삶에서 큰 부분을 차지하게 되었습니다. Nick: E depois descobrimos que a China se tornou uma grande parte das nossas vidas durante algum tempo, porque no ano seguinte voltámos à China e tivemos mais três meses, mais uma vez relacionados com um contrato de trabalho que estávamos a fazer lá. Uhh, and it was then that you started learning Chinese. Ähh, und dann haben Sie angefangen, Chinesisch zu lernen. Uhh, e foi nessa altura que começou a aprender chinês.

Wendy: I did, yeah. Wendy: Ja. So, the first … our first trip to China was in Beijing, we spent about five or six months living and working in Beijing and, uhh, we were working with lots of Chinese people but they all spoke English very well. Also, die erste… unsere erste Reise nach China war in Peking, wir haben ungefähr fünf oder sechs Monate in Peking gelebt und gearbeitet und wir haben mit vielen Chinesen gearbeitet, aber alle sprachen sehr gut Englisch. A nossa primeira viagem à China foi a Pequim, passámos cerca de cinco ou seis meses a viver e a trabalhar em Pequim e trabalhámos com muitos chineses, mas todos eles falavam inglês muito bem. So even though it would have been very useful to … for us to know Chinese, we were able to get by in Beijing without it, you know. Obwohl es sehr nützlich gewesen wäre,… Chinesisch zu lernen, konnten wir in Peking ohne Chinesisch auskommen, wissen Sie. Entonces, aunque hubiera sido muy útil para... para nosotros saber chino, pudimos sobrevivir en Beijing sin eso, ya sabes. 그래서 중국어를 알면 매우 유용했을 텐데도 베이징에서는 중국어 없이도 잘 지낼 수 있었어요. Por isso, apesar de ter sido muito útil... para nós sabermos chinês, conseguimos viver em Pequim sem isso, sabe. And whenever we ran into a problem in a shop or something trying to communicate with someone, we would just call one of our English-speaking Chinese colleagues and pass the phone over, and we would get through it somehow. Und wenn wir in einem Geschäft auf ein Problem stießen oder versuchten, mit jemandem zu kommunizieren, riefen wir einfach einen unserer englischsprachigen chinesischen Kollegen an und gaben das Telefon weiter, und wir kamen irgendwie durch. Y siempre que nos encontrábamos con un problema en una tienda o intentando comunicarnos con alguien, llamábamos a uno de nuestros colegas chinos que hablaba inglés y le pasábamos el teléfono, y de alguna manera lo solucionábamos. 매장 등에서 의사소통에 문제가 생기면 영어를 구사하는 중국인 동료에게 전화를 걸어 전화를 넘겨주면 어떻게든 문제를 해결할 수 있었습니다. E sempre que nos deparávamos com um problema numa loja ou qualquer outra coisa ao tentar comunicar com alguém, telefonávamos a um dos nossos colegas chineses que falavam inglês e passávamos o telefone, e conseguíamos resolver o problema de alguma forma.

