6 Hacks for Learning Chinese

Рет қаралды 156,897

9 жыл бұрын

If you are learning Mandarin, I recommend checking out LingQ's free grammar guide: www.lingq.com/en/grammar-reso...
I am going to talk to you about 6 hacks for learning Chinese. Basically based on my experience when 40 odd years ago within a nine month period I went from scratch to where I could read novels and translate diplomatic documents in Chinese. Both English into Chinese and Chinese into English.
Check this video out as a LingQ lesson www.lingq.com/learn/en/workde...
or as a blog post on The Linguist: blog.thelinguist.com/hacking-c...
You can read more articles on tips to learning Chinese and many more languages on my blog. Visit: blog.thelinguist.com/
For Chinese content you can use to study, please check out the LingQ Blog:
www.lingq.com/blog/2018/11/08...

Пікірлер: 325

@Thelinguist 3 жыл бұрын

My Language Learning Resource: Where I Learn Languages ⇢ www.lingq.com/ --- FREE Language Learning Resources 10 Secrets of Language Learning ⇢ www.thelinguist.com LingQ Grammar Guides ⇢ www.lingq.com/en/grammar-resource/ My blog ⇢ blog.thelinguist.com/ The LingQ blog ⇢ www.lingq.com/blog/ --- Social Media Instagram ⇢ instagram.com/lingosteve_/ TikTok ⇢ www.tiktok.com/@lingosteve Facebook ⇢ facebook.com/lingosteve Twitter ⇢ twitter.com/lingosteve LingQ Discord ⇢ discord.gg/ShPTjyhwTN

@miarakoly3673 3 жыл бұрын

1. Pinying 2. learn characters 3. Focus on patterns 4. Reading 5. Listening 🎧 6. Focus in sounds (should shadow). Tips for myself ❤️☕

@paribboom8458 2 жыл бұрын

It's actually pinyin

@thekhokirov7871 Жыл бұрын

@@paribboom8458 thanks nerd

@ChrisJian4510 Ай бұрын

Hello， I am a Chinese，and work as a software development engineer. I wanna find a partner to practise English and teach her/him Chinese as far as I can. if you have the same idea as well， please leave me meesages and tell me how to touch with you

@user-qn6jg8cf5s 6 жыл бұрын

oh my 佛祖，this man is a professional language learner，he is so fluent in Chinese that even as a Chinese native speaker lke me cannot find a mistake in his speech.

@gamerdude6572 4 жыл бұрын

You're English Is good

@sleepsmartsmashstress8705 3 жыл бұрын

For some reasons Canadians are at the top of their game with languages. with Powell Janulus World Record holder polyglot with 42 and Steve, and me at 21 we all live with an hour drive from each other in Vancouver area. British Columbia Canada Read about Powell here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powell_Janulus

@ahmedttarek7171 9 жыл бұрын

When you talked about that boring book and threw it away, I actually laughed out loud :D You are a great man

@amyshi6964 7 жыл бұрын

I'm already Chinese I don't know why I went here😂😂

@8lue5oul 6 жыл бұрын

I'm chinese but i can't read, speak or understand, only hakka

@mustikamaharani7568 6 жыл бұрын

Amy Shi I can feel you 😂

@lakhenaung9298 6 жыл бұрын

Cxkunkun exactly same. instead i’m quite fluent in english lol smh

@lucasdiniz2144 6 жыл бұрын

u lucky bastard

@user-wf7jy7gz4z 6 жыл бұрын

我也不知道

@silvousplait7847 5 жыл бұрын

If you want to study a language by writing down words or phrases down in flashcards or something, write them in bright colors. This helps with not only language, but also Math, Anatomy and basically everything. Reading, Listening to Programs in that language and reciting is also extremely important with Dedication und Motivation.

