Hi everyone

[Scottish Mandarin learner]

Hi everyone. My name is James Hannah and I have just recently registered on this site. I am 16 years old and I am from the UK which is in Europe. I am white/caucasian. In 2 years time i hope to study Mandarin at Edinburgh university in Scotland. It is a 4 year course and on the 3rd year I get the chance to study abroad in China at a university for a year. After I earn my degree I hope to be an Interpretor (Translator). Since my school does not teach me Mandarin I have to learn for myself just now. I do not need to learn any myself but I think it is a sensible thing to do so that when I begin the course in 2 years I will have some sort of a head start. I am aware that learning Mandarin is very difficult but I am ready for that challenge. It has been my dream. I have always admired China and its culture and everything about it. I was just wondering if anybody had any advice. I am currently learning from "Pimsleurs Mandarin Chinese" is this a wide idea? I think it helps me a lot, but if it is not that good can somebody please tell me. I will be greatly appreciate it if anybody takes the time to reply to this.[/color]

[Harpoon]

Primsleur certainly won't hurt, it will teach you how to say and understand a lot of things. It's not a comprehensive source of grammar, and of course there's nothing about written Chinese (which you'll probably be learning at your university)... maybe you should check out the Edinburgh site or other sources and see their syllabus, ie the courses and what they're going to teach during the program?

[sui.generis]

the UK ... is in Europe.

Well, that's open to interpretation...

Pimsluer is rather practical. Perhaps a nice precursor to studying in China, but if you want a nice foundation you're going to want understand the characters as well. If I had it all to start over again, I'd use Rosetta Stone after reviewing a character book like "The Most Common Chinese Radicals" that will get you the basics of characters and stroke order. Once I'd started Rosetta Stone, I'd only use the charcter interface in program (in you case, it'd be good to know whether your intended program uses simplified or traditional characters), and use the books to review pinyin only as necessary. Repeat the words/phrases/sentences with or immediately after the speaker, and use the optional repeat buttons frequently. That emulation will improve both your pronunciation and speaking patterns. You'll learn a fairly large vocab and learn it well by this method. Then use the books to practice writing the characters in each lesson using the principles you learned in the "most common chinese radicals book".

That's what I'd do. And I'd save pimsluer for after I had a nice foundation.

[Harpoon]

so sui, you dont use rosetta stone for it's immersion/image-connotation learning method, just as a source of native speaker audio coupled with characters?

[sui.generis]

so sui, you dont use rosetta stone for it's immersion/image-connotation learning method, just as a source of native speaker audio coupled with characters?

The image system is an excellent (by that I mean especially memorable) means of picking up vocabulary, but yes, one of the things I've found it most useful for is improving my speaking (I have this serious tone problem) without neglecting characters, so that I can learn not just part of a word, but the whole thing (written and spoken). It's not nearly as useful to me now as it would have been if I had started using it before my inital college courses, but if I could only go back....

[Harpoon]

is knowing the meaning of the characters important?

[nipponman]

extremely, that is the only way you are going to be able to read stuff.

nipponman

[Scottish Mandarin learner]

Hey all, I really appreciate your help, im sure it will help me, thankyou very much. You have all given me great advice

[tigerx9]

james, it is fantastic to see that you have such an incredible interest in learning another language. not only is it just about communication in chinese, but it's also the experience and discovery in a whole new world of cultural richness. with your interest and attitude towards learning chinese, i am sure you will enjoy it, and have no problems in aquiring it.

if you are going to spend a few years to study chinese, i would recommend you get a strong foundation in the essential basics of chinese. like the tones, and the character and grammar structure. once you understand these, then everything else becomes easier. u will naturally build your vocabulary knowledge as your learning progresses.

there are various resources out there, and different styles of teaching methods. pimsleur seems to be practical, helping you more with the common conversation scripts and run down on cultural info. i'm not sure about rosetta, but the impression i gather is it's more focused on the technical side of learning vocab and characters, based on repetition. and learning characters definitely is important.

i think both practical and theory are important. learning the language is also to learn the culture behind it as well. Understanding the culture helps you understand how and why the language is.

i'd say just learn and do what you enjoy most. whether u want to get started by learning about the culture and practical side of things, or get into the vocab and characters and theoretical side of things. as long as you enjoy what you're doing, and you're actually learning something, you will discover other areas that you will want to improve on.

all the best in your new journey of learning!