A Good Way To Learn Mandarin At Home? (2 Viewers)

[Crobat]

Hi all,

I plan on learning some Mandarin over the uni break and was wondering if anyone knows of a good online course (preferably free) or a good course in general that would help me learn the language (like TAFE, etc)?

Cheers in advance!

 

[nerdasdasd]

I can speak to you in chinese over skype , my fellow UTS undergrad.

 

[Crobat]

I can speak to you in chinese over skype , my fellow UTS undergrad.

Hahaha that's such an asian parent thing to say - "i'll just speak it to you at home and you'll learn". The other thing is "I'll send you to China for 6 months".

Fears man.

 

[lustrous metal]

Yeah, I'd like to learn a language too but I don't really know where to start.

 

[Crobat]

Bro, I'm Chinese and I can't even speak the language... #noasianpride

Nah, I'm planning to learn Mandarin too after school, but I know for a fact that it's one of the hardest languages for an English speaker.

Well I'm half Chinese and half Australian (and yes, 100% gorgeous hurrdy gurrdy hurr) and I was actually fluent in Chinese when I was 4 since I grew up in China (my mum was studying her MBA in Australia and working full time so she didn't have time to raise me as well) and it was my first language. Stupidly enough, I forgot it while I was learning English but I can still understand some of the basics and get the gist of it when people speak to my mother in Mandarin.

I think Mandarin is supposed to be the easier Chinese dialect to learn for an English speak though. I'm just hoping my prior fluency in the language will help me through this hard and depressing time.

 

[JT145]

I wish I knew Mando.... having both Canto and Mando would be awesome for me

 

[SylviaB]

get a book, like the BLCU new practical chinese reader. Get the one with the CD recordings otherwise your pronunciation will be all wrong. Some of the sounds are really strange and there are often only subtle differences between them (z, s, c)

if you can, see a tutor once a week or more if you can afford it. lol post an ad at uni, im sure theres enough chinese internationals who'd be willing to make an easy buck telling you that youre saying it all wrong

 

[obliviousninja]

I wish I knew Mando.... having both Canto and Mando would be awesome for me

You barely know the first one

 

[JT145]

You barely know the first one

Are you serious? You know even less than me in that regard

 

[Crobat]

Are you serious? You know even less than me in that regard

"You know my name, not my story."

 

[obliviousninja]

"You know my name, not my story."

Do you have a non-asian last name?

 

[Crobat]

Do you have a non-asian last name?

Nah, but I have a Chinese name that I still remember

 

[jnney]

YouTube.

 

[obliviousninja]

YouTube.

Chinese drama, but they tend to be a bit bland.

 

[obliviousninja]

I'm gonna learn canto, so im get shipped to HK for a several weeks.

 

[SylviaB]

canto is an abomination of a language

 

[isildurrrr1]

canto is an abomination of a language

shanghainese is pretty bad

 

[asianese]

I'm gonna learn canto, so im get shipped to HK for a several weeks.

You don't know Cantonese? How will you pick up nsg chicks??? Terrible.

canto is an abomination of a language

How so?

 

[obliviousninja]

You don't know Cantonese? How will you pick up nsg chicks??? Terrible.

I'm decent, can't read nor write. Can speak the half-canto-half-english thing. Can understand most speech.

 

[capsicum sauce]

They have pretty good short courses at USYD (10 weeks with one 2.5 hour lesson/week). I'm not sure if they have Mandarin though so you should check that out. Also, when I was learning french which is admittedly easier than mandarin, I listened to a lot of french radio, watched french movies and read books written in french. It's hard at first but it works like a treat in the long run! Good luck!