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Mandarin - Pinyin Only | ||
Tags: Writing System | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| CDevin Newbie United States Joined 4901 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes | Message 1 of 25 26 June 2011 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am slowly introducing myself to Mandarin, and have decided not to learn Chinese characters. I've recently worked through Fluenz Mandarin 1+2 and 3, which I thought was amazing, with its good mix of exercises of various types (spoken, auditory, and written). Fluenz is a great program if you're not looking to learn characters, and now that I've completed it, I'm looking for suggestions on what to try next. I've read that Rosetta Stone is not good, and that Pimsleur, while perhaps good for cramming, does not teach much vocabulary. I've looked at Rocket Chinese, however because of it's conversation-based format, it also seems like it would come up short, like Pimsleur for in-depth, long-term, structured learning.
Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should turn to next? Many thanks in advance! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6015 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 2 of 25 27 June 2011 at 1:03am | IP Logged | ||
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If you're looking for structure, the Integrated Chinese series and the New Practical
Chinese Reader always come up frequently in discussions. I don't know about the Readers, but I know that Integrated Chinese includes pinyin throughout at least the first couple books. I would urge you to learn characters, however. That will open up the world of the Chinese internet, which is huge, as well as make the use of dictionaries significantly easier. Putting it off until you reach a decent level in your spoken skills may well be a good option though. I'm also gonna put in a plug for chinesepod here to supplement whatever structured course you decide on using. It's important to have lots and lots of listening input with a language like Chinese, and they have a huge library of very listenable, interesting, and practical podcasts. Best of luck in beginning the winding road of Mandarin! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| galindo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5208 days ago 142 posts - 248 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Japanese Studies: Korean, Portuguese | Message 4 of 25 27 June 2011 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
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When you say you've decided not to learn Chinese characters, do you mean you will never study them, or do you just want to put it off until you feel more comfortable with the spoken language? I can understand that characters are intimidating when you're first starting out, but in the long run you're actually going to make vocabulary acquisition much more difficult for yourself if you don't learn them.
Since you've already finished Fluenz 1-3, I don't see why you need to avoid characters any longer. It might seem like a pain, but learning characters is probably exactly the boost you need to start getting a handle on higher-level vocabulary and grammar (since you'll finally be able to read!), and it will also enable you to access native materials that you can't find if you only know pinyin. I don't understand why you would put in the effort to learn a difficult language and purposely remain illiterate, effectively denying yourself the opportunity to fully engage with native speakers and their culture. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| CDevin Newbie United States Joined 4901 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes | Message 5 of 25 27 June 2011 at 4:27am | IP Logged | ||
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There is another reason that I've decided, at least for the time being, to not learn Chinese characters: I'm also learning French. I started learning French a few years ago, but I have yet to reach a reliable level of spoken and written fluency that I feel will stay with me if I focus more on Chinese. I've worked through several French language workbooks, but would like to get to the point where I can pick up a French book or newspaper and read fairly effortlessly to simply reinforce what I know, and in order to convince myself that I can focus less on French without losing the traction I've gained. (I'm not at that point yet.) The intensity of focus that is required to learn Chinese characters is what may cause me to lose the ground I've gained with French. Obviously, I'm still looking to strike the optimal balance between Chinese and French.
Also, I started with Chinese characters a year ago, but found that I loath the repetitive nature of practicing writing characters. As a practical matter, I'm learning Chinese more to communicate directly with people (especially on a verbal level), and less so to read and write. Of course, if you're aware of some way of learning characters that is less painful, and accelerates the verbal learning, I'm receptive to that! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liuzf Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4918 days ago 23 posts - 31 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishB2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 25 27 June 2011 at 5:07am | IP Logged | ||
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If you only learn pinyin, you will finally confuse yourself and your hearers.So my advice is also introduce yourself to Chinese characters.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| unityandoutside Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6015 days ago 94 posts - 149 votes Speaks: English*, Russian Studies: Latin, Mandarin | Message 7 of 25 27 June 2011 at 5:08am | IP Logged | ||
They naturally get less painful once you get the gist of how they work. Although there are thousands of characters, they are made up of a drastically smaller number of simpler components. Once you get a feel for recognizing those components, you can memorize a character by thinking "oh, that's the left part of shuo and the character wu," and not necessarily have to write it a bajillion times. Learning characters probably won't accelerate your vocabulary acquisition per se, but at a certain point you're bound to hit a brick wall in your vocab if you can't read anything that isn't written for children or learners. At that point you'll be limited to speaking practice or whatever audio you can find without being able to navigate any Chinese websites (slim pickings). This could work fine for you if you're surrounded by a bunch of willing native speakers, but if not, your skills may begin to atrophy. That being said, learning spoken Chinese without characters has worked for people in the past, but it definitely has its limits. So go ahead and continue working on the spoken language, but don't write off characters completely. Besides, I have a feeling that Mandarin is gonna be waaaay bigger than French in the foreseeable future. Not that I don't like French. But Chinese is certainly on the way up. Fast. Edited by unityandoutside on 27 June 2011 at 4:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5057 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 25 27 June 2011 at 7:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I was told that learning characters in China is not that difficult. A man managed read
Harry Potter in Chinese after one year of studying the language in China. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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