Learning Mandarin

Adsta

Adsta

Adsta

Soldato
Joined
7 May 2008
Posts
7,262
Location
Born in the U+K
I have seen threads of people saying the want to learn Japanese or something of a similar sort.
This thread is proberbly going to annoy some people but meh.

There is a very good chance that I may be moving to China in the next year or two for a job that has recently become vancant in my company. Since I will be living and working with locals who may only speak a bit of broken english. I thought it would be a good idea to try and get a leg up (so to speak) and start learning som basic Mandarin.

Not only will it boost my chance at the job but it will also be extremely useful for the working environment I will be entering.

So question is :p whats the best place to start out ?

I have had a look around on the internet there is so many "guides" or buy this CD that will make you learn Mandarin in 10days type thing. But I can't find any (what seem like) real people saying this method really works.

I have had a look at the nearest college to me and they don't seem to offer part time course's for Mandarin which is a bit of a dissapointment.

I thought I might as well risk it all and see what the OCUK community thinks.

Cheers
 
Well, I do it at university, so can't help much on where to begin learning yourself - only to say, when it comes to characters, there's no real substitute for spending a very, very long time poring over them. Again and again. Eventually it gets easier, as you can pick out the components and think of the whole as a sum of various parts, rather than remembering each individual stroke, but there's not much to do to begin with other than just get learning.

I met quite a few people in China with reasonable spoken language, but almost all say they wish they'd paid more attention to reading and writing, so try to keep that up at a level on a par with your conversation :)

I need to run to the bank, but feel free to ask any particular language related questions.

Decent blog post of a few things to think about before you get started :)
 
Is the rosetta stone worth splashing out on though ?

I was looking at that but it just seems well very expensive. If the content is good then fair play I might have a look into it.

Has anyone had any experience with the Rosetta Stone packages ? even in any of the other languages.

fifiov thanks for the info :) I must say I forgot about uni I wonder if the Open University has a part time course for Mandarin.
 
Adsta said:
Is the rosetta stone worth splashing out on though ?

I was looking at that but it just seems well very expensive. If the content is good then fair play I might have a look into it.

Has anyone had any experience with the Rosetta Stone packages ? even in any of the other languages.

fifiov thanks for the info :) I must say I forgot about uni I wonder if the Open University has a part time course for Mandarin.
Click to expand...

Unless your work would cover it, i doubt a uni course will be cheaper than rosetta stone.

I haven't heard anything bad about rosetta stone, but then i've only ever seen them talk about it.

Learning a language isn't hard it is just time consuming, i assume rosetta stone works nicely because you can do the time consuming in the comfort of your own home and whenever you want.
 
I might need to do some more research on Rosetta Stone then. As you said to be honest it would be quite ideal to learn at home or even at the office from time to time and that would suit.

I just feel that having somebody like a teacher is always nice to have in case you do really get stuck or confused. I guess though there is always the internet for questions though.
 
Adsta said:
I might need to do some more research on Rosetta Stone then. As you said to be honest it would be quite ideal to learn at home or even at the office from time to time and that would suit.

I just feel that having somebody like a teacher is always nice to have in case you do really get stuck or confused. I guess though there is always the internet for questions though.
Click to expand...

Also wait for other peoples responses. There could well be conflicting viewpoints from people that have learned mandarin.
 
I used Rosetta Stone and a few free websites when learning Japanese. All it gave me was a very basic understanding of the language and grammar which allowed me to pick it up very quickly once living in the country. Within a few months I could stand my ground in most conversations, go out with friends, work etc 100% in Japanese.

The only thing that kills me to this day is getting drunk and trying to talk it... ipossible however fluent you get.
 
Would've advice Rosetta Stone as it's very basic for the price, and starts too advanced, if you know what I mean. I have it open infront of me right now and it's basically commiting words to memory and prenouncing it along. It's certainly not spoonfeeding you, which will be fine for a European language which you've heard at times in your life and have an idea of the sound and rhythm, unlike Mandarin which is very complicated.

Look at something like BYKI (Before you Know It) http://www.byki.com/ as it's free, interesting enough how it's done and have tought me quite a bit already the past week I've been using it.

PS. It's been said before, it's boring to hear, but worth saying again. Only by living in the country, asking countless questions and practicing will you learn.

Edit. It doesn't appear to offer Mandarin, only 'Chinese', which I'm rather ignorant in not knowing the difference, if there is any.
 
Last edited:
Good point on Rosetta. If memory serves correct I started off the basics using Podcasts and reading basic "wiki-type" websites.
 
Luckily I know that's not the case as a friend of my old man started learning Arabic at age 44 and is now semi-fluent and can speak with confidence at age 47.
 
seek said:
They say if you're not fluent by the time you're a teenager then you never will be.
Click to expand...

I know a pub owner in france that didn't start learning french till he moved to the pub in france. He said he had a rough first 2-3 years but was fluent after 5.
 
Another thing to the OP I failed to mention. Forget about these 'Learn Mandarin/Swedish/Icelandic/Spanish/whatever' in 10 days. Take it from someone that have been battling Swedish and now wrestling Czech/Slovak for the past 2 years, they don't work. Write 1000 words down and commit 10 words a day to memory. Make sure you know them fluently. I wouldn't worry too much about sentence structures, tenses and verbs now. Going over words again and again and again will make them become second nature to you. At first I didn't think it would work but have come to realise the past few days that apart from tutoring or taking classes, it's probably the best way to learn a language from home.
 
seek said:
They say if you're not fluent by the time you're a teenager then you never will be.
Click to expand...

aye, i've been around people who speak mandarin since i was about 10 (now 19). being able to speak cantonese.. i'd assume it's easier but to this day, i only know a few words!
 
As posted above, once you've got the basics of the language sorted, you'll progress very quickly in China, as long as you don't hide out in the expat crowd, which is always very tempting. You have to, really :p

As for fluency...it is possible, but incredibly difficult. I've been doing it full time for 3 1/2 years, including a year in China, and wouldn't describe myself as anywhere near fluent. These days however, it's mostly a case of vocabulary - I can construct all the sentences I need, just means knowing all the right words to get in there. I can generally get my point across, but every now and then I do seem to hit a plateau where I just can't learn any new characters for a while.

I'm certainly not claiming to understand all the intricacies of the language, and following two native speakers talking at speed can still be beyond me, but I'm still improving. I'm not sure I'll stick at it for long enough to achieve a significantly greater level of fluency, but we'll see what happens after graduating - a few years living over there would probably help :)

For some general encouragement, take the case of Da Shan, China's most famous foreigner - he didn't take up Mandarin until the age of 19, and just immersed himself totally in the language and culture. He got to grips with it to the extent of being able to convey humour through subtle linguistic intricacies, and coupled with flawless pronunciation, became a massive celebrity. It is possible, but it's certainly not going to be easy!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom