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Starting Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| CecileLeRose Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6001 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 11 26 April 2008 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
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I'm starting to learn Mandarin. My boyfriend is from Shanghai and speaks both Shanghainese and Mandarin. He opted to teach me mandarin because it's more useful. I'm currently working on the base sounds, and I seem to have the tones down fairly well in isolation (no doubt I'll screw them up entirely when I start using real words.)
He and I plan to get married and therefore plan to go to China for a wedding there as well. (This is probably 2-3 years down the road.) I would like to be competent at speaking the language well before then, so that I can talk to his family a bit on the phone, also many of his friends from work are also Chinese and they speak Mandarin when they are together. I would enjoy being able to take part in the conversation. This brings me to one issue I'm still debating. Should I focus on getting spoken vocabulary quickly and worry about writing later? Or am I going to find it easier to develop my vocabulary if I can read in the language? Currently my goal is to be fairly good at the sounds by the end of May, and be able to manage some basic greeting-type stuff by the end of June ("Hi. How are you? I'm fine. That's all the Chinese I know so Goodbye.") These seem like realistic goals. I don't want to plan on anything harder until I have a better feel for how quickly I can feasibly pick it up. We've got a couple books and I've got the FSI stuff recommended by this site. Any suggestions are welcome. Mostly I figured I'd keep track of what I'm doing and maybe it'll help someone else or allow me to look back and see what works and what doesn't easier. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| polikaru Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6091 days ago 206 posts - 215 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Dutch | Message 2 of 11 27 April 2008 at 4:05am | IP Logged |
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This sounds very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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| 吕明扬 Newbie United States Joined 5999 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 11 27 April 2008 at 5:12pm | IP Logged |
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You should probaly be able to learn the sounds, tones and some basic expressions faster then that. I started learning about two weeks ago and im at that point.
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| CecileLeRose Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6001 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 4 of 11 27 April 2008 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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We finished working our way through the rest of th sounds tonight. Now I'll have to practice them a few days and drill with him again to make sure I really remember them. I would like to learn faster, but honestly I can not commit to even an hour a day at this point. Luckily I have a very good memory. I know a few words already. (We've had some abortive starts over the past 8 months.) We have a few books and a method to follow now. We just kept reaching a point where he didn't know what to teach me next.
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| 吕明扬 Newbie United States Joined 5999 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 11 28 April 2008 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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Oh i see what you mean. I'd probaly pick out something that interested me and learn that. Like if you like to read, pick up a childrens book, and get your bf to teach you those words. Or movies or music. But you do have a lot less time to spend on it then me. I do about 8-14 hours a day.
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| CecileLeRose Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6001 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 6 of 11 28 April 2008 at 8:05am | IP Logged |
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Where do you find that kind of time?
I work 10 hours a day. Have dance lessons Monday, small group Tuesday, work with the kids at church Wednesday, Thursday night is BF & I's movie night, Friday I have either roleplaying or a dance. Saturday has nothing regularly scheduled, but there's nearly always something going on, and Sunday is Sunday school, church, and lunch with family. Somewhere I have to fit in Housework, and the BF is teaching me tennis. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| CecileLeRose Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6001 days ago 6 posts - 6 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Mandarin | Message 7 of 11 29 April 2008 at 10:08pm | IP Logged |
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I am using a program called gflash that make electronic flash cards on my blackberry. I currently have 2 files completed. One is random vocabulary, one is pinyin parts and approximate sounds. If anyone else uses this and would like my files or has some they are willing to share you can contact me via email.
If you would like the program it can be found here. Gflash website I am also going to be contributing my files back to gflash, so they may show up in their catalog. However I have no clue how long that might take. I also found www.nciku.com that looks like it will be helpful, but I'm not yet far enough in to know for sure. Edited by CecileLeRose on 29 April 2008 at 11:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| 吕明扬 Newbie United States Joined 5999 days ago 30 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 11 29 April 2008 at 10:23pm | IP Logged |
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I dont find the time, i make it. I kind of took Khatzumoto's idea from alljapaneseallthetime.com i just switched it over to chinese. Pretty much i got rid of all my English stuff and got chinese stuff instead. I work a full time job. But thats about it for my obligations. And while im there im free to listen to my chinese music and podcasts. So it all works out.
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