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Mandarin help | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| mei-y Diglot Newbie China Joined 6485 days ago 3 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, Cantonese Studies: English, French | Message 9 of 25 25 February 2007 at 11:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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1.every chinese could understand mandarin(though some old peaple maybe can't speak it),so you needn't to worry about it.
2.where you decided to visit are popular among the foreigners,so the local people can understand some english,especially the youths. 3.18 months are really long,in my views,you could come to beijing to find a language school.in fact,i've met many who have done this.learning madarin in china is far better than learning it at home. 4.i recommend you to choose beijing as first stop,the people who live in north china speak easier-understanding chinese,compare with people in south china. 5.welcome to china! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6853 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 10 of 25 25 February 2007 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you, mei-y.
Going to Beijing to study isn't really an option for me, since my wife is still in college (and has no desire to uproot and go to China long-term). If it were just me, I'd probably already be there. Thanks again for the help, everybody. I've learned a few (20) characters (although I'll begin in earnest once I know some more words), and I'm nearly finished with Module I of the FSI course. Most of it so far has been a review of what I learned from the few Pimsleur lessons I did a while back, so I guess the real learning and studying starts in a few days with Module II. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7044 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 11 of 25 26 March 2007 at 4:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Also I cant stress enough to keep listening to as much material as possible every day. Listen to the same piece of material 30 times if you have to, until you can clearly define every word boundary and nothing "blends in" and goes over your head. As you acquire more vocabulary, your comprehension percentage will obviously rise, but you have to FIRST get your ears tuned to listening to mandarin so that it feels as normal and natural as your L1.
I realized tonite that the entire chinesepod Upper Intermediate lessons (dialog and explanations) were too basic and I could effortlessly follow with a minimum 95% accuracy, translating each single sentence if need be. When I listen to the advanced lessons it is currently somewhere near 65%. Just keep listening, over and over again and tear thru word lists with example sentences for usage. Languages are conquerable beasts, but it ALL boils down to a foundation built on solid LISTENING SKILLS. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PETE Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6486 days ago 73 posts - 85 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Spanish | Message 12 of 25 26 March 2007 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A friend of mine started learning Mandarin through a nearby university.
He said he learned more from a thin booklet he bought on Amazon than he did during his entire first semester at college. The book is called "The First 100 Chinese Characters" and it is published by Tuttle Language Library. http://www.amazon.com/First-100-Chinese-Characters-Simplifie d/dp/0804838305/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7912627-7806221?ie=UTF8& s=books&qid=1174939571&sr=8-1 I cannot state he is right or wrong since I have never studied the language. Just a thought. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Halcyon Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6458 days ago 35 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 25 27 March 2007 at 1:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Alright, I've never tried this - just throwing it out there.
Try BCLU's online program. I currently go to this university; they're the makers of the HSK. I'm not sure how much reputation weighs in for you in terms of language learning courses/materials, but they've got a pretty good one for teaching Chinese to foreigners. Anyway, it might be a good option to enroll there instead of a college/uni where ever you are if you factor in course load and tuition expense... however I'm not sure how intense their program is, being online and all. I can only speak from my experience from attending there physically. If you have questions you can ask me, I won't go into it here because I'm not sure how relevent it would be pertaining to this school/program. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Vinnie Groupie England Joined 6527 days ago 65 posts - 66 votes Speaks: English* | Message 14 of 25 29 March 2007 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Is mandarin easy to learn to speak? what sort of time frame are we looking at here, 15-24 months to be able to speak it at a good level? (without worrying about the writing)
I know its the lazy way in most peoples view but im just curious. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6553 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 15 of 25 29 March 2007 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
Compared to most languages, grammar is pretty easy. Pronunciation is somewhat difficult due to tones, and there are a lot of homonyms making listening a little challenging. But overall, not much more difficult than a European language. I think 1000 hours or so would get you speaking pretty well. (for reading/writing, tack on another 2000 hrs) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 7044 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 16 of 25 29 March 2007 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
This type of ignorance really annoys me, I'm sorry to single you out, but I dont want you perpetuating this across the forum to new learners. It is precisely the fact that there is no systematic grammar which makes chinese so time-consuming to learn. When you learn a new word or synonym you have to painstakingly learn each acceptable and non-acceptable usage by rote. There is no "formula" to plug things into. If you ever want to sound native, you HAVE to master each word's usage and fixed collocations (all 20,000+ of them.) And then there are chengyu, yanyu, xiehouyu, et al. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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