Is it possible to teach yourself chinese?

[bureiku]

with Fsi, Pimsleur, reading and daily interaction with mandarin speaking people?

[gougou]

You can teach yourself anything.

See this thread with advice for beginners - it has plenty of helpful recommendations.

[self-taught-mba]

I think so. I was mostly self-taught. The listening will take a while to catch up though once you get in-country.

But you should have someone at least make sure your pronunciation/pinyin is good at the very start. From then the vocab building can take you to an intermediate level on your own. (except the listening - but there are podcasts etc for that)

[volga_volga]

I also self-study - with exception of two hours total that I spent with a teacher (who decided to concentrate on my tones) I have only used books, internet and my trips to China for practice, and had no teacher. It's been over half year already and I managed to survive in China for two months in summer (almost no communication in English - mainly in Chinese and sign language).

I must add, however, that you should have some background in language learning, ie if it's your first foreign language you should study first 'how to learn a language' and understand what works and what doesn't. Or, you can find it out experimentally.

Regarding pronunciation, I woudn't worry too much (I may be wrong!! only MHO) - I have mainly spent time in Yunnan/Tibet/Qinghai and practiced my putonghua over there, with people for whom putonghua is essentially a second language too (after the tibetan or whatever thier local dialect of Chinese is). I won't have cool Beijing accent but I managed to get myself understood in these places, and understand people there - even thought their pronunciation may differ from the standard.

[lilongyue]

I have friends who are self-taught, and they get around just fine. One of them spent his first couple of years in southern China, where most people speak Cantonese. The locals Mandarin wasn't very good, so he didn't focus on tones much. The end result was that after moving farther up north, where Mandarin is more widely used, he discovered his pronunciation was terrible. But look at it this way, what is easier 1) to work on remembering the tones for words as you're learning them, say in groups of ten, or 2) waiting until you've already learned several words, and then trying to go back and "re-learn" them, with tones? Most people I know never get around to going back and re-learning the words they already know. Also, most of the self-taught Chinese speakers I know never learn how to read and write. I personally only know one person who is self-taught and can not only speak, but can also read and write. I'm sure there are others. Reading and writing Chinese is rather difficult. It takes much more time than learning how to speak.

I started out learning bits and pieces of Chinese from friends and my girlfriend. Less than a year ago I began studying in Zhejiang University. I've already surpassed all my self-taught friends in vocabulary, pronunciation, and reading and writing. Yes, you can teach yourself anything. In fact, I believe all learning is essentially self-teaching. I use my classes at the University to help push me in my studies. However, the one area where I believe having a teacher is essential is grammar. I think teaching yourself grammar is very difficult. You also need someone with experience to teach you grammar. Chinese, just like your average English speaker, can't really teach you the grammar of their own language (what the rules actually are, and the exceptions, etc.). I also find the interaction with a teacher invaluable - being able to ask questions, and get clear answers, until you're satisfied and really understand how to use the new bit of grammar you've just learned.

[self-taught-mba]

Well, you can teach yourself anything if you have the right materials. I think self-taught is possible up to a point. There aren't the books out there that will contain everything you need to know. (especially, if you are out of China) I think having a teacher or outside help at the very beginning is almost necessary to ensure you are getting a good base. From there you can self-develop to a good intermediate level on your own.

Having a teacher/system helps but the responsibility is up to the individual. At our school we use a lot of the tools and resources many self-taught people use. We just save the students the trouble of finding them and learning to use them. Self-teaching can really work, but often you will waste a lot of time before you figure something out. You found the forums so that is a great start though! Forums like these can help you from that wasted time.

[volga_volga]

Also, most of the self-taught Chinese speakers I know never learn how to read and write. ...Reading and writing Chinese is rather difficult. It takes much more time than learning how to speak.

I think reading and writing are the two areas where self-study is the most appropriate... no need for a teacher to correct your tones/explain grammar etc. AND it takes awful lot of time to study! the reason why your friends didn't learn it is probably because they decided against it and had no teacher to demand them to learn hanzi

as for the grammar, I agree it's the most difficult area for me to study without a teacher. my Chinese friends are hopeless thankfully, the Chinese grammar is not as complicated as some of the other languages

[sthubbar]

The people that I know that speak Chinese the best are mostly self-taught. Check out www.alljapaneseallthetime.com.

[muyongshi]

That tends to be because they are more motivated. Now if you put those same people in an optimal environment with a teacher as well and added on their motivation you get damn near perfect.

[self-taught-mba]

Part of it is more than motivation: they learn what they need to learn as they go, and they learn what's important to them.