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Mandarin or not Mandarin?

  Tags: Mandarin | Japanese
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
26 messages over 4 pages: 13 4  Next >>
hokusai77
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6911 days ago

212 posts - 217 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1
Studies: GermanB1, Japanese

 
 Message 9 of 26
10 July 2005 at 5:32am | IP Logged 
czech wrote:
Let me correct myself, 2000 hours, that's what the FOreign Service Institute says.


That's a long road to fluency! Yes, it's the same amount of time required for Japanese. Thank you very much!
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Malcolm
Triglot
Retired Moderator
Senior Member
Korea, South
Joined 7074 days ago

500 posts - 515 votes 
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin

 
 Message 10 of 26
11 July 2005 at 9:17pm | IP Logged 
If it were me, I would start Mandarin on a trial basis. That is, I would experiment with the language for a few weeks to see how difficult the tones are. Some people have difficulty with the tones and are unable to pronounce them correctly, even after years of study. Others can learn the tones very quickly.

I think we all agree that Pimsleur Mandarin is the best introductory course, especially for learning tones and pronunciation. You should be able to fit one lesson into your daily schedule.
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hokusai77
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6911 days ago

212 posts - 217 votes 
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Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1
Studies: GermanB1, Japanese

 
 Message 11 of 26
12 July 2005 at 1:43am | IP Logged 
Thank you Malcolm, I think I'll try. How long did it take you to master the tones correctly? Do you still experience some difficulties in pronouncing Mandarin Chinese?
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Malcolm
Triglot
Retired Moderator
Senior Member
Korea, South
Joined 7074 days ago

500 posts - 515 votes 
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, Korean
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Latin

 
 Message 12 of 26
12 July 2005 at 2:15pm | IP Logged 
It's hard for me to remember, but I think it took only a few weeks for me to be able to pronounce the tones correctly. However, it took several more months for me to be able to speak at a regular speed without having to think of the tones. I remember trying to read a sentence written in pinyin in my first month of study. I could pronounce all the words with the right tones, but I couldn't put it all together at a natural speed. I thought at that time that the language truly was impossible.
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administrator
Hexaglot
Forum Admin
Switzerland
FXcuisine.com
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 Message 13 of 26
12 July 2005 at 2:59pm | IP Logged 
You can check Malcolm's impressive pronunciation here. Congratulations Malcolm!
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hokusai77
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6911 days ago

212 posts - 217 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1
Studies: GermanB1, Japanese

 
 Message 14 of 26
13 July 2005 at 1:37am | IP Logged 
administrator wrote:
You can check Malcolm's impressive pronunciation here. Congratulations Malcolm!


Yes, it is really impressive! Congratulations!
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Mike
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 6833 days ago

2 posts - 2 votes

 
 Message 15 of 26
13 July 2005 at 3:23pm | IP Logged 
I started trying to learn Japanese about 2 years ago, and never really got to grips with it. Then my Taiwanese girlfriend persuaded me it would be much better to learn Mandarin.
I made progress instantly and gave up the Japanese, which I found to be an unnecessarily complicated language. Anyway, here's why I think it's better to learn Mandarin than Japanese:

-It's a far more widely spoken language and will be much more useful for business etc.
-It's much much simpler than Japanese (I would even go as far as to call Chinese one of the simplest and most logical languages, once you get used to the writing) - even though the written languages look quite similar, that's only because the Japanese copied the Chinese written language (which was a bad idea in my opinion and only makes Japanese more complicated)
-I think only by learning Chinese can you truly understand the writing system, which they invented

That said, if you already speak a bit of Japanese then learning Chinese might just be confusing because the writing looks so similar but in reality is very different.
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hokusai77
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6911 days ago

212 posts - 217 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: Italian*, FrenchB1, EnglishC1
Studies: GermanB1, Japanese

 
 Message 16 of 26
13 July 2005 at 4:24pm | IP Logged 
Mike wrote:

I made progress instantly and gave up the Japanese, which I found to be an unnecessarily complicated language. Anyway, here's why I think it's better to learn Mandarin than Japanese:

...

That said, if you already speak a bit of Japanese then learning Chinese might just be confusing because the writing looks so similar but in reality is very different.


Hello Mike, welcome to the forum! Thank you for your advice. Of course, Mandarin will grow in importance, and it's already very useful.
My choice for learning Japanese was based on cultural interest, and it proved to be a right decision, since I really love Japan, I lived there last year, I've been learning the language for five years, and I'm eager to go on with it. I can speak it reasonably well, and I can read newspaper articles (with the help of a kanji dictionary). I would certainly never give it up.
I was wondering whether to start Chinese or not, because I'd like to know East Asia from another point of view (my perspective has always been filtered by Japan). Another good language to take up to better understand this part of the world would be Hindi, but I think it's wiser to choose Mandarin.




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