User Comments - RJ
RJ
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 1:27 PMI also use the electronic flash cards provided in my vocab list by CPod. These have the added advantage of the attached sound file to hear the pronounciation if needed. Awesome. What was that word that got you in trouble Amber? They also have the matching game which breaks up the monotony and still lets you learn. I use this every day as well. You can do them random or in order or by tag. CPod is great. It doesnt get any better than this. I have the technology - all that remains to do is the hard work.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 1:12 PMThere is a great set of flash cards available if you want to buy them by Philip Yungkin Lee who is a Chinese Professor in Australia. They are published by Tuttle. "Chinese in a flash" vol one and two contain a total of 896 cards in order of usage frequency. They have simplified and traditional Characters on front with origin and radical noted and on the back the def, pinyin, 4 combo examples with def and a sample sentence. Very powerful stuff. You can also buy the two books ("250 Essential Chinese characters for everyday use vol 1 and 2") that go with them and cover the first 500 characters giving many detailed examples in sentences of each character and its combinations. This is a powerful set. I love it. They help for vocab and character recognition but there is no substitue for learning to write the characters. If you can write them, you know them. If you learn to write them, learn the stroke order. Sounds useless at first but it does help as well. You can buy the card and book sets from amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Flash-Vol-Tuttle-Cards/dp/0804833613
Posted on: Give Me a Kiss
November 24, 2007 at 2:55 AMI remember hearing a song in SH - qin qin wo de bao bei. “Kiss kiss my baby". At least I think thats correct. My favorite bubble gum love song however was “I love you like the mouse loves the rice“. :-) 老鼠爱大米 but we are off topic here a little.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 1:08 AMAZDMom, The Muzzy series looks interesting. I almost bought the Rosetta once but I was not convinced their technique would be any better when applied to Mandarin. The bottom line is there is no substitute for hard work. The ZhongWen books are very cheap. They are mainly for character learning but contain stories such as the three little pigs. Where else can I read the three little pigs in Chinese.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 12:55 AMOh - sorry Doc, one too many c's in that one. I thought I fixed that. try this one http://www.acclub.org/
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 23, 2007 at 10:40 PMHi Doc, the "Zhong Wen" series of books was developed by Jinan University for elementary age kids. There are 12 books each with CD and workbooks. They can be found at Asian cultural center site https://www.accclub.org bottom left. -Bob
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 23, 2007 at 7:53 PMMansomikey- Actually as far as cd's are concerned Pimsleur is one of the best in my opinion. I was just thrilled to find CPod. I have been teaching myself Chinese for 2 years and you are right - variety helps. It was a real challenge to find material to use. Another tool I found was a set of 12 books called Zhongwen that come with interactive cd's that include character stroke order and pronounciation correponding to each story. These are childrens books created by the Chinese govt. for Chinese children growing up over seas. They are childrens books yes but that is the level that is appropriate anyway. They are available in trad character versions if you so desire also. The more tools the better.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 23, 2007 at 4:15 PMChinabiscuit - It has been my experience that learning to write characters is almost essential to retaining them and in the long run makes it easier. There is a an e-flashcard feature in the vocab list on CPod that is nice also. RJ
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 23, 2007 at 4:03 PMI have hundreds of flashcards but they dont stick as well as I would like. Writing characters is very helpful. I have made excel sheets blocked off so I can write the characters multiple times. I take the cards when I go for a walk but now I have the ipod too.
Posted on: Adventures in Chinese Learning
November 24, 2007 at 1:43 PMGaylon, wow, you have come a long way in just 3 years. I have to agree with Henning though, there is no line to draw. When I think about it, even as a native speaker, I am still learning english. Somewhat daunting when you think about it. You can never be "finished" and I will never match a native speaker. No one can. -Bob