But when we went back the next year, umm, we were based in Guangzhou in the south but then we were also spending a lot of time travelling and the very first, uhh, travel … you know, first trip that we took in China when we were just travelling for fun and not working was to a very remote province, uhh, in kind of the west of China called Gansu. Aber als wir im nächsten Jahr zurückkamen, ähm, waren wir in Guangzhou im Süden ansässig, aber dann verbrachten wir auch viel Zeit auf Reisen und die allererste, ähm, Reise ... weißt du, erste Reise, die wir in China unternommen haben, als Wir waren nur zum Spaß unterwegs und arbeiteten nicht in einer sehr abgelegenen Provinz namens Gansu im Westen Chinas. Mas quando voltámos no ano seguinte, umm, estávamos sediados em Guangzhou, no sul, mas também passávamos muito tempo a viajar e a primeira, uhh, viagem ... sabes, a primeira viagem que fizemos na China, quando estávamos a viajar apenas por diversão e não a trabalhar, foi para uma província muito remota, uhh, numa espécie de oeste da China chamada Gansu. Ama gelecek yıl geri döndüğümüzde, ımm, güneyde Guangzhou'da bulunuyorduk ama aynı zamanda seyahat etmek için çok fazla zaman harcıyorduk ve ilk, uhh, seyahat ... bilirsiniz, Çin'de yaptığımız ilk seyahat sadece eğlence için seyahat ediyorduk ve çalışmamak çok uzak bir eyaletteydi, uhh, Çin'in batısındaki Gansu denen bir tür. Uhh, which is … doesn’t see very many tourists. Ähh, das heißt ... sieht nicht sehr viele Touristen. Uhh, que é ... não vê muitos turistas. Umm, looking back in hindsight it was maybe not the best choice for our first trip because we didn’t know what we were doing and, you know, it’s not where most tourists go and we didn’t realise how difficult it was going to be to communicate. Rückblickend war es vielleicht nicht die beste Wahl für unsere erste Reise, weil wir nicht wussten, was wir taten, und wissen Sie, es ist nicht der Ort, an den die meisten Touristen gehen, und wir wussten nicht, wie schwierig es werden würde zu kommunizieren sein. 지금 생각해보면 우리가 무엇을 해야 할지 몰랐고, 대부분의 관광객이 가는 곳도 아니었으며, 의사소통이 얼마나 어려울지 몰랐기 때문에 첫 여행으로서는 최선의 선택이 아니었던 것 같습니다. Humm, olhando para trás, em retrospetiva, talvez não tenha sido a melhor escolha para a nossa primeira viagem, porque não sabíamos o que estávamos a fazer e, sabe, não é onde a maioria dos turistas vai e não nos apercebemos de como seria difícil comunicar. Umm, but it was extremely difficult. Ähm, aber es war extrem schwierig. Humm, mas foi extremamente difícil. And so I started learning Chinese just purely as a survival skill. Und so fing ich an, Chinesisch nur als Überlebensfähigkeit zu lernen. Por isso, comecei a aprender chinês apenas por uma questão de sobrevivência. At that point I was still studying Russian and I wanted to focus on Russian so I wasn’t really interested in learning Chinese for fun, for the pleasure of going through the process of learning, but I just needed some Chinese, I really needed to speak some basic Chinese. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt lernte ich noch Russisch und wollte mich auf Russisch konzentrieren, also war ich nicht wirklich daran interessiert, Chinesisch zum Spaß zu lernen, um den Lernprozess zu durchlaufen, aber ich brauchte nur etwas Chinesisch, das ich wirklich brauchte sprechen einige grundlegende Chinesisch. 그 당시 저는 러시아어를 공부하고 있었고 러시아어에 집중하고 싶었기 때문에 재미로, 배우는 과정의 즐거움을 위해 중국어를 배우는 데는 별 관심이 없었지만 기본적인 중국어가 필요했어요. Nessa altura, ainda estava a estudar russo e queria concentrar-me no russo, por isso não estava realmente interessado em aprender chinês por diversão, pelo prazer de passar pelo processo de aprendizagem, mas precisava de um pouco de chinês, precisava mesmo de falar um pouco de chinês básico. And so I studied and I found that even learning a few words made a huge difference. Also habe ich studiert und festgestellt, dass selbst das Lernen einiger Wörter einen großen Unterschied macht. Por isso, estudei e descobri que o facto de aprender algumas palavras fazia uma enorme diferença. It made it so much easier and so then I learned a little bit more and a little bit more and then I got hooked on it, and I really loved it. Es machte es so viel einfacher und so lernte ich ein bisschen mehr und ein bisschen mehr und dann war ich begeistert und ich habe es wirklich geliebt. 훨씬 더 쉬워져서 조금씩 더 배우고 조금씩 더 배우다 보니 그 매력에 푹 빠져서 정말 좋아하게 되었어요. Tornou tudo muito mais fácil e depois aprendi um pouco mais e um pouco mais e depois fiquei viciado e adorei. And, uhh, continued to study for years after that. Und danach habe ich noch Jahre weiter studiert. 그리고 그 후에도 몇 년 동안 계속 공부했습니다. E, uhh, continuou a estudar durante anos depois disso.