@billshepherd3555 9 жыл бұрын

I'm not a fan of shadowing, either. But from my own experience, when I was listening to a podcast, there were certain pieces of the audio that I truly enjoyed (a saying that was truly meaningful, or a piece of a speech spoken by a speaker with an attractive voice) and then I tended to keep rewinding that part and repeat along the speaker (usually trying to imitate their intonation and accent, too). But the point is I didn't deliberately make an effort trying to repeat after every single piece of the audio. I did that whenever I felt like to. Again this comes down to one important factor of language learning like you usually said, "Do what you like doing! "

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

Bill Shepherd Agreed.

@tedc9682 5 жыл бұрын

To me that happens in songs. I need to learn the words to that chorus or that phrase. I haven't shadowed yet, but I will start. I already walk around saying "you exist in my song" anyway. Why not say it correctly?

@DudeRevolution 7 жыл бұрын

Thanks Steve Martin!

@CornbreadJenkins34 6 жыл бұрын

DudeRevolution :D hahahaha :D

@joyfulsavage9905 6 жыл бұрын

哈哈 🤣🤣🤣

@JPinToronto 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you for making this video! It was short, concise, and very helpful.

@justakathings 4 жыл бұрын

I would suggest shadowing to content you’ve already watched bc it doesn’t hinder your enjoyment and you already know the words. It’s worked great for me for Japanese.

@RicardoSilvaTripcall 9 жыл бұрын

Thanks Steve, I'm going back to my chinese studies and these jacks are going to be very helpful.

@beergaucho2 6 жыл бұрын

Great tips. Thanks! I've already put them into use within the hour. I'm much more motivated now to continue.

@sherryyeh3854 6 жыл бұрын

Wow, you're doing everything right!! Thanks for sharing. That's exactly why my KZfaq videos focus on teaching patterns and vocabulary.

@saiwenya 4 жыл бұрын

Love these tips! I’ve been using duolingo to maintain some of what I learned in high school and college before I decided I couldn’t fit it as an academic priority, but now in quarantine on summer break I’ve found that interest again since I think it’s probably way easier to maintain than to forget and then relearn. Even just doing some fun matching on duo every day, the things you said about shadowing is very helpful for getting the most out of short casual lessons. I mimic the audio as closely as I can and it becomes muscle memory. Sometimes people forget how much easier it is to get comfortable with speaking or anything else when you just copy the experts to the best of your ability until you get better. Maybe it’s because I’ve done music for most of my life but leveraging the skill of internalizing and replicating sounds made a big difference for me learning Mandarin, which is like music itself!

@saiwenya 4 жыл бұрын

Sorry for rambling! I appreciate the great advice in this vid :)

@Grazia683 3 жыл бұрын

Very useful tips. I'm trying to learn Chinese . Before starting I thought it was 'a mission impossible', now I think 'you can do it if you reall want' + very good tips. Thanks a lot.

@Vajew 9 жыл бұрын

I find that when I do any kind of lengthy reading in Chinese, like if I'm using Lingq to read an article, it's very helpful to read it aloud. It gets you familiarized with using new words and is a good substitute for speaking with a native speaker if you don't have that opportunity/you're too shy or insecure with your speaking.

@grimnny1459 2 жыл бұрын

hello steve, this video is very emotional. i cried while watching this. your over 40 years of age, i feel you man. im 69 years old.. im also 80. i always wanted to learn china. this helped me learn it fast and speedy like a snail. thank you so much steve. i hope you will live a bigger life so i can watch more of your amazing amazing amaizng videos. love of love micheelle heart

