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Mandarin - Need Suggestions or Help | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| jondesousa Tetraglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/Zgg3nRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 227 posts - 297 votes  Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Mandarin, Spanish | Message 1 of 7 30 April 2010 at 4:15pm | IP Logged |
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Hi All,
I am interested in taking a dive into Mandarin but have no idea what resources are good and what resources are crap. I am looking for some advice on what is worth using and also if available, the best order in which to use resources to minimize wasted study time. I am definitely interested in learning both the spoken and written forms of Mandarin; however, I don't know if Traditional or Simplified characters are most appropriate so any guidance here would also be great. If I am not asking the right questions or need to provide more details, please let me know and I'll do my best. Thanks, Jon 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5960 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 30 April 2010 at 5:21pm | IP Logged |
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If your Japanese is decent, this resource is pretty ace. Especially the 文法モジュール.
http://www.coelang.tufs.ac.jp/modules/zh/index.html 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 7 30 April 2010 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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I took the first steps with Teach Yourself Beginner's Chinese and Teach Yourself Chinese (both by Elizabeth Scurfield), but lacked motivation. I've also used Pimsleur (all three volumes), FSI, Assimil's "Chinese with ease", LingQ and probably more.
The choice between traditional and simplified depends on in which situations you'll use the language. I'm focusing on simplified since I'm studying mainland Mandarin. However, most of my dictionaries have the old set (as well as at least on reader I have) Do you want (or have) to learn both sets? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jondesousa Tetraglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/Zgg3nRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 227 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Mandarin, Spanish | Message 4 of 7 30 April 2010 at 7:04pm | IP Logged |
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Dear lichtrausch and Jeff Lindgvist,
Thanks for the advice. It is a great start. Lichtrausch - I can read Japanese fairly well and can start using the course that you linked. Jeff - I am going to get Pimsleur from the local library this weekend. I've enjoyed using it for Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Japanese, so I am sure I will enjoy Mandarin. How did you like the Teach Yourself and Assimil series? Do they start right away with hanza or pinyin or bopomofo? I will mostly be learning for work but also for fun. Most of my business will be in the Shanghai area. Do you have any suggestions on whether I need to learn both traditional or simplified or both? Thanks, Jon 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5448 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 5 of 7 30 April 2010 at 7:05pm | IP Logged |
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I'm using Michel Thomas Mandarin for speaking and grammar, "Integrated Chinese" textbook for grammar and listening, and a program called Wenlin Software to study the characters. It is a computer Chinese dictionary that has pronunciation.
I especially recommend the Wenlin Software because it can sort characters by frequency and have both simplified and traditional characters. What I do is work down the frequency list and memorize a set amount of characters a day. I also think you should stick to one form of characters for writing and learn to just recognize the other. I personally am focusing on traditional and just learning to recognize the simplified. Edited by chucknorrisman on 30 April 2010 at 7:07pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5386 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 6 of 7 30 April 2010 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
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The Michel Thomas Mandarin (not Michel- but another guy, and uses native speakers rather than beginners) is really useful for the tones. I never could understand the 4th one before it. I don't know about the rest- I've pretty much just done hte bit with tones.
the TYI Mandarin ( I can't remember if it's Beginner's or not, the one that uses chinese characters after chapter 12) was pretty good, too. I especially liked that they broke up the chinese into the literal meaning. I think one of the first lines was "Wáng xiānsheng, nĭ hăo!" and underneath it has "King/first born/you/good", with the translation of "How do you do, Mr King". It also had good explanations of chinese grammar and such. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 7 01 May 2010 at 1:02pm | IP Logged |
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TY Chinese and Assimil have hanzi, but I can't remember if TY Beginner's Chinese does (probably not). TY Chinese presents the first 12 chapters in pinyin (with hanzi version in the appendix), the rest of the chapters are in hanzi. Assimil provides pinyin along the characters all the way.
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