How to learn chinese as an adult?

[adrianus]

Hi,

I come from a Malay education background.Although I'm chinese, I am used to read, write, and speak in Malay with my friends. As a result, Malay became my first languange.

I began to study Chinese seriously when I was in secondary school. But, I have difficulty to pronounce Chinese words correctly. For example, i can't distinguish between 车，这，至，迟，自，此，则。
Hence, i always have trouble in conversation. Even worse, my chinese speaking friends tend to speak English with me, may be because they feel my ?发音? difficult to understand. Hence, it's quite hard to find an opportunity to practice speaking.

Do you have any advice for me? How can I practice my pronounciation? Is there any program that can read aloud chinese words, something like Oxford Talking English Dictionary? Can I ever be fluent in Chinese?

Thanks for your advice.

Best regards,

Adrianus Thio

[Maxforce]

Well you are not alone in this.
I have only begun speaking Mandarin since Form 4.
Initially everyone laughed at me and tried to speak English or Hokkien with me but I persisted and insisted to speak Mandarin.
Today, I am still unable to write or read Mandarin but well, I could speak Mandarin that is understandable.
I listen to songs and asks for the meaning of the lyrics.
I watch Mandarin movies with subtitles.
Nothing new there

[adrianus]

Thx maxforce, at least it gave me encouragement...

Ok, so I must insist to speak mandarin. And how can I learn to write and read well also?

I admire Lee Kuan Yew, former Singapore's Prime Minister. Coming from an English and Malay speaking family, he learned Mandarin and Hokkien only when he was 19. And in several years, he managed to make wonderful speeches in Mandarin and Hokkien! And amazingly, he won the election! I wonder how Mr Lee made it. =)

Thx for all your advice.

Regards,

Adri

[balderdash]

The process will be hard, but can be done. My boyfriend studied in an international school and his Mandarin was quite bad as it wasn't a subject in school. However, due to his interest in Mando-pop, he picked up the language fairly quickly as a teenager. Though he can't completely make sense out of a Chinese book (novels, etc) nor Chinese newspapers at times, he can recognise most Chinese characters up to maybe P6 level (which IMO is sufficient!) and has no probs in the karaoke!

Jia you!!!

[jiinjoo]

If you feel that you have pronunciation problems, then try finding a friend or a group of friends to practise more often. I think speaking a language is like most skills - practise makes perfect.

Althought growing up speaking Mandarin, my family blocked me from Cantonese serials until fairly late in life, after I wetn to high school. In high school, I was forced into social circles that speaks nothing but Cantonese and everytime I utter words they will laugh non stop :)

Took me quti a while. By form 5 I was still half past 6. Came to US, made a few HK friends and continue practising. Now at least I get my Canto shows back, and I can utter phrases after them. Incessant practise makes perfect :) 加油 (tambah minyak) to you too!

[oneforthelord]

I am a banana! My Canto is half-past six, and I just learnt Mandarin after coming to Singapore. My Mandarin is still quite basic, can converse but not really very fluent cos I tend to think in English. Cannot translate sometimes :P

I think what it takes is persistence. Have to keep at it even though it's really hard. What makes it easier is immersing yourself in an environment where you hear Chinese every day. Which means asking your friends to speak Chinese to you. Jika terdapat orang dari negara Cina, bersembanglah dengan mereka. They really are the ones to teach you Chinese.

Watching TV shows also helps. If you want to learn how to read characters, I think no choice but to practice a lot until you can recognize the characters very well without having to stop and think.

[Michelle]

I've lived in London since I was born and in an English speaking background, however, I was shipped off to Kuantan for a few years when I was a few months older so I can speak and understand Hokkien.

However, my Mandarin is not existent, my Mum tried to make me learn it but I wanted to do French. BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER! I've been regretting it ever since.

Is the best way of learning it imersing yourself in the culture? Ie. shipping your arse off to Beijing or something?

[strikingstar]

Nah, you could just go for Chinese classes.