@IsraelMVega 9 жыл бұрын

This video deserves more views, greetings! Chinese learner right here

@e-genieclimatique Жыл бұрын

in brief: 1. **Focus on Pinyin**: For the first month or two, focus on listening and Pinyin, which is the Romanization of Chinese characters. This helps you get used to the sounds and makes it easier to learn characters when you have meaningful words to refer to. 2. **Study Characters**: Once you decide to study characters, go at them full time, meaning at least half an hour a day. Develop your own memory system for this, such as using flashcards or a spaced repetition system. The goal is to learn the first thousand characters. 3. **Focus on Patterns**: Don't get caught up in complicated grammar explanations. Instead, focus on patterns in the language. Kaufmann recommends using resources that introduce patterns, as this helps you get a sense of how the language works. 4. **Read a Lot**: Find interesting things that you want to read. Reading a lot helps you familiarize yourself with the language and its patterns. Kaufmann suggests starting with lower intermediate books and gradually moving on to more advanced content. 5. **Listen to Things You Like**: Listen to a lot of content in Chinese, preferably content that you enjoy. This could be anything from classic Chinese literature to modern novels. The goal is to get your brain used to the sounds of the language. 6. **Try Shadowing**: Shadowing is the process of mimicking the speech of native speakers. While Kaufmann admits he hasn't done much of this himself, he suggests it could be a good way to get used to the "music" of the language, especially the tones.

@cynthiasadlermusic 7 жыл бұрын

some of these hacks are great for learning any language (listen and read things you like, spaced repetition). that said, I will try applying these hacks to learn some Mandarin

@tatyka6317 6 жыл бұрын

Great! Thank you so much for sharing your valuable thoughts and hacks. Really much appreciate this!

@Naturmuslima 6 жыл бұрын

Oh i missed your Videos. Thanks so much. This Polyglot idea changed my life so much. Language is simply a key to soooo many things. It pushed me to an extend İ couldnt dream of before. And just by the way İ even learnt to love my native language German, which I didnt before.

@romee-elise 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you KZfaq for recommending this video to me - a native mandarin speaker. I totally agree with what the speaker said. So true. I guess whether people can achieve the goal of speaking good Chinese is good method and persistence. I especially respect people who study and master our language, because I feel it’s a very difficult language.

@joeovip 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you Steve! So clear!

@jackbrady9738 5 жыл бұрын

You can just tell this man is a gentleman. Class act mate thanks a lot

@MrMsMisterT 9 жыл бұрын

I love shadowing and do it everyday. :D I often put a lot of emphasis on words I think sound funny, though.^^ It's still helpful. I will definitely pick up Mandarin in the near future, I haven't started to learn any Chinese language, yet, but they sound awesome and whenever I look into the lyrics of some Chinese songs I listen to I instantly remember a few words. The barrier between Chinese and European languages may be huge, however, those short chant-like words have a magic and simplicity of their own.

@MrOzzz-fn3eb 8 жыл бұрын

谢谢！我已经15岁，我在学习普通话的最后一年，你的影片是有帮助的！普通话是一个复杂的语言，我有麻烦记忆某些单词。另外这是第三语言，我已经学会了。我会努力学习德语旁边，但我相信这将是更容易学习，因为我会讲英文。

@tomwtkoym9979 8 жыл бұрын

加油！

@hansonl0078 8 жыл бұрын

加油！

@user-me9fp9hk1b 7 жыл бұрын

非常棒我现在18岁是中国人目前在上海学英语加油

@Jimserac 3 жыл бұрын

Many thanks for this !! For some reason, the books and cassettes or tapes from 40-60 years ago seem better than the plethora of confusing apps, aids and software that is available now. I am a retired Acupunctureist and Herbal Researcher who never learned Chinese so I am attempting it now. The best I've seen so far is the old series by DeFrancis and the audio is freely available at the Seton Hall website, converted to mp3 from the old tapes they were originally on. The Beginner mp3's are great. The Intermediate are somewhat poorer quality but still quite listenable and useable. I will head over to your blog to learn more. Because of my research, I prefer to focus on Traditional characters but if you learn one, you learn the other as well I guess. Again thanks !!

@Thelinguist 3 жыл бұрын

De Francis is a classic. I was on the Yale-in-China series so didn't use it/ Yes best start with traditional, simplified is easy to learn then. WE also have simplified at LingQ.

@TanerNilluhktaf 9 жыл бұрын

When I just started learning, luckily, I did do it according to your first hack, 1-2 mo just listening and pinin. It worked very well. And only then I approached characters. After some time, I came to study the language in China. Education was just classical. You have comprehensive class, listening and speaking, and reading. It think methods of teaching are outdated and everyone is using those crappy books.

