Off topic: Teaching Chinese to Europeans
Thread poster: italia
italia
italia  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Italian to German
+ ...
Jun 26, 2005

Dear fellow Chinese Prozians and all others who have studied Chinese. Could you give me a hint how to best study it? My husband and I recently stated picking up fixed phrases and our Chinese instructor keeps on bringing in cards aimed at Chinese children, which I repute very helpful but still I have big problems in pronunciation. Right now my main concern is really to be able to make the correct accents heard when talking as I don't want to risk making embarrassing blunders:)))Yes, I know it... See more
Dear fellow Chinese Prozians and all others who have studied Chinese. Could you give me a hint how to best study it? My husband and I recently stated picking up fixed phrases and our Chinese instructor keeps on bringing in cards aimed at Chinese children, which I repute very helpful but still I have big problems in pronunciation. Right now my main concern is really to be able to make the correct accents heard when talking as I don't want to risk making embarrassing blunders:)))Yes, I know it will take me ages to get them right:)))
Can you give me some tips on useful audio materials???? (especially CDs and books)
Looking forward to your coments:)))
TIA
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XiaoRan
XiaoRan
Local time: 19:09
English to Chinese
+ ...
Do you want..? Jun 26, 2005

Do you want Chinese teaching materials?
I have some videos for Chinese children. But I don't know wheather it helps or not for non-native Chinese learner.


 
Stefanie Sendelbach
Stefanie Sendelbach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
Practice with your teacher Jun 26, 2005

italia wrote:
Right now my main concern is really to be able to make the correct accents heard when talking as I don't want to risk making embarrassing blunders:)))Yes, I know it will take me ages to get them right:)))
Can you give me some tips on useful audio materials???? (especially CDs and books)
Looking forward to your coments:)))



Hi Italia,

Welcome to the world of Chinese

Chinese is a very special language to learn. Interesting, logical and with a beautiful writing system. It is a good idea to focus on good pronunciation first.

I suggest you practice this with your Chinese teacher. S/he is native Chinese, right? S/he will be best in teaching you the correct way of pronouncing Chinese. Make sure you have a few minutes within each teaching lesson that you spend concentrating only on pronunciation exercises. Try to pronounce as clearly and slowly as possible in the beginning.

Besides practicing with your teacher, I suggest you listen to other native Chinese speakers, for example with songs or stories recorded on CDs. You can get a lot of those in China. Maybe you would like to start with something for smaller kids. These should be spoken quite slowly and clearly. If you do not have a chance to get original material from China, maybe you can try to get Chinese songs from the internet. Try imitating what you hear.

There is the perception that one can only learn correct pronunciation of a foreign language if one has heard and spoken the foreign sounds before the age of 14. I don't write this to discourage you from practicing and trying, but studying proper Chinese as a Western learner can be a difficult thing, especially if you are not able/willing to invest lots of time. On the other hand, it is not impossible to learn Chinese.

I saw on your profile that you took part in a course at FASK in Germersheim. They offer Chinese courses with varying focus points. Maybe you'd like to look into this (www.fask.uni-mainz.de).

Maybe you can try to get in contact with other native Chinese speakers. I know many here in Germany who are interested in language exchanges.

Good luck,
Stefanie


 
Stefanie Sendelbach
Stefanie Sendelbach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
German teaching material with CDs/cassettes Jun 26, 2005

Hi again, Italia,

There are a number of German teaching materials that provide audio files, for example "Schnellkurs Chinesisch" by Hueber Verlag. Langenscheidt and Pons also offer Chinese courses with audio material. I have not worked with any of these, but if you can get a used copy through ebay, I'd give it a try if I were you.

Talking about ebay... have you checked what is there on offer? I see a lot of Chinese teaching books, interactive courses on CD-Roms, etc.... See more
Hi again, Italia,

There are a number of German teaching materials that provide audio files, for example "Schnellkurs Chinesisch" by Hueber Verlag. Langenscheidt and Pons also offer Chinese courses with audio material. I have not worked with any of these, but if you can get a used copy through ebay, I'd give it a try if I were you.

Talking about ebay... have you checked what is there on offer? I see a lot of Chinese teaching books, interactive courses on CD-Roms, etc.

Maybe the Rosetta Stone concept will also be helpful to you. Have you heard of it? The courses are more expensive than other teaching material, but I think the investment can be worth it. But again, I have not tried this myself, so I cannot judge.

Stefanie
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Stefanie Sendelbach
Stefanie Sendelbach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
Wenlin Jun 26, 2005

And again...

I just remembered that the software Wenlin also has a function that makes your computer speak out the characters and words to you.