华语不难学，学好华语难。

[evening_go_jogging]

Hi,

I come from a Malay education background.Although I'm chinese, I am used to read, write, and speak in Malay with my friends. As a result, Malay became my first languange.

I began to study Chinese seriously when I was in secondary school. But, I have difficulty to pronounce Chinese words correctly. For example, i can't distinguish between 车，这，至，迟，自，此，则。
Hence, i always have trouble in conversation. Even worse, my chinese speaking friends tend to speak English with me, may be because they feel my ?发音? difficult to understand. Hence, it's quite hard to find an opportunity to practice speaking.

Do you have any advice for me? How can I practice my pronounciation? Is there any program that can read aloud chinese words, something like Oxford Talking English Dictionary? Can I ever be fluent in Chinese?

Thanks for your advice.

Best regards,

Adrianus Thio

hi, this is my 2 cents.

i think environment is the most important factor.

you should try this: speak in mandarin whenever you meet someone who can speak mandarin. forget that you can speak english and malay.
just speak in mandarin. nothing than that.

this is an advice given by my lecturer.

[white2020]

I would like to say, if u know how to speak and write in mandarin, you are like arming u a great weapon when hunting a job internationally.

Noone can deny the giant emerge of China for the past few years.

Dont touch about economics 1st if, we can see that for most of the major international games, like olympics, and so forth, CHina is one of the leading country of the medals list.

There are so many sources out there, be it newspaper or magazine around Malaysia, just go and buy and read them.

Then starts to talk in Mandarin and watch more chinese drama and movies.

These are really conventional ways but why these conventional ways still available? Because they are useful. :wink:

[ctan]

Pronounciation was the main reason why i struggled and abandoned chinese for 21 years. I finally convinced myself at 22 that I needed to learn, and thought mandarin was a good start since it had a proper pinyin system, good for english speakers like me. Classes in malaysia didn't help much, as everyone already had cantonese or hokkien under their belt and they were just eager to learn new vocab.

i on the other hand, needed an environment where i would be forced to speak, where others in my class/neighbourhood don't speak english :D i was too shy to try speaking otherwise(although adrianus i don't think you have this problem so good on you :) )! anyway, so off i went to beijing! Sink or swim! After 3 months of classes i can say it really paid off. Getting around became a breeze and i spent my 4th month travelling around China. I could even watch slow mandarin shows like raise the red lantern hehe. Well that was a year ago, and I've now become rusty tackling german since i moved to a german-speaking country).

I think the key to getting your pronounciation right might just be pinyin. Most malaysians don't know how to "spell" the word, since it is not something they need! But I am a visual person. Even with english or people's names, i need to spell it in my head to remember! :) So when i learnt mandarin, i would write out the character in my head, along with the pinyin and tone!

I suggest getting a dictionary. The "concise english-chinese chinese-english dictionary" by the commercial press & oxford university press http://www.amazon.com/Concise-English-Chinese-Chinese-English-Dictionary-Martin/dp/0195911512
is highly recommended! I've seen it in MPH. Learn the proper pinyin pronounciations in order to differentiate z, zh, s, sh, ch (try looking online.... i'll post links here if i can find them). Also Malaysians and other south east asian chinese tend to use "s" only inside of "sh", so you'll have to adapt this in the dictionary :p . Once you have the hang of the sounds (takes a while, but if can do it, you definitely can!!!), you'll be able to hear a word and pretty much guess whether it's z or zh, and just a quick check of the dictionary will confirm it. that's how i learnt :) same with the tones (just guess first and check and you might be able to remember it better since there is visual info (on paper and in head), and audio info (friend's pronounciation or from tv/music). oh and writing it out again helps too.

what i love about chinese is the simple grammar :) it makes life easier not having to learn a million different forms of verbs like with german (and english actually). it's also fun to learn the characters! (i loved this book: http://www.amazon.com/Whats-Chinese-Character-Huay-Peng/dp/7800055159)

hopefully i'll make more of an effort to practise my chinese over the next few years :D
oh one more tip: www.chinesepod.com

good luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!