Mastering Mandarin in Months

[kdavid]

Hello All,

I've written an ebook on learning Mandarin. I've attached it to this post.

Hopefully, some of you find it beneficial. Any feedback is welcome!

From the book:

This is an approach to language learning. It is a mentality serious students of Mandarin Chinese should adopt if they truly want to master Mandarin in months, not years.

While there are many excellent textbooks on the market today, almost all textbooks fail to teach students how to learn. My overall objective in writing this book is to share with others my approach to learning Mandarin which helped me develop oral fluency in just six months.

While casual language learners and those curious about learning Mandarin will benefit greatly from reading this book, the contents herein have been written specifically for the student who wants to learn Mandarin Chinese as quickly as possible.

Lastly, while the focus is on learning Mandarin, the techniques discussed here can be applied to learning any other language.

Mastering Mandarin in Months How to Learn Chinese in Months Not Years.pdf

[rezaf]

There are some good tips in your book but I think even the best tips can only help people to "Master Mandarin in years not in decades"

[kdavid]

There are some good tips in your book but I think even the best tips can only help people to "Master Mandarin in years not in decades"

Thanks, and I'm glad you've found the content useful.

The overall idea here is to present a mentality and attitude that can help people to attain oral fluency in a short amount of time.

Becoming as well-spoken and articulate as the most eloquent Chinese novelists certainly takes time. This text lays a foundation for achieving such goals.

[skylee]

Hi thanks for sharing. I have downloaded it and will read it later.

Could I ask how copyright works in such situation? The book is shared for free download here. But the second last paragraph of the copyright page says no reproduction, storage and transmittion in any forms without permission of the publisher. Does it mean that the publisher has now given permission to everyone to reproduce, store and transmit the book?

[kdavid]

Hi skylee,

Everyone is free to download and share as they see fit. I only ask that if someone uses these materials that they cite the source.

Thanks for asking!

[imron]

Regarding copyright, did you ask permission from wushijiao to reproduce his post from here?

[kdavid]

@imron

I didn't ask his permission, but I did cite him. This forum is also cited (many times) throughout the book.

If he'd like for me to remove it, I will. ;)

[anonymoose]

Well, I hate for it to seem I'm being critical just for the sake of being critical, I mean, the book is nicely presented, but frankly, I didn't find a lot of value in it beyond what people casually post on these forums. Without giving a point-by-point critique, here are just a couple of things that came to mind:

I don't think the 'Caroline and James' example fairly reflects reality. I understand that you want to attract people to Harbin, and that's fair enough, but your example is inaccurate and lacks objectivity. I've not been to Harbin, but have lived in both Dalian and Shanghai, and really, environmental factors (such as quantity of foreigners, local dialect and so on) have minimal influence on one's ability to learn Chinese when compared with personal study habits and lifestyle (which, in your example, you have stated are similar for Caroline and James).

If you are in a village where you are the only foreigner, or one of only two or three, it may make a difference. But quoting the relatively smaller number of foreigners in cities such as Harbin as compared with Shanghai as an advantage is misleading, because even if there are one hundred times more foreigners in Shanghai than Harbin, it doesn't mean you'll have one hundred times more exposure to them. Essentially, if you are the kind of person who likes to hang out in bars frequented by foreigners, then you'll be surrounded by foreigners whichever city you are in. (The only difference is that you'll have more choice in Shanghai.) If you are the kind of person who likes to hang out with your foreign classmates, then you'll be surrounded by foreigners whichever university you go to. From my own experience, I have not encountered any more inevitable exposure to foreigners in Shanghai than second-tier cities in China.

There will also be fewer locals pressuring her into speaking English.

Actually, from my experience, I think that it is the opposite. Being in a city full of foreigners, such as Shanghai, as a foreigner, you don't stand out so much as a target. On the other hand, in cities with fewer foreigners, you are much more of a target for people wanting to practice English on you (as well as have their photo taken with you, and so on).

