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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5883 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 21 31 January 2010 at 12:58am | IP Logged | ||
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John, to get yourself to an advanced level in Spanish by August, what is your plan?
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| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 10 of 21 31 January 2010 at 1:01am | IP Logged | ||
Also, does anyone know a good flashcard program for learning the Chinese characters (preferably traditional)? Edited by Johntm on 31 January 2010 at 1:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6911 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 21 31 January 2010 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
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Anki is free to download, and if you don't want to enter words yourself, you can always import ready-made lists (or decks). There are a lot of those available in File->Shared decks.
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| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 21 31 January 2010 at 2:10am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, I'll check it out. I have Pauker, but it doesn't have a set for Chinese characters. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5508 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 13 of 21 04 February 2010 at 7:03am | IP Logged | ||
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To be honest, if I were you, I would self-study Chinese and use the friend for help (if
he/she speaks Mandarin). My high school had very good language curriculi, but one year just would not have been enough for basic communication or comprehension at all, and wouldn't have covered as much as a motivated student could on his own. Unless you go to a school with very large amounts of heritage speakers, say in San Francisco or Los Angeles or Flushing, then I'd think that you'd be MUCH better off learning Mandarin on your own instead of wasting time in a slow-paced language class, unconsciously absorbing mangled tones and lazy pronunciation from your fellow beginners. Not to mention that many Chinese teachers in the US, particularly in high schools, simply do not have enough language teaching experience to be truly useful without a lot of prodding. I even know some (with well-paying university jobs, no less) who can't even really speak Chinese! If you have time, you should seek out the teacher and say something like, "Hi, my name is Dude Face, and I heard that you teach a great course in Chinese. I don't know if I can fit your class into my schedule, but I'm very interested in Mandarin and I'd love to talk with you sometime about my course of study." Usually high school language teachers will be happy to help you with things like pronunciation or conversational practice once in a while. Edited by annette on 04 February 2010 at 7:08am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| GeekGuy Newbie China Joined 5439 days ago 21 posts - 23 votes Studies: French | Message 14 of 21 04 February 2010 at 9:28am | IP Logged | ||
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As a matter of fact, the so-called pinyin拼音 is the equivalent of phonetic alphabet音标 in English. It is wise to start with characters directly. People do not spend time learning phonetic alphabets when they take English, and that might be also true in English-speaking countries. BTW, it was not until I entered high school that I stopped the transcription of the characters I newly learnt. We spend almost 10 years repeatedly copying characters to make sure that we will no longer get into difficulty reading and writing. And that is the main obstacle of learning Chinese. People actually do not know and care why the character is formed the way they write. The key to learning Chinese is what is called 熟能生巧. After learning something new, try polishing it up by putting it into practice as long as you get a golden chance of speaking Mandarin Chinese. And that is what we call 纸上得来终觉浅，绝知此事要躬行. All the best.
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| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 15 of 21 04 February 2010 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Quite a lot to respond to. Anyway I'm still not completely sure I'll take it, but we are signing up for classes soon and I need to make a decision. But I plan on continuing studying Mandarin after next year maybe in college and definitely on my own. My friend, who's native language was Mandarin, is taking the highest level of Mandarin they have at my school and he said the teacher is Taiwanese and that he had a conversation with her in Chinese before and that she is good at speaking it. That doesn't mean she is a good teacher, but hopefully she is. If I don't like the class, I can always switch out. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| annette Senior Member United States Joined 5508 days ago 164 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* | Message 16 of 21 05 February 2010 at 12:20am | IP Logged | ||
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That's always a good attitude to take; I'm not offended at all that you aren't falling
in line behind me. I probably came off as really strident and TOTALLY AGAINST high school Chinese classes in my last post, but I've actually had and witnessed great experiences at the higher levels, such as the level of study your friend is undertaking. But at the same time, I've seen smart kids thwarted again and again at lower levels, particularly at the beginner levels of high school Chinese. High school language courses almost never teach at an appropriate pace for beginners. If you ask your friends in college, you'll often find that one year of high school Spanish only equals half a year of college Spanish or even less. This goes doubly for languages that are less commonly taught. My college's Chinese department administers placement tests to MANY students every year who studied 4 years of Mandarin in high school... almost all of these students end up in the 1st or 2nd years of college Chinese and a few in the third. All of my friends who only studied one year of high school Chinese had to start again from scratch in their colleges with Chinese 1. One or two who had studied intensively on their own for that year of exposure were lucky enough to enter 2nd year. I guess what I'm saying is, I really applaud the motivation you have, and I hope that you go far in your Chinese studies. But if you can only take one year of high school Chinese before continuing in college, I don't know if it'll help much at all further down the line, unless you combine it with dedicated self-study. And if you're going to self-study past the level of the class anyway, especially as you have access to native speakers who can help with questions or pronunciation, why not take a different interesting course instead? That said, in my experience high school language courses at the beginning level generally guarantee an easy grade, which can be a blessing during the stress of senior year. Edited by annette on 05 February 2010 at 12:27am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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