GreatPig
Pigs In Space
- Joined
- 9 July 2004
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I've been learning Mandarin on and off, but haven't had a lot of time to get all that far. I have tapes (which I've sampled into MP3 files now) and a book for the spoken language, and other books and dictionaries for the written language. Last time I was in Beijing I also bought a VCD language series, but have found that rather slow - although more modern than the other material (which I got in the early '80s). I've never done classes.RichKid said:
Initially the most difficult thing is the tonal system, where each syllable can have four different tonal inflections that have different meanings. The grammar itself is relatively simple. The writing is difficult of course, but not quite as bad as it may seem initially. Characters are structured from smaller radicals, which makes remembering them a little easier (although still not easy). And I think it's rather difficult to remember characters unless you also learn to write them.
Be aware that there are quite different accents of Mandarin, depending on where the speaker is from. For example, natives of Shanghai sound quite different to natives of Beijing. I think it's best to learn the stronger Beijing accent, which is more sibilant and gutteral - but probably encountered less often around here.
Also, there are traditional and simplified characters (for a relatively small subset of the characters), the latter being used in the PRC but the former just about everywhere else. The simplified ones are easier to learn of course, but don't expect to be able to recognise one from the other.
Once you've got into the language a bit, a good way to get exposure in this part of the world is to watch Chinese movies on DVD, where you can select Mandarin spoken language and also Mandarin subtitles (don't use English subtitles, as it's extremely difficult to follow the spoken language while you're trying to read English at the same time, especially when the English is often nothing like the Mandarin being spoken). They make some pretty good movies too - and some very long ones. My wife, who's Asian and can speak and read Mandarin pretty well, recently watched a series (actually made in Korea but set in China) that consisted of about 60 one hour episodes. I watched bits of it, but my Mandarin's not that good yet to follow it very well. Still, just listening to the language without understanding everything that's being said is still beneficial.
Overall, if you like languages, it's a lot of fun. I just wish I had more time...
GP