Wanting to learn Mandarin Chinese - book suggestions, tips, or advice?

[St.Sinner]

I'd like to use my spare time to try and learn Chinese, but at the moment am a bit lost on how to start. Does anyone know of any good books for a beginner? Right now I have some very, very, very rudimentary knowledge of the language. I know a few words, can string some of them together to form simple sentences, read and write some basic characters, and I know how to pronounce the Romanised form of words. That's about it.

I'd like to be able to have simple, everyday conversations, as well as read and write at, well, shall we say primary school level? (No need to set too lofty a goal right from the outset, methinks :smallsmile:) Any advice or recomendations would be much appreciated!

[golfmade]

To explain where my advice is coming from: I'm originally from the US but have been living in Taiwan for 3 years now. I've studied Mandarin since 2004 for a few reasons. One, like yourself I'm interested in the language. Biggest reason though is my wife is Taiwanese.

First thing is decide if you want to study simplified (aka the People's Republic of China) or traditional (Republic of China) versions of Chinese.

I started out studying simplified for two years as my teacher in the US was from the mainland, but when I came to Taiwan I had to relearn everything.

In my own opinion I prefer traditional. It's a bit more difficult but the characters look better and it's easier for me to try to guess the meaning of a word in traditional rather than simplified.

I've used various textbooks and can't really recommend one over the other. Some are of course based using simplified, while others use traditional.

One book however I can HIGHLY recommend if you're at all serious about reading and writing Chinese is "Reading and Writing Chinese" by William McNaughton. I have had the book since I started studying and I still use it all the time.
Looking it up actually there is now a simplified version (although the traditional version shows the simplified forms as well).
I know you're in Australia but just showing the links so you can see the books and reviews for the books.

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Traditional-Character/dp/0804832064/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246116658&sr=8-2

http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Writing-Chinese-Simplified-Character/dp/0804835098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246116658&sr=8-1

My biggest advice above everything is patience.

If you have any other questions feel free to PM me.

As for pronunciation I personally don't like romanized Pinyin. I've been making an effort to learn the Taiwanese system known as Zhuyin, which doesn't rely on romanized alphabet usage at all.

[adanedhel9]

I've started with Ultimate Mandarin Chinese (http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Chinese-Mandarin-Beginner-Intermediate-Book/dp/1400021030/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246127676&sr=1-1) just a few weeks ago. So far it's going well, but it's hard to guage how well - I've never tried learning a language from a book before, so I don't have a frame of reference.

Most of the content so far has been grammar-centric; I've found I have to put in a little extra work (ie flashcards) to pick up vocabulary. The book has a tendency to use words that it hasn't defined yet (or in some cases, never will, if you believe the index and mini dictionary). I know this is unavoidable early on, but ideally the book would at least provide the resources to figure it out.

I know my pronounciation is terrible. The book comes with audio CDs, but so far I haven't had the time to really work with them. And pinyin doesn't help - the choice of letters is quite misleading to a westerner. But it's doubtful you'll find a book that doesn't use pinyin, as it's the standard.

My why: Wŏ shí yī yuè zài Zhōngguó zŏu.
(Hopefully that's comprehensible.)

[St.Sinner]

^ Umm... you lived in China for 11 months? Is that right? *crosses fingers*

Thank you for the book recommendations. I will certainly look those up. I have decided to learn simplified Chinese, as what little I already know is in simplified form. My biggest quandary (or so I think, without having started yet) is how to build up a respectable vocabulary.

Golfmade, I understand you're in a Chinese-based environment now, and certainly you have your wife to help you, but how did you improve your vocabulary while you were in the States?

Well I'll have to remember the advice about patience. I suspect progress will be slow, painful, and a wonderful comedy of errors :smallsmile:

[llamamushroom]

To be honest, as great as books are, it's better to use people. If you don't have time to go to a course of some kind, I'd suggest going to your friendly neighbourhood Chinese restaurant once in a while - start off by saying 'please' or 'thankyou' in chinese to show you're interested, and then ask if they can help you. Plus, you also get to have a delicious meal. Admittedly, they'll probably know more Cantonese than Mandarin, but they should be able to help. Which is not to say books are useless, because they're a great way of learning new vocab/syntax, but for learning the language fluently, interaction is the best.

