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Eric’s Mandarin Log (see post 1 for course list) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6196 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 141 30 June 2007 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I've decided to put Italian aside for a while. I don't get to use it much. And my Italian is good enough to
get around Italy comfortably. So I am taking up Mandarin. Just writing those words fills me with excitement although I know how challenging it will be. It's something that I have been thinking about since getting married a couple of years ago. My wife and her family speaks Chinese exclusively at home in Singapore. And I am planning on practicing a lot with them when I move to Singapore next year. And hehehe, I am not telling them yet. I can't wait to see the look on their faces the first time I throw out a few words in Mandarin during dinner one night. So here is hopefully the first of many entries documenting my progress. EDIT: Here is a list of course I've completed so far (in order): Michel Thomas Speak Mandarin Chinese for Beginners Michel Thomas Speak Mandarin Chinese Advanced Michel Thomas Method: Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary Course Assimil Chinese With Ease Volume I Pimsleur Chinese Volume I Assimil Chinese With Ease Volume II Collins Easy Learning Mandarin Colloquial Chinese I (Qian) Teach Yourself Beginner's Chinese Pimsleur Chinese Volume II Chinese for Beginners Pimsleur Chinese Volume III Teach Yourself Chinese (Complete) Linguaphone Mandarin Chinese All Talk Edited by newyorkeric on 19 May 2014 at 5:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6196 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 141 30 June 2007 at 10:51am | IP Logged | ||
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To get started I have been working with two tone drills: http://www.shufawest.us/language/tonedrill.html
and http://pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm. Like many I sometimes find it difficult to distinguish between tone 2 and tone 3. To practice the tones I created an mp3 of each tone repeated for about 5 minutes which I use for chorusing. It seems to be working really well. Next week I meet with a tutor... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6196 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 141 01 July 2007 at 2:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I practiced chorusing yesterday for two hours. What a workout.
I have a question about chorusing. Should one always chorus with the same speaker? I worry that if I listen to two different speakers, one with a higher tone range than the other, it will muddy my starting points when I try to speak. Any thoughts? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6196 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 141 02 July 2007 at 10:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I met with my tutor for the first time today. It was very helpful to have someone to correct my tone mistakes. And get this, we are going to meet 4 times a week for 45 minutes until the summer is over. He isn't charging me either. I lucked out.
I have to think a little harder about what we will do together. We practiced pronunciation with a pin yin table and a Pimsleur transcript but that didn't take much time. Anyone have suggestions? I am having trouble with tone 2. Even when he said I did it right I couldn't always tell. Ren2 especially kicked my butt. I have edited Pimsleur 1 to chorus. Let's see if it helps. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6711 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 141 03 July 2007 at 4:07am | IP Logged | ||
Don't we all, at least I find it difficult too. The initial FSI pronunciation tapes helped a lot with this though. The trick is that on the second tone the stress increases towards the end. If you listen out for that, and try to do it that way yourself, it suddenly becomes much easier. I think the rise in pitch is mostly very slight to begin with and I never quite seemed able to reliably detect that. The moment I started thinking of it as an increasing stress/weight pattern my results improved dramatically. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6367 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 6 of 141 03 July 2007 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I totally agree with Henke. The first tape of FSI covers this very well, is only 20 some minutes long, and is free. Another thing they say is to keep in mind that it's a rising tone; if it doesn't clearly rise it causes confusion.
I really don't like to work with tutors at such an early stage, but you might get some ideas from http://www.languageimpact.com/articles/gt/leaveme.htm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6476 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin | Message 7 of 141 03 July 2007 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Loquella.com have added Chinese to their site now, if one is only interested in the tone exercised in the FSI course, maybe it's easier to use Loquella than pdf and mp3 files?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6196 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 141 04 July 2007 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the advice. I have been working through the FSI pronunciation module little by little.
ShuFa West has added a tone combo drill! http://www.shufawest.us/language/dual-tonedrill.swf 1 person has voted this message useful |
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