Nick: Yeah it’s funny because I think originally you said that you didn’t really like the sound of it. Nick: Ja, es ist lustig, weil ich denke, dass du ursprünglich gesagt hast, dass du den Sound nicht wirklich magst. Nick: Sim, é engraçado porque acho que originalmente disseste que não gostavas muito do som.

Wendy: Right. Wendy: Richtig.

Nick: But then you changed your mind completely and then you really liked it. Nick: Aber dann hast du deine Meinung komplett geändert und es hat dir wirklich gut gefallen. Nick: Mas depois mudaste completamente de ideias e passaste a gostar muito.

Wendy: Yeah, it’s true. Wendy: Sim, é verdade. Yeah, I mean, and I can still remember kind of what it sounded like to me back then when I didn’t understand it at all and it was just sounds. Ja, ich meine, und ich kann mich noch gut daran erinnern, wie es sich damals für mich angehört hat, als ich es überhaupt nicht verstanden habe und es nur Geräusche waren. 네, 그 당시에는 전혀 알아듣지 못하고 그냥 소리로만 들리던 게 아직도 기억이 납니다. Sim, quero dizer, e ainda me lembro do que me parecia na altura, quando não percebia nada e eram apenas sons. And, yeah, it … the sounds were kind of grating. Und ja, es ... die Geräusche waren irgendwie kratzend. 그리고 네, 소리가 좀 거슬리긴 했어요. E, sim, os sons eram um bocado irritantes. Ve evet, o... sesler gıcırdıyordu. It’s very different from English because it’s a tonal language and we don’t … English is not a tonal language. Es unterscheidet sich sehr von Englisch, weil es eine Tonsprache ist und wir nicht ... Englisch ist keine Tonsprache. É muito diferente do inglês porque é uma língua tonal e nós não... o inglês não é uma língua tonal. Umm, so yeah, it just sounded very strange to my ear and it sounded loud, it sounded like people were always shouting, and I wasn’t attracted to the sound of the language. Ähm, also ja, es klang für mein Ohr nur sehr seltsam und es klang laut, es klang, als würden die Leute immer schreien, und ich fühlte mich nicht vom Klang der Sprache angezogen. Humm, por isso, sim, soava muito estranho ao meu ouvido e soava alto, parecia que as pessoas estavam sempre a gritar, e não me sentia atraída pelo som da língua. But now I really am. 하지만 지금은 정말 그렇습니다. Now I love speaking in tones. Jetzt liebe ich es, in Tönen zu sprechen. I think it’s really fun!

Nick: And so what exactly is a tone? Nick: Und was genau ist ein Ton? Nick: E o que é exatamente um tom? Because a lot of languages, or certainly the languages that Western people are familiar with, don’t have tones. Weil viele Sprachen oder sicherlich die Sprachen, mit denen westliche Menschen vertraut sind, keine Töne haben. Porque muitas línguas, ou certamente as línguas com que os ocidentais estão familiarizados, não têm tons.

Wendy: Well, if … you’re probably familiar with the concept of tones from music. Wendy: Nun, wenn ... Sie wahrscheinlich mit dem Konzept der Töne aus der Musik vertraut sind. Wendy: Bem, se ... provavelmente estão familiarizados com o conceito de tons da música. Umm, so Chinese has four tones, so I’ll just use, uhh, the sound ma as an example because, uhh, ma can be, well, four or five different words, at least, probably more, but it’s a different word depending on the tons that you use. Ähm, Chinesisch hat also vier Töne, also verwende ich nur den Ton ma als Beispiel, weil ma vier oder fünf verschiedene Wörter sein kann, zumindest wahrscheinlich mehr, aber es ist ein anderes Wort abhängig von den Tonnen, die Sie verwenden. So, it could be pronounced as mā, or it could be má, or it could be mǎ or it could be mà. So könnte es als mā ausgesprochen werden, oder es könnte má sein, oder es könnte mǎ sein, oder es könnte mà sein. Alright, so those are four different tones: mā, má, mǎ, mà. Umm, and those mean completely different things. Humm, e isso significa coisas completamente diferentes. One means mother, one means horse, umm, and you really have to get the tone right in order to be understood. Um quer dizer mãe, outro quer dizer cavalo, humm, e é preciso ter o tom certo para ser compreendido.

