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Mandarin help | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6651 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 1 of 25 10 February 2007 at 1:42am | IP Logged | ||
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It looks like I may be taking a trip to China with my wife in about a year and a half, and my Spanish has gotten good enough to get by at my job (which I'll probably be changing soon anyway), so I'm considering shifting gears to start really focusing on Mandarin.
I'm wondering what would be the best way to approach this, considering that I'd like to do the trip on my own (no tour group, set schedule or anything like that) and without a tour guide speaking English the whole time (except where Mandarin isn't spoken), and considering the amount of time I have (about 18 months). Here's the materials I currently own/have access to: Pimsleur I (can get II and III from library) FSI Standard Chinese: A Modular Approach Yong Ho's Beginner's Chinese and Intermediate Chinese China Panorama 1 : Approaching Chinese (VCD series) New Practical Chinese Reader Textbooks 1 & 2 ChinesePod Podcasts I'd like to stick with these materials (I probably own too many already...buying new learning materials is a weakness of mine). If there's something out there that will really increase my rate of progress and can be had for a reasonable price, then I'll consider getting it (after convincing my wife I really need it, of course). I was thinking of using the FSI course as my "core curriculum" and supplementing with China Panorama and ChinesePod. I'm not planning on learning to read/write (for now) really, because my main goal is to get around and be able to talk to people. But, if more experienced speakers say that learning to read and write will help me learn to speak and understand, I'm willing to bite the bullet. I'm open to any and all suggestions. By the way, we will probably be visiting the following places: Beijing, Xian, Guilin, Yangshuo, and perhaps Shanghai. I know Mandarin is spoken in Beijing (of course) and Xian, and I think in Shanghai (right?), but I'm not sure if it is widely understood in Guilin and Yangshuo. Any help with this is appreciated. Thanks for reading my very long-winded post (apologies), and thanks in advance for any advice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6842 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 2 of 25 10 February 2007 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||
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18 months is a long time, I've only been studying for 20 months and in that time managed to graduate college and work at two very demanding sales jobs (one of which required licensing).
You've also got all the materials you need for now. FSI should be your core grammar and example sentence source (but you will need to edit the audio for chrousing) Also edit the pimsleur for chorusing. Listen to Chinesepod everyday for overall comprehension. The PCR series is great, I started with it as well, and my character knowledge is pretty kickin. Download Mnemosyne. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6651 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 3 of 25 11 February 2007 at 1:39am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. How quickly do you think I could get through the FSI course? Is one core Unit per week overzealous (68 Units in the core modules), if I treat it as the "meat and potatoes" of my study? With ChinesePod, is it recommended that I go through the lessons in order (ie, listen to all Newbie lessons in order, then move to beginner, etc.)? Or should I stick with one level (in order) until my FSI course brings me to a point that it seems easy, then move to the next? Or should I pick topics that interest me until I have moved on to a higher level, and then move up? How do you personally use it? As far as characters, I intend to learn to read and write. My dilemma is whether I should start with it now, or wait until later. I'm worried that if I devote too much time to characters, then my speaking skills won't be where they could have been when I get to China. On the other hand, if I can't read, it may prove to be difficult to get around because I can't read signs. On the other other hand, I could say "Excuse me, I can't read. Can you point me to _____?" Which is the lesser of the two evils, in your opinion? Of course, maybe learning characters will help in learning vocab faster. Who knows? I certainly don't, so if the consensus here is that I'd be better off learning to read, then I will. To edit the audio for chorusing, I just isolate each sentence on a track, hit the repeat button, and mimic the speaker correct? Is it recommended to do this with every sentence you learn, or just certain key ones (maybe ones that give me difficulty) until I'm comfortable with the sounds of the language? Sorry for another long post, and thanks again for your help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| victoriali Newbie Canada Joined 6298 days ago 1 posts - 2 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, German | Message 4 of 25 11 February 2007 at 6:28am | IP Logged | ||
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As someone currently living in Beijing, I hope I can lend some advice for your Mandarin quest.
I would say that Pimsleur will be your best choice to begin with. The FSI courses are likely to be a little overwhelming at first - and I feel that Mandarin should be eased into to ensure success! For writing and reading I recommend the new practical Chinese readers (these are what I used in my university classes). These books are also good for the pronounciation drills, especially for tones. At first it seems pointless to do the bo-po-mo-fo drills, but it will pay off in the end! You will likely find it difficult to pronouce a lot of Chinese sounds such as the x, z, q etc... For these, the only thing that could improve my pronounciation was my dedicated teacher! As for the reading and writing, I hope you're up to the challenge! I've been studying for about 2 years now, and have more or less given up on ever being able to read or write with proficiency. I've realized that the effort it takes to memorize how to write the characters is not worth it for me anymore. That said, I am very proficient using characters in word processing. Chinesepod is good for learning lexical chunks. :) good luck! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6984 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 25 12 February 2007 at 3:09am | IP Logged | ||
For choursing I'd say select a small number of sentences (maybe 20-30) and work very intensively on those for maybe a month until you feel that you can say them absolutely perfectly. Then when you learn new sentences keep using the chorusing method, but you will find that having spent so much time on the first batch of sentences the rest of them will come very easily. You will need much fewer repetitions on the new sentences. Also I recommend that you use FSI or any other source spoken at a natural speed for you source of sentences. Pimsleur is spoken much too slowly and unnaturally and doesn't let you learn the rhythm of mandarin properly. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| CaoMei513 Senior Member United States Joined 6646 days ago 110 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean | Message 6 of 25 13 February 2007 at 10:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Sorry for the short post, I am already late to class. But I do think that if you are going to be in China it is almost nessesary to learn to read. The whole time I visited China, the only Chinese I ever used was reading all the street signs and labels for my dad who doesnt know chinese.
well, good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6651 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 7 of 25 13 February 2007 at 12:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for your replies. This is helpful. I'll definitely be learning to read before I go.
One question, though: when should I start learning characters? I hardly know any Mandarin at all, just a few basic phrases (through lesson 7 in Pimsleur, and Module I Unit 3 in FSI), so should I wait a couple months until I can speak a bit better? I don't see a much point in learning to write/read characters when I haven't even learned to say them yet. Or will it not matter? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6842 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 8 of 25 13 February 2007 at 2:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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well it would suck to have to relearn words you already know, just because you dont know how to read/write them.
Learning to speak without reading/writing is the quick, easy path. Faster more seductive.. Learning from the start is slower, more painful, but in the end.. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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