I started taking Mandarin classes about a month ago. We do like 4-5 hours every week, plus the time each person spends studying at home, which, in my case, isn't a lot (Law books are time suckers).
However, my classmates seem to be very obtuse, and our teacher has decided to adapt to their dumbness and slow down her rhythm until a point I feel like I'm wasting my time.
I'd like to make some progress by myself, but I'm really lost as to what should I do from now. Yes, I could study hanzi like a madman, but I don't think learning random words would be useful at all. What about grammar, for example? Common phrases? Well, hopefully you'll be able to give me a hand.
Also, if, by coincidence, any Chinese student is learning Spanish as well and needs some help with the language of Cervantes, this native speaker will be more than glad to help him/her (wait... no girls, internet, etc) out.
Cheers.
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Anonymous2008-11-02 21:38
「普通话」って普通の話という意味でしょう？
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Anonymous2008-11-02 22:57
Actually, you'd be surprised by how beneficial learning a bunch of random words can be. I would highly recommend doing so, or grabbing yourself some flashcards, especially ones used for the different HSK levels (Chinese Proficiency Test / Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng kǎoshì / 汉语水平考试). This will put you worlds ahead. There are also social networking sites out there with about 5 billion Chinese people wanting to improve their English and willing to help you with your Chinese, those have proved extremely useful to me in better understanding real conversational Chinese and common grammatical constructs/vocab.
Don't worry, my Chinese is even worse or, shall we say, "more basic". Other than introducing myself, asking for directions and some random vocab, I can't say I know much.
>>5
I tried friendsabroad but it seems Spanish and/or Catalan are not that popular among Chinese people. I suppose I could always pretend I'm American, or a girl.
(If you don't have it already https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3349 is a very useful extension for those who study chinese, you can add a button to your toolbar that, upon clicking, will give you the chinese definition of a character/phrase of multiple characters. very useful when there is one or two characters you just can't remember!)
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Anonymous2008-11-08 13:24
Incidentally, does anyone know any good 普通话 imageboards/forums? I'd love to be able to read some native speakers typing casually. Simplified Characters pls.
I'm not really studying English, although I used to. Now I just try to keep learning new words and practicing the language so it doesn't rust.
Oh, also,
是，我的汉语老师是中国人。
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Anonymous2008-11-08 14:57
>>12
日语/西班牙语发音类似。。。很有意思。巴塞罗那有多少汉人？西班牙有多少汉人？ （ethnicity, I mean）
我住在洛杉矶，可是我的大学在波士顿。洛杉矶有很多台湾人。他们说普通话。(很多洛杉矶人说西班牙语 :3 ）
波士顿有很少中国人。
I know I made some mistakes there. I'm still no good with sentences with any complexity at all. I would love correction from anybody. Like, for where we used the "slash" in 日语／西班牙语. what would be grammatically correct?
巴塞罗那中国社区快速地增长。五年前有很少中国人。 西班牙没有几乎第二代中国人。当我上小学，我们有一个中国同学。。。I remember we treated the poor kid like an alien.
I had to look up most of these words :(
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Anonymous2008-11-08 22:07
>>14
Don't feel bad, 我认识少汉字,。
Any luck on finding one of the aforementioned "social networking" sites? It makes sense to me that there are hordes of chinese trying to learn english who would love practice but I can't find any specific site. Anybody have any idea?
您的英文太好了。:)
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Anonymous2008-11-08 22:29
>>14
(Same guy who was conversing with you before)
After googling around, a big language learning social networking site seems to be italki.com. It's based in China, most users are Chinese, and it seems to have a lot of demand for almost all languages. I've registered, take a look. If you decide to join, let me know!
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Anonymous2008-11-08 23:15
Damn, I joined it and in ten minutes I've got Chinese up to the rafters trying to MSN message me for practice.
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Anonymous2008-11-09 19:17
>>16
I signed up too. It seems like I'm the only 'Raül' in there, so it should be easy for you to find me. Don't forget the diaeresis.
My problem remains though. Not many Chinese students are interested in Spanish (compared to the fervor our current lingua franca arouses) and, if they are, their level is often elementary, which limits my options severely because then I have to look up for a Chinese who is capable of making himself understood in English AND is learning Spanish. As I said earlier in this thread, I guess I'll have to pass myself off as an American or something. Oh well. :(
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Anonymous2008-11-10 12:59
>>18
I added you. By the way, from what I saw of your English, it's very good. And I actually mean that, not just in the way Foreign Language students are obligated to compliment the other's skills. Definitely feel free to call yourself "fluent" in English, especially compared to most of the Chinese there. They tend to be high school students trying to pass their TOEFL. Have you ever taken that test? If so, brag about it, since they'll definitely be curious for your experience. the Chinese are like vampires, they come out at night in swarms. Seriously, I've got like 10 more 朋友 every night. I posted this same message to you on your page, so if it seems familiar that's why!
ignore my douchebag photo D:
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Anonymous2009-03-26 10:12
Hi guys. I'm a Chinese speaking friend. Can I join?