I would say trying to learn to read or write Chinese is a waste of time for almost anyone. But speaking it isn’t that difficult. I was able to have pretty basic conversations in Chinese in about 4 months of being here. Without going to any classes. By the time I had been here a year I had a girlfriend who couldn’t speak a word of English and for the most part we didn’t have problems communicating. I did go to a teacher to learn my buh, puh, muh, fuhs. So that I could get my pronounciation right. I suggest you make sure your teachers Chinese is up to par. As it is now I often jokingly correct locals pronounciation…on things like saying 44, or hot…ect. I have a friend who studies written Chinese and I see him every day at school writting characters. So I asked him “Are these new characters that you are learning?” and he replied “No, these are old ones…I need to practice them for an hour a two a day so I don’t forget.”. I’m not willing to give up two hours a day for the rest of my life just to not forget something.
So the point is I think you can learn a shit load of Chinese in 9 months. But it’s probably better not to waste time with reading and writting. And find someone who can actually speak good Chinese to help you with your pronounciation…and that discludes 80% of the people in Taiwan.
[quote=“the_p0et”]I just got back from Chia-yi and bought the Far East Everyday Chinese book 1 with the Textbook, Student Workbook and CDs. I must say that I’m feeling the CD was a waste of $600 since the 2 people are speaking quickly from one excercise to the other like they have something better to do asap. It would be nice if they would repeat the Chinese word at least once or twice before moving on. (This is why I love the Pimsleur series!)
I bought the CD for Far East Everyday Chinese Book 1, but it turns out that it’s only for the excercises in the textbook and doesn’t include any of the readings or excercises for the workbook. This is the only CD I’ve found in 4 different cities.
Anyways, finished the first lesson (out of 12) and moving on… [/quote]
Yunlin/ Chia-yi is a very small town, sorry have to say you won’t have a quality learning around these areas, as most of ppl there are only able speak dialect which we call “Taiwanese”.
Suppose you could find someone willing teaching you daily Chinese in English by Skype. Ask ppl here, we are nice.
Almost everyone in Chiayi can speak Mandarin. Also, the locals really hate it when you “correct” their Chinese pronunciation. It is simply a different accent than Beijing Mandarin. If you were learning “American English” in Australia/Britain/Ireland/etc. would you “correct” their pronunciation? I don’t think so…
No, sorry but you’re wrong. I have asked people here if a word starts with the ruh sound as in “people”, or the luh sound as in “come” and they sometimes give the incorrect or contradicting answers. So they just honestly don’t know how to say it. It would be like me not knowing if the word “Sad” started with S or SH, if I said “I’m so shad today because my dog died.” people would understand my meaning, but it’s still shitty pronounciation. And since it’s not all Taiwan people that have this poor pronounciation maybe only half or less…than it’s not the local ‘accent’ . So,with that in mind their accent here in comparison to China is not an issue with me. What is an issue is my 100% Taiwanese Chinese teacher telling me face to face that the people have a sever problem of “lazy mouth” and would probably write down the bu-pu-mu-fu for many words incorrectly because they themselves are saying them incorrectly. A perfect example is people saying the numbers 4 and 10 with little difference…4 sounds like sssu and 10 should sound like shhrrr (I’m just trying to write using the english phonics).
So in conclussion I wouldn’t count someone saying “SH” when they are trying to say “S” as the local accent. I’d call it a lisp or perhaps just lazy.
P.S And as far as the locals hating it when I correct them…well maybe they do, but their co-workers usually get quite the laugh .
If you were indeed studying American English in one of these places then first thing I would say would be that you are a fool…but as for correcting a native speaker (of any language) I don’t do it.
If you were indeed studying American English in one of these places then first thing I would say would be that you are a fool…but as for correcting a native speaker (of any language) I don’t do it.[/quote]
We don’t teach American English in Australia mate, we speak proper English.
Good point; there are loads of places in the world where Chinese is spoken so if you don’t speak the local language you can use Chinese. This was one of the factors I took into account when choosing to learn Mandarin.
For nine months only – I’d go with a private tutor (since visa isn’t an issue) and concentrate only on listening and speaking. Don’t bother with writing at all. If you really like characters, stay about three lessons behind yourself and then learn to recognize the words you already know in speaking and listening. Don’t try to do all three (listening, speaking, reading) at once on the same material – it just doesn’t make sense.
It would make sense to learn the MPS (bo po mo fo) system from someone, as that is the easiest way for most people to “tell” you how to pronounce something – even when they can’t actually pronounce it themselves. Lots of people know the correct symbol even if what comes out of their mouths has little resemblance to it.
Also, think about learning Pinyin and getting yourself a copy of Lanbridge’s pinyin dictionary – great for listening or trying to figure out what the heck someone just said. A normal dictionary (Chinese>English) won’t help so much as you need to know which character is the first character – the Lanbridge Pinyin does everything by sound, not character, so you have a hope of finding something.
You can learn enough to come back home and impress your friends ordering at a Chinese restaruant. That’s worth something. It’s like learning a parlor trick.
It is their accent. They don’t know whether a word begins with ‘r’ or ‘l’, or give contradictory answers, because they pronounce the two the same.
To give a better example in English, try asking a few native speakers to write the phonetic symbols for ‘Don’ and ‘Dawn’, or just to pronounce them. People from some areas distinguish these two sounds; people from other areas don’t, and they won’t even be able to tell you which one is which, or will give you contradictory answers.
I know native speakers of English who can’t tell the difference between ‘pin’ and ‘pen’, and pronounce them exactly the same. Obviously, that’s an accent. The confusion between ‘s’ and ‘sh’ in some people’s Taiwanese-accented Chinese is also an accent.
[quote=“Satellite TV”]
Can’t tell the difference between pin and pen… crikey!!![/quote]
It’s actually a rather common accent in certain areas of the USA. The actor Dennis Hopper, for one example, pronounces the ‘short i’ sound and the ‘short e’ sound exactly the same.
[quote=“bababa”][quote=“Satellite TV”]
Can’t tell the difference between pin and pen… crikey!!![/quote]
It’s actually a rather common accent in certain areas of the USA. The actor Dennis Hopper, for one example, pronounces the ‘short i’ sound and the ‘short e’ sound exactly the same.[/quote]
Just goes to show that the American English phonics suck…
Bell and Ben Flower Pot Men. All teachers should watch this show.
Can’t tell the difference between pin and pen… crikey!!![/quote]
It’s easy…“Please place me the pen so I can sign this contract”…“I need a pin to hold my shirt together”
[/quote]
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