Beginning studying Chinese, seeking advice

[Brett]

Hi, a little introduction would be a appropriate. I'm 19, I live in Connecticut, USA. I'm attending the University of Connecticut and I'm majoring in Economics. I have decided to take Chinese because of China's economic growth, since there aren't many Chinese speakers in the USA outside of Chinese families. I studied French for 2 years, and Latin for 5 years. I'm looking forward to learning such a different language.

I've signed up to take Chinese this semester, and I'd like to get a jump on the studying. There's about a month until school starts. What should I learn in this next month to prepare for my class? After doing some research, it's clear that there is a lot (understatement) to learn, so where should I start? Any other words of wisdom you'd like to give a beginner?

[kudra]

This is going to sound strange, but I would get a solid grounding in pinyin and a decent start on tones. The way I did this was 2-3 hours/day with tapes for about a week using the following.

http://www.yale.edu/fep/catalog/standard1.html

INTRODUCTION TO CHINESE PRONUNCIATION AND THE PINYIN ROMANIZATION

Hugh M. Stimson

Introduces the sounds of standard Mandarin to the beginning student.

ISBN 0-88710-034-1

Pamphlet: $4.95

Audio tape: $9.95

The availability and prices are old on that FEP web site.

You're in CT. Call them up (the Yale Coop) , and run up there and see if you can get a copy of the book and the tapes. If possible have a native mandarin speaker go over it with you the 1st day. Then work on the tapes for a day, and check back with the native speaker the next day. There will be a few consonants that are different that may take a while(like several months) to get. Mainly concentrate on the tones. Go slow and careful.

All this is to innoculate yourself if that is possible, from the very probably atrocious pronunciation and lack of tones of your classmates in your intro class.

use advanced search member kudra, and keyword tones, for my complete rant on this subject.