Memorizing to learn Mandarin

sabrinapm
 January 15, 2010, 09:50 PM posted in General Discussion

What is something good to memorize to learn Mandarin and the tones?  Like a poem or something.

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bababardwan
 January 15, 2010, 10:45 PM

Sabrinapm,

I haven't gotten around to checking this out myself yet,but our excellent teachers website may be worth checking out here:

http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/

Also,have you checked out the pinyin programme and the resources section of this website?

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sabrinapm
 January 15, 2010, 10:50 PM

I haven't checked out everything yet.  But thanks for the website.  I'll have to check it out.

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pretzellogic
 January 16, 2010, 04:39 AM

If you want to get proficient at learning the tones, I would suggest frequently listening to the lesson dialogs, and repeating what is said out loud.  Shadowing worked for me.

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calicartel
 January 16, 2010, 08:42 AM

Yale university had tone drills with combinations not only of 2, but of 3 and 4 tones. I can't track down the web page any more. Maybe someone can. The web page was in green + light brown colour, if that's any help to locate it.

I think the 4-character combinations (so-called "chang-yu") are the best for this purpose.

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calicartel
 January 17, 2010, 05:55 AM

I've located the tone drills (click the tutorials under "2007 fall semester"

http://classes.yale.edu/chns130/taTutorial/index.html