chrisnhong

I've been digging into the FSI chinese course that I mentioned earlier in this thread. I has a far more intense teaching of pinyin and phonetics than anything else I've come across. It includes all the tapes on mp3 and the textbooks on pdf. If I was starting from scratch, I'd start with Pimsleur. Three comprehensive sets that give a really good thorough grounding in the language. It's got two main problems. It's all audio, so there is no development of pinyin or hanzi. Also the vocabulary is pretty limited. You can make yourself understood, to a limited extent. Then go to the FSI stuff, followed by Chinesepod. It's been said that learning Chinese is a five year lesson in humility. After learning for five years, your Chinese is still really shitty, but you've got humility down pat.

The FSI series that the US government uses to teach it's diplomats has been released to the general public. FSI Chinese

Store the sharp end in oil and it last much longer. The razor corrodes in air, which is why it goes blunt.

Joining chinese tour groups. You get thrown together with 15-25 people and you have time to get to know some of their stories. And tell them yours. All for $100 to $300. Scenery, food, shelter and transportation all included.

The process does work, but I don't have a projector. Real estate is pretty high priced in Sydney, even compared to the US, so my place is only a small apartment, but I'm not exactly stretched in paying the mortgage. The site, www.shooter.com.cn does exist, I've never had a problem finding it. I understand that I can get pirated stuff from China, I would just prefer not to go that way if possible. Customs here rather frowns on large numbers of DVDs coming in from China as well. I have no problem with downloading TV programs off the net, for example, if it's not available here. I'm just happy to have it all working.

Well, I’ve finally worked this out. It turns out that the software needed to show subtitles onto DVDs and movie files already exists, I didn’t have to write any after all. Here’s what is required: 1. A reasonably current PC, with DVD drive. 2. Installed with a current video card, capable of running VMR9. 3. Direct X9. 4. A decent media player (software), Real Alternative Player is my choice, it seems to have the widest capability whilst being very lightweight and fast. 5. A DVD decoder, such as Nero DirectShow. Others are available, many for free. 6. DirectVobSub, this is software required by most players to run subtitles. 7. The east asian language pack must be installed so that Chinese characters can be seen on screen. 8. A program capable of editing subtitles, my preference is Subtitle Workshop. 9. An internet connection so that you can pick up subtitles from shooter.com.cn All of the software mentioned is available on the net. In the media player, go to Options and set the subtitle font to something Chinese, eg. SimSun or SimHei. Set the DVD to render in VMR9, which is required to render the DVD and subtitles on the screen as required. In Media Player Classic you can load the DVD and then the subtitles, merely hitting the play button should run them. If you are using movie files such as .avi then you only need to ensure that the subtitles file has the same name as the movie file and the subtitles will run. Subtitle files usually come in a .rar archive. They are pretty small files. Often they are split, so you need a program such as Subtitle Workshop to join them. They sometimes come out of synch, so you may need to adjust the timing before you play them. Otherwise the subtitles can lag or run ahead of the film. If the movies that your SO brings with her do not have English subtitles, this is a good way to view the film for those of us whose Chinese is less than fluent. Most current video cards have TV out, so the movie can be watched on the TV screen if you have the correct leads. I’ll give that a try this weekend. You can even hook up the sound system. So now it is possible for me to purchase or hire a DVD locally and have it up and running with Chinese subtitles within an hour or so.

One of my annoyances is that i have been unable to get much in the way of chinese subtitled english language films. I've tried yesasia.com and a bunch of others, but they're awful expensive compared to buying the standard dvd here. Also there is a lot of stuff that's just plain not available. I think if your SOs are like mine, they've seen a lot of stuff from the last 10 years, but practically nothing before that. One of the things i bought her for christmas was a copy of Groundhog day, which is pretty good for learning as much of the text keeps being repeated. It's a good film as well. I looked at verycd.com recently, and found it to be ok, but i just don't like pirating movies. TV shows in .rmvb format work pretty well (try Real Alternative Player instead of RealPlayer, it's not anywhere near as annoying). A lot of that stuff just doesn't reach here, so i'm less concerned about the piracy aspect. The TV shows usually have the chinese subtitles embedded in them, so they're easy to use. I did find however, that movie subtitle files can be downloaded. Sites like shooter.com.cn have just about anything. I'm in the process of trying to play locally purchased DVDs in Real Alternative Player and load these external subtitles at the same time. I'm still on the learning curve here, no success yet as it appears that I have to upgrade to a recent video card. The target is to get to watch locally acquired DVDs and watch them with subtitles downloaded from the net. I'll let you all know how i get on.

Have you been told the rest of the tradition? Special chinese foods and the rest of it? My wife is trying to get permission for her parents to visit at that time...

If you're looking to learn mandarin, I can recommend ChinesePod but learning the language is tough. I have read of it being called a five year lesson in humility. At the end of five years, your chinese is really shitty, but you understand humility really well.

You're not wrong about the price of steel. I've read stores of manhole covers being stolen and sold as scrap. Yet another hazard on China's roads.

