Hokkien Study Group [Split]

[Yasna]

A high-quality Taiwanese-medium Youtube channel about the Taiwanese language and Chinese linguistics.

https://www.youtube.com/c/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E8%A9%B1TaiwanHwa/featured

[stordragon]

Everything both of you said is true, but I think it's also missing the point!

你一定是在開玩笑吧？中文的 白話文運動 開始於西元1919年的五四運動，那時新加坡和越南應該都還沒建國吧？新加坡於1965年脫離馬來西亞獨立，越南於1954年脫離法國獨立。
我想，如果像Ks所說，光透過英文仍然無法直接學習文言文，那麽應該就只能透過白話文了吧。

我一点也不没(在)开玩笑

"我一点也没开玩笑" & "我一点也没在开玩笑" both are fine.

Another common mistake by a majority of Western learners lies with the negative form of "能/可以": it's quite often the case that you cannot form a negative statement simply by adding "不" before the modal auxiliary verb "能/可以"; instead you have to use "无法(做某事)" which literally means "to have no means of (doing something)"
e.g.
"我可以理解" or "我能理解" <-> {"我无法理解" or "我不能理解"} and NOT "我不可以理解"
"我可以想象" or "我能想象" <-> "我无法想象" and NOT {"我不能想象" or "我不可以想象"}
"我可以战胜他" or "我能战胜他" <-> {"我无法战胜他" or less commonly "我不能战胜他"} and NOT "我不可以战胜他"

(p.s.: You might find this "asymmetric" use of modal verbs in quite a lot of other languages,

EN-GB/EN-US: must <--in certain cases--> not (to) need (to) / not to have to
FR-FR: devoir <--in certain cases--> ne pas avoir à (which has no affirmative counterpart)
SL-SI: lahko storim <-> ne morem storiti
RU-RU: можно <-> нельзя (as opposed to the use of CS-CZ verbs "lze" and "nelze", both of which are possible)
)

Cheers

[azhong]

我一点也不没(在)开玩笑

"我一点也没开玩笑" & "我一点也没在开玩笑" both are fine.

Another common mistake by a majority of Western learners lies with the negative form of "能/可以": sometimes you cannot form a negative statement simply by adding "不" before the modal auxiliary verb "能/可以":
e.g.
"我可以理解" or "我能理解" -> "我无法理解" or "我不能理解" and NOT "我不可以理解"
"我可以用这种方法战胜他" -> "我无法用这种方法战胜他" and NOT "我不可以用这种方法战胜他"

Agree, with adding some explanations:
可以 and 能 means "can"
不可以: not allowed to, should not
無法 or 沒辦法: literally "no ways"; can't

And nice to meet you, stordragon-- a dragon in the store? XD Just joking and don't get annoyed please. BTW, Are you a western in China?

[stordragon]

我一点也不没(在)开玩笑

"我一点也没开玩笑" & "我一点也没在开玩笑" both are fine.

Another common mistake by a majority of Western learners lies with the negative form of "能/可以": sometimes you cannot form a negative statement simply by adding "不" before the modal auxiliary verb "能/可以":
e.g.
"我可以理解" or "我能理解" -> "我无法理解" or "我不能理解" and NOT "我不可以理解"
"我可以用这种方法战胜他" -> "我无法用这种方法战胜他" and NOT "我不可以用这种方法战胜他"

Agree, with adding some explanations:
可以 and 能 means "can"
不可以: not allowed to, should not
無法 or 沒辦法: literally "no ways"; can't

And nice to meet you, stordragon-- a dragon in the store? XD Just joking and don't get annoyed please. BTW, Are you a western in China?

Hey howdy azhong

>>BTW, Are you a westerner in China?

No I'm a native Chinese speaker.

Cheers
stor

[jessedwatson]

Hello! I am embarking on Hokkien. It looks as if Bodman is a good resource, but as an earlier poster noted, the recordings are difficult to come by. I was wondering if anyone here might be willing to share them. Thank you!