@sydneylam19 9 жыл бұрын

Hi Steve, you're such a brilliant polyglot! And I'm sure that you benefit a lot from reading Chinese History and Literature, which is so different from that of the West. I hope more people would appreciate the beauty of traditional Chinese culture. :)

@lukekhumalo1520 8 жыл бұрын

I have been learning chinese part time for 2 years and I feel I noticed a few gaps that have drawn me back " thanks Steve

@sha3698 Жыл бұрын

super useful, thank you!!

@toastoneggs7356 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the tips!!

@ramonkroutz981 7 жыл бұрын

Of all the horrid content surrounding Mandarin, this made the most sense. Concise, and logical. Thank you sir.

@AllanIsumiTV 9 жыл бұрын

Steve, I don't know if you like korean TV show (k-drama), but there is a lot that are wonderful, at least for me, maybe can help you with listening to the language. And also, you can watch on Viki or Dramafever for free. "It's Okay, That's Love" is very good! Love your videos!

@IsraelMVega 9 жыл бұрын

Hi Steve, I just want to say I am really interested in the writing repetition method you mentioned. I am a Chinese learner and I used to write several times the characters that I am learning from a book which is divided in units. I hope you can attend my message. Greetings!

@EinhornAnspitzer 7 жыл бұрын

I have a book full of poetry by Tagore in both Chinese and English which was a gift of my exchange student :)

@ChinaIcons 7 жыл бұрын

Great tips!

@sonyajanaeabouhaydarabouha9957 6 жыл бұрын

Thank You for This vídeo. I want to understand and leatn The Chinese language.

@rosalieo5045 2 жыл бұрын

The book he mentions at 4:07 is called Luotuo Xiangzi by Lao She

@whateverittakes5100 9 жыл бұрын

Thank you for this. 6 Hacks for Learning Cantonese would be welcome too.

@tedc9682 5 жыл бұрын

Thanks. Good ideas.

@ericah7305 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you!!!

@14thSun 9 жыл бұрын

谢谢你！

@cry6314 3 жыл бұрын

你说中文?

@user-tl3th8eg6k 6 жыл бұрын

Thank you sir.

@kingjosh1876 8 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the advice Steve, I've been writing up a learning plan based on your videos. For the audio dialogues should I test myself by trying to write out the Pinyin whilst listening, or just stick to listening and reading? Additionally, are there any particular audio dialogues with Pinyin text you would recommend for beginners? After learning the proper characters should I still practice with Pinyin, or is it better to leave that behind?

@Thelinguist 8 жыл бұрын

+kingjosh1876 Check out the audio and text lessons at LingQ. You will have to write out the characters to learn them, I think. I would not bother writing out the Pinyin, just listen and read.

@mariajoselicht7770 5 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

@MrAlexhopi 8 жыл бұрын

good thing are kidds book like little princ ，小王子，it s nobody gave you pinyin book but with hanzi , great tricks thank you ... what i like to read is i found it on a asia... xie xie

@kjlovescoffee 9 жыл бұрын

Times change. With a tool like Skritter, there is absolutely no reason not to start learning characters from day one. It teaches you stroke orders, pinyin, pronunciation (clear recordings by a native), plus it offers a selection of sample sentences and user submitted mnemonics. You can build your own vocabulary lists, based on your input - a very powerful combination.

@allisel.hemmerling3382 3 жыл бұрын

Silver fox here has lots of good points.

@cophnia61 9 жыл бұрын

About characters: what input do you use to write them? Something like a chinese word in pinyin and then you must write the character from memory? Or just copy the character while you see it? I ask because I know you're not a great fan of tests and for example you put everything on front of the flash-cards on LingQ. What you suggest to new learners of chinese/japanese? I used to write kanji but now I review them on anki with kanji on front and usually the answer is a word for every pronounciation (for example 便　→　べん　of　便利　and　びん　of　郵便). Do you suggest something similar to new students of chinese/japanese or you suggest them to actually write the characters? And if the latter, do you suggest them to write characters from memory (for example べん利 and they must write 便), or to just copy them will suffice (supposing they are reading a lot so they see characters all the time anyway)? Thank you in advance and sorry for the length of the question (and for my english ._. )!

