How do I learn Chinese?

October 31, 2005 9:58 AM

Help me learn Chinese!

I'm very interested in learning Chinese. Specifically Mandarin. But, I don't know where to go to do something like this. I attend university, but I'm hesitant about taking an actual course that teaches Chinese as I'd like it to be something fun that I can do in my free time instead of a course where I'm evaluated. So, are there websites I should try using? Or would audio tapes work better? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

posted by jplank to grab bag (11 comments total)

Hi, me and you have got exactly the same interest! I just enrolled for the chinese course at my university, and I'm about 4 weeks in. It's great.

I am making a website to practise my chinese as I learn it. As of now, there is practically nothing on the website, but things will get added, and I'll practise a bit. The rough draft is at trapclap.org. If you like, join, I'd also like ideas on how a community website can be built up that allows people learn languages.

I already got a few links, check here: http://www.trapclap.org/node/6

By the way : you NEEED to join a course. It is an easy language, but some things you need to be told, you cannot deduce them. Take at least a semester.
posted by markesh at 10:05 AM on October 31, 2005

This thread has some ideas for software & audio programs.
posted by pmann at 10:14 AM on October 31, 2005

The best way to learn Chinese is to be born in China to Chinese parents.

Too hard?

I ran across this and thought it was an excellent way to learn *some* Chinese: Eating in Chinese. Perhaps it will give you a decent start.
posted by jellicle at 1:15 PM on October 31, 2005

Does your university permit auditing of courses? You could audit the course, benefit from the classroom instruction and not face evaluation.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:17 PM on October 31, 2005

that I can do in my free time instead of a course where I'm evaluated

Things that are supposed to happen "in free time," especially hard things, are too easily put off. Have you considered courses where you don't get evaluated? I took Mandarin at a local adult education center, for example. No grades, fellow students who wanted to learn, and a native speaker instructor.

You may also benefit from a language exchange set-up with a Chinese who is comfortable in English and explaining his own language to a beginner. There are no grades, per se, but your dedication to the partnership (and in many cases, eventually friendship) stimulate continued work on the language.

And what markesh said: Chinese is something you'll really need to hear spoken by people who can answer your questions. Even if all you can do is go to a local meetup of Chinese speakers, that interaction will improve your listening skills and help you answer questions that tapes cannot.

If you do continue thinking of going alone, or working with a partner, I've posted stuff here before on books and dictionaries for learning Mandarin. I'll be darned if I can find it though.
posted by whatzit at 1:20 PM on October 31, 2005

Does anybody have any experience with learning Mandarin (specifically Putonghua, I guess) in North America? ... Are there any good online programs or resources?
posted by whatzit at 1:23 PM on October 31, 2005

Yeah, why not audit a course? I took a couple years of chinese at my university (for credit). I can't imagine learning it on my own. Chinese is one of the most difficult languages for westerners to learn (along with japanese)

If you actualy want to learn to speak it, you should take at least one course.
posted by delmoi at 1:25 PM on October 31, 2005

Try chinesepod.com. The audio lessons are free and production quality is very high. They've also got review exercises and transcripts available for a fee. I haven't sampled them yet.

bob
posted by bobbeene at 3:18 PM on October 31, 2005

Auditing a class is going to get you nowhere - you won't put in the time to master the characters and you'll be left behind. If you can find a conversation only class, that might be the way to go. Mandarin is not a difficult language, it's the total dependence on characters that makes it brutal. No getting around it, those are going to take you years to learn.

Also, I'd second the recommendation of Rosetta Stone from the other thread. Several advantages: 1) it's on your own time/pace, 2) you can focus on reading or listening or speaking, whichever interests you most, 3) you learn in a much more intuitive way than by studying grammar books - by which I mean to say, you won't have as firm a grasp on knowing what you do know and may have trouble articulating grammar rules, but you will know more than you think you know and recognize and generate patterns automatically, without thinking about it, 4) it's fun.

You can try it out for free here (you'll need to download some software to try Mandarin, but you can demo German, French or Italian online).
posted by zanni at 3:22 PM on October 31, 2005

I tried the rosetta stone for chinese in highschool, and it SUCKED.

Like seriously, a couple weeks worth of classes > rosetta stone. It might work well for other romance langauges, or something, but for chinese it does not.
posted by delmoi at 7:53 PM on October 31, 2005

the people at chinese forums are friendly and helpful about language questions.
posted by afu at 11:17 PM on October 31, 2005