Teachin'Mine Posted March 1, 2011 Share Posted March 1, 2011 I'm looking for inexpensive options for Mandarin next year. I'm hoping to find a program, or text and DVD's or text and CD's, which doesn't use pinyin, but teaches correct pronunciation, character writing, etc.. Has anyone found something like this? Any help is greatly appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 (edited) nm ... : ) Edited March 2, 2011 by Teachin'Mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennW in SoCal Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 The only thing that is going to teach correct pronunciation with the proper tones is a teacher. I studied Mandarin in college, spent a summer in China, have a BA and MA in Chinese Studies, and it is a language I can't imagine learning through a program. But, there are programs out there. Have you searched the boards for past threads on this topic? As my kids didn't want to learn it I haven't kept up with what is out there -- and the materials I used are ancient and likely out of print! One other point. Is there a reason why you would not use pinyin? It is a very clear and concise romanization of the language, and is a vital part of learning the correct pronunciation. Unless you have family in Taiwan and want instead to use BoPoMoFo (or what ever it is called), being comfortable with pinyin is the way to go. In my classes we'd have dictation where we'd have to write the sentence in pinyin with the correct tone markings AND write it with characters. Signage in China is both in characters and pinyin. And if you are going with the Taiwan approach you'll need to find traditional complex characters -- most programs that use pinyin would also use the revised "simplified" characters. Or maybe I'm really confusing you, but the whole "no pinyin" thing surprised me!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 The Potters School offers year long Mandarin Chinese classes via live online courses. I believe the cost is around $450 a year, but that breaks down to about $45 a month for a 10 month school year. I really don't consider that to be all that expensive, particularly when you've got access to a REAL LIVE teacher who's ready, willing, and able to answer your dc's questions and correct all the work for you. my 2 cents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Jenn thank you so much for your post. :) I deleted my last post because I think I've found something which may work for us. FLVS had been recommended, and while it's great for Florida residents, it's $750 for the rest of us. :tongue_smilie: What I did find is the MIT online course which is free. :) I watched their preview lesson, and came to the same conclusion about the pinyin being important to learn. I had learned some very basic Chinese a few years back, and we were taught using pinyin as well as learning a bit about the characters. What we all did though, is apply the English interpretation of the pronunciation of the words written in pinyin. :tongue_smilie: It was really hard to separate the two or to fully grasp how it should sound. I thought that if pinyin wasn't used, she would just hear the pronunciation and repeat. That's what she's doing in a course this year and it seems to be working. But I can see how it is necessary to learn the pinyin as well - especially with learning which tone to use. So no pinyin is no longer a requirement. :) I would love your opinion on the MIT course. They use this text: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0300141173/sr=8-1/qid=1299091743/ref=olp_tab_new?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=1299091743&sr=8-1&seller=&colid=&condition=new Thank you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 The Potters School offers year long Mandarin Chinese classes via live online courses. I believe the cost is around $450 a year, but that breaks down to about $45 a month for a 10 month school year. I really don't consider that to be all that expensive, particularly when you've got access to a REAL LIVE teacher who's ready, willing, and able to answer your dc's questions and correct all the work for you. my 2 cents. Lavendar I'm sorry I missed your post. I was writing mine when yours posted. :) Thank you for the suggestion. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emubird Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 The Pimsleur Mandarin course isn't bad. You'd have to supplement with written materials at some point, but it might be a good starting point. It's kind of expensive. We've used a copy from the library. At one point, our library had it as an e-audiobook so we could just download it. Some libraries might still have that. As you were saying, it might be nice to start with an audio only course so as not to be so confused by how pinyin looks like it "should" be pronounced. But that's an issue with any written language. We used to pronounce written Spanish like English, but we've gotten a lot better with repetition. This book has a nice layout with large print for learning characters: http://www.amazon.com/First-100-Chinese-Characters-Simplified/dp/0804838305 However, it doesn't actually teach Chinese. It just shows how to write the characters. It comes in both a simplified and non-simplified form and I *think* that each version also shows the other (either simplified or non-simplified), but without the practice space for writing it. You might find, though, that there are sites on the web that do the same thing for free. These books have a lot of white space for practicing, so it might cost more than you're willing to pay for what they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Emubird thank you for the Pimsleur recommendation. Yes buying it expensive, but I like the idea of getting it from the library. :) I looked inside the book, and there are a lot of blank squares for practicing, but the book looks good in its content and easy to use. I think combining this with one of those neat brush pens Nan talked about a while back might be great. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingiguana Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0887100643/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=088710066X&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1NM3VDCE6MGTD9A9YZ5B This was the book we used back in college (Read Chinese). However, we didn't start this one until we had done a number of chapters of the companion book Speak Chinese. And the romanization is not pinyin, but something out of Yale University (?). It's a nice book for reading practice and learning characters, but you do have to have some of the language down aurally first. And it turns out the Michel Thomas "method" has a Mandarin program. http://www.amazon.com/Mandarin-Chinese-Beginners-Michel-Program/dp/0071547363/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1299245016&sr=1-3 I haven't a clue how it is, but the reviews on Amazon seem to think it was easier to understand than Pimsleur. I imagine, though, that like all the others in the series, it doesn't really get too far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeonCat Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 My ds is studying with a tutor (originally from Beijing) who uses pinyin then moves on to characters. Pinyin seems like a good way to start. She prefers to teach face-to-face, but I think she teaches some over skype if you're interested. She's quite affordable. In addition, I think Virtual Homeschool has Mandarin classes. If I'm correct, their teacher does not use pinyin (& classes are free, except for the text). Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoundAbout Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 I studied Mandarin in graduate school including 6 months in Beijing. I second the recommendation for Pimsleur. Love that program and I think it is so under-rated. For reading I highly recommend a book called Rapid Literacy in Chinese. I'm on vacation so don't have the author/publishing information handy but I bought it in China and I've seen it for sale in catalogs. It's a very slim book. The format is: one page will have 30 unique words with definitions (character-pinyin-English). At the bottom they are strung together into a sentence (characters on top, with pinyin on bottom). The idea is that when you can read the whole sentence without stumbling you know the characters/words. I would always cover up the pinyin and glance at it only if I got stuck. Sometimes I'd have to glance up at the English definitions if I got really stuck. The facing page has related vocab and exercises using the newly learned and previous characters. Every few lessons are whole paragraph reviews and exercises. Really fantastic program and supposedly gets you reading 750 characters and thousands of words if you do the whole thing. I only got about half way... but I love it so much I have two copies, one to mark up and one I keep pristine for photocopies. I've never seen anything else as effective for reading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 Flying Iguana, NeonCat and RoundAbout - thank you! If anyone else is following this too, here's a link for the Rapid Literacy: http://www.amazon.com/Rapid-Literacy-Chinese-Mandarin-English/dp/780052695X I'm getting so many great suggestions for putting a course together - thank you everyone!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Here's a link to an older thread; perhaps something there might be of help. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest emilyholin Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Free Kauile Hanyu (Happy Chinese) online course is available here, http://kid.chinese.cn/en/article/2009-09/25/content_68533.htm You can of course purchase textbook & workbook also. Enjoy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan C. Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 I think Mango has it. Ask around to your relatives, my mom's library in California has it free, so I use her card #. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ailaena Posted March 17, 2011 Share Posted March 17, 2011 Re: The MIT Chinese class, everything is completely free and available on the OCW site, including the mp3s. If you scroll down to the bottom of this page, you will see downloads for units of the book. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/foreign-languages-and-literatures/21f-101-chinese-i-regular-spring-2006/readings/ DD did Chinese 1 at the CC and is finishing up through IV with the MIT classes (with pronunciation help from a friend). She also quickly went through some of the stuff that CNED offers for free. It wasn't great, but if your French is passable, it is some more vocabulary and listening practice. If you want a computer thing, Fluenz was MUCH better than either Rosetta Stone or Auralog. It consists of guided lessons and includes reading and writing portions. I have no idea how much it is, probably quite expensive :( CCTV also has some good video lessons for supplementing whatever program you ultimately decide on. http://english.cntv.cn/learnchinese/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted December 12, 2011 Author Share Posted December 12, 2011 Hmmm ... all 8 posts the same. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Hmmm ... all 8 posts the same. :glare: I assume you reported it, so I won't. Incidentally, I showed my son the Python spam clip today :) And now it's back in my head... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinaglobalexchange Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Hello folks, Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. As for learning Mandarin, I think you can try online Chinese lessons, online lessons are much convenient. I know a very good online Chinese school—chinaglobalexchange. chinaglobalexchange is the world’s premier online language school. They provide the best Chinese language education service worldwide and always focus on the needs of our customers and offer them effective and enjoyable Chinese language learning experience. Best regards, Carol Chan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 The Potters School offers year long Mandarin Chinese classes via live online courses. I believe the cost is around $450 a year, but that breaks down to about $45 a month for a 10 month school year. I really don't consider that to be all that expensive, particularly when you've got access to a REAL LIVE teacher who's ready, willing, and able to answer your dc's questions and correct all the work for you. my 2 cents. Thanks for this info! I didn't know TPS had Chinese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teachin'Mine Posted December 14, 2011 Author Share Posted December 14, 2011 I assume you reported it, so I won't. Incidentally, I showed my son the Python spam clip today :) And now it's back in my head... This thread seems to be a spam magnet! :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.