If my awful Chinese can get any better....

[chinonononozu]

Hi I'm new here and looking for ways to improve my chinese. Holland is the place where i live since little. I lived in China for a year when i was 8 years old and at school i had pretty much 80+ score on any test. But after a week when i came back to holland and went to a saturday chinese school my chinese became worse and worse..... i only learnt simplified chinese in china but this school teaches Traditional. I became more and more confused.

I'm 16 years now and really wish to revive my chinese skills again. The things i lack are reading writing skills and vocabulary. Conversations are pretty much ok since i do it everyday but the lack of knowing some complicated words sucks.

I just hate it when i'm reading a chinese sentence and I only know 50% of the characters I'm reading. I only know Cantonese Hakka and Xinhui dialects (thank god my family tree spreads across guangdong) and I know Dutch and English too but that's not the point right now.

Anyway I hope this forum can help me through this and looks like many people here can help me out as well. So I'm looking forward to get off my lazy ass and actually do something about my incomplete chinese skills.

[Quest]

Get an electronic dictionary and start getting your daily news in Chinese.

[mesuper]

I suppose there are many Chinese studying or working around you, find one and try to make friends with him/her; Frankly speaking, Chinese are hospital to friends, if you are their friends, they will spare no effort to help you in all aspects.

I know learning by oneself is a hard thing, I am learning Korean now, I can tell you from my own experience, if you do something wrong and someone points it out for you, you will make progress in a short time. I have a friend who can speak Korean, when something turns me down, I usually turn to her for help, the problems become a piece of cake in her hand while for me like mission impossible.

Another advice, make some friends using Skype, I believe, those who use Skype in China, are proficient in English. When you have problems with Chinese, you can talk to them with english.

Good Luck

[naturegirl]

I'm a bit confused? You are of Chinese origin, right? And do you speak Mandarin? Cause when you make friends online to practice speaking Mandarin is probably important.

Or another good idea is start writing diary in Chinese or read novels you really like. Or start out with Mangas. Anyway, I'm about your age and also grew up abroad. I'd be happy if you contact me

[gato]

Conversations are pretty much ok since i do it everyday but the lack of knowing some complicated words sucks. I only know Cantonese Hakka and Xinhui dialects (thank god my family tree spreads across guangdong)

Do you mean you don't speak any Mandarin? What do they use in Saturday Chinese school?

I just hate it when i'm reading a chinese sentence and I only know 50% of the characters I'm reading.

Yeah, read your news through popjisyo everyday from now on.

http://www.popjisyo.com/WebHint/AddHint.aspx?d=8&e=GB2312&r=e&s=0&du=&u=http%3a%2f%2fcn.news.yahoo.com%2f

[Lu]

Try reading something you're interested in. Look up the characters and words you don't know, start with 10-20 or so new words per week. Find out what they mean, and how exactly to write them (use a dictionary or ask someone, maybe your parents or a teacher at the Chinese school). Then study them until you know them. Then start all over again with the next 10-20 words.

Sukses!