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#41
06-11-2007, 08:12 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] I don't think you've answered yet when/where/for what you are going to use Chinese. That's important. [/ QUOTE ] I don't need to be fluent in it and I'm not interested in reading or writing. I'm just wondering how difficult it would be to learn enough conversational Mandarin or Shanghainese to be able to talk to my girlfriend and her family. She's 100% fluent in English, but her parents and brother barely speak a word of it. [/ QUOTE ] So thats a completely different situation. Do the following: Write down 30 to 50 common phrases, like - Thanks - How are you - Good Morning - i dont speak mandarin - you have a beautiful daughter - i wanna bang her etc. Get it translated and learn to pronounce it. You will make plenty of bonus points to become Insta-Supernova-Elite in her family. Forget the rest. 
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#42
07-20-2007, 02:06 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] I don't think you've answered yet when/where/for what you are going to use Chinese. That's important. [/ QUOTE ] I don't need to be fluent in it and I'm not interested in reading or writing. I'm just wondering how difficult it would be to learn enough conversational Mandarin or Shanghainese to be able to talk to my girlfriend and her family. She's 100% fluent in English, but her parents and brother barely speak a word of it. [/ QUOTE ] So thats a completely different situation. Do the following: Write down 30 to 50 common phrases, like - Thanks - How are you - Good Morning - i dont speak mandarin - you have a beautiful daughter - i wanna bang her etc. Get it translated and learn to pronounce it. You will make plenty of bonus points to become Insta-Supernova-Elite in her family. Forget the rest. [/ QUOTE ] Funny, I was thinking about this thread, and I decided I was gonna post a lot of what was written above.. In addition to what he says , just plan on studying on times when its really convenient. For me, I do it before I go to bed because it helps me to sleep. Or, if you are going on a long trip, bring some vocab with you to pass the time. Just basically plan on doing it at times when you know you'll be pretty board. I've actually found trying to learn a language to be a rewarding process. It isn't something you're going to do over night, and you can always get better.
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#43
07-20-2007, 06:14 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks Jenn -- I'm definitely going with Chinese for now, and I've found some Rosetta Stone sets on eBay. Hopefully that will work out... [/ QUOTE ] Ní hao (sadly, 2 + 2 doesn't like the characters). I am learning Mandarin, two hours per week. I'm meant to do three hours homework too, though I don't. It's at a language school close to work, so doesn't really cost me much time, I just go to the pub afterwards and it's an evening out. For motivation, I have a bet with my friend: Whichever one of us is worst after the course has to pay the fee of the other...
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#44
07-20-2007, 06:22 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
Related note: I speak some French and like watching French movies (Amelie, Taxi, Brotherhood of the Wolf are in my collection), with or without subtitles.
Does anyone know of movies in Mandarin? I have a load of Chinese movies, but I THINK they're all in Cantonese. I'm not much interested in hearing a dubbed Mandarin...
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#45
07-20-2007, 07:07 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
Damn, I so regret having not grown up with languages. My parents have had my younger sister spend a month a San Miguel de Ayende and 3 weeks in Spain, but they didn't think about doing it until after I realized how important language can be.
I have been in London taking a course and a friend I have met from Mexico speaks perfect English, and also speaks Portugues, French, Italian, and German. He was lucky enough to be from a well off family and started learning young. Plus his father sent him to Europe for two summers to be immersed in the language. I am also good friends with a Religious Studies PhD student at Yale who was originally from London. She also got brought up with languages and specialized do to her studies. She speaks great French, and also knows Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, and Greek. I think the most important think is immersion. I feel like my marginal Spanish gets better just by sitting in a room when the people from Spain and Mexico speak non-stop. Maybe before grad school I will spend time in Spain, Italy and France and attempt to pickup marginal skills at the language. But sorry for the tangent, I think the most important thing is to really immerse yourself and put in considerable work. Even though we have to take 2 years of a language 5 days a week at college, no one I know becomes very accomplised without spending time in the language or having a natural gift for it.
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#46
07-21-2007, 07:43 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
Absolutely crucial to get pronunciation correct at the beginning. Every syllable is pronounced differently. If you don't get this right from the start, then you will never be able to fix it. Buy some tapes or get some tuition from a native speaker, and listen to things very, very carefully.
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#47
07-22-2007, 07:23 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone know of movies in Mandarin? [/ QUOTE ] Raise the Red Lantern To Live House of Flying Daggers Shanghai Triad Ju Dou
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#48
07-22-2007, 08:21 AM
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Re: Learning a foreign language
Just for some imput, I have studied Japanese for about 2 and half years and just now understand tv/ movies for the most part. I also took these classes at a university and had class 4 times a week, and hw and all that crap. I think unless you have someone teach you Chinese, like take a class etc, you will be lost for the most part. Chinese is all about pronunciation, there are like 5 ways to pronounce something that is written the same that changes on context.
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