How did you start learning Chinese?

I am learning Chinese as have been interested in the culture for many years. I love languages and thought that it would be great to be able to speak it just for self gratification. I have no Chinese friends, so won't be able to converse with anyone for a while, but I am determined to the point of OCD so will make sure I get to basic speaking level how ever long it takes. 

I can relate to what Henning said about Chinese slowly fading into my life.  I can't remember the first time I started to interact with the Chinese language. Bit's and piece's of Chinese got stuck in my teeth and I started to love it.

Did I start learning when I met my first Chinese friend or when she gave me that CD full of beautiful music I couldn't understand? I spent a year listening to that CD in my car and memorized what I thought was being said but is that really learning?

How about when I ran accross my first Taiwanese Drama? Did it really start with a kiss (The drama is called "It Started With a Kiss")? Or maybe the turning point was when somebody suggested I check out Chinesepod as I was struggling through a very simple conversation on Zhongwen.

I don't know. All I can say is that I'm in way too deep to stop learning now! Chinese language and culture has officially become a part of me and I'm very happy about that.   ^_^

I was learning Japanese at first, but I got annoyed by the excessive use of Katakana-English. So I changed to Chinese, that seemed a more pure Asian language.

I had a Taiwanese co-worker whose husband was going to Shanghai to investigate setting up a pulp mill there for a group of investors.  He needed an accountant experienced in forest products, and I had just been laid off during the 1981 recession.  The next thing I knew, I was ensconced in the Peace Hotel, at that time something of a foreign ghetto along with the Park.  

I knew no Chinese and, with the exception of my boss and the head of our danwei, nobody spoke English.  So, I learned enough combat Mandarin to survive.  Also, our investors were Australian, Japanese, U.S., Singaporean and, explosively, Taiwanese.  Although we gave our presentations in English, the financial projections were also in Chinese and Japanese. Thus, I had to learn enough specialized Japanese and Chinese to prepare projections in both languages. 

The project never went through, and I returned to the U.S a year later.  However, I continued to dabble in the language and have returned to China/Taiwan many times since both on pleasure and business.  Two years ago I began to study the language in earnest.

My journey to speaking Chinese began with a co-worker who grew up in Taipei (though she was born in the PRC). She was very friendly and willing to talk to me about her personal history, Chinese history, and the Chinese language. 

Then, when my son was born, I began watching a lot of children's programs and discovered Sagwa, The Chinese Siamese Cat.  The basic premise is that the Miao family (who are the palace cats) do all of the magistrate's writing for him.  I was desperate to find out *what* the cats were writing, so I tracked down zhongwen.com and started learning how to read traditional Chinese, though it was mostly playing around.

I really enjoyed playing around at zhongwen.com, and eventually I wanted to learn the sound of the language, so I tracked down some streaming Chinese radio stations (the popularity of Cantonese pop music caused me some concern at first, but I found plenty of Mandarin stations).

Then I started to get a little more serious. I knew from my years as a student of Spanish that immersion was the way to go, so rather than look for instructional material, I downloaded a couple of episodes of a television series.  I chose a series that sounded interesting and that I could get at yesasia.com.  I did, in fact, buy the DVDs once I was sure I wasn't going to get frustrated and quit.

Once I was committed to that, I special-ordered 哈利·波特与魔法石 from my local Barnes & Noble.

Then, finally, a couple of months ago, I started here at the high newbie/low elementary level, though I really enjoy the more challenging elementaries now.

My motivation to learn Chinese started with a two week business trip to Singapore. 

Only, I never took a two week business trip to Singapore…  But my Chinese wife did – and left me at home with a small baby, a toddler and Chinese In-laws that did not speak a word of English. 

Prior to my wife’s trip, I was perfectly satisfied allowing her to do all the translating for the extended family (my In-laws had nothing but the best things to say about me).  But after a two-week-long game of charades  - a game in which I was clearly losing, I decided I had put off learning Chinese as long as I could.