Anyway, the program is really good. It shows you the
- stroke order of the characters,
- their radicals,
- all the words that a character can build, sorted by alphabet or frequency, etc.
- how characters developed over time
- and a lot more


 
Patrick Yancey
Patrick Yancey  Identity Verified
Canada
Local time: 08:09
Member (2005)
Dutch to English
+ ...
Points to focus on Jun 27, 2005

-Spend much more time focusing on pronunciation than you would with the average language, the grammar is, relatively speaking, extremely simple (compared to say, arabic, korean, or russian). On the other hand, mastering the tones and certain consant distinctions (e.g. q/x/ch/sh) is of vital importance for distinguishing words, especially in a language with as many homonyms as Chinese. Special attention should be paid to the count nouns (e.g. "cat, two tail" instead of "two cats")

-b
... See more
-Spend much more time focusing on pronunciation than you would with the average language, the grammar is, relatively speaking, extremely simple (compared to say, arabic, korean, or russian). On the other hand, mastering the tones and certain consant distinctions (e.g. q/x/ch/sh) is of vital importance for distinguishing words, especially in a language with as many homonyms as Chinese. Special attention should be paid to the count nouns (e.g. "cat, two tail" instead of "two cats")

-be sure you are learning the right "dialect" for your purposes, as the different spoken "dialects" can actually be more different from each other than say Spanish and Italian. (e.g. do not learn Mandarin if you are planning on moving to Hong Kong).

-Also, taiwan and hong kong still use the traditional characters, instead of the simplified PRC versions.

Hope these are helpful!
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italia
italia  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Italian to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanxs Jun 27, 2005

Thanxs to both you you for your useful comments:)))
As regards materials our Chinese instructor promised to get some original audio material next time he will travel to China.
As I said we are focusing a lot on pronunciation and I think will be going on for quite a while with that to make sure we make the correct differences...
Stephanie can you provide me with the exact title and ISBN of the "WENDLIN".
Thanks again to both of you and have a good week!!!


 
italia
italia  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Italian to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanxs Jun 27, 2005

XiaoRan wrote:

Do you want Chinese teaching materials?
I have some videos for Chinese children. But I don't know wheather it helps or not for non-native Chinese learner.


Dear XiaoRan,
Yes, what I was looking for was material (especially for pronunciation). We are using coloured flash cards (which are normally aimed at Chinese kids:))), but I definitely need more practice and wanted to buy a Cd for that purpose to train my pronunciation.
Thanxs again for your interest.
Many greetings to China:)))
PS: I hope to accompany my husband in September to Bejing. It will be my first visit and I am already very excited about it:)))


 
Mark Xiang
Mark Xiang
Local time: 19:09
English to Chinese
+ ...
Learn Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô) First Jun 28, 2005

Ask your teacher to teach the Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô) First. And buy a Chinese dictionary. With that, you can make out the pronunciation of new Chinese characters totally by yourself.

When you come to China, buy some CD/VCD/DVD on Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô). You can even buy some electronic Chinese dictionary with word pronunciation function. This dictionary should be much more useful than text books with audio C
... See more
Ask your teacher to teach the Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô) First. And buy a Chinese dictionary. With that, you can make out the pronunciation of new Chinese characters totally by yourself.

When you come to China, buy some CD/VCD/DVD on Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô). You can even buy some electronic Chinese dictionary with word pronunciation function. This dictionary should be much more useful than text books with audio CD.

Hope you enjoy your visit to China!

Mark
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italia
italia  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Italian to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanxs Jun 28, 2005

Mark Xiang wrote:

Ask your teacher to teach the Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô) First. And buy a Chinese dictionary. With that, you can make out the pronunciation of new Chinese characters totally by yourself.

When you come to China, buy some CD/VCD/DVD on Chinese Pronunciation System (Hanyu Pinyin/ººÓïÆ´Òô). You can even buy some electronic Chinese dictionary with word pronunciation function. This dictionary should be much more useful than text books with audio CD.

Hope you enjoy your visit to China!

Mark


Dear Mark
Thanks for the info.
Have a nice day!!!


 
Stefanie Sendelbach
Stefanie Sendelbach  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Member (2003)
English to German
+ ...
Wenlin Jun 30, 2005

italia wrote:
Stephanie can you provide me with the exact title and ISBN of the "WENDLIN".


Hi Italia,

Wenlin (文林) is a software program for learning Chinese. You can find more information about the product at http://www.wenlin.com/. I personally find it very useful, for beginners as well as for professional translators. Here are a few screenshots: http://www.wenlin.com/wenlin1.htm.

Ask your instructor to bring you a copy from China. It should be available in the computer markets there.

HTH,
Stefanie

[Edited at 2005-06-30 10:35]


 
italia
italia  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 12:09
Italian to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
THANXS Jun 30, 2005

sundari wrote:

italia wrote:
Stephanie can you provide me with the exact title and ISBN of the "WENDLIN".


Hi Italia,

Wenlin (ÎÄÁÖ) is a software program for learning Chinese. You can find more information about the product at http://www.wenlin.com/. I personally find it very useful, for beginners as well as for professional translators. Here are a few screenshots: http://www.wenlin.com/wenlin1.htm.

Ask your instructor to bring you a copy from China. It should be available in the computer markets there.

HTH,
Stefanie

[Edited at 2005-06-30 10:35]


I'll tell my Chinese instructor about it tonight:)))
THANKX

[Edited at 2005-06-30 16:29]


 
kevin_lee
kevin_lee
China
Local time: 19:09
English to Chinese
Maybe one to one tutor will help you. May 5, 2006

Maybe one to one tutor will help you.
If you want to find a Chinese native speaker to talk via skype, you can contact with me.
More info: http://teachchineseonline.blog.hexun.com/p2/default.aspx


 


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