Learning Mandarin Chinese in 7 Weeks (Advice Center) Language Learning Forum

Learning Mandarin Chinese in 7 Weeks
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day1
Groupie
Latvia
Joined 3883 days ago
93 posts - 158 votes

Speaks: English

Message 33 of 66

08 July 2014 at 1:51pm | IP Logged

From the resources you have, I'd do "Beginner's Chinese with 2 Audio CDs" by Yong Ho (a very reasonable textbook) together with Pimsleur (good for your pronunciation). If your library has it, Michel Thomas Mandarin will cover first semester or so. If you've done online classes, then such a speaking practice course will be even more useful.
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zilan2367
Newbie
United States
Joined 3790 days ago
27 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English
Studies: Thai*
Studies: Spanish

Message 34 of 66

08 July 2014 at 5:20pm | IP Logged

AlexTG wrote:

Quote:

Are you familiar with the books:
1) Remembering Simplified Hanzi 1 by James W. Heisig

I'm a devotee of "Remembering the Kanji" (for Japanese) by the same author. But I strongly recommend
against you using it.

The order taught is based on groups of characters with similar components, with no regard given to how
useful the characters are. If you get though the first 500 characters (out of 3000 total) you'll know a few
common ones and lots of uncommon ones. Heisig's view is that eventually you'll have to learn all the
characters anyway so you might as well learn them in the most efficient overall order. But this logic breaks
down in your situation. You need to know the most common characters for your class and don't have
enough time to learn all 3000.

AlexTG, thanks for the warning. I'll avoid the book and try to find the Tuttle book instead. Also I will probably learn the characters the old-fashioned way. Write each character a few dozen times and supplement that by youtube videos.

I also found a good app called Skritter, so I'll use that too.
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zilan2367
Newbie
United States
Joined 3790 days ago
27 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English
Studies: Thai*
Studies: Spanish

Message 35 of 66

08 July 2014 at 6:36pm | IP Logged

shk00design wrote:

In Chinese you can take a similar approach. First few sentences you introduce yourself:
你好, (How are you?)
我是 Michael (I'm Michael)
我从美国来的 (I'm from the US).

After you learn a few basic sentence patterns pattern you can use other phrases:
早安, (Instead of starting with 你好 for every greeting, you substitute with Good morning)
我叫 Ben (instead of saying I'm Michael, you change the name to Ben and say something like "I'm call
Ben")
我是澳洲人, 来自墨尔本。(Instead of saying I'm from the US, you say "I'm Australian from Melbourne").

The 2 sets of phrases are similar:
1. Basic greeting. The first set you say the Chinese equivalent of "How are you?". The second set you use
"Good morning"
2. Your name. The first set you say I am [your name]. The second set you say I am called / my name is
[your name]. Slightly different word for the same thing.
3. Your location (where you come from). The first case you say you're from the US. The second set you
say "you're an Australian", a slightly different variation from saying "you're from Australia".

In the beginning the phrases you use in your conversations tend to sound like the standard sentences
out of a phrase book. After a while you'd be able to substitute words and phrases to fit the context for
different situations. In French you don't need to use "Bonjour" every time you greet someone you know.
You can also use "Salut" (Hi) or "Voilà M. Leblanc" (Here is Mr. Leblanc).

I really like that approach of substituting different words for the same phrase. If I did that, I will not only learn the new words but since I'm repeating each phrase so many times, the phrase will be cemented in my mind.

I'm still learning about character strokes and stroke order. I know you said that the stroke order isn't that important as long as I can correctly write the character. Still, I like to have a good framework built before I write the character, and that framework would be learning about the stroke order.

After I finish up learning the stroke order, character structure, and radicals, I will start learning how to write individual characters and then combine them to make sentences.
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zilan2367
Newbie
United States
Joined 3790 days ago
27 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English
Studies: Thai*
Studies: Spanish

Message 36 of 66

08 July 2014 at 7:11pm | IP Logged

day1 wrote:

Best thing would be to find someone who actually took those classes and find out what book was used and what they covered. Otherwise you might end up feeling bad in class for first few weeks and feel like you know less than other students, even if in fact you have covered more than they have - it's just that textbooks introduce new vocab and grammar so differently, that moving from textbook A to textbook B (same level) might feel like moving to a much, much more advanced book at first.