Hey

Well my dads from Mauritus so my Grandad is Chinese and I think my Gran is vietnamese. Whenever I visit them back home they tend to have a very humble and content air about them. And my father is also very typically chinese in a lot of his attitudes. So i had an interest in their culture.

And after completing a university degree (evenings and weekends whilst I worked full time) I realised I now had a degree in computer science in something I did not enjoy (i still enjoy programming - but after working full time in a programming environment the kind of people that work in programming earn lots of money...but they are always at the office)

So early this year (I had already started learning chinese a year ago - though sloppily) I had a career rethink and generally thought I would love to travel and teach. To have an end product (ie a student) and watch them progress seems incredibly satisfying. So going to study my CELTA with SouthGate college in North london as of the 21st has made this a fundamental career move for me.

So long story short, whilst working and completing a BSC in Computer science, I realised that I did not want my life to consist of long hours, latest flat screen tv's/fast cars and programming. Missing out on my childrens lives(god forbid if I ever have any!) or my girlfriends...I decided to switch career. Which is why I now take my mandarin learning seriously...haha as opposed to having an instruction tape on while i play halo 3 :P

I too, like some who have posted here, by a series of unexpected events, started to learn Mandarin.

It all started when a friend took a TEFL course and told me, once he finished College he was off to teach English in China for a year. This seemed like the solution I was looking for, as I wasn't quite sure if I was going to continue to study Engineering. So I signed up for the same course and before the 3 weekend joke of a teaching course finished I had a job lined up and ticket booked to come to here.

The funny side to this is that my friend, in the end, only came for a 1 month tour around China and returned to Canada, while I stayed on for a year contract and on.

When I first arrived I met with the harsh reality of working a summer at a private English school in China. I had little time to study but as soon as the summer was over I went to a local university a few times a week for two months to get that rote-structured learning down. :P

Long story short, I completed my year contract discovering Engineering wasn't for me and loved this place, the culture and the language. So I went to another Chinese university, didn't like it and found myself a job at a Chinese company.

Kind of a strange road that lead to Mandarin for me.  I have many Korean friends and one of them hooked me up with a project designing a Japanese/Korean restaurant.  I spend a lot of time around Korean people as a result so I decided to learn the Korean language.

Interestingly none of my Korean friends gave me any support or encouragement.  They all said "why learn Korean, we all speak English now".  I was undeterred and continued to practice.  I watched all the Korean Dramas on TV to practice and used a website Italki to speak with native Koreans.

The restaurant was built by a Chinese contractor and I ended up being good friends with him and he connected me with an Architect in Beijing.

So, I switched from Korean to Chinese.  Actally Chinese is easier to learn, although the Korean language has a very nice writing system that is easy to master. Thanks to pinyin, it makes the chinese language approachable.

I discovered CPod while surfing Itunes for language pods and used the free site for a few months to see if I liked it.  I think part of the success of CPod is the users and the dialog they share.  Very helpful and it makes it interesting and new each day.

I only hope I can continue to learn and become more skilled. I am in the Intermediate section of CPod with frequent visits to the Newbie section.

Will I make it to Intermediate?

I started with movies and a dictionary. Then I got the penton overseas cd's and listened during my commute. I tried the " chinese for business and travel " class at the night school. Tried chinese school ( teacher was MEAN !!! ) . So far, CPOD and the relationships I have made because of it have allowed me to really progress. I really do thank you guys, I've learned a ton. This is the way learning should have always been.  

watonqu,

With all due respect, my experience is that Chinese children in China do not use pinyin to learn Chinese.

Pinyin gets introduced in 1st grade to ensure standard pronunciation.  I've heard they find it fairly painful in the early stages. 

That said, I have no problem with pinyin.  It is a good tool for correct pronunciation.  

I found it more effective after I understood it is not an English based phonetic system.   

Learning Chinese is now easier with the help of Chinese pinyin (hanyu pinyin). In China, children learn the Chinese language by using pinyin.

