How to increase Chinese skills, with existing background?

[dpanman]

Hi,

I'm Chinese. I was born in China, and lived completely in the system until I was 8, for up to a 1st grade Chinese education.

Then my family moved to the U.S. Since then, I have always spoken Chinese fluently at home with my parents, but gradually English vocab and grammar creeped in. Took some Chinese school, so that might have gotten me to a 2nd or 3rd grade level

So now, 10 years later, I'm interested in catching up on Chinese again, as I am going back to China this summer. My situation is that I have a pretty solid foundation in the language, good understanding, and can easily make conversation at home, but I know I do not sound, well, very educated. Sometimes vocab is hard to find, or sentence structure is obviously tainted by English.

Is there any method you would recommend for my situation? I don't want to give the impression that I'm "just another ABC." I tried looking online, but only found lessons for beginners, which were too basic, or advanced reading material, which is not what I'm looking for (I would like to improve reading/writing skills too, but that I realize is a much longer term project).

Thanks!

Dan

[doumeizhen]

If you are concerned about how you *sound* I would recommend some targeted tv-watching on sophisticated subject matters, like documentaries, reports, etc. Having them on hand would be great for pausing, rehearsing, but you can watch some here. I find that just watching them once gives me a chance to write downt things that are new or sound smart, and I'll remember them from that. Sadly, I have a bit of a thing for actor/model Hu Bing and what I learn in his shows does not make me sound smart... The point being, however, is that watching tv lets you read and listen to the natural flow of the language, and since your comprehension is high already, you can just write down new words and learn those.*

Reading is tricky; I don't think any of us can judge what your level is like with your particular background. Maybe find some pieces online and run them through the adsotrans machine (you can find a link at newsinchinese.com) and read them in Chinese, with a little bit of support from the pop-up windows. Doing this, as opposed to reading the news alone, lets you work on material that is right for you.

*I left Germany when I was 11 and haven't spoken much since, and I can watch tv/converse with only occasional uses of 'ge-sandwiched-es deutsch.

[gato]

I posted about your exact topic a little while ago, so have a look.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/7389-learning-chinese-for-abcs&highlight=vocabulary

I have a similar story, but I was in sixth grade when I went to the U.S., and so I had a deeper background before I started relearning Chinese again. If you're motivated and put in the time, you will see very quick improvements.