Steve
Learning Chinese (Mandarin) In China

Hi,

 

I am planning to go to China in the beginning of next year(I am enrolling in one year language course in Chinese university), and had a few question regarding the language

 

What do you recommand I do in order to improve my Chinese. Should I focus more on learning the vocabulary, reading, writing, or speaking? Should I get a tutor?

 

How long would I take to comfortable talk to strangers?

 

I know there is no shortcut to learning a new language but any help would be appreciated.

 

Oct 20, 2014 10:52 PM
Comments · 15
3

My advise is: don't put all cards on what you learn in university. Make that, let's say, 20%

 

Mix the rest. Try to read short stories (I Chinese short stories are often dead boring, but read them anyway. There are a few graded readers on the market - and books are cheap in China.)

 

Talk from day one. Really, how can you NOT talk to locals? I all the time need to ask for prices, directions, guide taxi drives to go MY way. Don't be shy, nobody knows you. One advise for starters: ask questions you know the answer already! (what's the time, where is McDonalds, any good 小吃 nearby?). Ask older people, they often don't know English.

 

And here is a big one, if you have a hobby or favorite activity - mix it with Chinese. That can be any sport, hiking, whatever social activity that's organized by locals, for locals. Hiking is quite popular in China.

 

Another advise: If you get a teacher, get one that DOES NOT know English. Then keep in mind that the so called teacher usually have no idea how to teach. So YOU learn how to teach and you guide them the way you want to be tought.

 

October 21, 2014
2

you must say Chinese as much as you can,maybe you can not say it very well,but you must try,you can have a paterner to practice

October 21, 2014
1

As Arianne said, there are many people/students that want to learn English. It's very true. Simply tell them you don't know English, tell them you are Albanian (or whatever suits you).

October 21, 2014
1

Hi, Steve, welcome to China in advance.^_^

For Chinese learning, I agree with the above suggestions. They are really good points.

Here are some advice for Chinese beginners.

I think the first important thing is to grasp Pin Yin. You know what, Chinese people needs to study it at the beginning of primary school even though we can speak Chinese fluently.

The next thing is Chinese characters. They are like bricks for a building. When you learn a new character you'd better pay attention to how to read and write it. Maybe it's a little hard for you to write. But at least, when you meet the character next time you can recognize it and know its pin yin. In this way, you should be familiar with maybe 2000 characters for a comfortable conversation.

Then is the grammar. Based on the vocabulary , you need to learn grammar for organizing sentences. There is a big difference of word order between Chinese and  English. So you'd better learn something about the grammar.

Practice makes perfect. After these processes, you can improve your listening and speaking through practicing. Other people have given you many useful suggestions for practicing. 

Besides, if you need any help feel free to contact me.^_^

 

 

October 21, 2014
1

Having a tutor or language exchange partner is great.  

That said, there are a lot of Chinese students trying to learn English and you may be overwhelmed by the amount of people who want to practice their English with you (for free).  Don't be afraid to say no, and make sure you set up expectations for how much time you will spend speaking English and how much time you will spend speaking Chinese every time you meet.

If you have a tutor/language exchange partner, try to mix up conversational practice with going out - that way you'll reinforce your learning by learning how to do new things or navigate a new city in Chinese.  

Another great way to practice your Chinese is watching TV and movies as everything has subtitles in Chinese, so you can read and listen at the same time.  I found it was helpful for developing natural expression. 

October 21, 2014
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