4Real Forums: Chinese?

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High School Years and Beyond ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond

Topic: Chinese?

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guitarnan
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
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Posted: June 12 2008 at 2:59pm \| IP Logged

Has anyone tried to study high school Chinese? My son is interested, but not if it's agonizingly difficult. Tutoring is probably not in the picture. We'd be doing it solo, and I definitely don't speak Chinese.

All advice appreciated...

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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

ALmom
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Joined: May 18 2005
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Posted: June 12 2008 at 4:37pm \| IP Logged

Ok, Chinese is a very difficult language to learn and while we thought about trying, we just never attempted it because family that spoke and wrote it (in our case Cantonese) wasn't nearby enough to give practice and the language schools that might have helped with teaching/pronunciation were all Mandarin - something my relatives encourage us to learn rather than Cantonese now for practical reasons and we were a bit swamped just doing regular stuff at the time. It certainly would be a very good language to know and may be critical to our national defense in the near future.

I can put you in touch with someone (caucasion) who teaches Chinese studies at the University level and knows the old style but might be a bit far to travel. Are there any Chinese schools that meet on Saturday where he could at least find someone to speak with and get pronunciation (tone is important)practice/help. I do know I asked about Cantonese language support and there were some on-line like powerglide. I don't remember which were recommended or not but it is in an old thread on here somewhere. I assume you would be learning Mandarin as opposed to one of the dialects?

You should also be aware that there are two styles of writing - the old style and the new. In our location, there are two different Chinese schools - one teaching as in Taiwan with the old style and one with mainland China with the new style. Any computer program is bound to teach old style if they deal with writing at all.

The advantage/disadvantage of the new style:

It is easier to learn, and easier to put on computer.
but you will not be able to read old documents if you learn in the new style - or translate old photos from family from the past- something we learned when we tried to get local folks in the Chinese community to translate for us, none of them could.

The advantage/disadvantage of the old style:

If you learn to write old style, you will be able to read both old and new style so no limits there. The main disadvantage is that it is too complicated to put on computer and it is an art form all unto itself so it is more difficult to learn.

Sorry I cannot tell you more - the above is the sum total of all I know other than a phrase or two in Cantonese and how to write our last name (probably some simplified script but not even sure about that).

Janet

MarieA
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Joined: Aug 27 2006
Location: Virginia
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Posted: June 20 2008 at 3:36pm \| IP Logged

Hi Nancy,

Check out this course, Rocket Chinese. I have the Spanish version and really like it. You can do a free 6 day course to see if you like it. You can then download the entire course (to CD or MP3) for $99.95 or have them ship the course to you for, I believe, $299.95.

Enjoy!

Marie (Army wife in No VA.)

guitarnan
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Joined: Feb 07 2005
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Posted: June 20 2008 at 6:12pm \| IP Logged

Thanks, Marie - my son has seen the light of day and decided to go with French! Whew! Not only can I read the alphabet, I can actually speak the language.

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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

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