Ginger91 195 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 Did you self study or take lessons? Was it hard? What did you find most difficult? What supplemented your study (dramas, YouTube, etc.)? I'm considering learning Mandarin so that's why I ask ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MineMuses 6,687 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I took useless classes because I forgot everything I learned I just learned from talking to my parents sorry I don't have any useful advice... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folly 2,591 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I'm learning it as a 3rd language. I just put a posting at my university and had a chinese student tutor me. I'm only learning talking and pinyin but it's quite hard if you don't practice a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanan 4,318 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I'm learning it through a class. It's really...difficult, but I like it. We have the class every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyooga 10,307 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I self-study on my own and hang out with a lot of Chinese speakers. The latter helped me more. So this is how it works Self study: 1. Exposure to media: when I'm cleaning my apartment I would put on a Chinese TV show on Youtube (lots of Chinese TV networks have Youtube channels where they upload episodes of their shows), play an audiobook or songs or concerts. 2. I try to build my vocab, I look around me and write down stuff I wanna know in Chinese (for example I'm walking in a garden, hua is flower, cao is grass, and I'm blocked - what is leaves in Chinese? I write that down and search it. This eventually evolved to sentences like "The flowers are pretty" "The grass is wet" and now I can easily do "The flowers bloomed earlier than spring" "I should cut the grass by next week") 3. Try to set goals: 5 words a day means you've learned 150 by the end of the month. That's more than a thousand a year. 4. Syntax: Grammar is pretty easy. It is tones and inflections that's difficult. Which leads us to: Hanging out with Chinese speaker 1. Do you have friends/relatives who speak Mandarin? Use it with them. 2. Don't have friends who speak Mandarin? Try to contact your university's international office if you're a student or see if there's a Chinese club in your school. If you go to the website meetup.com, try attending meetup groups in your area with Mandarin speakers/people learning Mandarin. Learning Mandarin is pointless if you never get to speak it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
칼릴ì�´ 438 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 So I am currently a high school senior and for three years I took Mandarin, I only stopped talking it because my school no longer offers it TT. And my experience in Chinese has been nothing, but positive and I plan to pursue it in college as my major..so obviously I love it lol. I'll try to answer the points you mentioned lol First off was it hard Well, that depends on you for some people it's pretty easy to pick up y'know having a good ear for the tones and mimicking the accents and memorizing characters. For others not so much they have to really work and focus on the accent to make sure they are speaking correctly as well as put a genuine effort in learning characters. Tones: My chinese teacher told me it's fairly hard to get the tone 100% accurate with every word, even native speakers say things incorrectly so it's really very context based. I wouldn't say getting every tone 100% accurate is as important as making sure your Chinese actually sounds like Chinese(ALTHOUGH IT IS VERY IMPORTANT). If you are speaking and your tone is incorrect Chinese people will probably still understand you. So really work on the accent and then improve tone accuracy. It's most difficult to get tones right when you speak quickly. Just a quick reminder the difference between "I ask you" and "I kiss you" is 1 tone mark æˆ‘é—®ä½ (Wo3 We4n Ni3) and 我å»ä½ (Wo3 We3n Ni3) Characters: For me..memorizing characters is easy..I never put in much effort to memorizing them I just looked at them a couple of times and remembered, BUT BUT BUT WRITING THEM IS A BITCH!! I Hated/HATE writing chinese characters, I have bad wrist so my hands always hurt afterwards..but it's weird..I remember the characters..but I can never remember how to write them. Stroke order..really doesn't matter..unless people are very picky..my chinese teacher did not care..we just wrote. Now..would memorizing stroke order help writing..perhaps, but do you boo. It's like English hand writing there is the proper way to write, but we all form our letter differently. Grammar: Chinese grammar for the most part is similar to English grammar it follows the basic structure S-ubject O-bject V-erb which is the exact same as English. However more complex grammar points can get a little confusing..like the å·´ structure...to this day..I still don't get it LOL. But yeah..grammar comes with practice..like all of chinese.. HOW DO I KEEP UP WITH IT: Well..I have many Chinese friends as resources, but talking to them in Chinese via text message gets messy because there are so many characters I don't know i spend more time looking characters up than actual talking lol, but that comes with practice. I also sometimes watch Chinese variety shows especially if K-pop idols are there lol. And a great thing about their variety shows is that they have the chinese subtitles at the bottom. I also have an app that helps me with characters like recognizing them and what not. SO yeah..here are some tips and tricks if you have more questions just ask lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
