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Mandarin Chinese (Traditional) for ABC? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| thliop Newbie United States Joined 5073 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: Mandarin, English* | Message 1 of 10 05 January 2011 at 11:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi everyone. I was just wondering if there are any good materials out there made
specifically for American-born Chinese (people of Chinese descent born in North America). I grew up speaking Mandarin in the household, but never really learned how to read/write it. I wouldn't consider myself fluent at all, as I cannot understand the news or movies in Mandarin very well. This past summer I went to the Mandarin Training Center (National Taiwan University), which my parents have boasted as the best place to learn Chinese, but had to come back to the states due to an emergency. I still have their textbook, but it is strictly for reading and writing. I was wondering what would be the best approach for me to begin improving my Mandarin (speaking and listening specifically)? Should I use books that are made for beginners (like those from university), or are there other approaches that would be more efficient? p.s. I am looking for material for Traditional Chinese, but would be open to good material in Simplified Chinese as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6295 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 2 of 10 06 January 2011 at 12:35am | IP Logged | ||
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May I suggest:
1) Taiwan editions of Japanese comic books. 2) Taiwan dramas. Turn the subtitles on. Your character recognition will gradually increase without much suffering. 3) Taiwan documentaries about Chinese history. Lots of good stuff available. 4) Children's books published by the Mandarin Daily News （guo-yu ri-bao). TONS of great stuff. Not expensive. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| thliop Newbie United States Joined 5073 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Studies: Mandarin, English* | Message 3 of 10 06 January 2011 at 12:56am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you for the reply! I remember my parents giving me some newspaper comics from the Mandarin Daily News. I will definitely look into that. When you say turn on the subtitles for the dramas and documentaries, are you suggesting English or Mandarin subtitles? The problem with Mandarin subtitles will be that I won't be able to understand about 50% of what is said. Thank you again! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| FamusBluRaincot Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 5562 days ago 50 posts - 114 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Mandarin, Italian | Message 4 of 10 06 January 2011 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||
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With your background, it would seem that would be able to handle material aimed at children, but have trouble
with adult material-and you don’t have the cultural background that you would have if you had been raised and educated in China. So start with material meant for native-speaking Chinese children and work your way up to adult material. Fortunately, there is a massive amount of such material easily available on the net. You can find material aimed at four year olds, material aimed at teens, and everything in-between. Also available are all the chengyu stories that Chinese children learn in school, thousands of stories and legends, educational materials for children that teach about things like stars and planets, geography, science etc. So get yourself an Mp3 player with lots of memory, download lots of material, sort through it for stuff you like. Listen to it all day, and repeat out loud words, phrases, and sentences that you pick up. The biggest source of this kind of material is at VeryCD.com. You will need emule or amule to download it though. This site does not have as much material as VeryCD.com, but you can download it directly without installing any extra software: http://ishare.iask.sina.com.cn/ You can search using 童话 mp3 (fairy tales) 儿童的故事 mp3 (children's stories) Or use 有声小说 mp3 (audio fiction) Also, the Confucius Institute Online has sections specifically designed for someone in your position: Go to: http://www.chinese.cn/ If you want to invest a little money, you can buy DVDs of about a thousand lessons from Imandarinpod.com . They include transcripts with wordlists. The lessons have little or no English. Edited by FamusBluRaincot on 07 January 2011 at 4:04am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| jimbo Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6295 days ago 469 posts - 642 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Japanese, Latin | Message 5 of 10 06 January 2011 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
FamusBluRaincot has a bunch of great suggestions. I was suggesting to use the Mandarin subtitles for Mandarin programs. There are a number of ways to deal with only knowing half of what is going on: 1. Pause the program every time you see a word you don't know and look it up. 2. Watch the program without stopping at all. 3. Watch the program but only pause to look up key words. 4. etc. No shortage of good study materials these days. You just need to find a method that works for you and keep at it for a while. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| indiana83 Groupie United States ipracticecanto.wordp Joined 5491 days ago 92 posts - 121 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Cantonese, Italian | Message 6 of 10 06 January 2011 at 2:48am | IP Logged | ||
That's basically what learning to read Chinese characters is like. You will need lots and lots of exposure to them. At first every single character will look the same, and it will be impossible to remember the differences between them. But after a while you will start to recognize them much easier. The advantage of Mandarin is that the subtitles will often be word-for-word with what is being spoken, so you just need to listen and read at the same time. Another gain in efficiency might come from learning the more common radicals, so you can more easily identify characters. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 10 06 January 2011 at 4:17am | IP Logged | ||
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For speaking and listening, ask your parents to order the Mandarin version of your favorite movies from Taiwan. Also become active, or at least engaged, in your local Mandarin speaking community.
Good luck from another ABC who had to start from scratch as my parents are from Guangdong. Edited by Snowflake on 06 January 2011 at 4:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5179 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 8 of 10 07 January 2011 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't gree with Taiwanese dramas, I have tried watching it, and I could barely understand!
They can use dialect! Try something Mainland, or Taiwanese if you are sure they speak Mandarin not bam lam gu.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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