6 months to learn
joel5656
August 15, 2010, 08:01 AM posted in General DiscussionHello, I have met a great Chinese lady and I plan on moving there early next year to marry and make China my new home. I have been trying to learn Mandarin but am finding it very hard. I have about 6 months to study and learn. I am retired so I have plenty of time to study, but I have no idea which package to get. Any ideas? I have grown to love listening to Chinesepod everyday.
I have many discs I listen to and am also useing Livemocha, but I have not way of knowing if I am saying things right.
suxiaoya
August 15, 2010, 02:54 AMHi joel5656 - Congratulations on your engagement, first and foremost!
Secondly, to echo pretzellogic's words, I'd say that a Guided or Executive course could be suitable (see this page: chinesepod.com/packages/courses/individual).
As well as full Premium access to all the lessons and tools on ChinesePod, the Guided and Executive options provide regular conversations with a ChinesePod teacher. These are very helpful in helping to build your confidence in pronunciation and spoken Chinese. Plus, with regular contact with your teacher, you'll probably find it easy to maintain focus and stay motivated.
Do let me know if you need any advice or help with anything!
pretzellogic
August 15, 2010, 02:26 AMBy package, I assume you mean which Chinese pod subscription package. I'm not clear on what subscription level you're at currently right now. You are posting at the newbie level, But then i'm a bit confused since you say you have also listened to Chinesepod for awhile, so you might have already advanced beyond the newbie stage.
In any event, I would suggest that if you haven't already started with any speaking practice, that you start subscribing to a guided or executive subscription for 6 months. a bit on the expensive side, but you'll likely need feedback on your Chinese pronunciation. Plus you say that you've got plenty of time to study, and study time is a definite requirement. I've got a guided subscription, and it's been very helpful for me to find that composing sentences on the fly without having sentence patterns down is a challenge.