Take that advice with a grain of salt, though - people are people, and maybe those running your local only speak Cantonese/don't have time/just aren't interested in helping random strangers.

If you really want a book, the ones I've been using at school are the Ni Hao series, by Paul and Shumang Fredlein. Mind-bogglingly simplistic at times, but they should be fairly useful.

Edit: Adanedhel9, what are you saying there? I admit that my pinyin skills are somewhere around awful, but if St. Sinner is right in her translation, you missed out on zhu (2nd tone, I think), and you should probably be saying wo zhu zai zhong guo de shi yi ge yue, using 'de' (possessive) as a way of describing the 11 months, and 'ge' as the measure word for them.

[Ashtar]

Go Tandem!
Lean Mandarin Chinese with someone who really speaks the language. Exchange hours of English with someone who speaks Mandarin and wants to learn English.

In my opinion, that's the best way to learn. Also you will be learning practical Mandarin that you can use in day to day life, instead of book lesson x Mandarin which usually sounds strange and is generally incomprehensible.

[Optimystik]

I'll just recommend the language staples - Rosetta Stone and Chinese for Dummies. That might be a good place to start and you should be able to find them even in Australia :smallsmile:

[golfmade]

Golfmade, I understand you're in a Chinese-based environment now, and certainly you have your wife to help you, but how did you improve your vocabulary while you were in the States?


I would make flashcards of new vocabulary I was learning (I took Chinese courses at my university) and as well I would make flashcards based on words I picked out of the book I mentioned or other sources.

[adanedhel9]

I accidentally added a few extra spaces; that might have confused people. Or I could just be dead wrong.

(Wŏ) (shíyīyuè) (zài Zhōngguó) (zŏu).
(I) (November) (in China) (go).

[Amiel]

I'd like to use my spare time to try and learn Chinese, but at the moment am a bit lost on how to start. Does anyone know of any good books for a beginner? Right now I have some very, very, very rudimentary knowledge of the language. I know a few words, can string some of them together to form simple sentences, read and write some basic characters, and I know how to pronounce the Romanised form of words. That's about it.

I'd like to be able to have simple, everyday conversations, as well as read and write at, well, shall we say primary school level? (No need to set too lofty a goal right from the outset, methinks :smallsmile:) Any advice or recomendations would be much appreciated!


A fellow Aussie! G'day! :)
For learning the intricacies of grammar, syntax et al there are a variety of books available for the beginner; an oddity of the language is that it lacks declension and conjugation, so that could throw you off a tiny bit when you start learning Mandarin.
Any books with 'Chinese for Beginners' or 'Beginner's Mandarin' in the title would be a helpful start. Then there's Integrated Chinese, Dragon Books et al
I don't know which state or city you're in, but in Melbourne (and probably Sydney?) there's a bookshop by the name of China Books (http://www.chinabooks.com.au/ChinaBooks/), which holds a veritable hoard of resources on China, Chinese medicine, learning Chinese, etc
Here's a page that may interest you. Learning Chinese (http://www.chinabooks.com.au/ChinaBooks/browse.cfm?sub_section_id=3&level_1_id=3)
You could also try Wikipedia for some articles on Mandarin, grammar et al.

For pronunciation, I would recommend tapes over what they teach you in books. The language is very difficult to learn and wrap one's tongue around after only a perusal as opposed to oral practice. Chinese in all its dialect forms is largely monosyllabic, and Mandarin in particular has many words of differing meaning although with the same pronunciation. You may find that you'll spend the bulk of your time just practicing tonal inflection! (Mandarin has four, Cantonese, horrifyingly, has nine) :smallfrown:
Also, there are many videos on Youtube that can help you in this regard. You can also practice by introducing a sprinkling of Mandarin in your sentences while in conversation at Chinese restaurants, grocery stores and others; the staff in Cantonese restaurants do know and speak Mandarin in addition to their native language.

