good call on the library… So is anyone fluent in Mandarin here?
I’m fluent conversationally in French. I can barely write it though. It does have a lot of grammatical rules as someone pointed out earlier. I’ve always hated the word gender rules.
http://www.chinese-tools.com/jdd/public/documents/audio/courses/17-01.mp3 Chinese-tools.com - great web site… Already picked up some basics in a few hours…
I speak French English and Italian. Written French is a nightmare!! I can speak French quite easily, but I never trust myself to write anything in French
fxguy1234 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I’ve always toyed around with studying Mandarin > (most spoken language in the world, half my > company speaks it, etc…), seems like it would be > wise from a career standpoint as well… > > It’s a super difficulty language to master in that > it is a “tonal” language - basically one word said > different ways has different meanings. > > > Anyone here fluent in more than one language? The tones aren’t that hard in Mandarin - you can pick them up really quick (although my tones are shot right now, as out of practice). The grammar is quite easy too. If you want to pick up the conversational part of Mandarin, it is not too steep of a learning curve. However, the hard part is learning to read and write - I would recommend just sticking to conversation if you want to learn it. The reading / writing fades fast if you don’t keep up with your characters.
Look up Pimsleur Mandarin - I thought it had a pretty good Beijing dialect and you will gain a good base if ever going to Beijing.
I speak French, English and Irish, it’s really just best to listen to the language - get CDs to learn it if you want to be able to have a conversation or if you’re getting sick of it just watch some movie - that’s what I did for french and it really helped!
if you guys really want to learn mandarin, there are websites online where they connect you to people (via “voice chat”) in china trying to learn english. so basically while you are teaching them english; they will be teaching you mandarin. that’s probably the best way to learn how to speak
I have lived abroad for more than 10 years and am fluent in Russian and German. My advice would be this. Learning a foreign language well is really hard and takes a lot of time. Although I was dedicated to learning languages when I lived in the US, I never made enough progress to have a decent conversation in any foreign language. If you see yourself living in North America all of your life, then probably you will never use the foreign language for business because you are unlikely to ever speak it as well as foreigners speak English. However, if you ever have plans of living outside the US even for awhile, then learning a foreign language can be highly valuable. With minimal language skills to start, you will find that you have a big advantage because companies will want to hire you for your native English skills. But they will also want to see some interest in the language/culture before you show up in the office.
I am a native Mandarin speaker. Just moved to Hong Kong seversal months ago and learning Cantonese now. In fact, Cantonese is 100 times more difficult than Mandarin in term of spoken. I have no problem understanding it but really difficult to pronounce it right. 4 tones in Mandarin but 9 in Cantonese (most often use is 6). But the good thing is we share the same characters so no problem for me to read and write. Indeed reading and writing are more difficult than speaking. Chinese characters are more like drawing. It is a very different system. But once you know them, you are also closer to Japanese. Have fun in learning Mandarin.
you should learn Cambodian… now THAT is a sexy language
Top 10 natively spoken languages Estimates 1. Mandarin 1,120m 2. English 520m <== Yes 3. Hindi 490m 4. Spanish 425m 5. Arabic 255m <== Yes 6. Russian 254m 7. Portugese 218m 8. Bengali 215m 9. Malay 175m 10. French 130m <== Yes Coverage : Close to a 1bn neglecting the overlaps
darn, I need to pick up Mandarin!
I should really try and pick up Mandarin if I can, as half my office is native Chinese, so I could practice all day if I needed to. Probably an excellent asset to have as I’m not sure I want to stay in Canada my whole life…
I took full French immersion for 7 years, and I’ve lost a lot of it. KarenC, que faites-vous ce soir?
InVinoVeritas Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Top 10 natively spoken languages > Estimates > > 1. Mandarin 1,120m > 2. English 520m <== Yes > 3. Hindi 490m > 4. Spanish 425m > 5. Arabic 255m <== Yes > 6. Russian 254m > 7. Portugese 218m > 8. Bengali 215m > 9. Malay 175m > 10. French 130m <== Yes > > Coverage : Close to a 1bn neglecting the overlaps Without looking up backups, I am pretty sure it is 1. Mandarin 2. Spanish 3. English for native languages.
I speak Malay / Indonesian.
Mandarin and some Japanese as I learnt the latter for 6 years. I learnt Mandarin till I was 16 but it is so widely spoken in Singapore!
I know spanish (taught by parents) and learning other languages, especially Latin-based, is incredibly easy. I taught myself tagalog, italian, and portuguese…but have forgetten them as I haven’t used them at all in a few years. It’s very helpful in terms of professional development because you have the ability to speak to clients or vendors in their native tongue, thus breaking down some cultural barriers. I live in California and spanish is very useful!
TheAliMan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I took full French immersion for 7 years, and I’ve > lost a lot of it. KarenC, que faites-vous ce soir? Je vais au pub avec les collègues de travail et vous?