Nick: And that’s another great challenge of people learning Chinese is also related to written Chinese. Nick: E esse é outro grande desafio para as pessoas que estão a aprender chinês, que também está relacionado com o chinês escrito. And so if you look at your example of ma, if it’s written in the Westernisation of Chinese script, or the … in the Latin alphabet, which is called pinyin, then it looks basically the same. Wenn Sie sich also Ihr Beispiel von ma ansehen, wenn es in der Verwestlichung der chinesischen Schrift geschrieben ist, oder das… im lateinischen Alphabet, das Pinyin heißt, dann sieht es im Grunde gleich aus. En als je dus naar je voorbeeld van ma kijkt, als het is geschreven in de verwestersing van het Chinese schrift, of het ... in het Latijnse alfabet, dat pinyin wordt genoemd, dan ziet het er in wezen hetzelfde uit. Por isso, se olharmos para o exemplo do ma, se for escrito na escrita chinesa ocidentalizada, ou no ... no alfabeto latino, que se chama pinyin, tem basicamente o mesmo aspeto.

Wendy: Right.

Nick: It’s the m-a, and then there’s some accents on some of the letters. Nick: É o m-a, e depois há alguns acentos em algumas letras.

Wendy: Right.

Nick: But to someone to like me, that seems like that’s the same word even though it’s four different ones. Nick: Mas para alguém como eu, parece que é a mesma palavra, apesar de serem quatro diferentes. But one of the things that you always say was really important in your leaning of Chinese was that you embraced Chinese characters early on and really wanted to learn the Chinese characters. Mas uma das coisas que diz sempre ter sido muito importante na sua aprendizagem do chinês foi o facto de ter adotado os caracteres chineses desde cedo e de querer realmente aprender os caracteres chineses.

Wendy: Yeah.

Nick: And then you begin to think of words as characters and then you are able to separate the different tones into different words.

Wendy: Right, uhh, yeah, and I think that, uhh, the book that you were using when you first started studying Chinese, it didn’t teach the characters at all. It just spoke … it just taught spoken language and so it just used pinyin, uhh, to teach you and I don’t agree with that method. I think it is really important to learn the characters and I’d even say that it’s important to learn not just how to read the characters but how to write them. 저는 한자를 배우는 것이 정말 중요하다고 생각하며, 한자를 읽는 방법뿐만 아니라 한자를 쓰는 방법도 배우는 것이 중요하다고 말하고 싶습니다. Penso que é muito importante aprender as personagens e diria mesmo que é importante aprender não só a ler as personagens mas também a escrevê-las. Uhh, even though in practice you don’t really need to write things out by hand much these days, because, well, if you’re typing on a computer then you can use a kind of pinyin input system, but in order to … the learning that you do by writing and learning all the different strokes and the order of the strokes, you have to get that deep into it in order to really see it and see all the different components and be able to recognise all the different characters individually, because there are so many of them and a lot of them look very similar, umm, kind of at first glance. Ähh, obwohl Sie in der Praxis heutzutage nicht mehr viel von Hand schreiben müssen, denn wenn Sie auf einem Computer tippen, können Sie eine Art Pinyin-Eingabesystem verwenden, aber um ... Wenn Sie lernen, indem Sie all die verschiedenen Striche und die Reihenfolge der Striche schreiben und lernen, müssen Sie so tief in sie eindringen, um sie wirklich zu sehen und all die verschiedenen Komponenten zu sehen und in der Lage zu sein, alle verschiedenen Zeichen einzeln zu erkennen , weil es so viele von ihnen gibt und viele von ihnen auf den ersten Blick sehr ähnlich aussehen, ähm. 컴퓨터로 타이핑하는 경우 일종의 병음 입력 시스템을 사용할 수 있기 때문에 실제로는 요즘에는 손으로 많이 쓸 필요가 없지만 ... 모든 다른 획과 획의 순서를 쓰고 배우면서 학습하는 것은 실제로 그것을보고 모든 다른 구성 요소를보고 모든 다른 문자를 개별적으로 인식 할 수 있으려면 너무 많고 많은 문자가 언뜻보기에 매우 비슷해 보이기 때문에 그렇게 깊이 들어가야 합니다. So in the beginning I just learned how to read and I thought that would be enough, uhh, but eventually I realised that if I was going to get to a high level I needed to learn how to write as well, because that was the only way to learn how to read well enough to really advance. Am Anfang habe ich gerade das Lesen gelernt und dachte, das würde reichen, aber irgendwann wurde mir klar, dass ich auch das Schreiben lernen musste, wenn ich ein hohes Niveau erreichen wollte, denn das war das einzige Weg zu lernen, wie man gut genug liest, um wirklich voranzukommen. No início, aprendi apenas a ler e pensei que isso seria suficiente, mas acabei por perceber que, se queria chegar a um nível elevado, tinha de aprender a escrever também, porque era a única forma de aprender a ler suficientemente bem para avançar.

