Can you advise on best approach for speed and retention?

[alannz]

Hi

 

I want to learn Chinese mainly for business and travel. So I want to quickly get a good general conversational vocabulary and be able to read.

 

I'm rather baffled at where to start. I can't really do courses during the day as I work. I'm also someone who needs a proper game plan, where I can see what I need to learn in which order in order to get to have conversations in Chinese. I'm not wanting to get exams in Chinese language. My main interests are 1) learning fundamental conversation vocabulary as fast as possible and 2) how to maintain and retain what I have learned.

 

So my question at this stage is really general advice on where I should start and how I should approach my study for my particular goals.

 

Many thanks.

 

Alan

[Shelley]

My advice to you would be:

 

1) Don't expect it to happen quickley

 

2) For the best chance to achieve what you want as quickly as is possible I suggest 1 to 1 classes in the evening, as much immersion and practice in any spare time you have ie weekends, lunchtime and evenings.

 

There are many topics on these forums about many different ways to learn.

 

Do you want to take lessons or self study?

 

I'm also someone who needs a proper game plan, where I can see what I need to learn in which order in order to get to have conversations in Chinese

 

 

Its a good idea to have game plan but its not that simple, learning things in any particular order depends on how you choose to learn and what you actually want to achieve. Conversation is a bit vague, you say its for business as well as travel. You will probably need to learn vocab specific to you business, this will take more time.

 

Have a search around the forums for lots of ideas about different ways to study and learn.

 

I hope you have success in your new adventure into learning Chinese, because it is an adventure and a journey into new and interesting experiences.

 

[Flickserve]

How quick is 'quick'? Do you have any experience of the language beforehand?

If you have learnt another language for a short time, how fast would it take for you to learn conversational for business and travel? Given that Chinese is harder, progress may be realistically be slower. Just be prepared and not disheartened if you are reaching goals slower.

I learnt French for 7 years at school but could not carry out a decent conversation at the end of it. YMMV.

[Qiaonansen]

I'm not saying this is the "best" way, but it is "a" way. I teach Chinese using Integrated Chinese. I put the whole course on Youtube with videos explaining everything. Buy the book at Amazon, start with Lesson 1 and use my videos for explanations of grammar and how to pronounce.

 

The first video is on my site below. The rest are on Youtube.

 

Best of all, it's all free, except for the book. Please buy the book. I'm afraid they might make me pull these videos. If they reach out to me, I want to be able to say that people using the videos are buying the books.

 

Good luck!!

 

http://learnchinesecafe.com/integrated-chinese-level-1-part-1-lesson-1-dialogue-1-explanation/

[makochan]

I'm assuming you already read through the pinned threads.  There's a lot of good advice there on how to get started.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/5007-some-advice-for-beginners/

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20942-learning-chinese-%E2%80%93-advice-for-the-new-and-independent-student/

 

If your time is limited because of work, but you are willing to spend money, hire some teachers or tutors locally or on Skype (like italki.com).   SpeakupChinese is giving a free intro 25min lesson.  If you're starting from scratch, get ready to dig in your heels and spend some time working on pronunciation, tones, pinyin.  

 

If you are gonna try to self-study without a teacher or tutor, there are many good resources out there.  Some already mentioned above.  Glossika is popular product among many forum members, and they have a Business Chinese product as well (http://www.glossika.com/shop/learnchinese/sku-enzh-bizintro-pkg/)  But some would say that Glossika is maybe not the easiest to try for an absolute beginner.

 

FLR is another product out there that is really focused on oral fluency right out the gates (http://www.flrmethod.com/product/mandarin-chinese-level-1/)

 

And the other usual suspects like Pimsleur, Rosetta, etc. I'm sure would expose you to a lot of conversational skills.  In the end you just need to invest the time and slowly reap the fruits of your labor.  But I do think that having a tutor or teacher is more efficient in identifying problem areas and giving you more focused practice.

 

If you want to be able to read...I wholeheartedly recommend Skritter!  The $10 a month is easily worth its weight in gold.