Help me learn Mandarin Chinese

It's brilliant that you're doing it, and the benefits of Chinese in the 21st century can't be understated. Let us know if you want/need help with stuff; there's a fair range of Mandarin proficiency on ilx.

hey thanks AA. I intend to practice a little bit every day - I'm in no rush to learn quickly. Indeed, I don't think with a language like this it's worth rushing, and even though I've been at it about three weeks, I'm happy just going over the first couple of pages in the book and learning them by rote. Because I'm fluent French and not awful at Spanish and German, I figured it would be good to go right out my comfort zone.

xiexie

bu ke qi

and i've already learnt something! i like how "bu ke qi" translates literally as "don't be polite" but means "you're welcome". I'm sure there must be an analogue in some European languages. I can imagine an old Scottish granny saying something like that after you've thanked her for a boiled sweet or something.

There are loads of analogues! We take them for granted because we're used to them, but they're definitely there. I can't think of them right now (11.30 pm here) but I'll crack open the brain's language centre in the morning.

Actually, no, wait, not analogues, just common English phrases that don't make any sense. I shouldn't sleep and post.

I also like how the translation of "I'm doing so-so" in response to "How are you?" is "Mama-Huhu" which means "Horse Horse Tiger Tiger"

(I would add the accents/inflections but I'm still a bit rusty and I'm at work and don't have time to boot up character map)

Recently I read that horse-horse-tiger-tiger is a thing they teach language students, and isn't really used at all by native speakers. So disappointed.

(along with 'how are you?'; 'have you eaten?' seems to be more common)

I use horse horse tiger tiger! 'have you eaten' is the one that I hear less of

but I mean, you only use ma ma hu hu when you really aren't feeling that great

So do they not say "mamahuhu" or is it just the horse-horse tiger-tiger thing (which is a cuet mnemonic all the same)?

And do they say "have you eaten?" as a form of greeting?

Oh, and one of the most annoying things about Chinese is that everything you think you know is always debunked, and then the debunking is debunked.

<3

Yeah, 'have you eaten/chi le ma/吃了吗' is a greeting of some description, at least in some regions.

China's a big country with many dialects. I guess if you compare it witht he many variations of English, no wonder there's some disagreement. I mean, there's no actual consensus to how many characters are in the language, so...

Yeah, and many of the regions have their own local dialects anyway. Mandarin seems to be universally understood, though (based on hearsay; dayo/dylannnnnn plz jump in), and the written form is just about everywhere because the govt forces it.

Bed.

not so much dialects (which would mean variations on putonghua) but completely, mutually unintelligible versions of chinese!

written chinese is pretty much universally understood (if you're literate)

Out-of-work tutor available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgN1Bk_mzkw&feature=related

http://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/

~useful~

skritter for ios is basically incredible

oh yeah? what isi it?

srs-based flashcardy system with full stroke recognition etc

http://www.skritter.com/ios <– video explains everything

thanks for pointing me to this thread, dog latin!

class starts on Monday. It's just a USDA class (this one, actually), and we'll only cover 150 words during this first 10-week session but i'm still really excited! and pumped to hopefully be moving into the intermediate courses, this time next year. prepare for lots of stupid questions from me, ILX!

skritter is awesome. i've going through the 101 list, but i've also got it synced up to the textbook i'll be using for my class. i just spent the last hour memorizing the characters for chapter 1, got it down pat! :) and it's awesome that it ties in the pronunciation too.

by the way, rì (time, date, sun, etc) is so fucking hard to pronounce for me.

it's not a phoneme that's used at all in english, I don't think

best advice I can give is to do your best scooby doo impression

yeah, the best i can do sounds like a constipated dog, so i think i'm getting there!

loool @ scooby doo impression. rì/日 is definitely on the tricker end of pronunciations for native English speakers, so don't fret Z S. You'll have an ace time. Also I might be dumb but I can't find the name of the textbook in your link. Which one are you using?

