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Learning Mandarin Chinese in 7 Weeks | ||
Tags: Time to learn | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| zilan2367 Newbie United States Joined 3790 days ago 27 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English Studies: Thai* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 66 05 July 2014 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I would like to learn Mandarin Chinese to a low Intermediate level in 7 weeks.
A low intermediate level for me is being able to speak basic sentences and understand basic sentences. Also I want to be able to pronounce pinyin without struggling and be able to write a few dozen Chinese characters in Simplified Chinese. Here is some of my background information. I am 21 years old and I am taking an online Mandarin class in my local community college. I'm a native speaker of Thai (but my Thai is a bit rusty since I was raised in the USA) and I can speak English fluently. I'm also in an advanced level for Spanish. I'm not married, I don't have children, and I'm a full-time student, so I can dedicate my entire summer to language learning. The reason why I want to learn Mandarin in 7 weeks is because I signed up for an Intermediate Chinese class at my community college and the class starts on August 25, 2014. Also I signed up for science courses and it would be helpful if my Mandarin was good so I don't have to study so intensely in Mandarin when I should be studying for my science courses. I noticed that many language learners on Youtube have informed their viewers that Mandarin is difficult for them because the Chinese words are difficult to pronounce, the characters are difficult to write/remember, and there are so many Chinese characters in existence. Since I'm Thai, I have noticed that pronouncing the Chinese words are not difficult at all for me because Thai and Mandarin are both tonal languages. Many words in Chinese and Thai are pronounced the same way. If they are not pronounced the same way, the words often rhyme. For example: in Thai, the number "three" is "sǎm" while in Mandarin it's "sān". I have been splitting up my time between perfecting my Spanish and learning Thai this past June. I will be starting a beginner French course this July, so my time will be even more limited to Mandarin. As for the French, I am not too intent on learning French this month. I'm only taking the course so that I can learn the basics. I will start to intently learn French in a few more years. For the moment, the resources I use for learning Mandarin include: 1) Mango Languages -There are 5 lessons and a Review, so 6 total lessons. I learn 1/3 of a lesson a day and I skim all my past lessons. I am currently starting on Lesson 2. 2) Foreign Service Institute -I'm on Modular 1 and I'm learning the numbers in Chinese 3) Chinese Pod -There are 150 free newbie lessons and I'm on lesson 6 4) watching a mainland Chinese drama (which I understand hardly anything in) -I think that input learning is important, but if anyone has a good children's show they can recommend, please tell me. Other resources that I have include Pimsleur, Lonely Planet Mandarin, CCTV, and a book called "Beginner's Chinese with 2 Audio CDs" by Yong Ho. Is there anything else I can do to help speed up my language learning in Mandarin? I think if I finish all my Chinese resources in 7 weeks, I can successfully be in an intermediate level for Mandarin Chinese. Is there anyone here who is good in math that is able to tell me how many lessons of each resource that I have to finish in a day, so that I'll be able to reach my goal of becoming an Intermediate level in 7 weeks? Can anyone recommend a book or website that is able to to help me learn how to write Standard Chinese characters? Also a website to help me learn how to type Standard Chinese characters would be helpful too. Edited by zilan2367 on 06 July 2014 at 4:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Michel1020 Tetraglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 5008 days ago 365 posts - 559 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish, Dutch | Message 2 of 66 05 July 2014 at 9:07am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The only way to do it in 7 weeks is sex with a native.
15 minutes of french kiss should be enough to master the basics of the tongue. However to find a compatible native partner could take more time. Searching for a partner in the hope to learn her language is not the best way (more so in 7 weeks) - you'll probably need to find more than one partner if you want to keep this strategy for 7 weeks. You want math. 7 weeks are 49 days - if you only sleep a very little 4 hours a day - that gives you less than 1000 hours of study. Far from enough to learn any language. 7 weeks that is not even 3 months. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5253 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 3 of 66 05 July 2014 at 12:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Welcome to the forum, zilan2367. Here on the forum, we are generally encouraging to learners who ask for advice in regards to their language learning. Still, sometimes it is necessary to tell someone what they don't want to hear in order to best help them.
Regardless of what a low intermediate level may mean to you, since you have signed up for an intermediate class in Mandarin at your community college, I think it's important to know what the professor who is teaching the course expects you to have. Even though Mandarin is not a European language, the CEFR may be some help here. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has two stages of intermediate- B1 and B2. Most people would refer to B1 as "low intermediate" with B2 being "high intermediate".
I think it would be unlikely to reach this level, B1, in a difficult language like Mandarin in seven weeks, in my opinion. Have a look at Benny Lewis of Fluent in3 Months Mandarin Mission and his Honest evaluation of his level after 3 months. Caveats: Benny is a professional language-learner with a number of languages already under his belt. Talk to your professor, but I would drop the Intermediate Mandarin class while I still can choose another class to replace it. You will most likely be struggling and your other, career related, classes should be your priority. It's no fun to have to struggle through a class when you are over your head and end up only having to drop it to avoid a failing grade. Unlike self-study, a college course is for credit and it costs money. Taking the course and having to drop it later will put you that much further behind and have a real impact that will cost you money and time. Edited by iguanamon on 05 July 2014 at 1:18pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zilan2367 Newbie United States Joined 3790 days ago 27 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English Studies: Thai* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 66 05 July 2014 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thanks iguanamon for replying and welcoming me. And thanks for posting the CEFR B1. Now I have tangible goals that I can accomplish. I would email my professor but he seems to be a new faculty member and I can't find any information on him in the school directory. Also I am aware of Benny Lewis and I was inspired to post my 7 week Mandarin journey here because of him. I will still continue studying Mandarin and I won't be dropping the course because I want to see if I can successfully achieve my goal. I don't know if I should post this here but I will be making my first YouTube video in a couple of days to show how far I am in Mandarin now. And a few more videos on how my Mandarin is improving in the coming days. I will post the link to it in this thread when I'm finished with it. Edited by zilan2367 on 05 July 2014 at 5:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| zilan2367 Newbie United States Joined 3790 days ago 27 posts - 29 votes Speaks: English Studies: Thai* Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 66 05 July 2014 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Also I will reiterate, does anyone know of a good children's show in Chinese? I don't want to watch a mix of English and Chinese, but I want to watch a a real Chinese children's show shown in Mainland China (or Taiwan/Singapore if you can't find any in the mainland).
