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Hello all,
I am looking to move to Chengdu in June in order to teach English. I do not at this point speak more than a few words (literally) of Mandarin. I am rather intimidated by learning a language so different from my own. About how long did it take you to become able to have a basic conversation in Mandarin, or to interact with people at a restaurant, store, etc? Are you a linguist to begin with, or a relative novice? Are there any things I can be doing before my departure to give me a leg up or prepare for immersion learning? I have some language CDs that I’ve been listening to in the car on my commute, but I don’t know if that helps much. Thanks!
3 months for basics is enough, some more for conversation level. But thats actually studying in Uni 5/7 and i do have language affinity. Your mileage may vary.
As for tips – Hanzi>all. You can speak with terrible accent and still be understood, you can ask people to repeat if you didn’t understand what they said, but if you can write or read – you’re dead 🙂
All IMHO.
3 months for basics is enough, some more for conversation level. But thats actually studying in Uni 5/7 and i do have language affinity. Your mileage may vary.
As for tips – Hanzi>all. You can speak with terrible accent and still be understood, you can ask people to repeat if you didn’t understand what they said, but if you can write or read – you’re dead 🙂
All IMHO.
3 months for basics is enough, some more for conversation level. But thats actually studying in Uni 5/7 and i do have language affinity. Your mileage may vary.
As for tips – Hanzi>all. You can speak with terrible accent and still be understood, you can ask people to repeat if you didn’t understand what they said, but if you can write or read – you’re dead 🙂
All IMHO.
It all just drops down to how motivated you are to learn and how much time you put in. Some people live here for 5+ years and don’t have a clue, others are pretty impressive after only a few months.
Tips IMO, learn what you want to learn. Don’t spend your time studying words you would probably barely use, just skip those. Start with simple things you’ll use every single day: numbers, hello, thank you, waiter, yes, no, want, don’t want, I, you, this, I also want this, the bill please, how much does this cost, too expensive, very beautiful, saying where you’re from, where’s the toilet, dish names, beer, a bottle of water please, I have a really weird rash on my genitals, …
The most important thing before you learn any Chinese word in my opinion is to read about the 4 different tones and practice those until you really understand how they work and sound, so you can start reading pinyin. IMO this is fundamental and probably the most efficient way for getting good pronunciation right from the start.
Invest your time wisely
Just my two cents
Also worth checking out is this article by tim ferris “how to learn any language in 3 months“
It all just drops down to how motivated you are to learn and how much time you put in. Some people live here for 5+ years and don’t have a clue, others are pretty impressive after only a few months.
Tips IMO, learn what you want to learn. Don’t spend your time studying words you would probably barely use, just skip those. Start with simple things you’ll use every single day: numbers, hello, thank you, waiter, yes, no, want, don’t want, I, you, this, I also want this, the bill please, how much does this cost, too expensive, very beautiful, saying where you’re from, where’s the toilet, dish names, beer, a bottle of water please, I have a really weird rash on my genitals, …
The most important thing before you learn any Chinese word in my opinion is to read about the 4 different tones and practice those until you really understand how they work and sound, so you can start reading pinyin. IMO this is fundamental and probably the most efficient way for getting good pronunciation right from the start.
Invest your time wisely
Just my two cents
Also worth checking out is this article by tim ferris “how to learn any language in 3 months“
It all just drops down to how motivated you are to learn and how much time you put in. Some people live here for 5+ years and don’t have a clue, others are pretty impressive after only a few months.
Tips IMO, learn what you want to learn. Don’t spend your time studying words you would probably barely use, just skip those. Start with simple things you’ll use every single day: numbers, hello, thank you, waiter, yes, no, want, don’t want, I, you, this, I also want this, the bill please, how much does this cost, too expensive, very beautiful, saying where you’re from, where’s the toilet, dish names, beer, a bottle of water please, I have a really weird rash on my genitals, …
The most important thing before you learn any Chinese word in my opinion is to read about the 4 different tones and practice those until you really understand how they work and sound, so you can start reading pinyin. IMO this is fundamental and probably the most efficient way for getting good pronunciation right from the start.