In Shanghai, many locals do not pronounce words ending in -g correctly, often times negating [sic] to pronounce the -g sound. For example, the word for "class" or "course", kecheng is often pronounced kechen.

The thrust of what you are trying to say is true. Nevertheless, the details are inaccurate. In Shanghainese, there is no -n or -ng ending as in Mandarin. Rather, there is a kind of intermediate sound -ŋ to which both the Mandarin -n and -ng are merged. Anyway, that's just a minor detail, but significantly, not everyone in Shanghai is a Shanghai native. In terms of teaching staff at universities, most are from outside Shanghai. The advantage of Shanghai is that you are much more likely to gain exposure to accents from all over China. The problem with experiencing only "standard" Mandarin is that you will suddenly be flummoxed when you encounter someone from the provinces.

I only skimmed through the headings of the remainder of the booklet. Maybe I missed some essential details, but I didn't see anything that could justify claiming to master Chinese in months rather than years. Maybe newbies will find some of the content of benefit, but for something presented so nicely, the content was rather disappointing. (To be fair, though, I haven't seen any other books with convincing techniques for 'mastering' Chinese in 7 days, 6 months, or other unrealistically short timeframes.)

[xuefang]

I just read the e-book and think it's useful for beginners or people who are thinking of studying Chinese. For me it didn't really offer anything new, but that's understandable because I'm not a beginner anymore.

[abcdefg]

Not bad. Thanks. Should be useful to those just starting out.

It reminds me some of "Stealth Chinese" that sold for $49.97 three or four years ago. http://www.stealthchinese.com/book.html

I will confess, to my chagrin, that every time I read or re-read one of these beginner-advice books on "how to learn Chinese" I find something I can still use. Usually something I once knew, but then forgot.

[wrbt]

I think even the best tips can only help people to "Master Mandarin in years not in decades"

I'd agree with this.

I realize the goal isn't mass-marketing of a book but seeing any title talking about mastering Mandarin in months I'd immediately dismiss it as claiming the impossible.

[Hofmann]

What does "mastery" mean to you?

If it's what it means to me, mastering Mandarin in months is possible, but extremely difficult, sacrificing a lot, and that's if you're pretty smart. And most people aren't pretty smart.

[imron]

Absolutely possible. If you work hard, then you too can master Mandarin within 120 months

[gato]

Oh, Hoffman.

[kala]

I read the book in one go, thanks!

As a Chinese major (who's finished all the language courses already) I felt there were good tips on study technique and the overall attitude in approaching Chinese. In my uni there was never any mention of different study methods (besides going to a class) - and frankly, many of my fellow students didn't know much in that respect. I wish I had read your book when I first started though

[zhouhaochen]

I was just about to read it, when I saw that it is supposed to teach you "Mandarin in months not years".

Anyone book that claims that, immediately becomes untrustworthy to me

[BrandeX]

@zhou The book doesn't teach you Mandarin at all. It teaches you learning techniques.

Hi skylee,

Everyone is free to download and share as they see fit. I only ask that if someone uses these materials that they cite the source.

Thanks for asking!

@kdavid I recommend adding the appropriate CC license tag into your copyright page of the pdf over the current text, it is far more clear and defined.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

[kdavid]

The positive feedback is much appreciated. Also, a big thanks to all for the constructive criticism thus far.

As a Chinese major (who's finished all the language courses already) I felt there were good tips on study technique and the overall attitude in approaching Chinese. In my uni there was never any mention of different study methods (besides going to a class) - and frankly, many of my fellow students didn't know much in that respect. I wish I had read your book when I first started though

This was one of the main motivations for writing the book. One of the great ironies of institutionalized education is that more often than not we fail to learn how to learn. Hopefully the techniques herein can help guide some people in their language learning.

[wushijiao]

I just saw this post...looks like an excellent resource! I agree with most of the points.

I'll recommend the book to my friends who want to learn Chinese but don't know where to get started!

[roddy]

Of course Wushijiao, you wrote the most useful parts.