I'd like to commend a free website http://www.speakchinesonline.com to you guys as a useful tool and subsidiary material in learning Mandarin Chinese pinyin.

Initials: http://www.speakchinesonline.com/initials.htm;

Finals: http://www.speakchineseonline.com/finals.htm;

Chinese pinyin syllabary: http://www.speakchineseonline.com/syllabary.htm;

Well...

One day, whilst reading a Japanese Manga, it occured to me that the Japanese might have turned it into a cartoon, so I went to YouTube to see if I could find it. What I found was the Taiwanese idol drama, 花樣少年少女  (Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu), which I found fascinating. The acting style seemed very unusual at first, but I soon became addicted to the foreign acting, language, and culture. Although I was often able to find subtitled versions of these shows, I knew that there must be a lot being lost in translation. At first, I wanted to learn Mandarin just so I could understand what I was watching, but after a while, I became genuinely interested in the real people and the culture. I do have to say that listening has been the best tool so far, and that's why I am THRILLED to have discovered ChinesePod!!

I always had an interest in the Chinese language because I love Chinese food.  When I was a teenager, I tried to learn but I was really put off by the tones and found it very difficult.

Then I met my partner who is Chinese, and I wanted to be able to say a few words in Chinese and stumbled across ChinesePod. 

I had never before encountered this method of learning.  At first I found it very strange that things didn't go sequentially like you get in many language-learning books.  But as I listened to the podcasts, I was amazed at being able to recall words and tones very easily because of the way the podcasts are made.

Now I love the method - I log on every day.  And search through all the different podcasts to find the situation or context that I need to learn vocabularly for.

I skated through my entire education without learning a second language.  I always felt guilty about it.  I cursed the US education system, knowing deep down I was to blame (even now I might be one of the laziest students of the Chinese language on this board).

I lived in Singapore in 1995 and 1996.  I became exposed to many cultures.  The people in the office spoke a brand of mixed Chinese with Mandarin mixed with their family dialect and some Malay thrown in for spice.

I was blown away with the amount of languages the average Singaporean could speak.  My shame grew deeper. 

I became determined to learn a language.     It was obvious that Manadarin is an important world language and it was so completely different to English.  There  was a lot of Mandarin on TV. I watched it casually.  I picked up a few phrases at work....still very passive / lazy.

I bought a book and tape at the book store "Colloquial Chinese" by Kan Qian.  I didn't opened the package.

The book and tape remained unopened until I started working on a project in China in 2003.  In the beginning my pronunciation was very very bad to the point where Chinese collegues actually discouraged me from learning Chinese and said I was waisting my time.

Looking back on it, while I was lazy, I was relatively fearless.  I'd put myself into places where no English was spoken and forced myself to bungle through things until I was understood.

我是在社会大学学的。wo3 shi4 zai4 she4 hui4 da4 xue2 xue2 de.  I studied at the school of hard knocks.

Eventually, I discovered webs sites such as zhongwen.com and chinese-forum that led me to the resources commonly in use today.

I started learning in my final year at Uni. In my first year at uni in the UK there were hardly any Mainland Chinese students amd by the final year they came in their hundreds.

It was then that I thought, hmmmmmm think it's time to get to know their language.

My step-father actually worked for some years in Shanghai (for BASF) and my mother often visited him there. Now when they came back they had lots of interesting stories to tell - and my step-father was able to count from 1 to 10 in Mandarin, using the finger-counting as well. Now this motivated me to outperform him on that one :-)
Well, now I can count to 100000 or something and do some small talk. As Henning said, it just gets bigger and bigger - and I assume learning Chinese can never stop at all...

Three years ago we moved to Hong Kong for my husband's business.  I thought I would learn Cantonese but was told I should start with Mandarin because Cantonese had 9 tones and Mandarin only 4.  I thought I would get the hang of Mandarin and then move on to Cantonese.  Needless to say, I am still trying to get the hang of Mandarin.     

