BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5240 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 57 of 107 03 March 2012 at 11:59pm | IP Logged |
JaryR9 - I think if you use Assimil after Pimsleur you'll be on good footing. I didn't
use Pims for Mandarin but I have used it for Spanish, and it definitely sent me in a good
direction.
smarg - "wo wan le" actually was a mistake. The construction I should have used was "wo
shuo-wan le" = "I'm done talking". "wo wan le" vaguely means something like "I'm dead",
haha.
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BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5240 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 58 of 107 11 March 2012 at 9:51am | IP Logged |
The utility of the relative clause seems to be one of the major keys between being a
complete beginner, and being a more advanced beginner/intermediate Mandarin speaker. I
love this aspect of Mandarin, and I especially like how the more I am exposed to it, the
more it makes sense without me even trying. The more usages I see it used for and the
different contexts just adds more depth to this one type of clause. It seems to be
pretty ubiquitous throughout Mandarin.
I'm completely done with the PP. Today I did AP 58.
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noshadow31 Diglot Newbie Thailand twitter.com/noshadow Joined 4694 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Thai*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean, Mandarin
| Message 59 of 107 19 March 2012 at 3:45pm | IP Logged |
I just found your thread today and enjoy reading your log. :) I have just started
Assimil Mandarin course, currently at the 10th lesson (and it's only my 3rd day. I'm
very impatient >_<)
I have difficulties pronouncing certain sounds (lots of them, actually) and tones. My
brain can't process fast enough how 3rd tone should change to 2nd or half-3rd . T-T I
actually can't pronounce the normal 3rd tone itself.
Sorry for ranting in your thread but I'm curious to know what other learners do with
this problem. Do you guys master the pronunciation and tones presented in a lesson
first before moving on to the next lesson? If I have to do it that way, I'm afraid I
won't finish the course in this lifetime. LOL (I have really bad ears. For example,
I've been studying English my entire life and still can't differentiate between sh and
ch sounds. For Mandarin, I can't differentiate between c,ch,sh,q,j,z umm...I think
there're more but let's end it here T-T)
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Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4817 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin
| Message 60 of 107 19 March 2012 at 9:16pm | IP Logged |
The third tone is basically the only low tone so if you can just use a lower tone of voice, it's a good beginning and
you should be able to perfect it in time. My advice would be to exaggerate the pronunciation at the beginning.
There are other things you can use to practice tones though, for instance FSI (which is free online) or Pimsleur (you
can maybe find it at your local library or make them order it), or websites such as :
http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html
http://pinyin.quickmandarin.com/learn_chi
nese_quiz/tones_drill/
or even on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paulwtlZ2jc
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BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5240 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin
| Message 61 of 107 20 March 2012 at 7:49am | IP Logged |
noshadow31 - Honestly I wouldn't worry about speaking at all. I would pronounce the
lessons once or twice just to help me get a little bit familiar with the words
themselves, but you should focus more on listening because that will accustom you to the
native pronunciation of the tones. After your listening has conditioned your ear, visit
the pronunciation rules again and you'll see that they are actually quite easy and
natural to use. But, I'm no expert. This is how I'm doing it, we'll see how I do!
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noshadow31 Diglot Newbie Thailand twitter.com/noshadow Joined 4694 days ago 2 posts - 2 votes Speaks: Thai*, English Studies: Japanese, Korean, Mandarin
| Message 62 of 107 20 March 2012 at 3:24pm | IP Logged |
Homogenik, BobbyE <= Thank you so much ^_^ You guys answered my question so fast. :)
I think I'll follow BobbyE's advice since it matches with what I want to do LOL
I'll play with the websites you recommended though, Homogenik but can't say I'll work
hard at it (I'm rather lazy, you see)
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Homogenik Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4817 days ago 314 posts - 407 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Polish, Mandarin
| Message 63 of 107 20 March 2012 at 7:52pm | IP Logged |
I see but you'll find these sites to be kind of lazy too! One of them even whistles you (in a sexy way) when you get it
right. That ought to be encouraging...
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Hendrek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4875 days ago 152 posts - 210 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Persian
| Message 64 of 107 20 March 2012 at 11:03pm | IP Logged |
Very encouraging log, thanks! I was debating between FSI and Assimil for my more structured Mandarin time, and I might have to lean toward Assimil now...
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