@directfromwoopwoop1914 9 жыл бұрын

I agree with all these tips Steve. I was able to learn characters alonside pinyin throught my first university year however it was entirely due to the fact that university pace with any languages is very slow. I tried to improve my learning methods for Chinese however all methods I could use for German, Russian and other languages made no sense with Chinese. The Characters arn't phonetic so you always need some form of reference, listening does not include word families you can pick up and hear again easily and extensive/intesive reading is difficult again due to the interruptions caused by referencing. I was learning simplified writing but I did go through the 20 Lectures on Chinese Culture and it attuned me to reading traditional, which I must say helps A LOT with inferring meaning from any given character, maybe also a good tip for the modern learner.

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

Structured Analytics I really enjoyed that book, 20 lectures on Chinese culture. It opened up a new world.

@lx3723 9 жыл бұрын

Structured Analytics you know what when i was young and did something wrong the teacher would let me write my name for hundred times or a article of the textbook 3 times, if i didnt finish it, i couldn't go home. haha maybe a strict teacher helps a lot for the students like me lack of discipline. XD as a native speaker i would say the way you learn chinese is totally right, cuz some traditional chinese character have been simplified to one character, so its also for us difficult to determine which character is the right one in the word we want to say(a word is usually made from 2 character).

@MrAlexhopi 8 жыл бұрын

thank you ...

@sophienguyen8339 9 жыл бұрын

This is really helpful. Thanks a lot

@thatdutchguy2882 5 жыл бұрын

Good tips 太谢谢了。

@tamarayuen7774 9 жыл бұрын

I'm learning Cantonese and Traditional Chinese characters (to communicate with my in-laws) - I've been enjoying your podcast book and was amazed to find you on KZfaq while clicking through other links! What are your tips for learning Cantonese when most writing is in the form of Mandarin? Is there any material you would recommend? Particularly any interesting literature at a beginners level just to get me started? What techniques did you use to learn Cantonese that were different to learning Mandarin?

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

Tammi Lee Look for beginner books and then find Cantonese radio. We have several stations in Vancouver but I am sure you can download programs from Hong Kong. Just search for them.

@tamarayuen7774 9 жыл бұрын

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thankyou!

@ThanhLe-ro2pb 3 жыл бұрын

New subscriber here. When I first look at you I said to myself:what? Robert De Niro is giving out Chinese learning tips? Haha, I bet someone did say so before. Thanks for your helpful advices!

@matt-od8li 2 жыл бұрын

Spent the last 2 weeks doing pinyin and got slightly discouraged. Happy to know i should spend 1-2 months. Ty for ur advice

@LauraMehy 2 жыл бұрын

Muy útil, muchas gracias.

@johncates6215 4 жыл бұрын

相声...What a brilliant idea!

@kennethcobarrubias391 7 жыл бұрын

what is the name of the book for the patterns?

@Dannykhc 3 жыл бұрын

If you want to practice reading Chinese as it is written in government documents, in Hong Kong at least, it might be worth going to the website of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong where the government has all sorts of briefing papers on the economy, social welfare, financial services, infrastructure development, housing, food safety, etc that are written in Chinese and also in English. You can read the English version of the briefing paper and then have a go at the Chinese version of the briefing paper. When I studied Mandarin, I found that going through books written for native Chinese persons for the teaching English news stories also very useful in increasing vocabulary. In that way I learned what the Chinese was for intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

@marcusweddle5269 9 жыл бұрын

The book you mentioned by Harriet Mills seems interesting. Though, it's hard to find any information about the contents. Your brief mention of it seems to be the most in-depth description on the internet!

