Learning Mandarin

[kyoji]

Hello friends,

 

looking to get some opinions on learning mandarin in order to delve deeper into the dao, and potentially receive transmission from a true master. 

 

I only speak English, and a rudimentary level of French, but am quite young and have plenty of time to learn. However  I do understand this is quite the tricky language to learn. tips and tricks from anybody who started learning from age 20 and up? 

 

as of right now, I have a feeling that my teacher will be li song feng, of the five immortals temple at Wudan. It is a strong gut feeling that this is the place to go and learn. I believe he only speaks Mandarin, and this is why I am asking..

 

anything helps, my friends !! I would like to know how long it took some of you to become proficient in the language, and what steps you took to get there. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

Kyoji

[Aetherous]

See if there are classes nearby. Best way to learn is through learning from someone who speaks it, who you can eventually converse with.

[Shubin]

go to youtube and search with the key word “外国人学汉语“, so you can get a feel about speaking Chinese.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaK4ceRYQLQ

 

 

[lifeforce]

Immersion. If you can't go to China, bring China to you.

For example:

Watch TV shows in Mandarin without subtitles.

Listen to Mandarin(music, audio books etc.) as many hours of the day as possible.

Change the language on your browser/phone/tablet to Mandarin.

Learn to read/write characters.

There is a book entitled 'Remembering the Simplified Hanzi"

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Remembering-Simplified-Hanzi-Meaning-Characters/dp/0824833236

that will help with this.

There are lots of resources online, and a lot of them are free.

This is a process I intend to do with Japanese.

Good luck.

[doc benway]

15 hours ago, kyoji said:

Hello friends,

 

looking to get some opinions on learning mandarin in order to delve deeper into the dao, and potentially receive transmission from a true master. 

 

I only speak English, and a rudimentary level of French, but am quite young and have plenty of time to learn. However  I do understand this is quite the tricky language to learn. tips and tricks from anybody who started learning from age 20 and up? 

 

as of right now, I have a feeling that my teacher will be li song feng, of the five immortals temple at Wudan. It is a strong gut feeling that this is the place to go and learn. I believe he only speaks Mandarin, and this is why I am asking..

 

anything helps, my friends !! I would like to know how long it took some of you to become proficient in the language, and what steps you took to get there. 

 

Kind regards, 

 

Kyoji

 

If possible, find a residential language program in China.

https://www.gooverseas.com/blog/destinations-for-learning-chinese-abroad-on-a-budget

 

[Ant]

Hi Kiyojj, I started teaching myself Chinese nine months ago, when I first moved to Taiwan, with the long term goal to able to delve deeper into Chinese medicine and related areas. I'm in my 30s, so I spent a lot of time researching how to go about it. Nine months in I'm glad I went this way instead of enrolling in a class. Here's what has helped me:

-Watch Yoyo Chinese's youtube tutorial on tones. I found it an excellent intro, especially as she insists to only go low on the third tone, which is how it's pronounced most of the time in natural speech. Her tone combinations video is also great, as is this interactive chart, which I keep in a tab at all times if I get stuck on a pinyin sound. https://www.yoyochinese.com/chinese-learning-tools/Mandarin-Chinese-pronunciation-lesson/pinyin-chart-table

 

-Learn Pinyin thoroughly, you'll need it when checking a dictionary etc

 

-Have a look at Steve Kaufman's youtube videos, his language learning approach is great. Basically the idea is that comprehensive input is the most useful thing. Don't stress over analyzing grammar, which is what 90% of textbooks do. Research by people like Stephen Krashen suggests that reading and listening to story's is more helpful to language acquisiton than actually studying grammar explicitly. 

 

-With that in mind, sign up to something like LingQ, Chairman's Bao, Du Chinese, basically a place online where you can log in and read and listen to a vast range of material, starting at the beginner level. I use LingQ as I really like it's format, and I can import materials from other sites into it. It's just a great way to read a new language, click on a word to read the definition and hear the pronunciation, etc. LingQ has some great beginners Chinese stories. 

 

-once youve read a story or passage and you could follow along with it reasonably well, add the audio to a playlist and listen to it a LOT, on repeat. Listening is very neglected in many foreign language programs. If the speed is too fast for your ears, just relax, let it repeat as you do chores, travel, go about your day etc. Magically, your brain catches up and you start making out words here and there, and gradually, native speakers don't sound as fast as they initially did. Ollie Read's "Conversation" series is a brilliant Chinese listening course I couldn't recommend highly enough. 

 

-download Anki (digital flash card program) and browse online for a deck that will teach you Traditional Chinese characters. I found a great one called "Mastering Chinese Characters". It's helped my learn around 1000 so far, I suggest you keep an online dictionary open when you learn a new one, and follow the stroke order gif to learn how to write it. You'll forget how to write them all the time but the process helps with becoming more familiar with the character and reading it. 

