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Learning Chinese -- Any tips? | ||
Tags: Learning Strategy | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| dec_lan Newbie United States Joined 5085 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 1 of 7 20 June 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged |
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Hey guys. I'm trying to learn Mandarin, because my girlfriend is half Chinese and I think it would be cool to try and talk to her in it (though she speaks English perfectly).
So I've been trying to learn it with Rosetta Stone, and I guess I'm making progress. I do it for about an hour a day. I'm also making flash cards. But it's just SO HARD. I've learned a tiny bit of Spanish and a decent bit of French throughout highschool and going to French speaking countries, and though it's by no means easy, there are at least cognates and I can make all the sounds pretty well. But learning this Chinese, making the sounds, is just impossible sometimes. I can make the basic sound, but I maul the intonation and stuff. Also, there seem to be like 10 different words with all the same sound. I have so much trouble differentiating the similar sounds (I think I've seen the word 'xie' with different tones in the words for "multiple", "write", and "shoes"). Does anyone have any good advice? Thanks! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| lynxrunner Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States crittercryptics.com Joined 5736 days ago 361 posts - 461 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish*, French Studies: Russian, Swedish, Haitian Creole | Message 2 of 7 20 June 2010 at 11:53pm | IP Logged |
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Are you using anything besides Rosetta Stone? Rosetta Stone is essentially a flashcard
program and doesn't teach you grammar from what I've heard, so I don't think you'll be able to use it to really learn Chinese. I guess you should find some sort of Mandarin course book. As for the vocabulary problems, I get you. I feel the same way with Russian. French had all those cognates which made it very easy for me to get a footing in French... but Russian doesn't. The only thing to do is keep absorbing vocabulary - it'll never get easier unless you continue to learn vocabulary. Tones are something you'll have to get used to. Your girlfriend speaks Mandarin - has she been helping you with it? There's nothing like having a native speaker around to correct you, and if you can talk to her in Mandarin (even if it's really basic things like "How are you?" "Good." "What's your name?"), that's a good thing. Mandarin is a particularly difficult language for English speakers, so you're not alone. I understand that you're discouraged, but keep going. You're lucky to have someone who speaks Mandarin with you - that should be really helpful, especially since it's your girlfriend. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| dec_lan Newbie United States Joined 5085 days ago 18 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 7 21 June 2010 at 12:00am | IP Logged |
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Hmmmm. Yeah, I should probably get a course book. Anyone have suggestions on used, older editions?
Welllll...she's currently on the other side of the country for a couple months, she doesn't get to use the phone too often. I'll definitely be able to talk to her when she gets back, but I only started learning since she left. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NuclearGorilla Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6600 days ago 166 posts - 195 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, French | Message 4 of 7 21 June 2010 at 3:15am | IP Logged |
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You could try the FSI Chinese course available at http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php?page=Chinese. It's free, so there's really no harm on it.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| luhmann Senior Member Brazil Joined 5147 days ago 156 posts - 271 votes Speaks: Portuguese* Studies: Mandarin, French, English, Italian, Spanish, Persian, Arabic (classical) | Message 5 of 7 21 June 2010 at 4:20am | IP Logged |
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I surely recommend chinesepod.
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| johntm93 Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 587 posts - 746 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 6 of 7 21 June 2010 at 5:14am | IP Logged |
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Michel Thomas explained the tones to me pretty well, they aren't hard at all (once you get the proper instruction)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6156 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 7 of 7 21 June 2010 at 7:21am | IP Logged |
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I have tried many different programs back when I first learned Chinese and the one that really got me
started was Pimsleur. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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