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Long term Mandarin Chinese strategy | ||
Tags: Learning Strategy | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| lichtrausch Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5769 days ago 525 posts - 1072 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Japanese Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 9 of 11 17 May 2011 at 9:30pm | IP Logged | ||
I made my first feeble attempts about a year after I had begun studying Japanese, and it took about another two years or so before I was able to read newspapers comfortably. So about 3 years in total. I studied rather intensively (two or three hours almost every day for two years) so it might take longer if you don't spend as much time on it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Li Fei Pro Member United States Joined 4932 days ago 147 posts - 182 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 11 18 May 2011 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Outcast, I can speak to the "should I take classes" question. Having just finished two semesters of college
Mandarin, I can say that it was a very worthwhile experience. During my first semester, we had a fairly big class (maybe twelve people) and some were not motivated, so it moved at a very slow pace. But it was enough to introduce me to a lot of resources, help me learn some basics of character writing and pronunciation, and go through the first half of a textbook (Integrated Chinese). With such a different and difficult language, I needed that slow start, and it was a confidence builder that I could do fine in the class. The second semester was much more intense, as the slackers had dropped out. Four students and a teacher who focused intensely on tones and speaking and pronunciation. This is something I couldn't have gotten through self-study and it was very helpful and very challenging. At the same time, classes never do move at quite the right pace, and it's crucial to do self-study too, so I'm glad you are planning on that. I did, and am still doing, Pimsleur, plus some other side studies. I've elected to focus first on speaking, reading, and listening, and to forgo really learning to write characters. My first goal is polite speaking and listening with native speakers, and that's a challenging enough goal that I don't feel I can learn to write at the same time. But reading and recognizing characters is a thrill, and so I'm working on that as much as possible. Good luck with your five-year project. That time frame seems about right to me, though you may go faster with all your language-learning experience and skills. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| outcast Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member China Joined 4758 days ago 869 posts - 1364 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, German, Italian, French, Portuguese, Mandarin Studies: Korean | Message 11 of 11 18 May 2011 at 1:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I appreciate all the tips. I think I will start with some self-study in the summer, mostly pronounciation and the very basic phrases. Then in the fall, I'll attend a class and continue my self study. Basically my goal would be to ''review'' stuff by taking the class, and hopefully get a native person's pronounciation.
As I go through and finish the class, depending on my progress, I will take the next level class if I liked the experience, or review if I feel I am not reading to move on. Once I am I will just get the next level book and so forth. Finally, I have been thinking about the writing part: I eventually someday would like to have that ability, but I agree with most of you that listenting and speaking is first, then reading, then writing. So writing would come last, but that said, I might be useful if I simply ''practice'' writing Chinese characters even if I have not a clue of what they mean, just for the actual writing ability. My thought process is, when I have gotten the basics of or Mandarin vocabulary, pronounciation, tones and grammar, I can begin learing the characters and writing them. And when that happens, to have at least the skill to write characters would be a major advantage. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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