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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| SueK Groupie United States Joined 4561 days ago 77 posts - 133 votes  Studies: Mandarin | Message 9 of 12 16 January 2012 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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[QUOTE=JayR9] Would you choose one as your main and then choose something else to help along side it so Im learning from both audio and visual?QUOTE]
Keep in mind I'm a newbie too, aside from trying to keep you from wasting as much time as I did figuring out where to start, I don't know much yet! Most of what you hear about visual v. audio is what style of learning works best for you personally. I'm very visual. I have awesome reading comprehension, but am easily lost in conversations. If I struggle to remember something, I can often get it back by picturing where I saw it. I also have terrible focus, so without more than one stimulation (reading and clicking on screens buttons vs just listening, for instance) I easily lose focus. So, normally, you don't need to think about having a balance of both, but just select the style of learning that works best for you. Since you want to learn to read and write, you are going to have at least have a visual component to your plan. Weather you need to also have a strictly audible component is beyond my knowledge of how best to learn Mandarin. Can you give the forum an idea of how you learn most effectively? Do you learn best with someone instructing you, do you learn well on your own with a text? What are your general experiences learning something, so that people (all of whom know way more than me) can give some more specific recommendations for you? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4510 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 12 16 January 2012 at 11:32pm | IP Logged |
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Hello,
I would say I am good at learning on my own and don't need to sit In a classroom so to speak. As for knowing which type of style suites me, well I honestly don't know. I have normally just got on with learning using whatever resources I have available. The Fact I am very Interested In learning Mandarin has made me want to try and find as many good programs and resources as I can so I have lots to look at. If that makes sense? Its like I want the best for Audio, the best for reading, the best for writing and so on. Meaning If I have to use different programs then It is something I will have to look at In regards to time and that. I am enjoying this site though as I am picking up new things all the time and being new to this, I appreciate all the help and replies, so thank you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Opensecret Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4502 days ago 20 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian, Mandarin | Message 11 of 12 28 January 2012 at 5:11am | IP Logged |
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Personally, I think the best audio for many languages, including Mandarin, is Pimsleur. It's(almost) all-audio, which I think is the best way to start a language if you hope to speak and understand the spoken language -- children learn their first language orally long before they start to read. Pimsleur moves at a relatively gradual pace, so you're not overwhelmed at the beginning -- although I remember when I started Mandarin, I had to go through lesson 1 several times before I began to feel I got it. If you try to read before you hear the sounds, you'll almost inevitably get some sounds wrong. I think that's one major reason that many second-language learners have such terrible pronunciation.
Once you begin to get comfortable with the sounds of Mandarin and understand how the tones work, you're ready to start reading. I think the Assimil is one of the best texts, and I've tried about ten of them. By the way, despite what you often hear, I don't think the tones are a major hurdle --there are only four of them, or five if you count the neutral tone, and they're pretty distinct. Chinese grammar is mostly about sentence structure, which is fairly similar to English. All words in Chinese are invariable -- there are no singulars, plurals or genders, and verbs don't conjugate at all. The big challenge is the level of memorization, since almost none of the vocabulary has any similarity to English, and every word involves a three-way relationship among meaning, sound, and character. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JayR9 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4510 days ago 155 posts - 162 votes Speaks: English* | Message 12 of 12 28 January 2012 at 9:41am | IP Logged |
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Yes thank you for your reply.
I am using Pimsleur as my main learning program and feel I am picking up the words and phrases but I have had to listen to lesson 5 quite a few times because my mind seems to go blank when he asks me to answer even though I know the answers most of the time. I have started to put Chinese news on so I can improve my listening (although I don't know many words) but I leave it on in the background while I am on the computor or doing the other jobs. I also watch a drama with English subtitles each day to help. For Assimil, I am not working at the moment so cant afford pay out much but if I were to get it, what do I need to actually buy because there seems to be different kinds. How many books, audio and that are there to get for it? thanks again 1 person has voted this message useful |
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