singaporefan 312 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 i had classes in chinese language like 3-4 hrs per week during school term for 12 years. It was one of the subjects in schools so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hyooga 10,307 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 If you are speaking and your tone in incorrect Chinese people will probably still understand you. This is a major thing. It took me ages to master the first tone (until a Chinese pal gave me a valuable tip: it should come from your 'head') but don't be stuck with mastering the tones. It's a process and you'll get there if you push on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginger91 195 Posted February 1, 2017 Author Share Posted February 1, 2017 So I am currently a high school senior and for three years I took Mandarin, I only stopped talking it because my school no longer offers it TT. And my experience in Chinese has been nothing, but positive and I plan to pursue it in college as my major..so obviously I love it lol. I'll try to answer the points you mentioned lol First off was it hard Well, that depends on you for some people it's pretty easy to pick up y'know having a good ear for the tones and mimicking the accents and memorizing characters. For others not so much they have to really work and focus on the accent to make sure they are speaking correctly as well as put a genuine effort in learning characters. Tones: My chinese told me it's fairly hard to get the tone 100% accurate with every word, even native speakers say things incorrectly so it's really very context based. I wouldn't say getting every tone 100% accurate is as important as making sure your Chinese actually sounds like Chinese(ALTHOUGH IT IS VERY IMPORTANT). If you are speaking and your tone in incorrect Chinese people will probably still understand you. So really work on the accent and then improve tone accuracy. It's most difficult to get tones right when you speak quickly. Just a quick reminder the difference between "I ask you" and "I kiss you" is 1 tone mark æˆ‘é—®ä½ (Wo3 We4n Ni3) and 我å»ä½ (Wo3 We3n Ni3) Characters: For me..memorizing characters is easy..I never put in much effort to memorizing them I just looked at them a couple of times and remembered, BUT BUT BUT WRITING THEM IS A BITCH!! I Hated/HATE writing chinese characters, I have bad wrist so many hands always hurt afterwards..but it's weird..I remember the characters..but I can never remember how to write them. Stroke order..really doesn't matter..unless people are very picky..my chinese teacher care..we just wrote. Now..would memorizing stroke order help writing..perhaps, but do you boo. It's like English hand writing there is the proper way to write, but we all form our letter differently. Grammar: Chinese grammar for the most part if similar to English grammar it follows the basic structure S-ubject O-bject V-erb which is the exact same as English. However more complex grammar points can get a little confusing..like the å·´ structure...to this day..I still don't get it LOL. But yeah..grammar comes with practice..like all of chinese.. HOW DO I KEEP UP WITH IT: Well..I have many Chinese friends as resources, but talking to them in Chinese via text message gets messy because there are so many characters I don't know i spend more time looking characters up than actual talking lol, but that comes with practice. I also sometimes watch Chinese variety shows especially if K-pop idols are there lol. And a great thing about their variety shows is that they have the chinese subtitles at the bottom. I also have an app that helps me with characters like recognizing them and what not. SO yeah..here are some tips and tricks if you have more questions just ask lol. This is so helpful!! Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pencilcase 245 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 I'm currently learning Mandarin via a paid subscription with Chineseclass101 and this free website: http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com/ I'm good at learning new vocabulary. However, I have trouble pronouncing some of the tones and formulating phrases. Like hoshimax mentioned, it really helps if you can practice your Mandarin with a native speaker. Also, don't be afraid to make mistakes when speaking as you'll learn a lot through your conversations. Good luck with pursuing Mandarin! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
칼릴� 438 Posted February 1, 2017 Share Posted February 1, 2017 This is a major thing. It took me ages to master the first tone (until a Chinese pal gave me a valuable tip: it should come from your 'head') but don't be stuck with mastering the tones. It's a process and you'll get there if you push on. Omg first tone..is absolutely terrible, especially if your trying to speak quickly lol. Like what do you mean flat high sitting tone?? Like I can't even think of words that have first tone..isn't 糟糕(terrible) all first tone? Literally..tone is so hard lol. In class we came up with this 1st Tone is High 2nd Tone is a Question 3rd Tone is a Roller coaster and 4th Tone is Angry lol. If the tones are faulty this is when having a good accent really helps because they will do the work for you with understanding lol. This is so helpful!! Thank you Honestly, really, no problem. I love Chinese and if you need help just ask. It's so fun, I enjoy it so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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