Holistic Language Learning

Por otra parte. R. Chao, in the Introduction to Mandarin Primer, recommends that students learn all
venticuatro lessons of the book in GR only, to establish a strong basis in the spoken language, then
to restudy the book a second time, only then starting to read in characters. One would think that
demand for a talented mobile developer, even in the early 00's, would be high, while demand for a
mobile Chinese dictionary in that poca would be relatively low. I never run out of stuff to do with
Chinese, it's such a rich and incredibly complicated language. It's the only language where you'll
never be able to read all of it - there will always be a gap between what you can read and your
knowledge of vocabulary. I love Foursquare, and I think there's a lot of potential for language
learning to provide a quantified, reward-based way to keep you motivated. I'm also open to adding a
social element like Stack Overflow to encourage each other in your Chinese learning.
Besides Beijing's tendency to atrocious air quality, a lot of people there speak English and it would
be easier to practice (not to mention cheaper) to study somewhere else. FYI, the fact you are
white(ugly truth), you are more likely to get hired in some language institutes in China. Learn some
basic Chinese on your own first and then try to communicate with them in Chinese and ask them to
teach you. Courses emphasize the integration of listening, reading, speaking, and writing.

Through dialogue, discussion, games, In-one Class practices whatever you learn to proficiency,
standardizes each use of words close to natives and reaches your full potential of communication.
Culture Yard is a foreign-run language school and cultural center which is unique in combining
western methodology and a goal-oriented approach to our Mandarin programs.
Watch Chinese TV programs, listen to music, speak to natural Chinese speakers, anything you can
do to involve yourself in the Chinese language will allow your mind to put the language you're
learning into real-life context and to further your understanding. It doesn't have to be full blown
learning routine, but even casually running through things can help to cement your understanding of
the language.
Some Japanese dictionaries in China have the pitch accents for every single word Japanese word. I
must admit, though, that after teaching Japanese to foreign students intensive chinese language
program for some years, i realized how difficult it can be to learn the proper use of Keigo if you
havent been living (and working!! ) in Japan. So I find Chinese pronuntiation far more difficult to
master, and dont even dream of been taken by a native speaker on the phonei just hope to be
understood. And in the later stages, accent isn't as big a deal in Chinese are a great help to
people like me, who are still struggling with the Chinese language. Being able to communicate from
the very start in a language certainly makes it easier to be motivated to study.
The only thing I worked particularly hard on to master was the R initial, and even that was down
easily within months of starting the language from scratch. I can't help but feel that the difficulty of
Chinese pronunciation is routinely overblown and imbued with undue extreme foreign-ness
simply because of tones. I and most Chinese teachers I've chatted with routinely point to characters
as the language's proof of infamous difficulty. Think of the degree to which a language community is
willing to tolerate your mangled attempts to communicate.

Professor Tardif, who earned her Ph. D. at Yale University, has been a primary investigator on a 15year research project tracking language and literacy development in Chinese children, funded by the
Chinese National Science Foundation, and her research on children's early language learning has
been funded by the U. S. National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development.

Yes, just as the Chinese people have gotten along just fine using Arabic numerals for counting and
calculating, the Gregorian calendar and the Christian era for recording the year, etctera.,
experience and experimental evidence has shown that they can also get along just fine using pinyin
for writing out Mandarin. We worked with game designers, Chinese teachers and scientists to make
Ninchanese the best app to learn Chinese.
Although they aren't ideal if your only goal was spoken Chinese (the sentences are somewhat more
formal and written vernacular) I've found it an incredible resource for expanding my vocabulary
when I was content to approach that more passively with Spanish. I also tried out Skritter briefly to
get a sense for handwriting and to learn radicals. Thus far, I have learned to handwrite around 450
or so (although half of these are the Kangxi radicals rather than independent characters).

After only a month of intense classes at Mandarin House in Shanghai - six hours a day, five days a
week - she was writing and speaking like a Chinese five-year-old, which is progress not to be taken

lightly. Swapping English for Chinese as part of a language exchange with locals is fine - but with my
Japanese and Korean classmates, Chinese is often our only common language, so we speak it all the
time. I don't worry too much about being right or wrong, but focus on just opening my mouth and
trying to use the language as much as possible, without English to fall back on. What you should
watch or listen to depends on your preferences and language level.