Learning to Speak Mandarin Chinese

[Poohblah]

My list of online Mandarin learning tools has been expanding.

FluentFlix is a fantastic, fantastic website that just started its public beta. Basically, think of it as youtube for learning Chinese. Videos are taken from various sources - e.g., clips from soap operas, TV adverts, short films, etc. - and then transcriptions and other learning tools are added to make watching the videos an educational experience. I think it's a wonderful way to learn.

I also have collected a list of blogs about learning Chinese and put together an RSS feed. You can download it from my Google Drive here and import it into Google Reader or any other RSS reader (I hope! I'm not too familiar with RSS feeds/readers).

[riccaicedo]

Thanks for the resources!

But isn't perapera kun for Japanese?
It sounds like it.

[Poohblah]

Thanks for the resources!

But isn't perapera kun for Japanese?
It sounds like it.

It supports Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, and Korean, all in the same plug-in.

[wyardley]

Peraperakun is really indispensable. It can be a little buggy, but I use it all the time.

[MarshalN]

I can speak/read Japanese as I studied Japanese for a long time and even lived in Japan. Will it help me when trying to learn Mandarin or will it hinder me?

Japanese does not prepare you for Mandarin at all (spoken, that is). It's a whole different ballgame. The grammatical structure of the languages are also polar opposites. The only thing it really does help with, to a limited extent, is shared vocabulary.

[Cole]

I've been meaning to learn basic Mandarin for years, but now that my mother-in-law has an exchange student from Hunan, I think it's really time to try and work on the tones and learn the basic stuff. One day, I just might be able to read that puerh wrapper!

A thousand thanks for all the invaluable links in this thread! Installing Perapera as I type...

[gingkoseto]

Once I met a young guy in a small town college. I was one of the handful of Chinese who weren't working in a Chinese takeout in that small town and he was probably the only non-Chinese who was working in a Chinese takeout. He speaks perfect mandarin. Since my husband is not home now, I would say, this American's mandarin sounds more standard and with less accent than my husband's, although my husband is a Chinese born and brought up in China.
This guy told me he spent half a year as an exchanged student in China. But I was very much surprised it was only half a year and his spoken language was already so good. But he told me he spoke Chinese all the time, by dating Chinese girls and online chatting (with girls, I guess, most of the time). Highly motivated language drills!

[Poohblah]

But he told me he spoke Chinese all the time, by dating Chinese girls and online chatting (with girls, I guess, most of the time). Highly motivated language drills!

I have heard from many sources that dating foreigners is likely the best way to learn a foreign language.

[tkellyd]

Hello all:

As usual I am posting this a bit late.

I am surprised that no one mentioned Meetup.com. This site allows you to join or start an interest group in your area and would be a great idea for people needing/wanting to speak/read/write Chinese.

Hope it's useful.

Best,

- T

[Poohblah]

Funnily enough I just found a recently formed Mandarin practice group in my town that uses Meetup to schedule and coordinate events.

[Bigdumogre]

Thanks for all the links. Been trying to learn mandarin for years but never had the time to really focus on it. I've tried pilsner n Rosetta Stone. Pilsner is great cause I sit in traffic n just listen to it n downloaded it on my iPod. Rosetta Stone was a gift and I must say I e learned more from my friends going out for dim sum than that DVD. But it goes help. But being around people that speak it is best by far. And hopefully after this holiday season I will have more time to dedicate to learning mandarin.

[bagua7]

And if you are really serious about learning Mandarin Chinese, move to the Mainland. Immersion is the best way to learn any language.

...move to Taiwan-Taipei and you'll learn Traditional Mandarin in an environment set up for foreign students. Look into Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center. You'll be able to speak it comfortably after 6 months...intensive training though.

[Hannah]

Not sure how this would be for Chinese, but for learning German, this website and its mobile software made it a snap:

http://www.busuu.com/enc/

It helped polish up my Japanese too but I got a head start on that at school

[apache]

I saw a Youtube clip and this chap shared his experience of learning Mandarin / Putonghua. Then he visited a language school and one of the teacher there said it only takes 50 hours lessons to learn the basic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLflkSzpDPs

Sigh! I must be very thick. Surely, English / American is a much much easier language. After many years of learning, me still ain't getting me grammar and spelling right!

I blame my school and the English teachers.

[delpino]

Personally I use and code this site:

https://www.learnwitholiver.com/chinese/

It has both word and sentence flashcards, annotated texts, text analyzer, games and more. Let me know if you like it!