Would anyone recommend me a beginner's textbook for learning Arabic? I started to be interested in the Arabic language as well as the culture not long ago. I am trying to find some resources related. Could anyone recommend me a textbook to start with as a complete beginner? Or perhaps there is some other advice you'd like to give me? Thank you very much!

"have a good one" I remember I was told quite a while ago that "have a good one" is a more casual way to say "have a good day". Though living in the Netherlands for more than a year I've never in real life heard anyone using this term. When and where is it appropriate to use it? Does saying "have a good one" make me sound more down to earth?

Does 51% count as majority?

Is Hogeschool Inholland a good school? I'll be studying IT in the Netherlands for a bachelor's degree in September. I've got accepted by 3 schools in the Netherlands. They are Inholland(Haarlem), Fontys(Eindhoven), and Saxion(Deventer). I've been told by some Dutch people I've been speaking to that Fontys is worth attending while Inholland doesn't have a good reputation in the country. And no one seems to even know there exists such school called Saxion. How do you guys think about it? Which school would you choose to attend if you were me? And why? Please give me some hints! Thanks!

Ask me anything about China. Ask me anything about China. The country, the society, the culture, the cultural beliefs, the people, the ideologies, the politics or anything you find difficult to understand due to cultural difference or different values. I would like to share opinions. I am not looking for a debate and I don't represent Chinese culture either. Cultural difference is a certain thing that exists. But it doesn't justify things inhuman that happen to people who belong to certain cultures. Some cultures encourage people to be open-minded while some cultures oppress people who belong to it. And I would like to talk about it.

I wonder how many people here actually know that Chinese people's first names are actually surnames. I wonder how many people here actually know that Chinese people's first names are actually surnames regardless of whether you're learning Chinese or other eastern Asian languages or not. These days I've been sending emails overseas to deal with something of my study abroad and I usually typed my Chinese name first and then include the spelling of my Chinese name in a pair of brackets. So it appeared that my first name is "Chen" and a lot of people did actually reply me by email addressing me "Chen". So I do wonder if you guys think it is necessary to adjust the order of my surname and given name when I put it down with Latin letters so that people from the West won't get confused. 

Have your teachers ever told you about these facts, Chinese learners? (language&culture difference)Part2

(continue from part1...)

The second thing I wanna talk about is the way how you ask a person’s name in Chinese. So here’s a very interesting culture difference that in the western countries usually given names are very common such as Jake, Victor, Michelle, Amy etc. and the surnames are unique. However in China it’s completely different. In China, surnames are common but given names are extremely unique for everyone in this country. For example my surname is 陈 and my given name is 瑾文. In China there are tons of people who have this surname 陈 but I am sure a lot less people have a given name 瑾文. That’s an interesting difference. So in the West usually when you meet a stranger you usually ask “What is your name?” and you’re literally asking the given names which are quite common. But in China if you as a stranger’s given name it might take quite a while for you to figure out what that actually is even though you speak Chinese as a native language because our given names are way more unique than you could ever imagine. So in China I think normally we don’t ask a person “你叫什么名字？”(What is your name?). We usually ask “您贵姓？”(What is your surname) instead because it makes more sense. For example if someone ask me “您贵姓？” and I say “免贵姓陈” he/she will instantly know what my surname is and know how to address me. So that’s a bit of a cultural difference here and I personally think it’s quite interesting and I’d like to share this with you guys. And please note: don’t ask a Chinese person “你叫什么名字？” cause it might take quite a while to figure out and your conversation will be a little more awkward.<o:p></o:p>

Alright it’s time for dinner and I gotta go. I’ll write some other interesting things some other time for you guys. If you have any other interesting stories of yourself about language differences please leave a common below and I’ll be happy to read. :)    <o:p></o:p>

 

Have your teachers ever told you about these facts, Chinese learners? ( language&culture difference)Part1

So I’ve been thinking about writing this little article to talk about some simple mistakes that Chinese learners constantly make in conversations. And now it’s a boring Sunday afternoon so I decided to write it finally. And italki seems like a really nice community to post this article on.

Well first of all I’d like to talk about the way how Chinese people greet each other. In fact I know quite a few Chinese learners in real life in my school and also on the internet. And honestly I find it quite uncomfortable whenever people greet me in Chinese with a phrase “你好吗？” which literally means “How are you?” in English because in Chinese language environment we never ask others “How are you?”. So if you ask me this in Chinese, it virtually sounds quite weird. Well I know some of the Chinese teachers might tell you guys in a class or wherever that “你好吗？” literally means “How are you?” in English. However I do wonder how many of them actually told you guys that we don’t ask people with that phrase in Chinese even though that’s the direct translate of “How are you?” .   

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Days ago I talked to an American who greeted me with “你好吗？” and I directly pointed it out for him that we don’t use that phrase. Seconds later he came out with this phrase “你吃饭了吗？”. I laughed out way too loud hearing that. Just so you know, guys, I am not sure how many of you actually know that phrase but please note this: NO ONE IN CHINA WILL REFER TO THAT AS A PROPER WAY OF GREETING OTHERS EITHER! You might hear it around some neighborhood after lunch time or dinner time. But if you ask someone in streets with that as a way of greeting someone that you might’ve learned from some incapable Chinese teachers, good luck with your further conversation.    

So some of you guys might be wondering what you should say when you see someone you know in streets and you wanna say hello. First of all, you say “你好”(Hello). And if you wanna ask something like “how are you” you better don’t. You could use something else instead for example “你最近怎样？”(How have you been?). That’s how you greet someone properly in Chinese. Don’t use “你好吗” anymore, guys. If you ask me “你好吗” I might know what you mean because I understand English and I know this might be from that language. However if you ask someone “你好吗” in China who doesn’t have much knowledge of other foreign languages than he/she might have no clue what you’re asking.

(To be continue...)

"if I would have done" versus "if I had done" This question is relevant to my last question in which I included some real life examples of mine. So I sorta notice that when it comes to talking about something that didn’t happen in the past, many English speakers tend to use "if I would have done" rather than "if I had done". I wonder if it is grammatically correct to use the former. Are they equal to each other? Which one makes it feels more natural in casual conversations?