Chinese lessons

[Philip]

Hi,
just started a course in beginners Mandarin at an evening class in London. We started with some very basic greetings, looked at pronunciation, the four tones, practised a few strokes and had a little geography lesson. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I have picked up and am in danger of becoming the class swot. The teacher is Chinese. She told us that young Chinese primary children can read 1000-1500 characters, 3000 is a basic requirement to read a newspaper and university lecturers know at least 5000. She also said that when her students have been with her for 3 years, they know only about 300! Frightening

[Hajo]

Alex,

You have to think about that people in China can talk Chinese in every day live. The students in London will not have the same opportunity. Therefore there progress in learning Chinese will be very much slower.

[Ed W]

I too just started a Mandarin class on Saturdays. Our first day went much as yours did. My chinese neighbor, a student here, said allow about 3yrs of schooling to become competant. By the feel of my first day, I'd say he's probably pretty close to what I'll need, to say the least.

[brett]

Try the Heisig books. They're controversial, but if you follow the technique and are dedicated you should be able to learn 3000 characters in a few months.

I've learnt a few, but I am a busy man, and my brain doesn't want to do this as well :@.

[zook144]

Try the Heisig books. They're controversial, but if you follow the technique and are dedicated you should be able to learn 3000 characters in a few months.

I have also started a Mandarin course. Started last week and me thinks this is going to take a long, long time:huh:

What are the Heisig books? Something I can get at a bookstore?
Don

[brett]

Yeah, look for them on Amazon. They're a non-standard way of learning Hanzi (or Japanese Kanji) but some people swear by them.

[MLM]

Hi all, Hajo is right, I have been married now for almost 10 months and live with her and we talk Madarin every day along with English and I still only know enough to get into trouble, the tones are killing me, this is a hard language but, if you stick withit you'll learn and when you get to China, you will improve faster or at least I do.

[Ed W]

Just finished my second day of Chinese lessons. We spend much time going through the various tones and sounds in pinyin. By the end of this class I felt like my brain was going to start oozing out my ears. It's a huge sensory overload sometimes. Along with the tones we're learning the he, she, it...  Thought i'd include just a couple pages of today's class. My hand hasnt done this much writing in years...

[MLM]

Ed, thats all Chinese to me, I have not even started reading or writing yet

[maxx]

Ed Don't loose heart I had my wife look at your writings she told me to tell you your doing a good job.:icon_cheesygrin:

[brett]

I think my Chinese class will overload my brain, but I'll give it a go.

I can understand a fair bit of Japanese now, so it can be done. Chinese is tough though.

[Hans]

Hi,
just started a course in beginners Mandarin at an evening class in London. We started with some very basic greetings, looked at pronunciation, the four tones, practised a few strokes and had a little geography lesson. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I have picked up and am in danger of becoming the class swot. The teacher is Chinese. She told us that young Chinese primary children can read 1000-1500 characters, 3000 is a basic requirement to read a newspaper and university lecturers know at least 5000. She also said that when her students have been with her for 3 years, they know only about 300! Frightening

300 characters in three years? She must be joking. You can't possibly pass an exam with such limited knowledge (except the first one, which required us to know about 250 characters). We learn 35-40 characters every week, then we have a review every three weeks. And I only study part time in the evenings. I knew about 300 characters after one semester (half time), maybe about 600 after my second semester. But like always, it's all about how much you put into it.

Good luck with your studies!!

[brett]

That reminds me, when I was in Japan I visited a graveyard. Some old Japanese women were reading the gravestones. Or rather they were trying to. I guess the characters were old, or not often used. I've heard a lot of this type of thing :huh:.

Try the Heisig method though, if you figure it out you could astound your teacher! I've now learnt the numbers (although "9" causes me problems) and I think I know about 30 characters now.

[Ed W]

Ed Don't loose heart I had my wife look at your writings she told me to tell you your doing a good job.:icon_cheesygrin:

thanks to you and your wife. I'm in for the long haul with this. I figure one day It won't be so overwhelming. It is neat to see at the end of the day how much I've written, and surprisingly how much I remember.

[Hans]

If it's any consolation, my Chinese teacher told us that unlike many other languages, Chinese actually gets easier and easier the more you learn.