Learning Mandarin

[ic1male]

The Michel Thomas method for Mandarin Chinese by Harold Goodman is well worth a look.

It's worth a BIG look. Best I've used yet. Two courses, basic and advanced which cover grammatical concepts and then there's a vocab course, too. The method Harold uses to teach the tones is something that will stick with you.

I also bought this book which is fantastic again for learning pronunciation and tones of characters.

Unfortunately, as with all the things I do, novelty wore off after about three months as I had no Chinese people to speak with (the ones round here are Cantonese). I really want to pick it up again in the new year.

 

[zzzJonny]

A lot of people who are dedicated to learning it use a spaced repetition system like Anki or Mnemosyne and books for learning characters such as Heisig's "Remember the Hanzi" along with a decent textbook.

 

[KPeh]

I bring to you, the best advice in the thread:

Start off with a nice introduction audio thing. Michel Thomas series works. Then:

Chinesepod and Skritter.

You will need nothing else.

(Edit: Apart from maybe some Chinese people to talk to)

 

[Adsta]

Thanks for all the advice people

Sadly I didnt get a chance to get back on the internet last night But I will deffo be checking out the suggestions in the thread and see what works

 

[ColdAsIce]

Doesn't help you much but I will be learning Polish in January, found an 11 week night course at my local University for £125, doesn't seem a bad price at all.

Hopefully I pick it up and will have the girlfriend who is Polish to help me a long too.

 

[ic1male]

Oh! Something else that struck me. If you have access to Sky television, watch channel 785 (PCNE Chinese). It's a TV station called Phoenix based in Hong Kong. They are totally Mandarin which in itself is odd for that area but the text is all in traditional characters (like Taiwan). Even though you won't have any idea what's happening, you'll hear native speakers and get the rhythm of the language.