I've decided to learn Chinese.

[Trinie]

FOr 35 an hour, you can prolly find anyone to tutor you. Heck if you were in my city, I'd tutor ya. Heck x2, even if you didn't wanna learn, I'd force teach you at that rate.

But seriously, you can probably find someone to teach you at a cheaper price. Just don't hire anyone Taiwanese if you wanna learn proper mandarin. Or at least make sure the Taiwanese person doesn't speak lazy mandarin.

Why do you think Taiwanese people can't speak proper Mandarin??? I think a lot of them can, but it depends on the person. It is true that a number of them do have sloppy Mandarin, but then again I have heard a lot of people from Mainland China talk as well. Gosh, there are times that it is hard to understand while I tend to understand the Taiwanese Mandarin more.

[sniffles]

FOr 35 an hour, you can prolly find anyone to tutor you. Heck if you were in my city, I'd tutor ya. Heck x2, even if you didn't wanna learn, I'd force teach you at that rate.

But seriously, you can probably find someone to teach you at a cheaper price. Just don't hire anyone Taiwanese if you wanna learn proper mandarin. Or at least make sure the Taiwanese person doesn't speak lazy mandarin.

I actually don't think the price is unreasonable. I would prefer a tutor with a good teaching background and I know my instructor has a good background, and in addition I'm already familiar with him and like him. It's just that it's hard to work that price into my budget. The community college courses only cost $100 for a 10-week course.

[jiang bao]

I didn't say all Taiwanese people can't speak mandarin, but the lazy mandarin speakers are the ones to avoid. I met many TW folks in grad school, at least 3/4 of them speak lazy mandarin.

It's as annoying as the people who speak lazy cantonese.

[Trinie]

I didn't say all Taiwanese people can't speak mandarin, but the lazy mandarin speakers are the ones to avoid. I met many TW folks in grad school, at least 3/4 of them speak lazy mandarin.

It's as annoying as the people who speak lazy cantonese.

Yea, it depends on the person. I only knew 2 Taiwanese people in my grad program and one of them spoke Mandarin pretty well, while the other person... Not to great...

[dictionary]

Do, or did, you guys have to learn the Mandarin sound system (is it called sound system?)... bo fo mo po en an ang... etc.? Because of my horrid pronunciation, my teacher is making me learn it. So far I find that it helps a lot. I used to have a hard time pronouncing certain words like the x's words, now I improve a lot. Heh.

[jiang bao]

I did, when I was a child in China. I don't know the phonetic visual representations that TW folks seem to all know though.

the X sound is like the middle sound between 'S' and 'Sh.' It's sort of like how Sean Connery pronounces 'S' words. Sort of like the English 'sh' sound.

[Nefertari]

Great to know you guys are starting to learn Chinese. Next time, we can all converse in Chinese and know more about each other's culture ~)

Chinese is very interesting, its history and how the words came about. You'll fall in love with it, I'm sure.

Ganbaremas! Jia you! Add oil ~

[dictionary]

I did, when I was a child in China. I don't know the phonetic visual representations that TW folks seem to all know though.

the X sound is like the middle sound between 'S' and 'Sh.' It's sort of like how Sean Connery pronounces 'S' words. Sort of like the English 'sh' sound.

Yes. My teacher is from TW and he always writes out the visual representations when he sounds out each words. And a few posts back you taught me how to say the x sound. It was very helpful. Thanks.

[jiang bao]

Hell, I need to moonlight and make some extra cash. If anyone is in nyc and wants to learn either Cantonese or Mandarin or chinese learning tips, gimme a holler. I wouldn't charge more than $15 and I am a patient and nice guy. Don't let my sometimes outlandish posts here fool ya.

Or just ask your question here, and I'll answer it for free.

(D'oh!)

[xianzai]

I've attached a vocabulary list for the Shaw Brothers film The Swordmates. The movie is readily available on VCD, and turned out to only have about 640 distinct words/phrases.

[Han Solo]

Hi all,

Need some help with certain phrases.

书接前文 - What is the best translation for this phrase?

Han Solo

[jiang bao]

"Continuing from where we left off" is one way.

[sniffles]

I realized I haven't been in here for a while and decided to share my news, if anyone cares.

I decided that taking Chinese classes through a community education program wasn't enough to satisfy my craving to learn, so I enrolled in a 5-credit course at a community college. The credits are transferrable to the Chinese program at a local university.

This week has been the second week of the term. I'm enjoying the class, though it's a bit of a challenge just to get there. The campus is far across town from my home and work, and since the class starts at 6:00 p.m. I have to leave work early to get there on time. But I would say the sacrifice is worth it. It's more than the once-weekly, 90-minute course at the community education program. There's coursework to do and I'm taking the class for credit so I can't slack off practicing during the week. And we're learning to read and write characters, too, which was what I really wanted.

[junny]

^ Your dedication towards mastering Chinese is commendable, sniffles

[remember_Cedric]

Alright! As long as I've lived, I've always use this phrase in this manner - 怜香惜玉. Today, I've discovered that it is actually 惜香怜玉 or 惜玉憐香, which means, I've been boo-ing all the while? Or, can I also phrase it that way I used to?

Someone, enlight me please.

[xianzai]

I've been having good luck with the Chinese Breeze series of graded readers. So far they have 6 using 300 characters, and 4 using 500 characters. They also include audio CDs of the material. The books seem better designed than some other reading material in that they keep the new words to very few per page, so one can read for long stretches without stopping to reference a dictionary. The only downside is they are simplified only, but even though I'm studying traditional I didn't have a hard time adjusting to the books. So far I've read two 300-character books and am partway through a third.

They're available various places, such as www.cheng-tsui.com, www.amazon.cn, and www.studychineseculture.com.

[sniffles]

I've been having good luck with the Chinese Breeze series of graded readers. So far they have 6 using 300 characters, and 4 using 500 characters. They also include audio CDs of the material. The books seem better designed than some other reading material in that they keep the new words to very few per page, so one can read for long stretches without stopping to reference a dictionary. The only downside is they are simplified only, but even though I'm studying traditional I didn't have a hard time adjusting to the books. So far I've read two 300-character books and am partway through a third.

They're available various places, such as www.cheng-tsui.com, www.amazon.cn, and www.studychineseculture.com.

I'll have to look out for those!

I've enrolled for a second term of Chinese, but I'm still waiting to hear if enough people have enrolled for them to hold the class.

[sniffles]

My second term is under way, but we only have 6 students so the college has nixed the spring term.

I don't know what I'm going to do to keep practicing my spoken Chinese. I need to find a conversation group.

I wish I could take the course that's available at university here, but I'd have to start going to work later and then I wouldn't have time to do anything in the evenings.

Guess I need to start buying more lottery tickets so I can quit my job and study Chinese full-time.