Invest your time wisely
Just my two cents
Also worth checking out is this article by tim ferris “how to learn any language in 3 months“
Don’t be put off (as I am) when locals don’t understand. There’s a whole list of reasons for that happening and your bad Chinese is only one small one. Of course some locals might unfortunately tell you its the only one.
It’s hard to find friends with the patience to practice with.
Try with people you see frequently, of course a local shopkeeper with charisma is perfect. They might see the point/fun in trying. It maybe helps if they don’t have lots of foreign customers
Using local terms and language is more important here than in the west I think.
Be happy if most of your conversations are pointless banter, it’s the same for everyone.
Don’t be put off (as I am) when locals don’t understand. There’s a whole list of reasons for that happening and your bad Chinese is only one small one. Of course some locals might unfortunately tell you its the only one.
It’s hard to find friends with the patience to practice with.
Try with people you see frequently, of course a local shopkeeper with charisma is perfect. They might see the point/fun in trying. It maybe helps if they don’t have lots of foreign customers
Using local terms and language is more important here than in the west I think.
Be happy if most of your conversations are pointless banter, it’s the same for everyone.
Like Vincent said, some people get proficient quickly and others never get proficient in Mandarin despite living here for years. It’s not unusual to see foreigners who speak good Chinese here though, which is different from what I’ve seen in Shanghai and Beijing where the majority of foreigners aren’t very good at Mandarin because they don’t have to be.
All the Chinese that I know I learned myself, using books, the internet, and iPhone apps along with living with Chinese people.
I have published half a dozen articles on how to learn Chinese which you can see here under the Learning Chinese Quickly & Efficiently heading: Chengdu Living Post Series
Like Charlie and Vincent mentioned, being self-motivated to spend the necessary time is an absolute requisite to learning Mandarin. I found having 1-on-1 classes with a qualified teacher to be very helpful in the beginning of the learning process. A good teacher will help you form good habits and gets you on the right track to be more adept at studying/learning on my own.
Have you learned a foreign language before? Different people have different success with different methods. Just take the advice you get from this forum, Charlie’s other articles, and from wherever else you get advise and try all of it. Once you figure out what mode of studying gets you speaking/understanding effectively, maintains your motivation/interest to keep at it, and affords you the support of actually feeling like you’re making good progress then focus on that. I had a language teacher who gave sage advise: “lo mejor lugar aprender un idioma es en la cama.” His point was to thoroughly live the language and find the motivation to do so.
You have to practise everyday! watch chinese tv, read chinese books, going out with chinese friends!
Quote:Once you figure out what mode of studying gets you speaking/understanding effectively, maintains your motivation/interest to keep at it, and affords you the support of actually feeling like you’re making good progress then focus on that.This is such an important point, I’m glad that you mentioned in Larry. What I’ve found is that you really have to make it fun and rewarding. Learn Chinese that you will use and use the Chinese that you learn, whether you’re learning calligraphy, kung fu, business Chinese, or focusing on some other area of the language. Focus on something, that helps. Once it begins to yield fruit for you, be constantly adding to your knowledge and you will learn Chinese quickly.
All of what everyone else has said, especially the part about studying the content that interests you. Many books will start with “Where is the library? The library is over there” yada yada but nobody goes to the goddamn library anymore so it’s hardly relevant. In fact, even the locals here in Chengdu will be extremely hard pressed to even name one friggin library in the entire city that’s not connected with a uni…so check out Chinesepod.com. They’ve got tons of relevant material. If you don’t want to pay, then just go to torrentz.eu and type in “ChinesePod” and download the bit torrent. Somewhere, John and Jenny will shed a tear, but turn ye a cold shoulder to the cares of corporations and ye shall find peace.
It’s good that you’re listening to CD’s tapes or the like. Most people’s speaking skills will be better than their listening skills because they’ve only recently started learning to listen to Mandarin in a cognitive manner. If you’re from the States you hear Spanish on a weekly basis, in Canada it’s French, but Chinese gets left out. Good luck.
There’s a website called FluentU I just started using, it uses youtube clips to teach and has a variety of topics. Yuu do need a VPN though, but then I can’t understand why anyone woldn’t have one of those.
When I arrived I signed up for 6hours of classes a week at a Chinese school. That got me off to a good start.
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