The visa process in OZ took me 8 months from application to visa being granted. Where the US process appears to have many steps, the australian process has basically just a few. 1. The application is made including all of the evidence. 2. The overseas spouse is then called to provide police and medical checks. 3. An interview is done, generally over the phone. 4. Visa is granted (or not). This is a 2 year temporary visa. 5. After 2 years, permanent residency is given provided the couple have not separated or divorced. In my case, my wife failed the interview, mostly on the basis of her poor english skills. I complained through my lawyer after which I was granted a phone interview with some questions in chinese to prove an ability to communicate. Lina was phoned about a week later with the news that she should send her passport to have the visa affixed. She now has practically all of the rights of an australian citizen, except for access to the social security system. Given that I have a job with slightly better than average income, she would not qualify even if she were an australian citizen. I'm always surprised at the timelines on this site, the US government process looks like a pig's breakfast to me. Feel free to disagree.....

Perhaps we can do something about helping each other out a little. When my wife arrived in OZ, one of the things that I needed to do was re-arrange our private health insurance. The insurance company was offering some insurance which I took up, one was surgery insurance, if she has to go have an operation, there will be some money paid to her, the other was disability insurance for her. For a total of $AUS2 per week, it made her very happy, something that surprised me. Does anyone else have stories like this?

I've read some good things about the Pleco dictionary, how do you find it?

Perhaps not. This one attempted suicide last night.

The news of the week here has been of the resignation of the state opposition leader. He got himself nicely drunk at a party a few weeks ago, called the chinese malaysian wife of the outgoing state premier a 'mail order bride'. He might have gotten away with it if he hadn't gone on to fondle a female reporter on the arse, then preposition another. And he still might have gotten away with it if he hadn't tried to deny all....

Even better, if you buy the chinese versions, you get Cantonese and Mandarin as well. So these advantages can work well for both yourself and your SO.

The current machines are amazing, but basically you pay for what you get. If you want to buy in the US, use ebay. I bought a Besta CD828 for $335 plus postage. One problem, it uses traditional characters, fortunately my wife is old enough to have learned most of them. This thing has flash movies that teach English, along with a bunch of CDs and extra downloadable lessons. Just too many extras to mention. However, if I was to do it again, I would buy in China, where the simplified versions are available, you should be able to get one for about 2200 Yuan with all the bells and whistles.

There's not much chance for my wife to use her bargaining skills here in Oz, but I'm looking forward to cutting her loose next time I buy a house, for example....

They have a couple of products, the Chinese Word Processor is the one you should have. I had no install problems, but if you haven't used a Chinese WP before, you will need to have a look at the manual/help file. It's worth persisting with if you have a need to use Chinese characters and I find the dictionary very handy for translation...

Our television is going digital here, so I will be able to buy a set-top box to provide subtitles for everything broadcast here. That will be useful for my wife to learn, particularly if I can watch at the same time. I don't think that it works that well the other way. The lack of a phonic system means that it's tougher to marry up the text with the words being said. I'm well on the way to learning my characters, but it's tough going. I hate learning off a computer. I bought a good package when in China, but I've been using the recorded speech to make my own, very basic version of the Pimsleur stuff. It's the best way I can think of to learn stuff thoroughly...

It probably took a month longer than it should have. My lawyer's office sat on the request for medicals for 3 weeks before I got them, then I made the mistake of sending them to my SO by air mail. Took more than 2 weeks. As previously noted, it's a 3 step process. Apply, wait, send medicals, wait, interview. My SO made a mess of the interview, but my lawyer contacted the consulate, they interviewed me, visa granted. The US process seems to need a whole language lesson in and of itself.

The Pimsleur CDs are excellent, they have a nice low learning curve, but they stop at a fairly simple stage. I tend to spend some time sitting in traffic, so I learnt a good deal from them, but I haven't found anything similar to extend my knowledge easily. Doesn't need a low learning curve, but finding audio courses that have more than just Chinese is difficult. I now have to spend precious time reading, sometimes watching DVDs etc. For those that have been through this to fluency, what did you find helped most after finishing Pimsleur?

I find this site useful for language matters etc.. Chinese Language Forums

Interesting web site.. When I wrote the money needs to be supported by something else, physical attraction was pretty much what I had in mind. Fame would be another.. "Sex and the city"? Watched it once so I don't really feel qualified to comment, but I would caution against thinking that TV and movies made essentially for entertainment have a close relationship to mainstream life. They usually only reflect a very small sliver of it. Well, until they become popular and the sheep begin mimicing it.

I can entirely believe that, for a Chinese person, marrying a foreigner is seen as a good option if possible. My understanding is that Chinese women rate the ability of a spouse to make plenty of money very highly. The possibility of being awarded a passport from a western country is also rated highly. The relative attractiveness of the possible spouse can be very dependent on these things. Western society is a different story. Money is not necessarily attractive unless it's supported by something else... Gotta say that Cody is largely right. When it comes to attraction, loyalty, honesty, manners, all rate well down the list, in fact I think they count as being unattractive... God knows, I've heard the words "You're very nice, but ....." rather often. I blame my mother.