| How Many Members Are Learning Chinese?? | |
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| Apr 19, 2007 05:02 | #11   |
 | Christine, I think you misunderstood my point. Anyway, we pretty much agree on the difficulties of learning Putonghua. |
| Apr 19, 2007 16:19 | #12 |
| "Also, the tones are difficult for me, as English is not a tonal language, I have had (and still do have) a lot of problems with these." Yes, it is not. And it is OK. How many languages in the World are tonal? Chinese, Vietnamese, an African language and may be few others. The most of the languages in the World and even in China are not tonal, because they have enough lexical material in themselves. |
| Apr 19, 2007 16:37 | #13 |
| OK, you are pretty optimistic about it and you are satsfied by the status quo of the language. But I never met people who ask so often each other : "Which one do you mean ?" |
| Apr 19, 2007 16:40 | #14 |
| "These Chinese, be the Han or minorities, who don't speak Putonghua well have probably had less access to decent education. I'm afraid not, Chris. The fact is that Putonghua is based on northern dialect, especially Northeast China and Beijing dialects. So that's the main reason why souther people feel hard to learn. If Putonghua is based on Shanghai Hua or Cantonese, I'm sure beijing people will feel confused and frustrated while learning it." Oh, I am so happy that it is not based on Cantonese. There are 6+ tones and it is sounds like foreign language, for example Vietnamese. I think some dialects like these in Sichuan or Nanjing are much "natural" and close to Chinese. |
| Apr 19, 2007 20:09 | #15 |
| "Oh, I am so happy that it is not based on Cantonese." I totally, completely agree. |
| Apr 29, 2007 02:53 | #16 |
| i'm a teacher,i want to help you if you have any questions when learning chinese. my email:163.com|qianlili8 |
| Apr 29, 2007 02:54 | #17 |
| my tel15970429837 |
| Aug 31, 2007 06:33 | #18 |
| Hi BBQQ, I am also trying to learn to speak Mandarin in a foreign country,from Australia. I have found two wonderful Chinese teachers living in my small regional town. I have organised for a group of interested people to study together with our Chinese Teacher. The local university gives us a free room, and we use the texts of Elizabeth Schofeld and Soong Lianyi, from Oxford University-Beginners Chinese. She teaches us pinyin, pronunciaton, characters and practice listening and speaking. I have been dong this for about two years, but started using cd's orginally. I have cd lessons on all the time as i drive around in my car for practice. I figure that i spent the first half of my life learning English, so will learn one more language in the next part of my life!! |
| Sep 7, 2007 16:00 | #19 |
| I have been learning Chinese and I am finding that I can read it better than speak it. |
| Sep 8, 2007 01:00 | #20 |
| Hi again BBQQ, Yes, I study Chinese reading, writing, speaking and listening everyday! Sometimes I wonder why I continue with this, since I still cannot engage in a meaningful conversation. But, I believe when I become literate in Chinese, new windows of opportunity will appear to broaden my horizons. So, I continue to practice basics and learn new words everyday. One day you and I may meet, perhaps on Mt. Emei and I can reveal my interpretation of the beauty I find in exploring such a place. __WINDENERGY__  |
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