 

-John Defrancis "Beginning Chinese Reader", as well as "Intermediate" and "Advanced" use an ingenious method to get you reading Chinese and hugely expand your vocab. The content is "dated", I guess, but don't let that deter you. To become comfortable and fluent with reading you need to read a vast range of material at a level you can comprehend, and this series is designed perfectly for that.

 

-Glossika is a really awesome speaking program. It has helped me immensely in making the transition from very tentatively trying to string sentences together, to enjoying conversation with Chinese friends. If you can invest 20 minutes or so of your daily study program to it, it will really pay off : )

So that's what I've done so far anyway, so I hope it's of some use. Good luck!

 

 

[Shubin]

If some one only wanted to read Chinese for delving deeper into the Dao, there are some interesting articles written by a Chinese lady. 

I translated a paragraph of her article,  炼丹那点事儿1 (Alchemy, that thing 1) with Google Translte, https://translate.google.cn, and it seems that Google did a good job. 

Here is her article #1, https://www.jianshu.com/p/1982314678b7.

    

The four paragraph of article #1 in Chinese:

原文被锁定了，说不符合规定，我删了点。

南宋江苏有个名叫霍济之的写了些丹诗，像大白话一样，很好懂。说白居易写诗后，一定要找老太太去询问，好不好听懂，那这个霍济之的金丹大道指迷頌十二首，宋朝的老太太估摸都能听懂。我给稍微讲解一下，分几次分享给大家。还是把原文附后，前面看着流畅些。

虽然这位霍先生不是很有名，可是有名的祖师爷又不肯写好懂的东西，有什么办法呢。

1，我们道家进行身体方面的修炼，主要还是有机缘得到世外高人的要诀，并照着练习。这个和佛学界的坐禅完全是两码事儿。根据这些要诀，将人体的精气神在恰当的时间点，通过松和紧两种修炼方法进行提升，等到阳气充足，元神凝固，就可以做活神仙了。

Google's treaslation: 

The original text was locked, saying that it did not meet the regulations, I deleted some points. In the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiangsu had a name called Huo Jizhi who wrote some Dan poems. Like the vernacular, it is very easy to understand. After saying that Bai Juyi wrote a poem, he must find the old lady to ask, so I can understand it. The Golden Dan Avenue of Hoji is the 12 fans, and the old lady of the Song Dynasty can understand it. I will give you a little explanation and share it with you several times. Still attached the original text, the front looked smoother. Although this Mr. Huo is not very famous, but the famous ancestors did not want to write something to understand, what is the solution? 1, our Taoist practice of physical aspects, mainly because of the organic edge of the world's best, and practice. This meditation with the Buddhist world is completely different. According to these tips, the essence of the human body is raised at the right time by the two methods of cultivation, such as loose and tight. When the yang is sufficient, the gods are solidified, and you can be a living god.

 

[Harmonious Emptiness]

Get the Duolingo app, and also the Learning Chinese (panda) app, and Pleco dictionary app (best by far).

Also good:

https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/Grammar_points_by_level

Put small stickers around your living space with character and pinyin names for things.

 

Once you've gotten somewhere with the above, find some native Mandarin speakers who want to improve their English and start a weekly language exchange meet up.

 

It's actually one of the easiest languages to learn. The only trouble is the tone issue, but when you get used to phrases you realize that you can tell the tones by recognizing the phrases/context.

 

Also, do the Yoyo Chinese course to get a grasp of the inconsistencies in how you will hear Mandarin in the real world.

[Ant]

Personally I think the sheer amount of time needed to be put into learning characters discounts it from being "one of the easiest languages" haha.. I think the tone issue seems more daunting than it needs to be, with enough listening practice the tones and tone combinations of words and phrases become second nature.. a little like how a native english speaker naturally knows the emphasis of syllables in an English word, though obviously a level harder than that.. 

 

  I also find that if I know the characters used in a new word already then I can recall and use the word much easier in conversation, , due to the logic behind the formation of much of the words.. if I only learn a word  aurally, or dont have a good grasp of the characters used in its construction, the word will slip from my mind much easier.. I haven't done a Yoyo course but I have found some of her videos to be really great, especially in grasping pinyin and tones, tone combinations etc as a beginner : ) she has a great style of teaching I think. 

[Harmonious Emptiness]

8 hours ago, Ant said:

Personally I think the sheer amount of time needed to be put into learning characters discounts it from being "one of the easiest languages" haha..

 

True, I should have clarified that I was referring to getting to a conversational level. You might not be able to read and write very well, but following the above with some enthusiasm, you can get to a very rough conversational level fairly fast. If you study full time in a class you'll probably be at about the same level, conversationally, in the same amount of time but you'll be able to read and write what you're saying as well.