Cramming it all in and fixing tones

[Lugubert]

I don't really want to hijack the thread, but do you-all have any suggestions for a retired person who does fairly decent translations of not extremely difficult texts given enough time, but just can't cram meanings of dozens of word per day and/or their characters, and who constantly makes tone errors when trying to speak.

你说话，我听不懂.

Gotta confess, too, that I'm more into learning the language as such than to use it for communication with live persons...

[lilongyue]

I don't really want to hijack the thread, but do you-all have any suggestions for a retired person who does fairly decent translations of not extremely difficult texts given enough time, but just can't cram meanings of dozens of word per day and/or their characters, and who constantly makes tone errors when trying to speak.

你说话，我听不懂.

Gotta confess, too, that I'm more into learning the language as such than to use it for communication with live persons...

This post will probably be split off into another thread, but I'll go ahead and answer before it is. Just come to China. You'll be immersed in Chinese speakers, and will have more opportunities to speak and use the language in day-to-day interactions than in your home country. If you have the foundation, then the other problems will short themselves out eventually (with effort, bad tones won't necessarily fix themselves). If you are attending a uni course, then get ready to be cramming anywhere from 20-50 new words a week. It's pretty intense, but like I said if you already have a foundation, and are able to translate simple texts, it probably won't be as difficult for you to learn as a total newbie. Also, don't expect yourself to memorize every new word and grammar rule you learn right off the bat.

[so.many.words]

Buy yourself a beautiful Fountain pen from http://www.nakaya.org/eindex.html and spend some slow time drawing your characters to perfection.

For Fountain pen info you could also visit http://www.fountainpennetwork.com ...that way you can use one hobby to fuel the other.

and a quick hint, don't buy Chinese Fountain Pens.

or

visit http://www.zhongwen.com and use the chat function, I was just there and no one uses tones at all (lazy little buggas). Careful though, there are lots of schoolgirls looking for boyfriends:roll:.