|
 |
Linguaphone Chinese - 70’s, Review? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5249 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 1 of 16 21 November 2011 at 5:50am | IP Logged | ||
|
I was wondering if anyone here has personal experience with the old linguaphone chinese course. Prof. Arguelles used it, but I have my doubts because in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7FztiCcvl0 he speaks some Mandarin, but the two top comments are from Mandarin speakers who cannot understand his spoken word. This casts a lot of doubt on my ambition to learn from linguaphone.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6381 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 16 21 November 2011 at 9:06am | IP Logged | ||
|
I think it's silly to judge a course by the pronunciation of one person. But I digress...
I have the course and though I haven't used it, I have flipped through many times. It seems to be as high quality as any other Linguaphone course I've seen. Edited by newyorkeric on 21 November 2011 at 9:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 3 of 16 21 November 2011 at 9:26am | IP Logged | ||
Agreed. The quality of pronunciation is mostly (though of course not entirely) a product of talent. Some people are blessed with good pronunciation, others have to be satisfied with worse. Unless the course contain actual inaccuracies, you can disregard the professor's pronunciation. A bigger problem will likely be the vocab. Calling someone "comrade" just isn't very common nowadays, and it's even occationally used to mean "homosexual". Mandarin discourse has changed quite a bit in the last 40 years. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5249 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 4 of 16 21 November 2011 at 10:12am | IP Logged | ||
|
I know you can't judge a program by one speaker, but it's also silly to have blind faith and ask no questions about it, especially when the only speaker you can find that used the program speaks incoherently.
Do you think Assimil With Ease would be a better investment of my time? My home study will supplement my study of Mandarin in college, my first class of which starts in 7 weeks at the start of next term. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6381 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 16 21 November 2011 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
|
For what it's worth, Professor Arguelles also used Chinese With Ease extensively so you can't really differentiate the effects of the two courses on his speaking. Along with Ari's comments you have to also consider that these courses don't teach pronunciation in any real way.
I've worked through Chinese With Ease and liked it. Both courses are good but I think Chinese With Ease is more appropriate for a beginner. Another forum member has said that the Linguaphone course is more appropriate for an intermediate learner due to the range of vocabulary, which I tend to agree with. The vocabulary in Chinese With Ease is introduced a lot more gradually and gently. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5249 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 6 of 16 21 November 2011 at 9:02pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Hmmm, thats interesting. I think, because I will have a teacher to consult with, it might be best for me to use the program with the most extensive vocabulary. Talking with my teacher should help me avoid antiquated words and pronunciations errors, I would think. I looked at the last lesson of Linguaphone, and the amount of vocabulary was really impressive.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BobbyE Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5249 days ago 226 posts - 331 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 7 of 16 21 November 2011 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Using platiquemos for Spanish, I have to say my absolute weakest area of the language is listening. Linguaphone seems super heavy on listening which I really like. My first impression is that its listening emphasis is a very important factor.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 8 of 16 21 November 2011 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
I've spent most of my time studying Mandarin on listening. I've really focused my attention on it. It's still my weakest area. So yeah, I'd agree it's a necessary focus. People spend a lot of time discussing the writing system, but listening is super hard, at least when you go formal or weird accents come into play (and Mandarin has a lot of weird accents that you never get to listen to in learners' materials). Daily conversation isn't too difficult, but listening to radio or watching TV shows without subs is pretty challenging even for advanced learners. Another tip is to have a look at whether any of the materials use Beijing Mandarin rather than Standard Mandarin. I haven't used any of the courses, so I don't know, and I don't know which one you're after. I suspect it's easier to understand Standard if you've studied Beijing than the other way around (and you're not helped by the fact that Beijing accented words are impossible to look up in dictionaries), but most material is based on Standard Mandarin, so if you start with Beijing and then switch materials, you might get confused. Actually, the only stuff I've heard that uses Beijing accent is Pimsleur, and they only do a "Beijing light" version, with the zher4 and nar4 but without the more extreme "guar1 mer2!" ("guan1 men2!"). So you're probably safe with those materials, as well. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
