hi

jlehrer
January 08, 2011, 08:29 AM posted in General Discussion

hey. i've been working for immigrant rights in nyc for a few years but only with spanish speaking immigrants. i lived in guatemala for several months and learned spanish there. now i'm interested in broadening my work and chinese is a natural choice due to the high amount of chinese immigrants here. i also study kung fu at a school that incorporates chinese language and history into our classes. i'm really looking forward to checking out chinesepod more....i'm hoping for the best!!!!

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pretzellogic
January 08, 2011, 09:34 AM

Best of luck to you!  If you are serious about working with the Chinese community in NYC, and you think you need to learn Mandarin to do it,  Chinesepod is a great way to learn on the go. 

I did the Kung Fu thing as well, and realized now what our shifu was talking about.  But after a year, he left.  

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trevorb
January 08, 2011, 10:56 PM

Cpod is a good place to come and learn mandarin so welcome.  Do remember though that China has a lot of dialects and although mandarin is the standard language not all of your immigrants will be guranteed to know it.

I say that not to disuade you from learning as it will be useful (especially the written side) but just so that when you say ni3hao3 to someone and they look at you blankly its probably because they don't understand rather than you said it badly ;-)

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jlehrer
January 11, 2011, 02:45 AM

haha thanks all

and yeah i know....i wish i could learn all languages!!!! the 2 dominant dialects in nyc are mandarin and cantonese, so at least i'll be covering a fair portion! something's better than nothing!