Skritter is indeed awesome. I've been chucking a load of known and new vocab lists into it, currently at 769 written characters learned and 869 written words learned aaaaand it's just started crashing. But still incredible. When it finishes adding all my known vocab lists I should be nudging 1,000 characters (so if the crashing gets worse I will be bloody annoyed).

oh, the link didn't include the name of the text, it was just a link to the class. the book is the new practical chinese reader, which i've read is kind of outdated and not the best, but...that's the assigned text! i'm going to combine it with skrillexskritter and rosetta stone, so hopefully i'll be set. plus my roommate speaks mandarin, so she'll be good to practice with (as long as i don't get too pissed to talk to her due to her occasional passive aggressive roommate notes)

NPCR is probably the most used with native English speakers, so you're well set there. Excellent that your roommate speaks Mandarin btw – I don't have any convenient Mandarin speakers ANYWHERE and it's retarding my growth.

http://sinoglot.com/blog/2012/06/back-up/

found this interesting re mandarin pronunciation made me rethink some
tongue positioning issues pronunciation issues even after 6?? years of speaking the lang

never had a 日 issues as far as i can tell

狗日的 great curseword

http://boxun.com/news/images/2011/08/201108191146yuanqing1.jpg

Wooo! I'm learnding via Skritter. Only problem is it seems to be adding words and vocab a little bit fast for me. I'd only just got used to the first 5-6 characters and now it's added something like 10 more without really revisiting the old ones. Also, some characters look literally identical to me, and yet mean different things. Also, I'm sure 'rén' (meaning man) was written differently to how it was written yesterday... what gives?

人入？

i never tried the flashcard/electroflashcard thing because i found the best way to put chinese characters in my head was the boring way my chinese teachers told me to put chinese characters in my head: writing them over and over again, copying out chinese texts etc

i don't like the idea of learning the spoken language then trying to figure out characters either. just grind thru learning tohose fucking characters while learning the spoken language at at some point things will joint up together. i found out i could learn a lot by watching subtitled chinese tv just tpfilling in my knowledge of characters by being able to match up sound to shape.

if you do this at a certain point u will be able to sing ktv songs and impress everyone EVEN IF you have have no idea what you'er singing

Rot In Hell, Chinese Communist Party Fuck Chinese Communist Party btw

download weixin for your phone too dawg

Okay, cool. Have you tried Skritter yet dylann? It's actually very good (although I'm aware it's no replacement for lessons, or being in the country). It's actually very good at teaching writing, pronunciation, definitions and reading all in one.

i tried it when they first released their iphone app. i have pleco on my android phone.

i communicate in chinese everyday but since needing to write university shit, i rarely have to write it. even when i lived in china, i was typing/texting and memory of a character wasn't important. it's weird: you can type a charaqcter everyda and sort of SEE IT IN YOUR HEAD but fuck if you can write it by hand. so frustrating when it coems time sto wtire ea short note or njot down somebody's name.

Only problem is it seems to be adding words and vocab a little bit fast for me. I'd only just got used to the first 5-6 characters and now it's added something like 10 more without really revisiting the old ones.

I agree, the default setting seems to assume that the user is Rain Man! But luckily it can be adjusted.

You can go into Settings, then the Vocab tab, and switch "Add Frequency" to Manual Only. Then you can add new characters into the stream at your own pace, one at a time, by clicking on the + button at the top of the screen when you're studying.

ah nice one. how you finding it Z S?

Great! And actually I just signed up for 6 months more ($39.99), because I'm certain I'll be using it a lot.

I went to my first Mandarin class on Monday, and I could really feel the difference. Everyone was writing wǒ really slowly and laboriously, and I was busting it out with ease, without even having to think about it! Plus I knew the characters well enough that I noticed errors in my teacher's writing on the whiteboard (although he may just be a really sloppy writer)! /braggin

Can I remember wǒ, given I've been using Skritter for just two days? I'm guessing it means 'mouth' and is drawn a bit like a small square? Probably not...

我口