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Thread: Learning Mandarin

  1. #16
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    Thumbs up

    when that happens, you actually form the thoughts in the target language. When you begin to achieve fluency, your brain will translate its thoughts into that language, and you will be thinking in Chinese with no effort. IMO that is fluency more than the sum total of your vocabulary. of course, the greater the amount of vocabulary you have, the more detail you will express yourself with and the scope of your conversations is greater. This was my experience with Spanish anyway.
    Keep at it, you will have dreams in Mandarin. I am not kidding.
    I have seen that episode of the Simpsons...that's a great one. The gendarme does not care about his tales of abuse at the hands of his wine making captors, but once he mentions that they are putting antifreeze in the wine, that gets his attention immediately!
    I had trouble with French... there are so many silent letters, and even with the non silent ones, for the most part it is hard to pronounce a word properly having read it but not heard it spoken aloud! Chinese is a little like that to me but not as bad. Japanese was really great in that regard. The word has to be stressed on the right accent but other than that, what you see is what you get lol. like: hana can mean nose, or it can mean flower. one is haNA and one is HAna.

    good luck with the Mandarin lessons, i envy you a little with the classes and also proximity to native Mandarin speakers. My kung fu teacher and his wife are from Taiwan and it seems like their accent is different from what i hear on the CDs but not so much.
    Master...Teach me kung fu.

  2. #17
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    From Taiwan? That brings up another subject... I've heard people speak of "Taiwanese" and "Shanghainese". I heard some of it, I'm told that if you speak Shanghainese, it impresses people. I guess it means you're down with China if you can speak Shanghainese. I don't know, that's what they say on ChinesePod anyway.
    If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

    Lucky Numbers 11, 8, 39, 46, 5, 17

  3. #18
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    Pimsleur is the only decent Cantonese course out there. It is conversational, layers its teaching, and uses proper grammer, rather than colloquialisms.
    I have a few Cantonese friends, one who was schooled in Hong Kong, and she is helping me alot. So far, I can do great ordering food, cursing, and going to the bathroom. So I can eat,get sick,run to the bathroom and then curse the waiters when I get out.
    I find that Chinese folks are extremely receptive when I clumsily attempt to speak their language. Many are glad that Iwould actually take the time to learn about the language and culture to that extent, and are extremely patient and helpful. The elderly especially are enthusiastic. I hang out in a park in Chinatown and train with a group of people, and it really helped me "get in" with the group and gain acceptance.

  4. #19
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    Spanish is the only one of the European languages I kept up with, but here there are multitudes of Spanish speakers so I just have to keep my ears open to keep the rust off. Usually I listen first to hear if they are saying anything bad about me (which is almost never, like .1% of the time anyway) if someone needs help (lost, or need directions or instruction) and can't speak English I will help, I don't 'butt in' or anything but it is good karma to help when help is needed...
    When you are in a foreign country or a community with a lot of immigrants, speaking the language really tends to open a lot of doors, because it shows that you are at least trying to make the effort. I'm not surprised that you find a receptive audience It is a sign of respect to make that attempt I believe.
    There was a poster in my Spanish class bearing the slogan, "Hablando dos idiomas, vales dos personas." : Speaking two languages, you are worth two people.(my translation) And to this day I really believe that.
    Last edited by Banjos_dad; 08-03-2006 at 05:20 PM.
    Master...Teach me kung fu.

  5. #20
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    zhongwen.com
    Bless you

  6. #21
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    I have been a language teacher and have been studying mandarin for 4 or 5 years now. The most important thing is to get past embarassment and speak the language as often as possible. It doesn't matter if you know very little, you will gain a lot from this. Interaction will force your brain to come up with responces, and you will remember more this way. You will also meet new friends. Supplemental meterial is great too, remember, get audio, visual, and interactive meterial. Languages involve all of these learning mechanisms. Good Luck.
    Bless you

  7. #22
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    my, aren't you friendly?

    Quote Originally Posted by TenTigers
    So far, I can do great ordering food, cursing, and going to the bathroom. .

