natrigon Posted November 18, 2003 Report Share Posted November 18, 2003 I am trying to find a method of learning more Mandarin. I am 42 years old and got the Pimsleur cd's level 1. I am just finishing the 30 lessons. However the CD's have a different dialect than anybody I have tried to speak to. My fiance is from Dazhou, Sichuan and now lives in Shenzhen. I live in a small city with no Chinese classes. I even put a few ads in the local papers seeking a tutor with no response. I went to the few Chinese resteraunts but they are mostly Vietnamese owned and staffed. After several trips to the restraunts I found a Chinese girl that I can teach English to and she can teach me Mandarin. We called my fiance together and later my fiance told me the girl is not very well schooled and her Mandarin is far from refined.I realize the study of language can take many long years and was wondering if anyone has some ideas... certain books, vocal CD's, computer lessons, etc. I really don't want to learn bad habits that will be difficult to change later. At the same time I would like to keep learning so I do not forget. Link to comment
se_lang Posted November 18, 2003 Report Share Posted November 18, 2003 Try http://www.poledu.com it is in there some where, if you cant find it tell me I will get better link. also http://www.chineseon.net Link to comment
MoonCarolCafe Posted November 18, 2003 Report Share Posted November 18, 2003 Learning Chinese while living in a small American city has got to be even harder than learning English while living in a small Chinese city. To do more than practice your listening skills will be quite hard, you have no one to practice your spoken Mandarin with. Link to comment
Francine-gg Posted November 19, 2003 Report Share Posted November 19, 2003 I am trying to find a method of learning more Mandarin. I am 42 years old and got the Pimsleur cd's level 1. I am just finishing the 30 lessons. However the CD's have a different dialect than anybody I have tried to speak to. My fiance is from Dazhou, Sichuan and now lives in Shenzhen. I live in a small city with no Chinese classes. I even put a few ads in the local papers seeking a tutor with no response. I went to the few Chinese resteraunts but they are mostly Vietnamese owned and staffed. After several trips to the restraunts I found a Chinese girl that I can teach English to and she can teach me Mandarin. We called my fiance together and later my fiance told me the girl is not very well schooled and her Mandarin is far from refined. I realize the study of language can take many long years and was wondering if anyone has some ideas... certain books, vocal CD's, computer lessons, etc. I really don't want to learn bad habits that will be difficult to change later. At the same time I would like to keep learning so I do not forget.If your truly serious about learning Mandarin you need to find a qualified teacher, unless you can live in China for many years, it is the only way to become fluent, it will also be a life time learning process. You will need to learn and memorize pinyin,characters,tones,meaning, grammer etc. I started when I was 38 Good luck Link to comment
natrigon Posted November 19, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2003 Right, no teachers here, haha. Thanks I will check out the links. Louis Link to comment
lilybotelho Posted November 19, 2003 Report Share Posted November 19, 2003 Where do you live? Maybe I can help you if you live close to me. I live in Los Angeles Area. My fiance and I got married this August. I have college degree, speak standard Mandarin, I'm working part time right now. Link to comment
Eric&Yuhui Posted November 20, 2003 Report Share Posted November 20, 2003 A funny thing happened today..I was going to/from work listening to a chinese tape. Arrived home. Yuhui is trying to learn French, so she went to the library and picked up a CD. So far so good ( chuckling )As I entered, I hear the CD on the stereo.. I say.. what do you do hon ? She goes.. Learning French.. I said.. Good for you ! .. then I started paying attention to the CD being played, caught some french words here and there... I couldn't understand a whole sentence ! LOLI said to myself.. WT* Hmm, something's rotten in Denmark!I told her.. Sweetie, this is not French...Sounds Haitian to me...I went to pull out the CD and sure enough... written on it... HAITIAN CREOLE ( Haiti dialect derived from French .. I get a kick out of hearing it ).... I was laughing so hard.... Poor thing... To her defense, the CD jacket said "LEARN FRENCH " ( From pimsleur btw ! ) , not HAITIAN CREOLE version ....Back to the library I suppose...It was funny seeing her face, hmmm,,, I don't remember hearing on that tape those French words Eric taught me..... Link to comment
