I joined a Chinese language Meetup group at Meetup.com. Then I found a native from Beijing who was willing to trade Mandarin lessons for English lessons.
OREOSpeedwagon
Diamond Member
- May 30, 2001
- 8,485
- 1
- 81
rosetta stone software. its expensive but you can find it on a few torrent sites if you look really hard.
Shanghai to learn mandarin? You're going to come out with some godawfully accented Mandarin.
From my experiences, Taiwan (taipei) has some of the clearer speakers. There's kind of a running joke in Beijing that basically goes like you can tell a guy is from Taiwan b/c his pronounciation is too "correct." Most parts of China have accents of one sort or another. That said, the SE chinese provinces where most of taiwan's current population fled from are good on pronounciation too.
Moreover, Taiwan will get you traditional writing. Simplified is lame. Period. It's like a destruction of the culture. We study all sorts of ancient writings in Egypt, South America, etc...and yet no one cares that the communists are annihilating the one language that has survived more than 2 millenia. Bullsh!t.
(That said, food in China rocks. Same for taiwan, but you get different styles in different places
)Originally posted by: eLiu
Shanghai to learn mandarin? You're going to come out with some godawfully accented Mandarin.
From my experiences, Taiwan (taipei) has some of the clearer speakers. There's kind of a running joke in Beijing that basically goes like you can tell a guy is from Taiwan b/c his pronounciation is too "correct." Most parts of China have accents of one sort or another. That said, the SE chinese provinces where most of taiwan's current population fled from are good on pronounciation too.
Moreover, Taiwan will get you traditional writing. Simplified is lame. Period. It's like a destruction of the culture. We study all sorts of ancient writings in Egypt, South America, etc...and yet no one cares that the communists are annihilating the one language that has survived more than 2 millenia. Bullsh!t.
(That said, food in China rocks. Same for taiwan, but you get different styles in different places
shanghai is a more interesting city to me as well...
EvilYoda
Lifer
- Apr 1, 2001
- 21,198
- 9
- 81
I agree with eLiu in that learning your Mandarin in Shanghai is a "bad" idea...it's like asking an Italian to teach you French, even if he's been speaking it for forever. maybe not quite that bad, but you could definitely pick up some poor accents. but at least you'll be more updated on slang and curse words than me
edit: I picked Italian and French b/c they're closely related romance languages...or at least I think they are.
edit: I picked Italian and French b/c they're closely related romance languages...or at least I think they are.
Mo0o
Lifer
- Jul 31, 2001
- 24,227
- 3
- 76
Originally posted by: eLiu
Shanghai to learn mandarin? You're going to come out with some godawfully accented Mandarin.
From my experiences, Taiwan (taipei) has some of the clearer speakers. There's kind of a running joke in Beijing that basically goes like you can tell a guy is from Taiwan b/c his pronounciation is too "correct." Most parts of China have accents of one sort or another. That said, the SE chinese provinces where most of taiwan's current population fled from are good on pronounciation too.
Moreover, Taiwan will get you traditional writing. Simplified is lame. Period. It's like a destruction of the culture. We study all sorts of ancient writings in Egypt, South America, etc...and yet no one cares that the communists are annihilating the one language that has survived more than 2 millenia. Bullsh!t.
(That said, food in China rocks. Same for taiwan, but you get different styles in different places
Simplified is already the standard in China, which means it is the most widely used form of Chinese. So I would highly recommend learning that instead of traditional. Not only that, it is much simpler, which will facilitate faster learning. Depending on what accent you wish, you should either move to Taiwan or Beijing. Beijing you'll come out with a mainland accent, Taipei, Taiwanese accept. It all depends on what you want.
Text
I've been using this site to build up vocab and stuff.
But to really be fluent in Chinese, you just need to speak it and not be embarassed at how you sound.
I'm decent at speaking mandarin. I am an ABC (american born chinese) both parents fobs of course. I grew up speaking it but quickly went towards English more so for many years I didn't practice my mandarin. Only was it recently that I started picking it back up and studying it.
I've been using this site to build up vocab and stuff.
But to really be fluent in Chinese, you just need to speak it and not be embarassed at how you sound.
I'm decent at speaking mandarin. I am an ABC (american born chinese) both parents fobs of course. I grew up speaking it but quickly went towards English more so for many years I didn't practice my mandarin. Only was it recently that I started picking it back up and studying it.
Chaotic42
Lifer
- Jun 15, 2001
- 34,395
- 1,585
- 126
Originally posted by: werk
Order lots of chinese, learn from the fortune cookies.
You laugh, I was at a Chinese buffet with a friend today and I mentioned wanting to learn Chinese. I didn't know it, but the owner was right behind me. When they brought the fortune cookie, he offered to help me say "tomorrow" in Chinese. When I tried, he just laughed.
I told him that I needed more fortune cookies.
Oh, and bump for more replies.
Originally posted by: z0mb13
yes, yes, yes, no way
tiu lei lo meii!!
you got it wrong. it is DIU LEI LO MO
Originally posted by: eLiu
Shanghai to learn mandarin? You're going to come out with some godawfully accented Mandarin.
From my experiences, Taiwan (taipei) has some of the clearer speakers. There's kind of a running joke in Beijing that basically goes like you can tell a guy is from Taiwan b/c his pronounciation is too "correct." Most parts of China have accents of one sort or another. That said, the SE chinese provinces where most of taiwan's current population fled from are good on pronounciation too.
Moreover, Taiwan will get you traditional writing. Simplified is lame. Period. It's like a destruction of the culture. We study all sorts of ancient writings in Egypt, South America, etc...and yet no one cares that the communists are annihilating the one language that has survived more than 2 millenia. Bullsh!t.
(That said, food in China rocks. Same for taiwan, but you get different styles in different places
WTF??!?!?!! The entire SO CAL area like Madarin to the Max. I notice less people speaking Cantonese, and many cantonese speakers I do know are taking Mandarin because Cantonese's role is being (not saying its good or bad...just is) marginilized.
The best way? Get Chinese friends and speak with them. Its what I do. Granted I take a class at college, but my real learning comes from speaking with them...and using Chinese whenever possible (including sometimes writing notes in Chinese...not full blow notes but something like ??line integral,?plugin varinble in equation, ?????????...its stuff like that that really makes you learn chinese.
In my experience most people from Taiwan also have accents
instead of teacher as "lao3 shi1" you get something like "lao3 si1". or cheng2 (Town) because "seng"....the ch because c, and the sh because s...and for some reason it drives me crazy As for writing system, learn whatever. I've noticed most people who know simplified can read traditional (although not write). I know less people who know traditional and can hack through simplified. It can be done easier, but you got to get used to it for a while. So in my opinion, learn whatever is avalbiel. I'm learning traditional because I think knowing it is better, and a transition to simplified can be easier....but traditional takes FOREVER to write...often times I switch to simplified with characters I know simply because writing in simplified is faster....I know how to write ???...but writing ??? is infintely faster and passing notes to friends doesn't' take an arse load of time (then again I always do each stroke...i don't do "cursive")
One thing though, don't learn "at your pace". You'll never learn anything. Set a plan and follow it like you have to or you will get raped hard by Buba from jail
simplified 4tw!
and yes, mandarin is gradually replacing cantonese as the dominant dialect among chinese immigrants
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