What would your advice be based on my situation?

[heatherpeter]

My wife and I want to become conversationally fluent in Mandarin as efficiently as possible. Here is our scenario:

I speak English and Spanish fluently (picked up Spanish while living in Chile for 20 months, out talking to people every day) and my wife speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese fluently.

We are looking to come up with the best structure possible to aid us in our learning. We are not interested at this point in focusing on reading and writing, we just want to achieve what I would call conversational fluency, being understood and able to understand with relative ease. 

Some of our advantages is that we’ve learned languages before, I work from home, and that my wife and I have each other. We can dedicate a good amount of time each day to this. I would love to be all in and just stop doing English completely, but we have 2 small children so we’ll be speaking English a little bit!

I love languages and have looked into Mandarin before, so I have a general concept of how tones and pin yin work, but we’re basically starting from scratch. I've looked at many options such as Pimsleur, FluentU, ChinesePod, but I really would like input from people who have experience already.

How would you recommend we structure our learning? Any and all advice is very much appreciated.

[edelweis]

Well, the most efficient would be to get a teacher...

 

Self-study from scratch is great when you are not in a hurry/don't care about getting bad habits/don't care about having to relearn stuff you thought you already knew. I mostly self-study. After 6 years I still can't have a conversation in Chinese. However it's true that I prefer reading to conversation. Well, I can read a little. I can't produce a meaningful sentence though.

 

If you want a pinyin textbook with many tapes (well, MP3s now) you can search the forum for "FSI". Although it is a bit old, so no modern vocabulary (internet, computers). But it has explanations and exercises.

 

PS: experience with Spanish/Portuguese might not be as great a help as you might think. Chinese is quite different.

PPS: although I have no experience with Pimsleur, it is said to be still very basic level Chinese. Again you can search the forum for previous threads about it.

[889]

You don't say where you are, but there are enough Chinese immigrants in the West these days that finding a tutor should not be difficult. Finding someone who's trained in teaching foreigners Chinese is another matter, though. Put a lot of time into finding the right tutors -- best to have at least two, maybe three on different days of the week -- and don't be shy about ending the relationship if it's not providing the value you need. Avoid tutors with southern Chinese accents; best to find people from Beijing or thereabouts

 

I'd probably ask the Chinese department of a large local university for some names of tutors. Failing that, you can explore message board posts at supermarkets and such in your local Chinese community; tutors are commonly hired by parents to keep their children in touch with their Chinese heritage.

 

For self-study, look at the ancient DeFrancis series. It is somewhat dated in a few respects, but it's very comprehensive, especially if you use the drills.

 

As an aside, if you look through back posts here you'll find much disparagement of the "No characters! I just want to speak!" approach.

 

Finally, I'm not sure you appreciate at this stage the effort and difficulty involved in reaching "conversational fluency" in Chinese, particularly if you're not in China. Just how many Chinese speakers here think they can be understood and can understand with "relative ease"?

[Flickserve]

I have been learning for nearly a year. I can do some basic conversation.

I listen to the radio for half an hour almost everyday of the week and I still can not understand the subject of what is being spoken. However, what words I can say are more accurately reproduced than compared with other learners of Chinese.

I would say you need a tutor(s) for your aim of efficiency.

[ChTTay]

If moving to China isn't an option ...

Then, as above, I'd find a good teacher Or two and take intensive lessons. Combine textbook study with graded readers, Chinese music and TV. Perhaps find language partners either in person or on Skype. Plug your vocabulary into Pleco flashcards (paid for) to help reviewing.

When I last looked at private lessons it was pretty expensive per hour. That was in the UK a few years a go. If you have a lot of lessons the costs will add up.

As 889 alludes to, i'd think twice before ruling out characters.

 

Edit/P.S.

 

I forgot that I actually started learning Chinese only spoken and with Pinyin. At first it was okay as we were just drilling pinyin so much and going over absolute basics. After the first 5 to 10 lessons I just didn't like doing it that way. I felt like I was standing on one leg or in a house without any foundations. I got a copy of Integrated Chinese while I was visiting the U.S. and felt way better. Prior to that we were just floating through stuff.

[Shelley]

I don't think you can or should ignore reading and writing, as 889 says there is much discussion on learning just to speak.

 

You are going to have to learn to read to be able to learn to speak, you will need to use textbooks and these will at best be only in pinyin but usually includes characters, unless of course you are going to get a teacher in person or online who will just teach you the sounds of the language.

 

I think you will find it very difficult to understand how the language works with out being able to read.

 

Writing is an option, again there are many discussions on whether  to write characters or not.

 

Learning to just speak Chinese is not as viable a proposition as learning other languages like Spanish, French, etc.

 

IMHO learning Chinese is not just about being able to communicate, there is so much to learn about the history, culture and the people of china, and more by learning the language, reading and writing, speaking and listening included.

[Flickserve]

@Shelley, the OP isn't ignoring written Chinese, only that it is it not a priority. I interpret that as meaning picking up a few words here and there to assist learning. But, not to get uptight if he doesn't read or write in the process of learning conversation.

There are quite a number of overseas Chinese who can be conversational (basic) but not read Chinese. My own brother is one of them. One of my contemporaries admitted he can't read Chinese but his spoken Cantonese is better than mine. This after 15+ years in Hong Kong. Many of the British Chinese are quite surprised when I say I can read an estimated 600-800 characters. I consider this is a rather modest number myself.

IMHO, learning about Chinese culture is rather overrated for a beginner. I'd rather function pretty well in basic conversation first, thereafter go on to topics about culture.

[Shelley]

@Flickserve I understand what you are saying, I just feel, in my humble opinion, if you are going to learn why not learn as much as possible. The OP said they enjoyed learning languages so I just feel they might enjoy taking on the whole experience.

[Shelley]

I have just started this course from edx.

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/48842-edex-course-chinese-language-learn-basic-mandarin/#comment-375280

 

I think it might suitable for your situation.

[Flickserve]

@Flickserve I understand what you are saying, I just feel, in my humble opinion, if you are going to learn why not learn as much as possible. The OP said they enjoyed learning languages so I just feel they might enjoy taking on the whole experience.

Why not learn as much as possible? It depends on the individual's priorities. Here, it is to carry out a decent conversation as efficiently as possible. If spending a large proportion of time on characters aids this, fair enough.

[ChTTay]

Personally, I found it hard to get to grips with grammar and sentence structure without going into characters. Also, once you get a good number of words, using pinyin becomes horrifically messy.

Equally, once you get beyond the absolute basic textbooks you'll encounter Chinese only texts. Something like Glossika mass sentences also includes the ability to write or recognise characters in the program.

I guess something like Plimsleur would be a way to just look at speaking/listening.

If I've read your post correctly, you are an overseas Chinese. That situation and someone looking to start from scratch, without that background, seems quite different. No?