For those who like backstory: after a brief struggle with the enlistment process culminating in a long series of phone calls to the Surgeon General’s office, it’s official: I’m soon to be in the Delayed Entry Program for the United States Air Force. I’m signing on as a Crypto-Linguist (essentially a fancy term for “translator”), which means two years in Monterey, California undergoing intensive full-immersion study of the language of their choice. Based on my test scores, I’m practically guaranteed to be studying either Mandarin Chinese or Korean. I’ll be gunning for Chinese, as the choices of duty station for a Chinese ground linguist are preferable to me, and given the USAF’s need for Chinese speakers, my request is likely to be granted.
To that end, I’ve decided to get whatever head start I can by purchasing and beginning a Mandarin Chinese tutorial program. I’m aware that I’m unlikely to make significant progress on my own, without the assistance of a native speaker, but I’d rather have at least a small amount of experience before jumping in feet-first. If nothing else, I can use what little I do learn as a frame of reference for new concepts. Worst-case scenario, I end up studying Korean, and I know a little bit of Chinese for no real reason. I can live with that.
So…anybody know of any good Mandarin tutorial programs? Something software-based would be preferable; the visual element is very helpful to me in understanding what I’m learning. At the moment I’m not terribly concerned with learning the characters and writing system; I’d like to focus on beginning grammar, syntax and vocabulary of spoken Chinese. Thanks in advance for any recommendations.
IMHO, you really have to speak to someone who can correct you when you get something wrong. I’d been toying with various software & book-n-tape combinations, but nothing really worked. I finally found a local chinese “school” relatively cheap - $130 / semester, started by & aimed at people who’ve adopted from China. I’d suggest you look around & see if you can find something similar.
I studied Mardarin for three years in college and lived in China for a bit, too. Here’s my advice: reverse your plan. I know it’s more fun to get a feel for the language by speaking and learning some phrases, but read and writing is much, much, much harder, and requires much more effort to learn. It’s not really possible to completely divorce the speaking from the writing, of course, but I think you will be spending your time much better in getting a leg up on the reading and writing than on conversation skills.
In my experience, advancing from nothing to basic Chinese conversational skills was difficult; but after that, things fall into place pretty easily. The most difficult parts are learning to pronounce tones (software can’t help with that) and learning to hear tones (which can be helped with computers). However, for me, learning to write character number 1,200 was pretty much as difficult as learning character number 300. (I’d say the first 300 or so get drilled into you after a time, but it has been a bitch for me to remember those which aren’t simple terms like I, you, America, eat, the numbers, etc.)
Here is one program that I’ve played around with a bit that I’ve liked, and it was reasonably priced: http://www.clavisinica.com/
Good luck to you in your studies, (future) Airman Orzabal!
I’m learning Chinese at home because my wife is from PRC and I’ve tried several software packages. I find Chinese is very easy do learn to speak because the grammar is very simple, but very difficult to learn to read. I would actually recommend the book “Chinese in 10 Minutes a Day” over any software package. It’s good for learning some basic conversational Chinese, but the book is in pinyin only and doesn’t have characters for any of the words, so it’s not much help for learning to read but should be good for what you want to do.
As far as software goes, the only one I still use is called “Interactive Chinese”, which was only available in China when I got it, though it looks like it’s being imported now. It’s pretty expensive (I paid only about half that in Beijing) but very thorough.
Finally, you need a Chinese speaker to help you. Preferably a native speaker, and preferably from Hebei provence so you learn standard Mandarin without any regional accent. I also took a class at a local community college that ran 6 weeks and cost $80. That class was well worth it, it gave me enough basis in grammar that I can build upon it on my own. It also helps to reinforce what you’re learning if you can use it to talk with someone.
If you’re looking for a leg up on Montery (which really drills you), I suggest working on the listening skills. No idea on software, but even with tapes that drill on the tones and pronounciation.
For example, the pinyin for ci, si, xi, shi sounds identical to most people starting Chinese. Or qu and chu or lu and lv or the u and iu sounds. Most people only get this by drill and repetition.
If you get a handle on this before classes, it will make the beginning sooooo much easier.
Also drills where the tape says a word and you write out the pinyin. That is a skill that will help you your entire Chinese life.
Again, I’d highly recomend doing this as something you can learn via tape or software, and it will give you a running start in the classroom.
[the other extremely frustrating thing about learning Chinese, is most beginning classes have american chinese (with some home language skills) or people that speak cantonese in the class. They just “get it” and zoom along at first, while I was sitting there feeling like the dumbest guy in the world. You may not get this at Montery.