Nick: And so, in the end, what would you say is the level that you got to when you were at the peak of your Chinese powers? Nick: 그렇다면 결국 중국 파워가 절정에 달했을 때 도달한 수준은 어느 정도라고 할 수 있을까요?

Wendy: Oh dear. Wendy: Oh dear. Umm, well, I mean, I took the official exam which is the called the HSK, and I passed the highest level of that which is HSK 6. So, you know, that’s supposed to be the equivalent of C2 in the European, umm, system. It’s supposed to be, you know, the highest level that you can get to without being a native speaker of the language. 해당 언어의 원어민이 아니어도 도달할 수 있는 최고 수준이라고 할 수 있습니다. Now, I don’t know if I would say I was ever really at that level, but I was more or less fluent. 제가 정말 그 정도 수준이었다고 말할 수 있을지는 모르겠지만, 어느 정도 유창한 편이었습니다. Não sei se diria que alguma vez estive realmente a esse nível, mas era mais ou menos fluente. I could definitely hold a conversation about lots of different topics. I could definitely hold a conversation about lots of different topics. 다양한 주제에 대해 확실히 대화를 나눌 수 있었습니다. Unfortunately that’s not the case right now. I have a lost a lot of my Chinese and that’s something that I’ve noticed with Chinese more than any language is that if I don’t practice it every day, I forget it really quickly, which is a shame because I haven’t been practicing every day for the past couple of years or so now, and I really need to get back into that habit because I don’t want to lose it completely. 저는 중국어를 많이 잃어버렸는데, 그 어떤 언어보다 중국어에서 느낀 점은 매일 연습하지 않으면 정말 빨리 잊어버린다는 것인데, 지난 몇 년 동안 매일 연습하지 않아서 안타깝고 완전히 잃어버리고 싶지 않기 때문에 다시 습관을 들여야겠어요. Umm, even though it’s not my main focus right now and I’m doing lots of other things, it is important to just carve out those 10 or 15 minutes to practice a little bit. 지금은 집중하고 있는 분야가 아니고 다른 일을 많이 하고 있지만, 10분이나 15분이라도 시간을 내서 조금씩 연습하는 것이 중요합니다.

Nick: And like you said once, that, learning Chinese is, essentially, a lifetime adventure. Nick: 그리고 말씀하신 것처럼 중국어를 배우는 것은 본질적으로 평생의 모험이라고 할 수 있습니다.

Wendy: It is, yeah. You’ll never be bored again once you start learning Chinese because you’ll always have so many more things that you can learn, whether you decide you want to pick up traditional characters in addition to simplified characters or, you know, if you want to start learning about Chinese opera and then learning all these new characters that come in in this, you know … because it’s a different way of speaking that they used in the opera. 중국어를 배우기 시작하면 간체자 외에 번체자를 배우고 싶거나, 중국 오페라에 대해 배우기 시작한 다음 오페라에 나오는 새로운 문자를 모두 배우고 싶을 때 등 배울 수 있는 것이 훨씬 더 많기 때문에 지루할 일이 없을 것입니다. Like, there are just so many facets to it, so, yes, it is a lifelong adventure. 정말 다양한 측면이 있기 때문에 평생의 모험이라고 할 수 있습니다. Há tantas facetas, por isso, sim, é uma aventura para toda a vida.