Ways of learning Mandarin

True! Thanks.

I plan to do just that!

My Chinese standard is now above schooling and courses so I know what I need to do for fluency in listening and speaking. As for reading and writing that’ll be later.

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Thanks a lot guys for sharing your ways to learn Mandarin!!

PM sent

This was the first thread that showed up in a search of keyword ‘learning Mandarin’. So post goes here.

I recommend the below intermediate level Taiwanese Mandarin podcast. Each episode is completely in Mandarin. Audio is fully transcribed (!), with hover over translations which even work on a mobile phone. Professional recording mic setup, no ear splitting laughter or shrieking that you get on some of these podcasts. I think it is an excellent resource.

Latest episode:
https://lear-taiwanese-mandarin.webnode.tw/l/39-新聞:缺水、停電、疫情/

Buy her a virtual coffee if you find it useful.

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@bdog, thanks, I didn’t know that podcast.

I recommend Talk Taiwanese Mandarin with Abby:

https://talktaiwanesemandarin.com

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This site, paired with a firefox add on like Perapera to check meanings, makes composing Mandarin from pinyin a very pleasant experience.

https://www.pinyinput.com/?lang=en

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This is actually quite good, thank you. I found it better to skip straight to her youtube channel. Good mike and sound quality, speaks clearly, a huge amount of material, just an excellent resource. She does private lessons too.

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Italki. Find a good teacher, and start cracking. Mandarin will be hard for people whose first language is English. The US Department of State says so: Languages

But if Chinese people can learn English, there’s no reason to believe the opposite isn’t true. It will take a while, but it will be worth it.

Gujarati is easier than Mandarin. There you go…

For English speaking people. Don’t forget that part. The opposite is also true, English is easier to learn for people who speak Gujarati than it is for people who speak any of the East Asian languages. Your starting point matters …

Gujarati is a proto European language so for sure it’s easier for big noses.

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Proto Indo-European? A lot of challenging for native English speakers to learn languages are Proto Indo European…

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I just mean it’s connected to all the other European languages. So less foreign than Chinese.

Well the context is there. You linked an information source for Americans, who, er, speak English.

Anyway the links I provided are more intermediate level, intended for people who are quite a few years down the road. Thanks for the encouragement anyway.

Well in my defense, my experience has been that a lot of people would read what they want to read, so things get taken out of context.

I’ve posted that link in a couple of language forums, and inevitably there would be people saying things like: “that ranking can’t be true, my language is the hardest, etc, etc”

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Simplified chengyu wordle. https://cy.surprising.studio/. Also bryony.dev | 猜成语 - Chengyu guessing game.

Has anyone seen a traditional version?

In a recent podcast the host plays an excerpt from what is referred to as a ‘Talk show’, it sounds from the description what I would call ‘standup comedy’. 53. 看talk show學中文:手和腳的相關用法 :: Learn Taiwanese Mandarin. Even after learning all the requisite vocabulary used in the comedy act, including Mandarin pop song references, and a 文言文 reference, it really is tough going. Doesn’t help that the audience sound jacked up on nitrous oxide and appear to be laughing every time the performer opens his mouth.

I don’t know if this has been posted, but I find Easy Languages to be a really fun channel. For the most part, they just go out on the street and ask people questions, but sometimes they make culture videos that are nice tidbits to keep in mind (as opposed to “you foreigners don’t understand our superior culture”, which I’m so tired of seeing…). Subtitled in trad. Chinese, pinyin, and English.

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There’s a classic one in there. A guy from HK who is asked about Taiwan, who is debatably not terribly overjoyed to be here! At about 2:55.

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The old man was stumped, maybe too much cleavage for him to handle.

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