I started taking lessons at a Language Institute here in Hong Kong and a Frenchman in the class told us about Chinesepod.  They were just beginning.  I started listening then subscribed a few months later.  I continued taking classes and private lessons whenever my travel schedule permitted, but Chinesepod was so convenient because it traveled with me.

When C-POD started the Practice Plan, I think I was one of the first paying subscribers.  I continue to do Practice Plan (although the name has been changed to protect the innocent) and I still have a tutor just for conversation.  I should be a lot better than I am, but what I lack in talent I make up for in enthusiasm.

One of my best methods of learning is my friend Tracy from Hangzhou.  Whenever we can, we walk up to Victoria Peak speaking Mandarin and down speaking English.  But I must say that Tracy's English has improved ten fold over my Chinese!

As to methods:

Step 1: Go to the local bookstore and buy a book with some tapes.  Study that for a year and a half.

Step 2: Run an add in the local Chinese newspaper asking for a tutor, and pay somebody to suffer through my awful Chinese and record stories and dialogs for me to practice my listening skills with.

Step 3: Diversify study materials and methods.  (This was where I discovered CPOD.)

Step 4: Haven't gotten there yet.

To impress a girl?

Actually I've been interested in China ever since I was there as a kid. I've been studying China the place on and off for the last couple years, so picking up the language seemed the next thing to do. 

I've been in Shanghai for most of this year - still a long way to go!

I took a couple quarters of Mandarin in the early '90s at a junior college while I was a newly married part time graduate student with a full time engineering job. Why? I'm not really sure now.

I tried again through university extension classes about 11 years later, finishing the Practical Chinese Reader I.  I then proceeded to promptly not use and forget it.

A few years ago, I decided to give it one last honest effort and started over at a university with their regular Chinese classes.  ChinesePod started shortly thereafter, and I've followed it since.  I still use it as a supplement to my main study sources.

I visited China for the first time last summer and again last month.

However it may have originally started, it is now just a life goal to speak a second language.

At my liberal arts university back in Teneessee, USA it was mandatory to study at least two years of a foreign language.  I wanted to avoid the overcrowded German, Italian, French and Spanish courses, thus chose Chinese and had only a few classmates.  Beforehand knew very lil about China, just pandas and fortune cookies.  However, once I began studying, the 'China Bug' symptoms set in.  I came to Shanghai after my sophomore year of uni to do research on the ways in which communal relationships are changing.  After this trip, I was fully infected and couldnt get enough about everything China.  After graduating I got back to China as soon as possible.  Have been in Qingdao ever since, with no plans to return home. 

It started 3 years back for me when i was sent to China on a telecom assignment. Spent little time in Beijing and had to travel to Inner mongolian province often from Beijing. With very little english spoken in that province,was looking for some language help.i stumbled upon chinesepod and found myself really immersed into the language.With some daily practice with the cab drivers, hotel staff and pinyin texting friends :) , i got a lot hooked to the language that i continued with the learning even after returning to India and have ever been so waiting for another china travel opportunity.

My younger brother started me up. I've always been interested in languages although I ended up in the IT industry. Anyhow. He spent a year in Beijing and I visited him there 2001. Last year I picked up Cecilia Lindqvists 'China: Empire of the Written Symbol' and that got me really hooked again.

Three months ago I decided: 1000 hanzi characters within a year should stick in my memory. Indeed a very silly goal. But pair this with a good grammar book, and the best sound compainion on the planet:

After just a while I found a very good book in Swedish - for grammar, and Chinesepod - for keeping up the good spirit, the endless hours of chinese sounds. There are other soundbites out there, but no one can compete with you. You (Amber, Connie, Jenny, John and Ken) is very, very addictive indeed.

After just three months, ~100 chinesepod-lessons and ~300 character learned I really feel like this is becoming my life long hobby.

Next year, after one year of self-training, I will reward myself with a trip to Shanghai+Beijing.

Having to endure Chinese school from the age of 5 until I couldn't stand it any more. And then picked it up again at uni.

