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A realistic plan for learning Mandarin?

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21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2
BaronBill
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
HowToLanguages.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4477 days ago

335 posts - 594 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, German
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, Persian

 
 Message 17 of 21
19 July 2014 at 1:41am | IP Logged 
Josquin wrote:
Jeffers wrote:
Have you considered working in a little chinesepod101? Of all of the Xpod101 series, this one has a very good reputation here on HTLAL. I know nothing about it, but Ari (who used to be very active on HTLAL)gave it excellent reviews. He used the full course, including studying the vocab, using the worksheets, etc.

I just wanted to comment that the Chinesepod Ari based his studies on is not part of the Languagepod101 series.

The website is chinesepod.com. The Chinese version of Languagepod101, however, is called chineseclass101.com.

I guess Chinesepod was there before Chineseclass101, so the latter wasn't allowed to be called Chinesepod101 as well.


I have used both and I can attest that they are both fantastic. Also, between the two of them, there are so many lessons that I think it would almost be impossible to listen to all of them. I am a paid subscriber to both and it is 100% worth it.
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leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6338 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 18 of 21
19 July 2014 at 5:37am | IP Logged 
rdearman wrote:
I am considering challenging myself to learn Mandarin in 2 years, 2 months and 2 days. I would start sometime next month and end on
my 51st Birthday.

Good idea, but let's sinofy it a little. Reach your goal in 8 years, 8 months, 8 days, 8 minutes and 8 seconds on your 88th birthday.
rdearman wrote:
Is the plan realistic?

I suppose everyone has their own plan. Here is mine.
I think your plan, although necessarily simplified at this point, is a good one. I won't give it a detailed critique, but will tell you my favorite and least favorite
parts. Favorite part - starting with Pimsleur. Least favorite part - no conversation, which I realize has already been mentioned.
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rdearman
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United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 19 of 21
19 July 2014 at 1:56pm | IP Logged 
@leosmith -

It took a couple of minutes for the references to lucky number 8 to twig in my head. :)

With the help of shk00design I've managed to figure out how to type hanzi into my computer, so this should make it easier to use websites like sharetalk, and Weibo. I do have a Chinese friend in Taiwan who can speak with me on occasion, but where I live there seems to be a short supply of Mandarin speakers. However I might try to do some "racial profiling" like Moses McCormick and see if I can find people to speak to.

I've also decided on your advice and others that I really need to invest in some tutoring (conversation) with italki. I read your post and really enjoyed it and the links you've provided. I especially like the idea of doing pronunciation drills in pinyin chart. I plan to add 1/2 hour per day doing that.

From your post I get the feeling you advocate just learning both simplified and traditional characters? I suppose this isn't any different from having to learn English words "sick" and "ill" which mean the same thing just spelled differently. But could this lead me to make mistakes in writing where I've done 50% of the sentence in traditional characters & 50% in simplified?

EDIT:

leosmith recommened on his learning plan that best order to learn characters is to learn them as you get them, for example learn the characters of each pimsleur dialogue as you do the lesson. So if anyone else is following this thread and interested you can find transcripts of the lessons here:

Pimsleur Mandarin Transcripts.

I also found a website which will show you the stroke order of a character. This will help me practice writing and remembering it I think.

Arch Chinese

Edited by rdearman on 19 July 2014 at 6:03pm

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leosmith
Senior Member
United States
Joined 6338 days ago

2365 posts - 3804 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Tagalog

 
 Message 20 of 21
19 July 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
rdearman wrote:
From your post I get the feeling you advocate just learning both simplified and traditional
characters? I suppose this isn't any different from having to learn English words "sick" and "ill" which mean the same
thing just spelled differently. But could this lead me to make mistakes in writing where I've done 50% of the sentence
in traditional characters & 50% in simplified?

The important thing is that you learn both, but I don't think it matters which order you learn them in. There may be
a reason that one is better to start with for you. If there isn't, then I think it's fine to learn both at the same time;
that's what I do. Mistakes are possible of course, but I don't think there is a "high risk" of confusing simplified with
traditional. Keep in mind that there aren't as many simplified characters as traditional, so a sentence in which you
could confuse 50% of the character type would be rare.
2 persons have voted this message useful



rdearman
Senior Member
United Kingdom
rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5024 days ago

881 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin

 
 Message 21 of 21
21 July 2014 at 6:19pm | IP Logged 
LOL. I lost my thread! I hadn't posted here and I think it got moved.

Anyway! Another question. Has anyone used this website http://chineasy.org/ for learning characters? Is it any good?







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