10 ways to succeed
bodawei
June 25, 2010 at 04:13 PM posted in General Discussion10 ways you are most likely to succeed at Chinese:
1. Keep a small notebook; write down everything you think might be useful.
2. Get a one-on-one teacher to do your homework for you, hang the expense.
3. Find aChinese girlfriend/boyfriend.
4. Occupy a Chinese hospital bed for about six months.
5. Go to China – helps a lot.
6. Use a paper dictionary, but check what it says with a native-speaker.
7. And an electronic dictionary; carry it everywhere.
8. Lose any sense of embarrassment.
9. Listen to ChinesePod.
10. Have some Chinese genes. :-)
bodawei
June 26, 2010 at 05:09 AMOkay, there are more than 10 ways.
I bought a phrase book written for Chinese people learning English (临时急需一句话). At first I thought this was a novelty - pinyin is used to guide the Chinese in their pronunciation of English. Very comical. They are taught this way in school too - some of you will have experienced the results.
But then I realised that the Chinese is actually natural Chinese. Phrase books written for native English speakers have a lot of Chinese translations of what English speakers say - sometimes it just doesn't work. (The Lonely Planet phrase book is very good - native speakers I trust say that it is about 50% useful. Not bad really, but how do you know the 50% that works?)
Anyway, this phrasebook, full of natural Chinese phrases, cost 7 RMB on special, because it is a 2007 edition. But if I can speak 2007 edition Chinese I will consider that a success.