best way for a beginner to learn Chinese

[Anonymous]

My 13-year-old started learning Chinese on Duolingo a few months ago on her own, and is surprisingly into it. She's downloaded an app to help with pronunciation and she's made flashcards which she uses to study. All on her own (!). Anyway, I'm beginning to wonder if there's a way I can support her in this endeavor. (Her school does not have a Chinese program.) Any thoughts?

[Anonymous]

I wish I remembered the naem of the textbook I used. It had some videos on youtube. I'm sure she can find some on there -- it'll go over everyday situations and she can learn from that.

[Anonymous]

Plan a trip to China in the near? future

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plan a trip to China in the near? future

Americans not allowed into China without a quarantine.

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend the Foreign Service method for learning languages! I had the Swahili version when I was younger. It is practical and outstanding for self-guided learning. Would be a good step up from DuoLingo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I highly recommend the Foreign Service method for learning languages! I had the Swahili version when I was younger. It is practical and outstanding for self-guided learning. Would be a good step up from DuoLingo.

Op here. Thanks for the suggestion. Also, re the earlier suggestion for a family trip to China. If only!

[Anonymous]

YouTube Chinese cartoons and teen dramas. Also Netflix

[Anonymous]

Books - you need to see the grammar and characters.

[Anonymous]

I've been learning Chinese for a few years. I'm not bragging when I say that in living in multiple countries and knowing many expats going in all different directions, I have never met anyone who has a better accent in foreign languages. In three different European countries I lived for just a couple years each, I was frequently mistaken for a native speaker of those languages despite only learning the language briefly.

I have now been told by several people that I pronounce Chinese *almost* well enough to be considered native. But this was a struggle. With Chinese, I tried to use rosetta stone, other online courses, and books that I ordered. I listened to the speakers over and over, and practiced speaking for months. Then, I visited Singapore and tried to speak some Chinese to my colleague, and he was like "dude what are you saying?" Apparently pronunciation is much more subtle, and a lot of it is because of the tones (but there are some tough sounds for a lot of speakers - q, x, r, c). So, I got an online tutor. She went over speaking drills and sounds over and over and over. It is fairly common knowledge online that unlike french, spanish, german, or other basic European languages, Chinese is really something not advisable to learn from a book or online course. You need a live person there telling you how you're butchering the language in real time in order to really improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been learning Chinese for a few years. I'm not bragging when I say that in living in multiple countries and knowing many expats going in all different directions, I have never met anyone who has a better accent in foreign languages. In three different European countries I lived for just a couple years each, I was frequently mistaken for a native speaker of those languages despite only learning the language briefly.

I have now been told by several people that I pronounce Chinese *almost* well enough to be considered native. But this was a struggle. With Chinese, I tried to use rosetta stone, other online courses, and books that I ordered. I listened to the speakers over and over, and practiced speaking for months. Then, I visited Singapore and tried to speak some Chinese to my colleague, and he was like "dude what are you saying?" Apparently pronunciation is much more subtle, and a lot of it is because of the tones (but there are some tough sounds for a lot of speakers - q, x, r, c). So, I got an online tutor. She went over speaking drills and sounds over and over and over. It is fairly common knowledge online that unlike french, spanish, german, or other basic European languages, Chinese is really something not advisable to learn from a book or online course. You need a live person there telling you how you're butchering the language in real time in order to really improve.

Sorry, but as just one example, you will meet Europeans all the time who speak English and mispronounce almost every word they say - and yet are still very understandable. For example they might pronounce grass like gross (which actually is how british people say it anyway). It has no effect on the meaning of their sentence. In Chinese, this is not true. I may be mixing up the words, but I think it is specifically the word for grass (cao) that if you pronounce it with a downward tone instead of a downward then upward tone, it actually means f*ck. This is a big problem for English speakers and most European speakers because we insert tones into our speaking constantly. We might say, "Look at the beautiful grass!" and the tone on grass is way different than if you say, "Oh god... what ugly grass." That is NOT allowed in Chinese. You can inflect upward for the word at the end of a question or to indicate surprise. The tone that you use makes every single word have a completely different meaning. Highly unlikely for this to be adequately absorbed by a new learner who doesn't have a real teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been learning Chinese for a few years. I'm not bragging when I say that in living in multiple countries and knowing many expats going in all different directions, I have never met anyone who has a better accent in foreign languages. In three different European countries I lived for just a couple years each, I was frequently mistaken for a native speaker of those languages despite only learning the language briefly.

I have now been told by several people that I pronounce Chinese *almost* well enough to be considered native. But this was a struggle. With Chinese, I tried to use rosetta stone, other online courses, and books that I ordered. I listened to the speakers over and over, and practiced speaking for months. Then, I visited Singapore and tried to speak some Chinese to my colleague, and he was like "dude what are you saying?" Apparently pronunciation is much more subtle, and a lot of it is because of the tones (but there are some tough sounds for a lot of speakers - q, x, r, c). So, I got an online tutor. She went over speaking drills and sounds over and over and over. It is fairly common knowledge online that unlike french, spanish, german, or other basic European languages, Chinese is really something not advisable to learn from a book or online course. You need a live person there telling you how you're butchering the language in real time in order to really improve.

This. Mandarin Chinese has five distinct tones. You can't screw them up, otherwise you change the meaning of the word. I'm Vietnamese and we have 7 tones. You can literally call someone "American" or "ramen noodle" by just changing the tone. Something like Duolingo for a tonal language is a total waste of time if you are hoping to have anyone understand you. You really need a tutor. Or a foreign student willing to exchange basic Chinese lessons to improve their conversational English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been learning Chinese for a few years. I'm not bragging when I say that in living in multiple countries and knowing many expats going in all different directions, I have never met anyone who has a better accent in foreign languages. In three different European countries I lived for just a couple years each, I was frequently mistaken for a native speaker of those languages despite only learning the language briefly.

I have now been told by several people that I pronounce Chinese *almost* well enough to be considered native. But this was a struggle. With Chinese, I tried to use rosetta stone, other online courses, and books that I ordered. I listened to the speakers over and over, and practiced speaking for months. Then, I visited Singapore and tried to speak some Chinese to my colleague, and he was like "dude what are you saying?" Apparently pronunciation is much more subtle, and a lot of it is because of the tones (but there are some tough sounds for a lot of speakers - q, x, r, c). So, I got an online tutor. She went over speaking drills and sounds over and over and over. It is fairly common knowledge online that unlike french, spanish, german, or other basic European languages, Chinese is really something not advisable to learn from a book or online course. You need a live person there telling you how you're butchering the language in real time in order to really improve.

I'm impressed! Any tips on how you were able to learn how to pronounce?

[Anonymous]

OP, can she try practicing with native speakers? This is a great way to improve fluency. She can probably find some kind of language exchange website online, with your supervision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plan a trip to China in the near? future

This may be a good idea when OP's daughter has more experience speaking Chinese. If her pronunciation isn't great yet, it may not be possible for native speakers to understand much of what she's saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:YouTube Chinese cartoons and teen dramas. Also Netflix

This + music