When I was about 14 or 15, I worked for the Institute of Languages at UNSW in Sydney. I got the job there through my Mother who had already been working there for a number of years. During the time I spent working there, I came into contact with a lot of overseas students coming to learn English. The students who I immediately identified with and got along with very easily were the Chinese, Korean and Japanese students.

Of course there were were people who worked there who were from all sorts of different nationalities and one of them, a Chinese lady, took a liking to me (as friends of course!) and taught me some basics in the language and writing. Since that time I have always had a feeling of completeness when I was around asian people in general, and due to the abundance of Chinese people in Sydney, it was the Chinese I related to the most and felt at home with the most.

It wasn't until about a year or so ago, when I was living with my cousin, that I got interested in actually developing my skills enough to interact with the people I felt a natural kinship with. He had just returned from a 4.5 year working stay in Taiwan and he had become fluent in Mandarin, Shanghainese and Taiwanese. He used these skills to get a job in our city's casino and would often bring home Chinese friends who I got to interact with.

Often they would talk in just mandarin, and I felt even more disconnected than when I was just amongst English-speaking people who I could understand but did not have a natural affinity with. So I decided that I was due to start learning otherwise I would never feel complete. The more I learn, the more I am able to communicate in mandarin etc.. the more complete I feel.

It began with a 3-week round trip thru the PRC and Hong Kong in 1985. The tour guide, a sinologist, explained some basics of the Chinese language and characters to the group.

Then in 1987, I visited Taiwan and Hong Kong. I bought some books about Chinese (like Fun with Chinese characters) and I started with a book course and some tapes.

In 2008, it's still my favourite hobby - and it will be!

ChinesePod's podcasts helped me and still help me a lot, but, in the last time, I am trying to concentrate on the (trad.) characters, see here.

I am a little sad about the 09/1 changes here, because the podcasts that interest me, are no longer freely available, and the available subscription models don't fit into my needs. Also, traditional character support is rather poor, which makes subscription not very attractive (for me).

Chinese just slowly faded into my life. I cannot even name a point of time when I actually started learning. It just became bigger and bigger.

The  more I see of this the more I realize that it is a long term hobby/interest for many. It must point to a sense of reward that people get from it. Anyway, any more on how you all got started?

My interest in Chinese pre-dates CPOD, but CPOD has helped me a lot.

I just found myself in a context where people around me were speaking Chinese and wanted to know a little bit about what they were saying.  After that it became kind of an addictive puzzle.  My goal is to become fluent.  It is a bit like climbing Mount Everest though; its a challenge I will concour or die trying.

Great topic Ken.I went on a holiday to Malaysia as a young kid in the mid 70's ,and while I don't recall being exposed to Mandarin [everyone spoke to me in English] this was my first recalled exposure to Asian culture and I think it has left a lasting impression.I've always loved all aspects of Asian culture and find it fascinating.Big gap in exposure though till went to Taiwan and Singapore for a week a couple of years ago with a school group,and only had a little phrasebook to try and help me out and  the few phrases one of the kids could teach me.But I loved the experience and the challenge of trying to communicate was greatly rewarding.Wonderful people.Now my daughter is studying Mandarin in school and it is something we can share together.She is developing a real interest in perhaps incorporating Chinese in her future career choice.I can't wait till I can get to visit mainland China for the first time and take my daughter ,but unfortunately have no immediate plans due to circumstances.However I'm sure we'll get there one day and want to get the most out of it.But as motivated as I am,I must say that I don't know how long I'd keep it up if I was just learning from books.Fortunately I met someone who had worked for a year doing scientific research in southern China who put me onto Chinese Pod.She said it was how she coped with learning the language while there.So I heard about you guys through word of mouth.Your lessons are so entertaining ,and at the same time make the learning so clear,that I'm continuing for the fun of it as much as anything else.So for me it was books and also asking for a few phrases from fellow travellers,prior to travel.I hope this answers the question.Anyway,keep up the great work!