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

Marcus Weddle I googled and found this. Really a good book but traditional characters. books.google.ca/books/about/Intermediate_Reader_in_Modern_Chinese_Vo.html?id=xb8x69Q117wC&redir_esc=y

@marcusweddle5269 9 жыл бұрын

Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Oh, it's disappointing that it's only in traditional characters. Volume 3 seems to be only one with a short preview. Here's the link for anyone else that may be interested. www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Reader-Modern-Chinese-Volume/dp/0801498279/ref=pd_sim_sbs_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=17CF16FE78R1330Q8SKN

@cooloptic 9 жыл бұрын

Hi, Steve. As far as I remember you didn't admited shadowing as a goog method of learning languages. Does it mean that you have changed your opinion? Or maybe you find shadowing good for the chinese language or some asian languages?

@camnguyen7220 2 жыл бұрын

I can see that you focus on the input comprehensive more than the out put at the stage of the beginning. I have applied it for my English learning journey and saw the nice results. Thanks for giving advice. I am considering to learn the third language which is Chinese. I don't know if learning two languages at a time is good or not. My English level is B1. Can you give me advice? Achieve C1 C2 level in English first, then learning Chinese or do it contrastly.

@Thelinguist 2 жыл бұрын

I suspect your level in English is closer to B2. You are good enough to start Chinese along with your English. Follow your passion or interest.

@bernardosullivan1654 3 жыл бұрын

Steve doesn't mention that the first two books he spoke about use traditional NOT modern simplifed characters.

@ronaldoondevilla1312 7 жыл бұрын

sir, is it necessary to learn all chinese radical first??? my friend said, I need to learn all of them

@manngokwok7523 7 жыл бұрын

and ofcouse you can select it in Mirosoft Window toolbox

@Themindofreyrey 2 жыл бұрын

Great video. Just one thing, the book you mentioned is traditional Chinese not simplified.

@user-yf8yq4us6c 2 жыл бұрын

我是中国人，抱着学英语的态度来看你的视频，真不错啊，我居然能听懂你说的一大半。本来想着用你学习中文的方法来学习英语，看看是不是可以简单一点，现在看来，语言的不同个性和属性让语言学习需要具体针对，个性化学习。

@joer4231 9 жыл бұрын

Nice!!

@supermonk3y07 7 жыл бұрын

I just always wondered how Chinese and Japanese learned to read and write. Something tells me they learned to speak it quickly as children but to read and write it, they didn't know how to until they were adults. Or maybe only the high class people could only read and write since they could actually afford to specialize in this. Meanwhile peasants and farmers didn't know how since well they worked a lot. They already had a lot of obligations. Maybe reading and writing is a different and separate skill, because even to this day there are some people still like that (it's going away though). Yeah some people especially older generations of people from China, India, Mexico etc. they can speak normally/properly but if you write to them in their language they won't be able to understand. Also they will they can much less write, replicating the characters/letters you tell them to.

@xyBano 9 жыл бұрын

hi Steven ! Thank you for this great video :) There is just one thing that slightly confuses me. (iam a new viewer ) How do you start to learn Chinese from scratch ? Did you attend a language school or was it a selfstudy programm ? I feel like having a teacher for learing Mandarin is almost essencial isnt it ?

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

xy Bano I learned at a school, full time.

@catherinebaron163 8 жыл бұрын

thank you doctor Language I amspecialized in rare diseases and I would like to read medicine in chinese what can you identify a blog or a book, I am in licence (french ) chinese studying.thanks a lot Trinity

@maekosin 9 жыл бұрын

I use a lot of shadowing in order to practice my English, it really helped me a lot, since I don't find native speakers so easily to talk with me through skype, for example. This shadowing technique should be even more powerful as far as Chinese and Korean are concerned. Great advice! :)

@fromswitzerlandgoblin8475 9 жыл бұрын

maekosin Stop commenting in every single video, please. How boring! You're such low-brow poster. Gosh! Is this your mantra or what ?

@maekosin 9 жыл бұрын

Sorry I will stop... I didn't perceive it was annoying anyone.

