Need Advice on Learning Mandarin Chinese

[spronk]

if you go to china everyone you meet will want to practice their english with you

[Darus Grey]

I was able to read a newspaper at the high conversant after my first 4 semesters of both Japanese and Chinese.

Memorizing characters is entirely your own willpower and time, classes/courses/books are there to teach you grammar.


Edit: Getting an electronic dictionary that lets you search for kanji by stroke # is pretty much a must, this device is what will put you on the quick track to literary fluency, because looking up kanji without one is a PITA.

[Salshun]

Originally Posted by spronk

if you go to china everyone you meet will want to practice their english with you

I know a guy that's considering teaching advanced English in Japan. Supposedly if you're doing the higher level classes you don't need to know a word of Japanese, and the job is pure win. Really high paying, they pay for you to live there, the works.

As for what learning tools to use everyone I know swears up and down about Rosetta Stone. I hear the way it teaches is completely different than all the other methods and something about it just makes it click in peoples heads. Supposedly instead of just doing the "this word means this, this word means this" it teaches in a way that just gets right into conversations.

[Ancalagon]

Hey. I'm in a very similar boat to you. I'm currently an undergraduate (I graduate next year) with aspirations to attend some sort of graduate school (I vacillate between getting an M.A. in International Relations and trying the whole Foreign Service Officer thing, and getting an M.B.A. in International Finance) at which I can make use of my fledgling Mandarin, which will then hopefully be somewhat decent. I'm just finishing up my second course in the language, and -- needless to say -- I'm quite mediocre!

Admittedly I'm not the Zhongguoren you should be practicing with, but if you'd like to hop on a Vent server and shoot the shit with me in Chinese at some point I'd be more than glad.

Moreover, here's a great free -- though you'll get more out of it if you pay a bit -- resource for helping you learn: Learn Chinese - ChinesePod

[GrobbeeTrull2.0]

Originally Posted by Darus Grey

Edit: Getting an electronic dictionary that lets you search for kanji by stroke # is pretty much a must, this device is what will put you on the quick track to literary fluency, because looking up kanji without one is a PITA.

It's Hanzi for Chinese - even though kanji means the same thing in Japenese