My Mandarin course is about to end...

[Rrina]

...and I think I'll have to continue studying by myself, because I'd love to be able to speak and read Chinese. Is there somebody else here who went from classes to learning by Internet/books/etc.? How did you manage?

Also, I wonder how good a level of Chinese you can achieve by yourself in the U.S., because I certainly won't be able to travel to China to study.

I thought of trying to form a study group with some people in my class but it doesn't look as if anyone is too interested in that. So once again, any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks!

[HashiriKata]

If you've already got some foundation, I don't think you should have any real problems with teaching yourself. The biggest problem you might experience is to keep yourself motivated and to keep it going.

how good a level of Chinese you can achieve by yourself in the U.S

As good as you want it to be. With modesty, I'd say I'm not ashamed of the level of my (self-taught) Chinese. (Of course, being from the UK instead of the US might have helped me, as we're superior! )

[YuehanHao]

Rrina,

I agree with HashiriKata's position. Like him, I have similarly never taken classes in Chinese, although (unfortunately, it seems) I am like you in being an American.

Between books and the internet, there are so many resources out there these days, it is staggering. In acting as my own teacher, my strategy was to focus on aspects of Chinese that I loved the best. I chose a book that taught about cultural history, began listening to historical Chinese music, and did some study of character etymologies. Through this strategy, studying did not seem like a burden, and I feel my progress has been very steady.

If your main interest is in speaking and conversation, it is obviously tougher to be on one's own. It sounds as if there are no native speakers or fellow students for you to work with, but there are still many sound files on the internet, tapes, etc., which can help provide a foundation for you to become a good conversationalist in Chinese when you have the opportunity to interact with Chinese speakers.

So I would say go for it.

约翰好！

[wrbt]

Count me as another self-study student in here in the US.

Like you I started out in a formal setting (in my case local college) and when finished pressed on alone, and to be honest found my pace really picked up. I'm glad I started in the class because I received good feedback on pronunciation and grounding in pinyin but I believe a motivated self-learner can make much faster progress than from taking a few classes a week in the United States.

What level are you right now? You'll probably find plenty of helpful suggestions on study materials others in this forum but understanding where you are is a good starting point for recommendations.

[Rrina]

Thanks HashiriKata, YuehanHao and wrbt for the encouraging words...

What level are you right now?

I'm very much a beginner; this was just a two month once-a-week class and my first time ever studying Chinese.

I feel we learned a lot, though. Our materials are all in English, pinyin, trad. characters and bopomofo, so at least we got to see the different systems. We got a basic explanation on characters and a lot of reading aloud together. We learned a lot of 'daily life' kind of sentences, with tons of vocabulary, it's impossible to remember it all yet. We also learned a little tiny bit of the formalities on the structure of the language, but I've been supplementing that with the Schaum's grammar book and with Spoken Standard Chinese (Stimson). And the Net, of course.

There are Chinese speakers around here, and I even have a colleague who understands the language and corrects me on some things. So in truth I'm not lacking resources.

But I wonder if some people are better suited to learn in class and others manage better by themselves, and I've been a bit worried I might be in the first group.

[kudra]

and with Spoken Standard Chinese (Stimson)

Hey! finally someone else who has used Spoken Standard Chinese. I really liked the grammar explanations in that book. If you get through it(I assume you are using SSC I), and want to work on SSC II, I have converted the vocab and conversations from my copy of the tapes, to mp3. PM me if you are interested. If/when you get through SSC II, you should be ready to start on David and Helen in China for which there is good audio and supporting materials online, including recently online quizes. Of course all that is quite bit down the road and you might not take that path.

If you think you need a class, you might see if you could hire the teacher you had to continue tutoring you. Then you have the pressure to prepare on a set schedule, and an authority figure to tell you the gospel Truth -- which is what I like about class situations, when the teachers are good.

[Rrina]

Yes, so far I like SSC very much. I just sent you a pm, Kudra. Thanks. I'm a bit shy to ask my teacher for tutoring, but I will.

[Hero Doug]

You don't need to go to China to speak with Chinese people.

http://www.polyglot-learn-language.com/ has all the Chinese people you'll need. Just be strict and don't fall into English conversations. A rule like 10 minutes English 10 minutes Chinese keeps it fair.