Similarly, immersion within the culture, living in China for a duration of weeks through to months or even years, will also help with mastering the language and pronunciation. You could spend some time over there enjoying a holiday learning Mandarin while at the same time holding a job in teaching English.


Incidently, you may wish to pop down to the Chinese embassy and obtain some copies of the Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students; the students' command over Mandarin is awesomely awesome.


Hope that's helpful! :smallsmile:


I accidentally added a few extra spaces; that might have confused people. Or I could just be dead wrong.

(Wŏ) (shíyīyuè) (zài Zhōngguó) (zŏu).
(I) (November) (in China) (go).

Hey, mate. I hope you don't see this as harsh criticism, but unfortunately the sentence doesn't make sense.

You could say the following:

Wo shiyiyue - fen(4th) - qu(4th) Zhongguo
(I) (November) - (month) (go) (China)
我十一月分去中国

Huo(4th) zhe(3rd)
（or)
或者

Shiyiyue wo qu Zhongguo
(November) (I) (go) (China)
十一月我去中国

Hope that's helpful! :smallsmile:

[Pyro]

I too want to learn Mandarin. Badly. I've familiarized myself with the tones and pinyin via online materials, practicing in my room when no one else is around (:smallredface:), but I've written off an in depth study of Mandarin for now. A TRULY dedicated person could teach themselves Mandarin, but I fear I lack the dedication to force myself to memorize the characters.

I wish my high school has a Chinese class, but sadly it doesn't. I'll have to wait until college. The next three years could not go slower.

Edit: Just remembered I wanted to post this (http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/) pinyin table. I've been using it to accustom my ear to the tones, and I have a question for skilled Chinese speakers. Are the sounds in the table an accurate representation of how to produce Mandarin tones, consonants, and vowels?

[St.Sinner]

Go Tandem!
Lean Mandarin Chinese with someone who really speaks the language. Exchange hours of English with someone who speaks Mandarin and wants to learn English.

That technique doesn't work so well. In my first year as an undergrad at university, we had myself, one Chinese, one Japanese, and one German as flatmates. Prime opportunity to learn multiple languages, right? We did try. Needless to say, none of us ended up learning very much at all (although those were fun times. Ah... nostalgia.)

For me it takes serious, concentrated study to pick up a language. I can't seem to retain very much from pieces of banter and random swapping of vocabulary. Also I think you need someone proficient in both languages, who can explain the peculiarities of one language compared to the other, otherwise both people just wind up confused.


To be honest, as great as books are, it's better to use people. If you don't have time to go to a course of some kind, I'd suggest going to your friendly neighbourhood Chinese restaurant once in a while - start off by saying 'please' or 'thankyou' in chinese to show you're interested, and then ask if they can help you.

Ideally I'd get to a tutor or a class, but right now I can only do self-study. Once I gain some confidence, I'll certainly start inflicting my Chinese on a few people around town (my Taiwanese neighbour would be one unfortunate candidate.) I do have a family member who's fluent in Chinese - but he lives overseas and thus can only be called in case of dire linguistic emergency.



I don't know which state or city you're in, but in Melbourne (and probably Sydney?) there's a bookshop by the name of China Books (http://www.chinabooks.com.au/ChinaBooks/), which holds a veritable hoard of resources on China, Chinese medicine, learning Chinese, etc
Here's a page that may interest you. Learning Chinese (http://www.chinabooks.com.au/ChinaBooks/browse.cfm?sub_section_id=3&level_1_id=3)


Thanks. Apparently there's a store in Sydney as well, which I'll look for.

I had a peek in Chinese for Dummies. I didn't really like it, as the approach seems to be completely based on pinyin, with nary a Chinese character in sight.

Has anyone ever tried the Pimsleur method? It has some pretty good reviews on Amazon, and a couple of negative ones. The Pimsleur program suggests initially learning entirely by sound, without any written word or pinyin.