Can anyone recommend a book or website that is able to to help me learn how to write Standard Chinese characters? Also a website to help me learn how to type Standard Chinese characters would be helpful too. Edited by zilan2367 on 05 July 2014 at 5:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4435 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 6 of 66 06 July 2014 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think for an average learner to learn a language in 7 weeks or almost 3 months is a bit too ambitious.
Unless you live in an environment where the language is spoken daily, you simply don't get enough exposure to become fluent even if you wanted to. 1 to 1 1/2 years is more common. You can check out Benny Lewis' video on Mandarin in 3 months to make your own judgement: Benny's 3 month Mandarin (with John of Sinosplice/Chinesepod... Benny Lewis is the polyglot who claimed he can achieve sufficient fluency in 3 months. While being able to conduct himself in a conversation, a lot of people would rate his level at lower intermediate. The other 2 polyglots include the American Moses McCormick and the Italian Luca Lampariello who learned languages by starting with cognates (words are the same or similar in 2 languages) and words & phrases that come out most frequently. You'd expect very few cognates between Chinese and English / Spanish but far more between Chinese and Thai / Vietnamese. The singer from Nigeria (W. Africa) living in China 好弟 (Hǎodì) learned to speak Chinese in 8 months by memorizing songs phonetically. He is still not competent writing characters but he already achieve an advanced conversation level. He sings all kinds of Chinese folk songs and melodies from Beijing opera. When it comes to TV programming, CCTV from China comes to mind. 凤凰电视 Fènghuáng TV Network also has a lot of good shows. The other place where Mandarin is spoken is Taiwan with some programs in the local Minnan dialect. The place that doesn't automatically comes to mind is Singapore. There are a lot of programs in English as well as Mandarin and Hokkien (from Fujian China) spoken by the older- generation Chinese. What I like about Mandarin TV programs from Singapore is that they come with Chinese captions as well as English subtitles so it is easier for learners. There are slight variations in some words and phrases, but the accent is very close to the Taiwanese version of Mandarin. I've listed 3 substitute letters when using Pinyin: Q=CH sound. When used before “i”, Qi has a long “e” sound. The “i” in Chi has a short “i” sound. When used before “u”, Qu has a short “u” sound. The “u” in Chu has a long “u” sound. Q is always used in front of an “in” or “ing” but not Ch. With the old Romanization you would see "Ching" Dynasty 清朝. With Pinyin you'd use "Qing”. X=S sound S is always used before "a", "e" and "h" X is always used with "ia", "ie", “in”, “ing”, "iu". When used in front of "i", Xi has a long "e" sound while Si has a short "i" sound. When used in front of "u", Xu has a short "u" sound while Su has a long "u" sound. Z=J sound but J is always used before "ia", "ie", "iu". When used in front of "i", Zi has a short "i" sound while Ji has a long "e" sound. When used in front of "u", Zu has a long "u" sound while Ju has a short "u" sound. Ü for short "u" sound commonly found after l & n such as “lǚ” in 旅行 lǚxíng and 女 “nǚ”. When entering the “ü” on a computer or portable devices, some software allow you to enter “u” while others require you to enter “v”. Good luck... Edited by shk00design on 07 July 2014 at 3:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| shk00design Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4435 days ago 747 posts - 1123 votes Speaks: Cantonese*, English, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 7 of 66 06 July 2014 at 7:53am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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When it comes to TV programs in Mandarin for children, these 2 are available on YouTube:
1. 大耳朵图图 (Tutu with big ears). The cartoon series on CCTV deals with mature (adult) subjects seen through the eye of a 5 year-old kid. A lot of dialog is very funny. You follow links on the selection menu to get to other children programs. 2. 搞笑行动 (gao xiao xing dong): a comedy from Singapore featured a single-mother (played by a male actor) with 2 kids. The dialog is straightforward and easy to understand although the uploaded episodes does not have captions / subtitles. Some episodes are listed under 梁細妹 (liang xi mei). The later series 梁婆婆 (liang po po) featured the male actor who played the part of the mother as a grandmother. Edited by shk00design on 06 July 2014 at 7:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4629 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 8 of 66 06 July 2014 at 10:26am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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If you do 8 hours a day every day it works out at 8x7x7=392 hours.
When I did French at university we had about 4 contact hours a week=52 hours in a 13 week semester=104 hours in a year. I think we can safely say that some students were only working as much out of class as in class, so let's double it for the total hours and we get 208. Therefore, if this "intermediate" class is a second year college course, I guess maybe your plan could work. I'm not sure which is a worse way to learn a language, the university student approach, or your's. They are both truly horrible ways to learn a language. You will be so depleted of energy that there's no way you could be efficient on a per hour basis, and obviously it's not going to be fun. Edited by AlexTG on 06 July 2014 at 10:40am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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