Improving Vocabulary and Tutors

[fanyina]

Hi! I was wondering what people were doing to increase their vocabulary. Recognition isn't the problem; it's just that when I go to speak or write, I rely on very simple, very kouyu language...Any advice??

Also, I'm looking into hiring a tutor. I'm thinking of having class four times a week, two hours each time. How do people structure their lessons? My main goal is to be able to tell stories and have conversations without stuttering and sounding TOO much like a laowai.

(merged two similar requests into one)

I'm trying to improve my vocabulary. Recognition isn't the problem; it's just when I speak and write, I rely on very simple language. Does anyone have any advice on how to improve?

Also, I'm thinking of hiring a tutor to help me improve my pronunciation, vocabulary,and grammar. Does anyone have any advice on how to structure lessons?

Thanks

Edited February 4, 2010 at 04:12 AM by chrix

[gato]

The best way to improve your vocabulary to is to read more and read more often. A good way to do that is read Chinese newspapers and magazines on a regular basis.

See threads below for some suggestions:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician3193&highlight=newspaper

Best Chinese Newspaper 最好的中文日报

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2-favourite-chinese-musician1493&highlight=newspaper

Books? Novels? or Magazines? etc

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=72814

good Chinese newspaper

[Hüsker Dü]

where are you located? if you're in beijing, check out that's mandarin. i've been taking classes there for two weeks now and i like their teaching methodology. it's based on telling stories. if you're not in beijing, they might be able to offer classes via skype.

hope this helps.

[xiaotao]

I like supplemental Chinese reading books, the kind with a list of vocabulary. If I am reading material that I had to look up characters, then I pick something that's not too hard. You can learn lots of vocabulary by reading chinese childrens books geared for Chinese speakers.

I'm an adult, I prefer to learn Chinese myself. I have my kid see a Chinese lady 3 times a week. My daughter reads aloud and the lady will explain anything that she doesn't understand. They will start off every visit with a character quiz. My daughter likes it because she's reading a book of her choice and it's fun. As an adult, I do not like one on one tutoring, I think a small group would be more interesting for adults but the tough part is finding people who are at the same level.

[xiaotao]

A dictionary with loads of Chinese and English sentences would be very helpful.

There are a couple that I know of by Tuttle and the other by Cheng and Tsui.

[fanyina]

Thanks for the great suggestions so far! I'm actually in Shanghai, so if anyone has any class suggestions, I'm wide open Husker Du, could you tell me more about That's Mandarin? How are classes structured? Do teachers just correct students as they tell stories?

[simonlaing]

I think a tutor really does help with learning the usage of words. Sometimes speaking with them and using some english words when you need them with a tutor helps. Then the tutor can suggest the words.

Also learning groups of words on a certain topic and then try to talk about the topic or describe things of events with that topic help.

I think Gato's suggestion of trying to read lots of things is quite good. Try to get topics and readings that fit your level and that you are interested. Also using pop translators like www.mdbg.net Copy and paste the chinese in and then you can read it and when you come across a weird name or new vocab word the definition just pops up at the top.

Chinese is a language where knowing a lot of words and radicalscan help a lot expicially in guessing the meanings of new words you encounter.

Good luck.

Simon:)

[Hüsker Dü]

Husker Du, could you tell me more about That's Mandarin? How are classes structured? Do teachers just correct students as they tell stories?

I've been taking classes there for two weeks. I'm enrolled as a part-time student and attend a two-hour class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. They also have an intensive program. Monday and Friday are my "story" days; Wednesday is my "grammar and translation" day.

My "story" class started something like this: The teacher drew a stick figure on the white board, asked me what it was. A man. Drew a sign. And a bus. Where is he at? The bus stop. What's he doing? Waiting for the bus. Drew a picture of a doctor's bag. What's his profession? He's a doctor. And it grew from there. During each class we review the previous lesson, e.g. me retelling the most recent part of the story. Then the teacher leads me through the next part, introducing new vocabulary and grammar. I'm also asked to come up with example sentences on the spot using the new words and grammar.

For my "grammar and translation class" the teacher starts by reviewing the previous lesson and then gives me a very short story, a paragraph or two, written in English. Then asks me to translate them on the fly.

During both classes the teachers are constantly correcting my pronunciation and tones. At the end of each class they give me a print out of that class' vocabulary and grammar, including the example sentences that I was asked to think up. They also email me an Mp3 of them reading the words and sentences.

The students don't use a textbook; the teachers do. The students don't take notes either, they listen and they talk. This suits my learning style, especially for learning a language. I've attended one-on-one classes where the teacher talks 85% of the time and expects the student to write down every word they say. I can't stand that style of teaching.

Hope this answers your questions. I'm a fan of self-study, but I also think it's important to work with someone who's going to give you feedback on your pronunciation and tones.

[Chinadoog]

With my tutor, we start each lesson by me telling her a story of what I've been doing since the last time I saw her. I prepare by writing down anything I can think of, and try to use as many of the new words and sentence structures that I've recently learned as possible. If you want to say something but don't know how to (for example, last week I told my tutor that I lost my appetite when I was sick recently, but didn't know the word for appetite) just use a dictionary. She will correct any mistakes that I make.

We also work on a textbook together (Chinese Made Easier) which has about 30 new vocab words in each unit. I also get a lot of new vocab from Chinesepod and from new words that come up when I'm talking with my tutor and Chinese friends. (I put all of these new words into ANKI)

I find that using new words isn't difficult, but using new and more complex sentence structures is. When you see your tutor, or talk with anyone in Chinese, make a point of using those new sentence structures and after using them a couple times you'll be able to easily use them whenever you want.

[eatfastnoodle]

Reading is the most important thing you need to do if you don't want to get stuck in colloquial Chinese for ever. And you need to read books that cover wide range of topics such as more traditional literature, famous poems from ancient times (you should try to build up a collection of famous poems in your head as it's not unusual to quote poems to express yourself.) and some history and culture stuff written in classical Chinese which could make you sound more cultured/polished (or pretentious if you overuse it.), also don't forget to learn some internet jargon, it's the vocabulary of generation Y, you don't want to have problem communicating with the future, right?

[Hüsker Dü]

@chinadoog:

which cme book are you using? i'm almost finished with book 3.

[Chinadoog]

I'm also using book 3.