China Romance
General Discussion and Useful Links => Ask An Experienced Member => Topic started by: Philip on September 17, 2009, 02:59:29 pm
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 :@.
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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
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Yeah, look for them on Amazon. They're a non-standard way of learning Hanzi (or Japanese Kanji) but some people swear by them.
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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.
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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...
(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2504/3934607933_c649b0dce4_b.jpg) (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2470/3934607435_ffefa5031d_b.jpg) (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3420/3935389158_2ab6a43eb0_b.jpg)
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Ed, thats all Chinese to me, I have not even started reading or writing yet
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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:
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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.
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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!!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Some things about Chinese appear simple (like sentence structure). And I am definately beginning to recognise certain characters.
I did actually manage to pick up quite a bit of Japanese without having formal tuition. But if find that the tonal nature of Chinese is really alien to my ears. I can tell if someone is speaking Mandarin or Cantonese, but so far that's it.
My lady tells me that my written Chinese is good. I think I am starting to learn how to write English sentences that translate well. I'll see if I can teach her the same.
My Mandarin course starts in October - I'm very lucky to work at a University with an excellent reputation for language tuition!
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Chinese gets easier as you listen to it more. For the first 6 weeks here I did not feel that i was learning very well then suddenly i was starting to understand the odd word here and there. Suddenly my learning takes on a new dimension and I strive to learn and use a new phrase every day. It is just a matter of using ones that you can use more often whilst living here.
My new girl friend has a great speaking voice and her enthusiasm to teach me Chinese is only matched by her wish to speak English.
I have no intention of learning to read and write the symbols at least not for a year or two. When I am in conversation we are talking not reading so the reading will come later. The ones I do learn are the bus destination signs.
Willy
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Yes I found the same with Japanese. The first time I went there I couldn't understand a thing. The second time I could figure out the social heirarchy of people and I could pick up bits of conversation.
I also learnt a bit of katakana and was able to figure out what I was ordering from the restaurant vending machines! Also I could remember the kanjii characters for the various station stops which was a relief as the cheaper private railway lines weren't big on English signage.
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Chinese gets easier as you listen to it more. For the first 6 weeks here I did not feel that i was learning very well then suddenly i was starting to understand the odd word here and there. Suddenly my learning takes on a new dimension and I strive to learn and use a new phrase every day. It is just a matter of using ones that you can use more often whilst living here.
My new girl friend has a great speaking voice and her enthusiasm to teach me Chinese is only matched by her wish to speak English.
I have no intention of learning to read and write the symbols at least not for a year or two. When I am in conversation we are talking not reading so the reading will come later. The ones I do learn are the bus destination signs.
Willy
In China the buses are numbered or there is another system? I just wonder if I can use public transportation by myself if I ask someone which bus to take to certain place.
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In China the buses are numbered or there is another system? I just wonder if I can use public transportation by myself if I ask someone which bus to take to certain place.
The buses have regular numbers .. I remember one I rode on was for route 531
there are interchanges where many buses arrive and you have to check the number to get the right one for your route ... people are helpful but they might not always know english .... the bus fare was cheap, usually 1 yuan per ride
The buses I rode on had an automated voice to tell you next stop is ....
and it was in Chinese :)
also the buses had flat screen TV's, one in the front, and one in the middle.
Mike
Mike is right. They have numbers. The destination is written in Simplified and on a couple of occasions I have got to the end of the line to find that I have been going the wrong way. And so now I have the bus destinations written out for me.
Problem is I have so many of these cards now that I have to carry a filing cabinet with me - maybe I could put them onto computer!!!
Willy
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Hi guys, I am up to my 9th Chinese lesson. Each week, we have been looking at some of the 54 radicals that originated in pictorial representations and which form the root of a lot of Chinese characters.
e.g. the radical for wood looks a bit like a tree, and is the basis for words like crops or rice. Often characters will be made up of two parts combined. If you are interested, I can try and print more. Sorry I can't show the tones.
[size=20]? - mu - wood
? - tian - field
? - ma - horse
? - men - door
? - shou - hand
? - xin - heart[/size]
Alex
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Yeah mate the charge is One Yuan...The number bus I took today was 222, hehe I missed my stop but recognised something so I got off...haha
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Thanks Alex. I'm on about my 6th week of Chinese classes and for the first time I really think I am starting to get the hang of it. If my lady was here then I think I would be making very rapid progress indeed. My tones are quite good but I need more work at listening, especially because there is a listening test in a fortnight!
Our teacher is excellent (well it is a University level course) and it is useful to see a top quality language teacher in action.
I know about 70 hanzi characters now, I bought the Tuttle flashcards which are really good because I can now make a little pile of the ones I know, then test myself every night to see if I remember them. I find that they are quite easy to remember now.
I am also winning a lot of respect from my lady from my new found knowledge of her language :icon_cheesygrin:!