@maekosin 9 жыл бұрын

"low-brow" I didn't know this word... Thanks. xD

@gammondog 9 жыл бұрын

maekosin Don't forget that you can "vote up" a video and "like" a video without fear of annoying anyone. The channel owner will appreciate the the "like" and the commenter receiving the "vote up" will be the only one seeing you respond to their comment. Please don't be put off from commenting once in awhile. Your enthusiasm for language learning is appreciated as positive contribution to this forum.

@maekosin 9 жыл бұрын

William Albert, thanks a lot! I write in every video because I like to see these videos from Steve to improve my English, see tips and I always want to practice my writting putting some comentaries... I didn't know people would be annoyed because of that... Thanks a lot for the motivation.

@vaskodaniel7234 8 жыл бұрын

谢谢你!^^

@estrafalario5612 2 жыл бұрын

3:44 Yes! A good way to keep learning is by realizing that something isn't interesting/useful anymore so you have to move to something more relevant. NO REGRETS about it.

@caileigh9497 7 жыл бұрын

-Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve I really like pop music and a song that I really like that's chinese is 小苹果. It really helped me because I was interested in it.

@brunofernandezluna1051 2 жыл бұрын

谢谢Kaufmann老师

@dargon881 8 жыл бұрын

Hello Steve, where can I find the book that you recommended (intermediate reader in modern Chinese)?

@KMMOS1 9 жыл бұрын

If the sound of the target language is brand new to the learner's ear, whether the target language is linguistically similar to the learner's native language is not so important. Getting the sound of the new target language into the learner's brain is critical, and the quality of that learning is foundational to subsequent understanding. So, perhaps audio-only language methods such as Pimsleur, even if they have lots of native language (English) within them, may be worth initial exposure just for the high quality target language sound presentation. Instead of Pinyin there is English, and even though the total Pimsleur vocabulary is less than desired, enough aural recognition and enunciating competence is developed to allow moving on to another method and building on the Pimsleur foundation either with patterned sentences or a combination of conversational audio and accompanying text (Assimil, for example). Shadowing the target language audio in Assimil will not frustrate understanding because the translation is readily available on the opposite page. After completing an Assimil course, shadowing may continue with more interesting content chosen personally. If that content is available in multiple languages the learner is interested to master, a basis for acquiring polyglottery may be established.

@TerapiaCarrillo 3 жыл бұрын

Is it better to learn first Chinese or Japanese?

@solitwar 8 жыл бұрын

Omg i tryed to read the book that you mentioned and the mandarin companion, and holy shit ._. thats to hard for me

@MindOFAlfie 7 жыл бұрын

Hi steve what are those CDS you had for listening? I don't know how to write the pinyin yet just by listening.

@zlozlozlo 9 жыл бұрын

Hi Steve, could you elaborate on your approach to studying Chinese characters? I've been learning Japanese for some time now, I've tried many methods of learning the Kanji, with mixed results. LingQ is great, for general language study, I use it pretty much every day. I recently managed to read a whole book using the site. But while it does wonders for vocabulary, it doesn't really facilitate learning the characters - especially when it comes to writing them. In my opinion a character-based version of LingQ would work great (basically, Japanese and Chinese LingQ would have a mode where instead of words, the LingQs would be the characters, and the review system would show character details to enable writing practice. I suggested this to Mark when he asked for feedback, he wrote back that at the moment the LingQ team can't spare the resources to implement something so complex that would only affect two languages) In the absence of such a thing, I need to devise my own strategy for learning the characters. I'd love to hear in detail how you did it. I fully intend to start learning Chinese, once I've reached a certain level in Japanese. By that time I would like to have conquered the characters as well.

@Thelinguist 9 жыл бұрын

zlozlozlo We offer 21 languages so it is difficult to specialize on the needs of one language. I would google for SRS systems for learning characters or other methods. I wrote them all out many times. I also wrote a lot in general. I think writing characters by hand helps. I may do a video of my character learning method. In essence I wrote them out on squared paper, starting with the first one, ten times or so, then put the translation or pronunciation a few columns to the right. then took the next character and did the same. Soon I would run into the first character, or at least the translation, and have to write it again before I forgot it. I just continued in this way. I started with 10 and worked it up to 30 per day. I would have to include previously learned characters since I usually forgot them as fast as I learned them. That and a lot of reading and writing. There are probably better methods today. Good luck.

