La Game Newbie Great Britain Joined 5983 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 1 of 20 26 July 2008 at 6:09am | IP Logged |
Hi,
I wish to be able to converse in Mandarin. I do not wish to learn how to read or write the language, only speak and listen.
What steps should I take to acheive this? Would FSI Mandarin be a good course? How far would this course take me?
If anyone could post some resources for how to speak Mandarin I would be greatful.
Thanks very much in advance.
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NJMaverick Newbie United States Joined 6161 days ago 34 posts - 36 votes Studies: English*, Portuguese
| Message 2 of 20 26 July 2008 at 12:27pm | IP Logged |
My advice?
Pimsleur I-III, followed by
Chinesepod daily.
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jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5983 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*
| Message 3 of 20 26 July 2008 at 1:13pm | IP Logged |
Most beginner books use the pinyin form of writing to help students learn pronunciation and tones. Assimil Chinese With Ease or Living Language Ultimate Chinese is what I would recommend. Pimsleur is also very good but some students learn better with visual aids. It's best if you use Assimil with Pimsleur.
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FrenchSilkPie Senior Member United States Joined 6623 days ago 125 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 4 of 20 26 July 2008 at 7:31pm | IP Logged |
The Learnables program might suit you well--they don't use any writing in their books, and you can learn a couple hundred grammatical phrases in the first book alone. I think they have one or two books on Chinese that you could use to teach you basic prepositions, nouns, conguatations, etc.
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TheMatthias Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6252 days ago 105 posts - 124 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin
| Message 5 of 20 26 July 2008 at 11:39pm | IP Logged |
May I ask why you do not wish to learn how to read or write Mandarin?
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zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6378 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 6 of 20 27 July 2008 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
TheMatthias wrote:
May I ask why you do not wish to learn how to read or write Mandarin? |
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I have similar sentiments towards mandarin. I could use it to speak to Chinese people here but see little use in devoting hours and hours learning a complex system of logograms. i would never need them as reading in Chinese wouldnt be a necessity. If i learnt it id only learn the spoken version like him. :)
Edited by zerothinking on 27 July 2008 at 2:42pm
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jimbo baby! Senior Member United States Joined 5983 days ago 202 posts - 208 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*
| Message 7 of 20 27 July 2008 at 3:38pm | IP Logged |
If you still want to learn some characters just get a book like Learning Chinese Characters and it will teach you 800 basic characters and it has stories behind the characters to help you memorize them. 800 characters isn't enough to read a Chinese newspaper but it could be enough to get by since they are the most frequently used characters. Volume 2 will add another few hundred characters when it comes out.
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La Game Newbie Great Britain Joined 5983 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 8 of 20 27 July 2008 at 6:13pm | IP Logged |
zerothinking wrote:
TheMatthias wrote:
May I ask why you do not wish to learn how to read or write Mandarin? |
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I have similar sentiments towards mandarin. I could use it to speak to Chinese people here but see little use in devoting hours and hours learning a complex system of logograms. i would never need them as reading in Chinese wouldnt be a necessity. If i learnt it id only learn the spoken version like him. :)
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This answers your question I think.
Would ChinesePod take me to a good level of fluency in Mandarin?
Regards
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