natrigon Posted November 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2003 Where do you live? Maybe I can help you if you live close to me. I live in Los Angeles Area. My fiance and I got married this August. I have college degree, speak standard Mandarin, I'm working part time right now.Thanks so much for the offer!! Right now I am in Mississippi about 2,500 miles away :-( I am in the process of selling my store and guess where I will be moving... the LA area! I probably won;t get out there for 4 -8 months, it seems prudent to wait for my fiance's visa before moving and changing banks etc. Time will tell, I sure would like to be there with my fiance now. Link to comment
Mick Posted November 20, 2003 Report Share Posted November 20, 2003 A funny thing happened today..I was going to/from work listening to a chinese tape. Arrived home. Yuhui is trying to learn French, so she went to the library and picked up a CD. So far so good ( chuckling )As I entered, I hear the CD on the stereo.. I say.. what do you do hon ? She goes.. Learning French.. I said.. Good for you ! .. then I started paying attention to the CD being played, caught some french words here and there... I couldn't understand a whole sentence ! LOLI said to myself.. WT* Hmm, something's rotten in Denmark!I told her.. Sweetie, this is not French...Sounds Haitian to me...I went to pull out the CD and sure enough... written on it... HAITIAN CREOLE ( Haiti dialect derived from French .. I get a kick out of hearing it ).... I was laughing so hard.... Poor thing... To her defense, the CD jacket said "LEARN FRENCH " ( From pimsleur btw ! ) , not HAITIAN CREOLE version ....Back to the library I suppose...It was funny seeing her face, hmmm,,, I don't remember hearing on that tape those French words Eric taught me..... Boy did I hear a lot of Creole when I was living in Miami. You should hear the Haitians speaking it when they get angry. Unintelligible even to a Frenchman. One of the funniest things I ever saw was a Haitian trying to give directions to a French Canadian out on Hollywood Beach. They ended up giving each other the finger. No lie. Link to comment
natrigon Posted November 20, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2003 A funny thing happened today..I was going to/from work listening to a chinese tape. Arrived home. Yuhui is trying to learn French, so she went to the library and picked up a CD. So far so good ( chuckling )As I entered, I hear the CD on the stereo.. I say.. what do you do hon ? She goes.. Learning French.. I said.. Good for you ! .. then I started paying attention to the CD being played, caught some french words here and there... I couldn't understand a whole sentence ! LOLI said to myself.. WT* Hmm, something's rotten in Denmark!I told her.. Sweetie, this is not French...Sounds Haitian to me...I went to pull out the CD and sure enough... written on it... HAITIAN CREOLE ( Haiti dialect derived from French .. I get a kick out of hearing it ).... I was laughing so hard.... Poor thing... To her defense, the CD jacket said "LEARN FRENCH " ( From pimsleur btw ! ) , not HAITIAN CREOLE version ....Back to the library I suppose...It was funny seeing her face, hmmm,,, I don't remember hearing on that tape those French words Eric taught me..... Well if she learns you could make a trip out here, only 90 miles from New Orleans, haha. When I bought the course they made it seem like there is a "common" mandarin. I thought I was learning that one but: tamen pu ming by (or howerver you spell it). it's close but there are still a million differences "s" sound instead of "sh" etc. Well I guess I will keep going to the Chinese resteraunts, lol. Link to comment
Eric&Yuhui Posted November 21, 2003 Report Share Posted November 21, 2003 Well if she learns you could make a trip out here, only 90 miles from New Orleans, haha.Well LA Cajun is different... and funny as hell too... No offense. Ditto with Quebec.OK, I'll stop being a purist. Link to comment
natrigon Posted November 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2003 Well if she learns you could make a trip out here, only 90 miles from New Orleans, haha.Well LA Cajun is different... and funny as hell too... No offense. Ditto with Quebec.OK, I'll stop being a purist. Occaisonaly I get some real Cajunians come into my shop and all I can say is "what". Link to comment
kimnjake Posted November 21, 2003 Report Share Posted November 21, 2003 where do y'all live, if you dont mind me asking, that you deal with cajuns?? i am from louisiana!!! y'all talking about my people! haha Link to comment
natrigon Posted November 21, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2003 where do y'all live, if you dont mind me asking, that you deal with cajuns?? i am from louisiana!!! y'all talking about my people! haha I am in Gulfport, Mississippi, about 90 miles from New Orleans or should I say Nawlins? Link to comment
kimnjake Posted November 21, 2003 Report Share Posted November 21, 2003 oh wow! that's cool. I go to school in Nawlins! haha make that wonderful drive there from baton rouge twice a week! looking forward to Christmas break so i dont have the drive that for a while!! Link to comment
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