@katt230 9 жыл бұрын

zlozlozlo I've been learning Japanese for about 4 years now. To memorize how to write kanji, you should try to learn about the "radicals" that make up that kanji (so you learn the building blocks compared to each individual stroke). You can look up the radicals for a character on classic.jisho.org/ . I've started reading a popular textbook called "Remembering the Kanji" by Heisig, which uses mnemonics to help remember the radicals through interesting stories (there are .pdf's of it floating around online). (An alternative is the website called WaniKani, the 1st 2 "chapters" are free.) It seems better to use mnemonics because it makes the story of the character have meaning compared to just being a series of strokes. Ex: 日 = sun, 月 = moon (they are both kanji, but at the same time they are also radicals for more complex kanji), 明るい = bright (the radicals = sun and moon, together they are very bright!) You just need to remember how to write sun and moon, not be concerned that they have 8 total strokes. If I try to just force myself to remember how to write a kanji by writing it over and over (like 10 times or something) each day without looking up radicals, I end up forgetting and it doesn't stick. There is also a website called Skritter for writing kanji online like you described, but I have never used it. Last tip, zoom in with your web browser when you are reading a Japanese website, so you can actually SEE the kanji clearly, not just blurry, vague blocks. If you have a Japanese word document, change the text size to be around size 18.

@kylelucien7632 7 жыл бұрын

Sir....xiangsheng...... impressive

@S11702 11 ай бұрын

现在在大学上日文课，会中文和英文真的会很有帮助

@Gundal66 7 жыл бұрын

interesting tips 😀 Any advice on how to not have any accent in chinese?

@Thelinguist 7 жыл бұрын

as with any language you need to listen and practice a lot. It is not realistic to expect to achieve no accent.

@SirJack-lr3vm 2 жыл бұрын

Mr Kaufman, What is better to learn in your opinion, traditional or simplified characters?

@thinfilmboy 8 жыл бұрын

Hi Steve and thank you for uploading. Do you think it's possible to learn spoken Mandarin without learning to read Chinese characters? My Chinese friends tell me that I might have a much easier time advancing my survival Mandarin if only I started to study the characters. Thanks.

@Thelinguist 8 жыл бұрын

+thinfilmboy Of course it is possible but I would recommend learning the characters, at least start them and see where it takes you.

@thinfilmboy 8 жыл бұрын

+Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve Thank you. With Mandarin (and other Sino-Tibetan languages) it may be just too difficult to get proficient without learning the characters. Due to the fact that word meanings are context based. Visualizing the characters may help to differentiate the words. At least that may be true for me. Thanks again.

@johnnykleytonful 4 жыл бұрын

Is there any good substitute to the first book he has shown?

@PriyankaSharma-bj3ec 6 жыл бұрын

hello sir , please refer me a basic level book to get strat with.. busniess point of view

@tonybuitrago2241 7 жыл бұрын

I will be working in China, can you tell me where your blog is located so that I can do what you did.

@kenxd585 3 жыл бұрын

those flashcards were so pretty lol and so small and cute

@xolang 9 ай бұрын

Thank you Steve! What do you mean with patterns btw?

@mathiasmaranhao 6 жыл бұрын

where can be bought this book "intermediate reader of modern chinese"?

@Lsong60 2 жыл бұрын

Suggest watching "Ten rules to learn Mandarin / English fluently"

@edznaburj6583 7 жыл бұрын

hi mister Kaufman, might give me some tips for learn arabic and japanese? please , i sent a strong greeting from mexico

@cortez121219933 8 жыл бұрын

I want to be able to learn mandarin to be able to speak with my girlfriend, as well as be able to speak to her family. It's very frustrating to not be able to communicate my thoughts to those who will be very important in my life. I have been thinking of taking a course at school or use MIT OpenCourseware. All i really need is structure or "syllabus"

@th-yt4en 3 жыл бұрын

Hey! How is your progress?