Looking to learn Mandarin

[Slava]

I'm looking to learn to become fluent (or relatively) in Mandarin over the next year or so (hopefully a bit less!). I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction to take some private tutoring or something like that.

I am thinking that I could take a lesson once a week or so, depending on the timing.

Thanks for your help in advance!

[HelloHockeyFans]

Maybe I can give you a half-hour lesson once a week on this board in our own thread!

Seriously though, try the community colleges throughout Calgary or the Chinese Cultural Centre down in Chinatown. You'll find courses offered at either place for sure. Good on you for taking up the challenge of learning a second language. Mandarin is the new language to know with China's rise in the world. A must-know language these days if you wanna have an upper-hand doing business internationally!

[JBR]

Rosetta Stone. Google it.

[BlackEleven]

Let me be the first to say a year is a pretty lofty goal to become fluent in a language, especially so different from English. As someone who has learned (and is still learning) another language in adulthood, I can tell you its not easy and takes quite a bit of time and dedication. It's especially difficult if you don't immerse yourself in that particular language (ie just speak it a couple hours a week in a course setting).

That said, I commend you for trying to learn another langauge. I think its something more of us should do. Best of luck to you.

[Ayrahb]

I know a guy from Cameroon who had to go and learn English in order to learn Mandarin for his Master's all in one year. He was successul and did well in both his courses and in defending his thesis in Mandarin.

Back on the topic, I know quite a few people who speak Mandarin. One of my clients is an electronics engineer from China who speaks enough English, but would like to improve it further to get a decent job. Maybe you can find a person like that and practice English with them in exchange for teaching you Mandarin.

You probably don't want to waste too much time in Chinatown--I think most people there speak Cantonese and may not be able to provide you with the type of Mandarin instruction that a mainland professional can.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by BlackEleven

Let me be the first to say a year is a pretty lofty goal to become fluent in a language, especially so different from English. ...

That said, I commend you for trying to learn another langauge. I think its something more of us should do. Best of luck to you.

[/quote]


I will agree with this. Learning another language is a great thing, but be prepared to have it as a life-long committment. I have been living in a Mandarin speaking country, as well as taking 10 hours of University Mandarin courses every week for the last 6 months, and studying independently on top of that as well. Even though I am now conversant (as long as the conversation doesn't get too deep or specialized) I am no where near fluent. This is also my fourth language, and I am a person who is generally good with languages.
I also have a degree in linguistics and have spent quite a bit of time studying adult SLA, and statistically it would be very difficult for you to achieve such a high goal in such a short time.

I don't say this to be demotivating, but because maintaining high motivation is probably the most important part of learning a second language as an adult, and in order to do that you should have a realistic idea of the challenge so that you don't feel like giving up once a few months have passed and you're not speaking as you'd like to. If you take it on with realistic expectations you can ultimately certainly achieve fluency.

Good luck. Remember, as an adult one of your greatest strengths in learning a language is that you can do it in a systematized way. Pay real attention to the formal grammar, and follow the system given to you by a competent teacher. Then just stay determined and you will eventually reach the goal.

[Fozzie_DeBear]

Go to www.chinesepod.com (or look for Chineses in itunes podcasts) you can download tons of lessons for free and get tons of other stuff on the website for $$$....all I can say about chinesepod is...na ge dongxi hen how (yes I know its crude but whatever)...just throw the lessons onto a CD or your ipod and practice/practice/practice

I have taken classes and wouldn't recommend the ones I took since they focused heavily on character recongition...I just wanted to learn how to speak Mandarin for survival

[PsYcNeT]

Originally Posted by Fozzie_DeBear

Go to www.chinesepod.com (or look for Chineses in itunes podcasts) you can download tons of lessons for free and get tons of other stuff on the website for $$$....all I can say about chinesepod is...na ge dongxi hen how (yes I know its crude but whatever)...just throw the lessons onto a CD or your ipod and practice/practice/practice

I have taken classes and wouldn't recommend the ones I took since they focused heavily on character recongition...I just wanted to learn how to speak Mandarin for survival

Fantastic...this is just what I've been looking for

My fiance and her parents are all Mandarin-speaking immigrants (6 years in Canada now) and I would like to strengthen our relationship by learning to speak Mandarin.

