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taaba -

I thought 香蕉人 is used for non-Chinese born Chinese. Once I had this discussion with our
lecturer once and she was saying about how some people look Chinese on the surface (their
appearance and the way they look) and within they are so far away from being real Chinese, and the
Culture, feelings and way of thinking is far from a Chinese person. (like Banana Yellow on the
outside, White in the inside)!.



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laowai1980 -

Banana man, hehe, not insulting at all, I can do with that
That's a reference to tribes who don't have an alphabet right? (Just saw a post above about
non-Chinese born Chinese and trying to check the origin).










kaykaybobay -

Hello-

Well as my first post I must say I find the pinyin very difficult, it kinda of joggles my brain
even trying to read it. I have been learning mandarin for a year and a couple of monthes now. My
tutor who is from Taiwan had me using the John Defrancis books wich are pretty good. At first I
was praticing writing everyday but with new job I just dotn have the time, though I do more so
now. I would say I have learned all the vocabulary from the beginner Defrancis book by just pure
memorization. I think memorizing the characters has maybe even helped my brain! I havent used the
pinyin at all in my studies so far. Just seemed like I had to learn an extra language or
something. I just memorized a lesson of vocab a week while riding on the bus. So far I can recall
all the vocab. I would say then Pinyin is good for some, just maybe not everyone.










[欧阳江] -

You don't need to know the characters to be able to speak Chinese.










calibre2001 -

It's a term used to label 'westernised' ethnic chinese people. 'East' and 'West' are culturally
different (morales, philosophy etc), hence the label. However the inability to speak Chinese (or
any of its dialects) supercedes the above 'condition' in reality. So, if a chinese behaves
'Eastern' but is unable to speak chinese, he/she is a banana. Strangely the term does not apply to
the converse in real life.

In the US, 'westernised' Filipino-Americans are apparently labelled 'coconuts'. In India, it's
'Hamburger Kid'.










Koneko -



Quote:


Originally Posted by taaba

I thought 香蕉人 is used for non-Chinese born Chinese.


The term is actually for ethnic Chinese who does not how to speak, write, understand his native
language but educated in English. Just like the banana that has yellow "skin" (Outside;
appearance) but with white "flesh" (Inside; actual self).

K.










Pravit -

There have already been plenty of opinions posted about this, just wanted to add my thoughts:

When I was beginning to learn Chinese, I too skipped the characters, assuming that I would learn
much more quickly. I was able to pick up basic vocabulary and sentence structure, but soon later I
got bogged down because I couldn't remember any new words - I thought all the words sounded the
same! However, this problem went away when I began to learn characters - I think having the
characters to "anchor" a particular word to helps very much. As an example, now I think of "dan4"
the egg, the dawn, and "but" as entirely different words, but it's the kind of thing I would be
confused about when I didn't know characters.










wrbt -



Quote:

I personally think being able to read Hanzi adds a new dimension into the whole learning process

Yup! There will be far more resources for you out there if you learn the characters, from the
structured (many textbooks don't use pinyin past beginner levels) to the casual like videos with
transcript etc.

It seems really hard at first but I found once I got past about 1,000 it got a lot easier because
more and more of the new words I already knew part or all of the character components, plus often
able to guess how new characters will sound by their appearance thus easier to look up by pinyin.










Czech Cara -

I agree with wrbt, learning Chinese without characters is like an illiterate studying medicine.
After certain period it actually starts hepling you，when you receive and absorb the language by
more channels, it gets under your skin faster. How will you remember/comprehend words like
金字塔 ， 丁字路口， 歪 = 不正， or understand chopsticks were first made of bamboo
without 筷子？ Moreover, when I invited my dad to China I was proud to read the huge sign on
the entrance to the Forbidden city for him. It is hard, but fun really too.












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