    Who the hell are you talking to while you're going to the bathroom?


    I could see reading skills being important for that, but speaking...

  8. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by bodhitree View Post
    I have been a language teacher and have been studying mandarin for 4 or 5 years now. The most important thing is to get past embarassment and speak the language as often as possible. It doesn't matter if you know very little, you will gain a lot from this. Interaction will force your brain to come up with responces, and you will remember more this way. You will also meet new friends. Supplemental meterial is great too, remember, get audio, visual, and interactive meterial. Languages involve all of these learning mechanisms. Good Luck.
    That's very true. I used what I've learned in two situations so far, one of those times I had no choice at all because no one around me spoke english.
    If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

    Lucky Numbers 11, 8, 39, 46, 5, 17

  9. #24
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    yikes! ok, howz this? OR going to the bathroom!
    actually, I recently got corrected on this. It seems that my "friend" who taught me alot of Cantonese terms, was a bit..um, shall we say, unrefined? So for the longest time, I was saying,"Chee-saw hai been do-ah?" -which is like saying,"Where's the toilet" as opposed to "Sai-sao gahn hai been do-ah" -which is where is the (hand) wash room?"
    So it really depends on who is teaching you. Different people have different backrounds and some may judge you by your speech, just as you judge someone who fu**in always has to fu**in say Fu**, every fu**in time he opens his fu**in mouth.
    Some terms are used in mainland, and those who are from HK and NY Chinatown will call them communists. Some terms are used by lower class, some are downright offensive. I ask my friend what a term my other friend taught me means, and she freaks out. "I can't even repeat that!" she says.
    (the term was "Ham ga chahn")
    so be careful. I have to unlearn alot of bad habits.

  10. #25
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    ahhh, Chinese Pod...

    "Wo(3) la(1) duzi(4)"
    If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't.

    Lucky Numbers 11, 8, 39, 46, 5, 17

  11. #26
    I learned it by living in China for a couple of years.

    I'm always impressed by people who can learn in the US - when you're surrounded by people speaking the language its a lot easier (not to say I didn't have a frustrating time with it, and if I didn't have such a high tolerance for confusion I would have lost my mind). The fact that you need to say wu yao yi ping pijiu in order to get that beer is very motivating.

    Check out www.mylanguageexchange.com it costs $12 or so a year, and it helps you find people who want to trade language practice. In my experience its hit or miss, and its no substitute for a class or language course. But its a good way to get in some free practice time and make friends.

    Also, check out meetup.com - they have Chinese language meetings in a lot of cities. It can vary, some times its great, other times not so much. Its a good way to meet language partners, get tips on classes, tutors and books. At the very least you'll be able to vent your frustrations with people who know where you're coming from.

    Listen to Chinese language podcasts and radio stations as much as possible. Even if you're not actively listening, even if you don't understand a word they're saying. I don't know if it actually helped, but my Chinese listening skills got a lot better when I realized that I would stop paying attention 1 minute into a conversation if I didn't understand it. If you force yourself to pay attention, I think it just seeps into your subconscious (again, no idea if that's really how it works, but its what I did).

    Have a sense of humor, and be willing to make mistakes. I had a roomate who wanted his Chinese to be perfect - so much so that he'd freak out and throw his desk on the ground if he made a mistake on a quiz in class. He learned a lot slower than I did - its the same thing with your kung fu. If you go into a fight repeating "Oh My God I Don't Want to Get Hit!!! to yourself, you're going to die. I've accidently said things to women that I was trying to flirt with that were so crass and insulting that you couldn't come up with them if you tried. I would laugh it off, and more often than not they'd laugh with me.

    I learned a lot of Chinese by drunkenly talking to cab drivers on my way home from the bar.

    As far as specific advice goes, I learned by picking up useful phrases and repeating them as often as possible. Then when I got it down, I would substitute a word. For example: Zhe(4)ge dui(4) bu(4)dui(4)? Is this right or not? literally This Good not Good. And then Zhe(4)ge hao(3) bu(4)hao(3)? Is this Good or not?
    And take baby steps from there.

