From the article: Tips For Learning Mandarin Chinese
Do you have a special method that helps you learn Mandarin Chinese? Tips for remembering Mandarin vocabulary? Textbooks, software or audio material that has helped you in your studies? Please share your ideas and techniques that are working for you. Share Your Ideas
PopupChinese.com
- Useful and fun site with a huge number of free podcasts of all levels plus a wealth of supplemental materials for paying subscribers. Much more original and useful than the other podcast website that is so well-known.
- —Guest Yuri
Skritter (skritter.com)
- Skritter is a great place to learn Mandarin Chinese characters and words. It uses a technique called spaced repetition which is a scientifically base method that helps users learn written Chinese in the least amount of time. A large number of vocabulary lists from various textbooks are available. They offer use of their web site for one week for free to see how you like their way of learning Chinese.
- —Guest Dennis
Rosetta Stone plus books Massage
- Using Rosetta Stone which is repetitive, but great for vocabulary. Supplementing that with a quote book and Barrons' Chinese the easy way. Finally also getting practice with the Chinese women who give me a massage and help me speak their language!
- —Guest Steve
Army Language School
- I learned Mandarin way back in 1972 at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey as a soldier on my way to Taiwan. After Kissinger showed up in China, all our orders were changed and I ended up at NSA in Maryland. By 1974 I had gone on to other languages leaving Chinese behind. Last year I thought it would be nice to see if I remembered anything 38 years later, so I signed up for the About.com daily phrase and for another online daily sentence. I was shocked at how much I retained. We spent 8 hours a day in the classroom with 4 hours of homework every night for 47 weeks. We spent most of our time speaking and listening with almost no writing and a little bit of reading--no simplified characters allowed! We had 50 new words to learn every day. Flash cards were our friends. Everyone at DLI regardless of language walked around with bundles of flashcards in our pockets and in our hands. Our teachers were all political refugees from Chairman Mao who escaped one step ahead of the police.
- —Peteyroo
Chinese-Pod
- This is my take on the TV method and everyday method. I just listen to their pod casts all the time. They have a normal conversation in Chinese and then they break it down for you in English and add some interesting infos about China.
- —Guest Hanna
Business Travel Mandarin
- http://itunes.apple.com/hk/app/business-travel-mandarin-chinese/id414623477?mt=8# When traveling in China for business, you have to say more than just “hello” in Mandarin. You need to speak Mandarin when you answer questions at the Customs, ask flight attendants or hotel staff for service, go shopping, dine at Chinese restaurants and more. Organized in Q & A format, alternative answers are given for variety and reference. Business Travel Mandarin (Chinese-English Edition) (出差版) can help you learn sufficient amount of Mandarin for better traveling experience in China. The MP3 recording features native Mandarin speaker whom you can hear how the language really sounds and have ample opportunities for practice.
- —jennycrossover
Chinese School
- I'm Chinese, so my parents send me to Chinese school on Saturday. I have daily Chinese homework to do, so it keeps me busy & sharpens my skills. I have tests & weekly dictations as well. It's really cool! Plus I can make new friends!
- —Guest Xena
Conversation training
- My favorite way to learn and train speaking Mandarin Chinese is definitely taking some one to one courses with real teachers from Chineseteachers.com. No booking needed and I use my own books (Practical Audio Visual Chinese). for the writing part I LOVE using Skritter.com (http://www.skritter.com)
- —jf.amadei
Traveling or reading Books
- If you are studying Mandarin in Shanghai try and travel as much as you can. Alot of Chinese know some English or are used to foreigner unable to use Chinese. If you get out of the city you are forced to use more Mandarin and so you improve more in your Mandarin.Learning outside of Shanghai for 2 months was worth more than learning for 6 months inside of Shanghai. Also reading is a great tool both chinese characters or pinyin. http://www.chinese-blossom.com/blog1 this is a website that has some useful pinyin boos.
- —Guest Jas
QQ Translator For Syntax
- QQ is the largest IM network in China. They have a translator page that will translate an English sentence into Mandarin, showing both the Hanzi and Pinyin. QQ Translator translates English into Mandarin word order and I find this to be very helpful in learning how to compose sentences from English into Mandarin. http://qq.bur.st/qqtranslator.php
- —Guest Tim
Pen Friend
- I think the thing that has done a world of good for me is finding a pen friend. Not only has it helped my grammar and vocabulary, but I've also learned quite a bit about Chinese culture. In combination with any sort of study, I think having a pen friend is an amazing way to continuously expand your knowledge of Mandarin Chinese.
- —Guest Momo
Everyday Chinese
- What I've found useful as a beginner is thinking in Chinese even when everything around me is in English. I did this when I was learning Spanish too. For example, just in your car or a waiting room, think of the names in Chinese for the things around you. Or count in Chinese as high as you can in your head. Even when reading something in English, you come across a word you may know the character of or even what it'd be called in Chinese. This is a great way to pick up nouns, adjectives, and sometimes you can even think in verbs. If you don't know the name of something you do or see everyday in Chinese, find out, write it down and then refer to it whenever you come across it.
- —Guest Ashley
Flashcard service
- I've found it is of great help to use a flashcard service like ChineseBug.com - which is specifically designed for memorizing Mandarin.
- —Guest Ben
the TV method
- I enjoy learning Mandarin just by watching Chinese language TV dramas. I call it the TV method. No, I don't use subtitles. I don't study vocabulary nor grammar. I avoid translations, rules, and speaking. I just watch TV dramas and my understanding continually increases.
- —Guest Keith
Conversation and/or Reading
- For conversational Mandarin it has got to be ChinesePod - excellent. For reading it's the Heisig method , where I'm now keeping a blog of my progress at http://MandarinSegments.blogspot.com.
- —Guest Greg
Pimsleur
- I've had a lot of success with the Pimsleur CDs. They really helped me get the proper tones and have given me a good foundation in basic vocabulary.
- —Guest Angela
