Making our Chinese educated members more comfortable at SHC

For a long time, and rather often, many members and some new members have asked me if SHC is an English-speaking club.  The fact is we have no intention to speak, write and communicate in English only.  I guess the big problem is because I am only conversant in English; and this too, I am not good sometimes.  We allow all kinds of languages and dialects in this club, this includes Sam’s Hokkien English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese Mandarin from time to time.  We try not to have too strict on languages and dialects. 

However, Singapore has a large Mandarin speaking population, and SHC should encourage this into the Club. We allow Chinese languages on this forum.  We have also an online Chinese to English translation service on this forum. 

What I like to open to members is this.  Can we have one or two members, who are fluent in Mandarin, can write and type in Chinese, and also in English to write and communicate with our Chinese educated members on this forum.  An important task is for you to come in when the English is too complicated, and you can translate and write in Chinese to explain and clarify.  From time to time, you can initiate topics in Mandarin too. You become our official Mandarin communicator. 

If you can volunteer to do so, I see this as an important contribution to the club.  Please feel free to raise your hand.

Terence Seah 

Author: Terence Seah

Founder

9 thoughts on “Making our Chinese educated members more comfortable at SHC”

  1. Hi Terence, I waited a while for a response to this post. Since there is none, I volunteer to take up the task.
    While I do not claim to be very good in one or both languages, I believe I can do the translations well enough for typical daily conversations. Of course, anybody can chip in to offer a better interpretation/correction when I am off the mark. We are all learning aren’t we?
    I guess this is one way I can contribute to SHC, after “feeding” on it for some time.

  2. Hi Daniel,

    I am glad to hear that you have raised your hands to be SHC official Mandarin Communicator. You are definitely idea for this role, and this will be a great contribution to the Club.

    Please feel free to come in, whenever you see the need to clarify any Post or comment in Mandarin. Obviously, you are free to also initiate topics in Mandarin which are current and of interests to fellow Mandarin educated members.

    I look forward to you making our members comfortable at home. A big welcome.

    Terence Seah

  3. ?????????????????????????????????????????????

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    Alice Kwok

  5. Hi Terence. Lets try and bridge the “English” and “Chinese” members. Firstly, we must respect the fact that most of the members DO KNOW English, albeit to different extents. We shall inform those who require explanations in Chinese to request for it. They can write comments in Chinese on any posts and I shall respond accordingly.

    Alice Kwok ?? – ???”???????”, ???????????????. “ ????”, ??SHC, ???????????, ???????. ???????????. ???????????????????. ??????.

    ??????????????????????.

  6. Hi Daniel #5,

    Yes, I will go along your ideas and encouragement to get fellow members who are more comfortable with Mandarin at home. I see you have already made a headstart, with others joining in. So, on this note, I wish all members feel at home, in whatever language you are comfortable with.

    Feel free, there is also an online “Chinese to English” translation service, available on the left column of this website. Let’s your ideas roll.

    Terence Seah

  8. I am chinese educated, no problem in chinese language/mandarin speaking, but I have problem when typing chinese words using ???? (very slow to get word by word), any expert can advise how to do it fast just like typing english words. ????? (shang nao jin)!

  9. Inputing Chinese …

    One thing good about tablets, iPads, smartphones and iPhones is that the “screen” not only gives you the visual output (like a desktop monitor) but it also can be converted to 1) a touch screen keyboard and 2) a writing/ drawing pad. Inputing or writing Chinese on all these smart devices (provided you have the right model) is very convenient. If you know a bit of pinyin and how Chinese characters are formed, it helps in using these smart devices in writing Chinese.

    There are three common ways (one with an extended option) to input or write simplified Chinese on these smart devices; they are 1) by pinyin (with or without fuzzy logic). If you are not sure, just type the first and/or with the second alphabet and the fuzzy logic will provide you with a list of possible words, 2) by handwriting (just write on the pad what you think the Chinese character is like or copy from a text (the smart device will guess what he thinks you wanted and provide you with a list to choose from) and 3) by strokes – I am not so familar with this method.

    If you are still not satisfied, especially when you are English educated and writing to your friends in China (or Chinese-educated friends) then you may consider getting one English-to-Chinese (Pinyin) Dictionary.

    Fuzzy logic is a software program term that can be interpreted as a “reasoning” condition that ranges from “completely correct” to “completely wrong”.

    hewlee

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