Having learned to speak 4 other languages (Hebrew, Yiddish, French, and German) so far in my life, taking on an Asiatic language appears to be the biggest challenge I could take. But, if she could speak astonishingly fluent English after only this amount of time with only a year or two of foraml instruction, I'm confident I could learn at least rudimentary Mandarin in about a year ;D

[AC]

Try the Pimsleur program, its possible to download the lessons if you know where to look.

[ailearnchinese]

You also can learn Chinese in Beijing Online School of Chinese Language. There are famous Chinese teachers and over 3000 volunteers from China. Practical Chinese, Business Chinese, Children Chinese Course and Chinese Courses for School / University / Corporate.

[GirlySports]

BBC has some lessons. You can listen to pronounciations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/

[Teh_Bandwagoner]

Originally Posted by Ayrahb

You probably don't want to waste too much time in Chinatown--I think most people there speak Cantonese and may not be able to provide you with the type of Mandarin instruction that a mainland professional can.

That's not necessarily true anymore. There are tonnes of immigrants who have come in from China, Taiwan and Singapore in the last few years. Mandarin is very common in Chinatown now. Also, the new TNT in Harvest Hills has mostly mandarin-speaking hires. Cantonese is my main dialect, but I find more often than not I have to break out my Mandarin, which is quite broken. But hey the practice has actually done me well I think heh.


I took Mandarin lessons throught the Calgary Chinese Cultural Society (C.C.C.S.). They're not as well-known as the ones in the Cultural Centre, but I enjoyed my time there. If anything the smaller classes were a good thing. Warning though: Chinese is arguably the hardest language to learn. Just Google "hardest language" and see how often it comes up It's also probably the most useful language to learn right now.

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Are you going to China? The reason why I ask is because a lot of people start learning the language, thinking that they have some grasp of it to communicate at the basic level. But when they head to Beijing, they get completely destroyed. If you are gonna be travelling or staying in Beijing, make friends with someone who's from Beijing here in Calgary. Talk to them daily if possible. Though they all may speak mandarin, it is not necessarily known as the "mandarin" you and I are accustomed to.

[Slava]

I have no set plans to go to China....although perhaps in about a year I'll go for a tour of some facilities there. I have been working on this for about 6 months now....and making some slow progress I think. Its pretty difficult for sure!

[TheyCallMeBruce]

Just know "Ta ma de" and you're good to go

[FlamingLonghorn]

Rosie O' Donnell gives good lessons just watch the view...

[yahoo]

I can share my Mandarin experiences with you, as I have been in Taiwan for almost 7 years.

First, some of the Canadian Diplomats that go over to China spend 2 years and 40 hours a week learning Chinese, I am not sure if homework is on top of that. They do this in Canada, but when they get over here it is a whole different game. IMO learning Chinese is clearly a lifelong commitment. There are also programs here that cost $$$ where it is 2 straight years of classes and homework, but you are supposed to be fluent after that.

Learning English as a Chinese speaker isnt nearly as hard as our alphabet is easier to master, they have tones and characters and it can be very difficult. I took classes for my first couple years when I lived in the country, but have lived in big cities here for the past 5 and get by easily on English.

I know there is alot of hype to be learning Chinese but after being here I just dont see it as top execs here are all educated in the US, and you can hire employees here for $12,000 CAD/year that lived in an English speaking country for 5 some years that can communicate well in English, Chinese, and they would probably know at least one other language pretty well.

You can goto the website www.forumosa.com and connect with Foreigners here studying Chinese and ask all kinds of questions. And get Skype, you can do a language exchange with someone in China and it would take you 5 minutes to find someone that would practice with you.

One more example is that it takes kids until grade 9 to learn all the characters and most of their school days consist of learning Chinese and the characters and writing practice for hours and hours, not to mention they goto school here all day 7-4 (i think) and then goto cram schools after to do their homework for a couple more hours.....it is really a lifelong commitment to learn the language plus the culture is a whole other story.

But in the end if you had those language skills it would defintely help you out in the long run, one more thing there are different dialects all over China, when I go to HK or China they can't understand my accent as you will have a foreigner accent (and I have a Taiwan/foreigner one) and won't ever sound like a native speaker that is why it would be an absolute must to do a language exchange over Skype to reduce that.

Rosetta Stone is also supposed to be the best program out there.

I hope this helps!!