The fastest way to learn Chinese?

[ehge583]

Hello

My electrical engineering company does a lot of business with Chinese companies and I would like to begin to learn Chinese, in a fast way, so that I can improve myself here at my company. Any suggestions?

[Hofmann]

Read this. Follow links to stuff you don't understand. Assuming you're learning Mandarin, learn how Hanyu Pinyin represents sounds of speech. Read an outline of Mandarin grammar. This does well. This can help. This gives you a skeleton in which you can stick stuff. After you learn grammar, it's just a matter of building vocabulary. I recommend picking up a beginner-level university textbook and working through it (perhaps with a one-on-one teacher. Don't take a class; they're too slow). After that, it's just a matter of reading real stuff, perhaps with the help of a popup dictionary, and building vocabulary.

Also, there are plenty of resources on the internet, e.g. spaced repetition flashcard software to help you learn characters.

[renzhe]

Keep in mind that the fastest way to learn Chinese involves several years.

[Lu]

As renzhe's is an indispensible piece of advice, I'm just going to repeat it: there is no way of learning Chinese that will have you negotiating contracts within one or even two years. It takes A LOT of time.

[knadolny]

(edit to keep to the original question)

I love the process of learning Chinese, but it will take you some time. Speaking is rather easy and you can pick up that part with a good teacher.

[Glenn]

(edit because what I was replying to was deleted)

[daofeishi]

Yeah, you really shouldn't go to Europe without learning European. A guy from my high-school speaks fluent European and African. He learned it while travelling around the world and taking pictures of all those poor communist children in Darfur who don't have enough money for maps and stuff like us in the US. (Of course that was before they got rid of that Nazi Saddam.) He's too smart for college so now he's in some Chinese city teaching English. He told me that learning Chinese is real easy. Just don't bother with those tones or the grammar or those silly squiggles that those people use to write and you'll be fluent in no time just like him. Don't count on it though, that guy is just awesome, cuz, you know, once we went to some fancy bar where all the cool laowais (that is Chinese for "foreigner"!!!) hang out and he got us beer by ordering IN CHINESE!! Isn't that AWESOME?!

("Based on a true story", as they say)

(Edit: thanks for the downvote. I take it that the irony and sarcasm didn't shine through)

[KMElinda]

haha, if you mean oral chinese, maybe just a couple of months you will see your progress. of course the condition is you know the rules of pinyin system. find some chinese friends in your company and practice chinese with them. if you mean reading and writing, that will be much harder, and you need be more patient.

[WoAiJolinTsai]

You really have to immerse yourself in the language. Obviously this is not possible for most of us (due to jobs, etc)... however, you still can listen to Chinese on your iPod, review characters on your mobile phone when you have free time and basically try to work Chinese stuff into every facet of your life.

My favorite method of learning is cartoons. They are easy to understand and fun.