    And www.zhongwen.com is an amazing online mandarin dictionary.

    At least that's what worked for me.

  12. #27
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    Wow, been a while since I last came on this forum!

    Hello all, as my title says, it's really been a while!

    Just to fill you in, in the past year or so, I've been training hard in both my Gongfu and Taijiquan and also I've been learning chinese (mandarin) for the past 15 months or so. Also, I've been to Taiwan twice in 2006, once in January for 1 month and as I'm writing this, I'm here in Taipei with my lovely girlfriend!

    My interest in gongfu movies (wuda pian in pinyin) and actual martial arts itself sparked my interest in the chinese language, back then my ultimate goal being able to watch a gongfu movie in chinese with no subtitles

    But as I made progress with my chinese, I set my sights higher and my aim these days is to become fully literate in traditional chinese characters as well as being fluent in the language.

    When I started out learning in England, there were basically no classes for learning chinese and the only class I knew of was one my chinese friend went to (him being from Hong Kong and already fluent in Cantonese) and the class he usually went to on a Sunday morning was for learning Mandarin chinese. But sadly, he stopped going and concentrated on specialist Cantonese grammer and essay classes instead to gain an A Level in it. So I never got a chance to go.

    Then, looking around my local book store, found a book called 'Beginner's Chinese By Elizabeth Scurfield and Song Lianyi'. Starting out with this (no CD provided but available to buy) I quickly realised the need for the accompanying CD. Buying that from Amazon, I got learning.

    Shortly after starting to learn chinese, I met my gf in London who is from Taiwan. Thrown in at the deep end (her not being so keen to speak english with me when we first met) I had to learn quickly and those 3 weeks in London with her boosted my chinese to a new level.

    Anyway, back to the point. So, when she went back to Taiwan, I was gutted BUT I was invited to visit her in Taiwan- prime opportunity to learn!

    So in January 2006, I headed off to Taiwan, all alone ( me then being 18 years old, pretty daunting!)

    I can safely say that the previous comments on being surrounded by chinese speakers brings your chinese level up, totally right! You have no choice but to listen well and respond.

    A guy selling 'chou doufu' a smelly kind of tofu popular in Taiwan, began having a full blown conversation with me about chinese cuisine and the differences between Mainland and Taiwanese food! I kept up pretty well

    Anyway, someone previously mentioned a book 'Reading and Writing Chinese Characters by McNaughton and Li'--- This book has proven invaluable in me studying characters! I can now write and read basic and some intermediate texts in traditional chinese.

    Also, (sorry to make this a long 'un) I remember someone saying having dreams in chinese or something along those lines? Well, I THINK in chinese these days. Oh yeah, I also sleep-talk in chinese (my family and gf have told me many a time!)

    Anyway, I apologize for the long winded reply but its good to share experiences!

    Much love, peace!

    One Finger Zen
    It's evident, my potential be infinite- The RZA

  13. #28
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    wo men yinggai yong pinyin zai zhe ge thread! nimen tongyi ma?
    Bless you

  14. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by One Finger Zen View Post
    Also, (sorry to make this a long 'un) I remember someone saying having dreams in chinese or something along those lines? Well, I THINK in chinese these days. Oh yeah, I also sleep-talk in chinese (my family and gf have told me many a time!)
    Once I woke up in the middle of the night to hear the roommate that I mentioned above practicing Chinese grammer exercises in his sleep. When he woke up I told him, and then corrected his mistakes. He wasn't amused.

    But for the love of god, stay away from the Chou Dofu!!! And anything with stinky, rotten or putrid in its name. I guess its great that they believe in truth in advertising...
    At least don't try and bring any Chou Dofu seasoning back home with you, they'll probably think you're trying to smuggle biological weapons.

  15. #30
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    The first time I ordered chou tofu I had no idea what it was, when the waitress was bringing it to our table I thought someone with bad B. O. was walking by...
    Bless you

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