a question for mandarin students

The biggest problems with Chinese are the tones.  Symbols in textbooks are hard to hear.

The tones are the most difficult I agree.

There is a solution that is used in children's books. Either a touch pad or with a "magic pen" that makes contact with the word and actually "says" the word.

So a book that would "speak" the words to me would be extremely helpful.

Also I noticed in many books and with a few teachers is they teach both the "proper" and "common" phrases. Personally I would prefer in early level teaching of Chinese text books and teachers stick to common every day Chinese... then as I advance into intermediate and advanced Chinese I can be taught variations of phrases or proper phrases used with elders.

I've actually learned more everyday "useful" Chinese from travel guides than Chinese school books.

Learning "Ni Hao, ting bu dong, xiexie, bu yao, mei you, bu yong xie, yi, er, san etc..." is fine but learning "Ni hao ma, jie shu, xiong mao, jiao hua, zhi zi, zhi nu" is a waste of time... I'll never ask a clerk or waitress or police officer "how are you?"... in the beginning nobody is trying to make friends...we're just trying to survive, friends are the benefits of survival... in which case learning ni hao ma, etc can come in later chapters.


My two cents


Kris

你好嗎 should be the first sentence in the first chapter.

Now with e-books there should be textbooks where you can click on a word to get the pronunciation.  I don't know a good way to do that in traditional books without a CD.

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

你好嗎 should be the first sentence in the first chapter.

Now with e-books there should be textbooks where you can click on a word to get the pronunciation.  I don't know a good way to do that in traditional books without a CD.

Actually there are sensors within the pages of the book. The sound comes from a "wand" that looks like a fat pen, slightly thinker than mascara case with a sensor and speaker. The reader touches the word with the "pen" and can hear it. I currently teach children English on weekends using such a system.

Kris

I can't imagine how much that would fill out a 500 page textbook.

The sensors in the pages are imperceptible... I didn't know they were there until a student put her "pen" to the page and I heard the "pen say" the word.

Kris

Yes.Some children use that in learning English.But I don't think there is such machine for Chinese learning.

Berry

Hi Orna,
We learn tones in the first grade,radicals and a little bit writing,reading comprehension stuff in the 2nd grade.Then we keep learning writing,reading comprehension stuff till university.Iv never learned Chinese grammer,coz we know how to speak Chinese before we go to school.To me learning Chinese is just a waste of time.And I hate all my Chinese teachers.So I don't think we Chinese students can help you in learning Chinese.Maybe you should look for someone who is not Chinese and has already learned Chinese well.He/she must can help you more.Look for some book which can assist you in learning.A good book will save you much time in language learning.Last,practise as much as you can with Chinese people.Most Chinese people are nice and very willing to speak with foreigners.So...

You can contact me if I can help you anyway.

Berry

berrylew wrote:

Yes.Some children use that in learning English.But I don't think there is such machine for Chinese learning.

Berry

Too bad! In Chinese it's all about learning the tone!

K...

berrylew wrote:

Hi Orna,
We learn tones in the first grade,radicals and a little bit writing,reading comprehension stuff in the 2nd grade.Then we keep learning writing,reading comprehension stuff till university.Iv never learned Chinese grammer,coz we know how to speak Chinese before we go to school.To me learning Chinese is just a waste of time.And I hate all my Chinese teachers.So I don't think we Chinese students can help you in learning Chinese.Maybe you should look for someone who is not Chinese and has already learned Chinese well.He/she must can help you more.Look for some book which can assist you in learning.A good book will save you much time in language learning.Last,practise as much as you can with Chinese people.Most Chinese people are nice and very willing to speak with foreigners.So...

You can contact me if I can help you anyway.

Berry

Hi Berry,

Replace "Chinese" with the word "English" in your text and I felt exactly the same way when I was in school! lol!

Kris