|
 |
Reasonable expectations in Mandarin? | ||
Tags: Mandarin | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5774 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 9 of 12 05 August 2009 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Well, you have to learn those? :) Nothing like adding a bit of spice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| pfwillard Pro Member United States Joined 5707 days ago 169 posts - 205 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 12 06 August 2009 at 12:01am | IP Logged | ||||||||
You're taking it only for the credits but you really want to learn it--pick...one. Are you taking German at the same time? Are you advanced with that? Might bend your brain trying to get both languages down.
Don't learn characters, learn WORDS. Don't use mnemonics e.g. Heisig. Learn 10 words every day. Think of the characters as purely phonetic as well, ignore the pictogram crowd! Especially if you're teacher is character-obsessed. People speak with words. If you reach an advanced level, you will know 10,000 characters but don't let that psych you out at the beginning. Copy each WORD about 25 or more times; carefully with correct stroke order and reading them out loud. Drop the pinyin as fast as you can and think with characters only.
Are you planning on living in Taiwan or Hong Kong? If not, learn simplified. You may want to be scholarly and learn all the different ways of writing them eventually. Most useful would be to learn to read contemporary handwritten styles after learning the simplified characters. The simplified style is based on cursive style so you are learning the "real" characters. Edited by pfwillard on 06 August 2009 at 12:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Z.J.J Senior Member China Joined 5616 days ago 243 posts - 305 votes Speaks: Mandarin* | Message 11 of 12 06 August 2009 at 5:24am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Simplified is the official printing and writing system in mainland China, so a mainland Chinese can't get any opportunities to start learning Traditional at Mandarin class in high school or university, in fact my rich knowledge of Traditional mainly derives from amateur self-study, though it's very easy for us to learn them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6858 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 12 of 12 11 August 2009 at 6:56am | IP Logged | ||||||||
|
Don't think of learning Chinese in terms of how many characters or words you should learn per day. That isn't a realistic way to assess ability, and not really quantifiable anyway.
The real question seems to be, "How far will two years of university-level Chinese take me? And if I work hard on my own, can I reach a good level?" I'm assuming two years since that's the requirements for most universities I've seen. The answers are, "Probably not very far," and "Yes." It really depends on where you're studying though. For instance, one university I looked at took two years to teach a curriculum that should have only taken one. If your university is the same, the classes themselves won't get you far. If their Chinese program is more rigorous, then it will. But since you're just taking these classes for the credit, that's irrelevant. The real issue is "How far can I get on the side in two years?" And that depends on what you put into it. If you really make it the center of your life, you can reach a pretty high level in two years. Khatzumoto became fluent enough in Japanese in 18 months to go to a job interview for a Japanese company, and got the job. But that's an extreme example of dedication. Realistically though, you should be able to read some novels, newspapers, etc. after two years if you work hard. As far as how to go about it, find a good textbook and start there. If your school uses a good book, even better. You can just go through the book faster than the class and ask your teacher during office hours when you have questions. While you're going through the book, read up on different approaches to learning the language and just try things out to see how they work for you. Don't take anyone's advice as gospel, no matter how confident they seem (see the "don't learn characters/don't use mnemonics/ignore the pictogram crowd" comments above). 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
