Mandarin for non-Mandarin Chinese speakers

[Akira]

hello, i have been looking for resources for Chinese people who are not Mandarin speakers to learn Mandarin.

any books recommended? also any websites?

obviously i do not want to use books or websites that are intended for non-Chinese people learning Mandarin, that would be too funny:mrgreen:

thank you

[calibre2001]

More information on your background (which dialect spoken, can you read & write Chinese) etc would be helpful.

[trevelyan]

Why is that funny? You're looking for English-language books targetting a non-English speaking audience? Seems strange if anything.

[md1101]

im giving you the benefit of the doubt like calibre did and assume you can speak chinese... decently at least, and are looking to improve... .. maybe you could try looking up some local chinese schools (those weekend schools in most non chinese countries that teach chinese to children of chinese parents) and find out what textbooks they use. if all else fails.. then just TRY to accept that people without chinese blood do have the mental capacity to learn chinese

[heifeng]

There is a book called;*

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FCBC: For Chinese By Chinese: Teaching Chinese how to Speak Chinese in Chinese, ISBN: 38-7758-555

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So you are saying you can already read and write then? If not, and you don't want the laowai version of things in English, you have to look for stuff for Chinese little kids. You are still going to have to learn and properly pronounce pinyin, which is where us non-native speakers start too. unless you are one of those bopomofo people that isn't pro pinyin...

If you can read and write well enough than maybe you can find some books originally intended for Chinese Minority students then. They may have lessons written in Chinese about how TO speak Mandarin Chinese.

OR, why don't you check out Singapore websites, don't they have a learning mandarin campaign or somthing...

_________________________________

*FYI I'm full of crap about this book incase you couldn't tell, but the other information in this post is somewhat valid.

[YuehanHao]

Akira,

My book is called "A Primer for Advanced Beginners of Chinese," by Columbia Univ. in the U.S. In its words, it is written for "those who can communicate in Chinese orally on subjects like daily routines, although with grammatical mistakes and nonstandard pronunciation, but cannot read or write. They have had some exposure to Chinese popular culture, and they know some Chinese social conventions."

But I admit I am a non-Chinese person and found it very good for my purposes as well! Not sure what you are looking for, but you can at least consider this option if it sounds good. Best,

约翰好！

[Akira]

to all

i am a Cantonese speaker, can write and read Chinese fluently, so if i read books thats writtened for English speaking audience, it would be quite funny because the book will assume that i do not speak Chinese at all and i have to start to learn from zero lol

i am looking for books in Chinese (if possible, and preferably traditional Chinese) for Chinese speaking audience

[Jive Turkey]

Akira, where did you become literate in SMC through Cantonese? Just curious. Book shops in Hong Kong have plenty of materials that would be just what you're looking for. You might try looking at www.commercialpress.com.hk.

[Akira]

Jive Turkey:

i am literate of SMC because i was born in Hong Kong, i was in there until i was 10 years old, in schools we are taught to write SMC, i have never seriously studied Chinese, but i read lots of comic books in Chinese, i remember when i was grade 4 i had the highest score in class for Chinese paragraph composing and the teach actually praised me in front of the class lol, she told me to keep studying Chinese after i come to Canada, but unfortunately i didn't start doing that until recently i started picking up Chinese again, i would like to be extremely good in my native tongue.

so apparently i learned alot of Chinese from comic books, so even though i have stopped studying Chinese after 10 years old because i came to Canada, i am confident in my Chinese because it appears that my Chinese is still better than alot of Cantonese speakers my age or younger.

[Akira]

to all

it would be nice if i could get something like free online lessons,something i can download from the web, or books i can order online are also fine

as for books, if it comes with CDs it would definitely be great

[Jive Turkey]

You should be able to order plenty of PTH materials with CDs from the Commercial Press site I posted above.

[onebir]

I was looking at the CCTV4 'Happy China' books the other day. The come with text in (simplified) Chinese and English (which should help if the simplified chars cause confusion) and a DVD containing all the programmes.

The foreword (or somewhere) mentioned that they get lots of messages from chinese non-native mandarin speakers saying how much the program's helped their mandarin.

Cost RMB40-75 (different for different volumes)

[gato]

Try these websites

http://www.4everhost.net/9394v2/learnp/

香 港 人 學 普 通 話

http://www.ktgss.edu.hk/academic/putonghua/learnpth/

輕輕鬆鬆學普通話

Or these books

http://www.hkbookcity.com/showbook2.php?serial_no=8307

香港人學說普通話

http://www.hkbookcity.com/showbook2.php?serial_no=87164

學說普通話 (1~4冊套裝) ) (附CD)