If you can't do that, use HSK as a rough guideline. Two semesters of Chinese equals HSK 2, see grammar points and explanations here:
http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Grammar_ points_by_level
for HSK vocabulary see any flashcard site (quizlet, ANKI, memrise) or here: http://www.hskhsk.com/word-lists.html

The most important thing for you is to make sure you make your studies effective and that you learn only the essential stuff. For listening practice, I would recommend listening to podcasts from this site: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/chinese/ over kiddie TV shows. This listening practice will be a closer match to what you'll need in your third semester class. For learning to write, I think memrise.com is a good tool - you can learn your vocab by using other peoples mnemonics. Also, for a quick intro see this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0h18Rdhb44

Keep you studies focused, and I think you can do it.

I found out that I will be using two books called "Integrated Chinese: Simplified Characters Level 1 Part 2" by Cheng & Tsui. One is the workbook and the other is the textbook.

Thanks for posting about the HSK vocabulary list. I will download a shared deck from Anki that includes the HSK vocabulary.

I like the podcasts that you mentioned from this site: http://sites.la.utexas.edu/chinese/
I will download all of them and practice my listening skills this way. I still like the kiddie shows but I will limit myself from watching them greatly and focus on these podcasts and FSI.

I joined memrise.com and I really like their mnemonics. I'm on HSK Level 1 and I like the audio from that course as well.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

Edited by zilan2367 on 08 July 2014 at 7:15pm
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zilan2367
Newbie
United States
Joined 3790 days ago
27 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English
Studies: Thai*
Studies: Spanish

Message 37 of 66

08 July 2014 at 7:25pm | IP Logged

day1 wrote:

I will look into using Pimsleur after I get a bit farther ahead in FSI. I'm a little hesitant about Michel Thomas. I dabbled in that product when I was "flirting" with the German and French languages and I find it a little bothersome that the people who are recorded in his courses constantly make mistakes. I noticed that I would learn their mistakes (since they kept repeating it) and I would repeat their mistakes as well. Also, is Michel Thomas teaching the Mandarin course himself? If he is, does he have a good Mandarin accent?
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BaronBill
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4680 days ago
335 posts - 594 votes

Speaks: English*, French, German
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian

Message 38 of 66

08 July 2014 at 7:34pm | IP Logged

zilan2367 wrote:

Also, is Michel Thomas teaching the Mandarin course himself? If he is, does he have a good Mandarin accent?

Michel Thomas was deceased before the Mandarin course was made. It is taught by a guy named Harold Goodman (if I recall correctly), with a native speaker who repeats the correct answer at the end of every question. Because of the native speaker, the pronunciation is (of course) spot on. I enjoyed the Mandarin course and so did several of my friends. Definitely worthwhile.

Edited by BaronBill on 08 July 2014 at 7:35pm
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day1
Groupie
Latvia
Joined 3883 days ago
93 posts - 158 votes

Speaks: English

Message 39 of 66

08 July 2014 at 7:38pm | IP Logged

Yes, new mandarin course is very, very different from "old" style German course. Try it!

Integrated Chinese happens to be my favorite textbook, and if you're using it then that listening podcast is great for you - the topics in the podcast are introduced in a very similar order. There are tons of supplementary materials for that specific textbook, just search. Also, every major flashcard program will have the vocab.

[Edit]
I have seen students do an intensive Chinese course with that textbook and finish 6 lessons out of 10 in one month, while at the same time having to prepare for a few other exams. You will most definitely be able to do it, if you stick with that textbook and work hard.

Grammar:
http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Referenc e:Integrated_Chinese:_Level_1,_Part_1_%283rd_ed%29

Listening:
http://www.language.berkeley.edu/ic/

Edited by day1 on 08 July 2014 at 8:10pm
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zilan2367
Newbie
United States
Joined 3790 days ago
27 posts - 29 votes
Speaks: English
Studies: Thai*
Studies: Spanish

Message 40 of 66

10 July 2014 at 1:21am | IP Logged

BaronBill wrote:

zilan2367 wrote:

Also, is Michel Thomas teaching the Mandarin course himself? If he is, does he have a good Mandarin accent?

That's good that the program uses a native speaker. I will have to check that out after I finish my fsi course.

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