Not sure where to start

[lpa]

I have been thinking about learning Chinese for a while now and have decided that now is the time for me to start 

I've been going through the 'fun it chinese characters' series as a way for me to learn the characters however I am wondering if there is a better place for me to begin as while this helps me with learning how the characters are formed it does little to nothing when it comes to the pronunciation aspect which is something I feel is important as I'd like to able to understand the spoken language as well as written.

 

Is there anything you guys would recommend as a better starting point so I can also learn how the characters are pronounced opposed to just what they look like  

[eion_padraig]

Some background on where you live (do you have much opportunity to use Chinese on a daily basis) and how much time you see yourself spending on studying as well as your goals would be helpful to people who might give you advice.

 

Are you going to be just studying on your own, or do you have access to a Chinese teacher/tutor or Chinese speaking friend?

 

There is a free Chinese language course offered on Coursera that isn't bad. EDX also has a beginning course that will be starting on October 19th.

 

I'm a fan of the Pimsleur series as a way of working on speaking and to a lesser degree listening skills. Glossika also seems to have some promise, but both programs cost money. With either of those programs, I would suggest you get teacher to help you with basic pinyin pronunciation and work on tones. 

 

Reading/writing are separate skills and there are lots of ways of approaching that too.

 

Good luck. It's an interesting language.

 

Eion

[Shelley]

As Elon says a bit more background would help, but I would also recommend the edx course having done it.

 

I would also recommend starting with a text book series, I use New Practical Chinese Reader. It comes with textbook, workbook, audio and videos available on YouTube.

 

I have done a review of the text books and how I use them here http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/blog/108-my-chinese-learning-blog/

 

There is also a week by week review of the edx course on my blog.

 

You have made one good first move and joined Chinese Forums Welcome and I hope you enjoy your journey into learning chinese.

 

 

[lpa]

Thanks for the welcome guys I would of got back to you sooner but my windows installation decided to fail and I've only got round to rebuilding it today as a bonus my system is alot more stable 

 

In answer to your questions on abit of background

 

I am looking to learn on my own at the present moment, due to being located on the east coat of England my opportunities to use Chinese are very limited to non existent 

 

Currently my I'm looking at learning to write and then go onto reading, however the reason I'm thinking about the pronunciation of words is that I have large number of documentaries / pod casts downloaded over the past year which I was thinking about sticking the audio on a mp3 player to listen to on the way to work, during breaks etc, as a way of helping me map the words I'm writing to there sounds, while I know this will most likely do very little in terms of my learning to comprehend what I here / learning to speak  this did help when I did German at school when came to the listing aspect as there was at least some link to things I'd written to what I was hearing was in my head so there wasn't a total disconnect between the two aspects although I may be looking at this completely wrong and this my not actually be the case.

 

Although what I do know is the major difference between this and when I learnt German was I actually want to do this opposed to having no choice in the matter so I'm hoping this will make a difference 

 

Interms of how long I intend to spend on this I'm aiming for around an hour each day however to realistic there may be cases where this may be less and there may be days where I won't do any but I going to try and stick to doing a little each day.

 

I apologize for the wall of text if there is anything that's unclear let me know and I'll do my best to clarify it further 

[Shelley]

Coursera have just added Chinese Character course, I received an email today informing me it had started, but when I went and looked it seemed like I have missed the first 2 weeks, not sure what's going on there. I will send an email and ask them.

[Shelley]

I went and started a Coursera class today, Chinese for beginners , not impressed. The class was interrupted a with request for me to pay £19 for certificate, and then when I said no thanks, a new request for me to identify myself before taking a quiz, using a webcam as one of the things, I thought hey this is all too much for me. There seemed to be continual interruptions. Not at all like a an edx course.

 

I actually gave up, which is not like me i usually perceiver but it all seems too commercial, and I didn't like it. If any one has taken a Coursera class before and feels differently, let me know.

 

I would not suggest this to the OP, I would recommend the edx one.

[Flickserve]

I am sort of half half about the listening to podcasts. I agree it won't help much with comprehension. I listen to the radio in Mandarin at least 5 days a week in the car. My original objective was to help train my ear to just listening and discern the words. I think it achieved that purpose.

Even after a year, I still can't understand very much. However, the wierdest thing that happened was me suddenly hearing Arsenal and Wenger in Mandarin Chinese on a match last season. It's so wierd why I was able to recognise the names amongst all the other mandarin words. As somebody pointed out on another thread, I should be going for a podcast where I know 80% of the words for better benefit.

So, marginal benefit but not a lot of harm either. I am in the car so there is not much else I can do as an alternative. I should use listening aids better.

I also suggest getting a tutor for connecting sounds together with pronunciation. It's hard and frustrating because as adult, you feel things should be easier but it takes training. There are many stories of university students learning for a year, travelling to China on their exchange, and then getting a reality check on how much they can be understood with respect to spoken Chinese. I.e. very little because of lack of focus on speaking with correct pronunciation and tones.

[lpa]

Well it looks like I've got my starting point, I had been discussing learning Chinese with a member of my family a week or so a go and a package arrived this morning that I had no recollection of ordering turns out it was an early Christmas present from them and it contained the first textbook and workbook of the new practical Chinese reader series so I'm going to start my journey by slowly working my way through that 

[Shelley]

Thats good, I hope you enjoy your books. Remember, any questions just ask, include as much about the question as you can and any efforts you have made yourself to answer it.

 

Hope it goes well