what are some good resources for a native english speaker to learn mandarin? i have pimsleur, but it obviously doesnt help with simplified chinese. i'm going to china for an indefinite period soon (too soon to be fluent), and would like a head start
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Anonymous2008-06-21 6:08
Do buy a Mandarin textbook, learn the basics.
Once you get there, it will get infinitely easier as you'll understand the structure and you'll hear commonly used phrases. Use your adaption to Mandarin to accelerate your learning (because you'll be using the textbook in China as well)
do what >>2 said
get a Chinese friend to help with the speaking and listening part though. Not an FOB though, because they wont tell you if you are shit
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Anonymous2008-06-22 2:46
>>2
any recommendations on books? or is this just general advice for learning a foreign language?
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Anonymous2008-06-22 4:18
>>5
the "teach yourself" series is actually really good, but yo still need something like classes or what >>4 said
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Anonymous2008-06-25 16:52
If you haven't started learning yet, how can you consider yourself "soon to be fluent?"
Kill yourself
Better yet, get a head start and start practicing 24/7 for a couple years. The grammar's really not as easy as it looks.
I recommend getting a language exchange partner. Usually they are found on Chinese forums, but if you don't speak Chinese, you might be fucked. Get a Chinese friend to help you find a partner, and then cruise from there.
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Anonymous2008-06-26 17:02
The internet... k... also this little bugger: NJSTAR CHINESE WP google it.
你好吗？我很好。我叫美林。我是中国人和讲中文。
Nihao ma? Wo hen hao. Wo jiao Mei-lin. Wo shi zhong-guo-ren he jiang zhong-wen.
How are you? I'm fine. My name is (I am called) Mei-lin. I am Chinese and I speak Chinese.
That took me about 5mins to memorize chinese sentence structure is very similar to that of English. Learn the characters and you'll be on your way.
(From someone who started studying about a month ago)