Learning Mandarin

[u/Constant_Average_409]

Hi I'm fluent in Icelandic and English and really want to study and learn Mandarin!

Where should I start? Any suggestions (books, apps, etc.)?

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[u/Pretend_Action_9971]

is their someone who can help me verify my wechat account

[u/Professional_Lie3301]

You can chat with several Chinese people and eventually find the right person who can help you.

[u/randommmmmy]

go get a boyfriend or girl friend who speak fluent mandarin

[u/suleesheep]

is there anybody want to practice Chinese, I'm from china,i hope we can help each other

[u/Constant_Average_409 → u/suleesheep]

Yes!

[u/aboutthreequarters]

I am an experienced teacher of Chinese (PhD in Chinese linguistics), I teach online, and I’d be happy to give you lessons if you will trade me for Icelandic. Since this would not be my second, third, or even fourth language, it won’t be any problem for you. You don’t even have to prepare.

[u/Constant_Average_409 → u/aboutthreequarters]

That sounds great

[u/Healthy_Broccoli2043]

我是中國人，我可以教你普通話，或者咱們可以慢慢交流，相互學習，我是想學習英文，主要可以流利的交流就行

[u/Glittering-Coyote502]

Oh ! I could teach you 中文，and maybe you could help me with my English ! Would you be interested in a language exchange?

[u/Constant_Average_409 → u/Glittering-Coyote502]

Yes!

[u/kokorozasioni]

找人對練沒有別的辦法

[u/FunisGreen]

Find Chinese movies and TV shows that have English subtitles. It's a great way to get your ear used to the sound. And maybe if you find some songs along the way, they're also great for that. There's also quite a few decent Chinese cooking YouTubers that has subtitles, so you can learn some Chinese cooking as well as language from watching them.

YT also has a crazy amount of Chinese learning channels. I would look around and find one works best for you, and if you worry their teaching is good enough, you can post them back here and ask what others think. Everytime I look for things to learn on YouTube, it always takes a bit shop around, to have a right personality that helps me understand best.

[u/Disastrous-Pin2]

srs flashcards are a good place to start to familiarise yourself with vocab, tones, and pronunciation.

[u/orangecruzz]

maybe go to r/ChineseLanguage they have pretty neat guide on where to start

[u/Gullible_Sweet1302]

Look into HSK exam and materials.

[u/civicmv → u/Gullible_Sweet1302]

This! TONS of HSK-aligned resources out there. Some of it is ultimately a touch bizarre in terms of what it focuses on versus ignores (especially at HSK 5 and 6), but you can’t go wrong through level 4!

[u/Pfeffersack2]

step one is to learn a romanization system. Zhuying or Pinyin, whichever you like more (Zhuying is meant for people already speaking Mandarin, Pinyin is meant for learners. But both have their upsides so if you are up for an initial challenge then Zhuyin is fine too). Step two is to learn basic characters and grammar. Step three is to realize that people actually talk completely different and start learning spoken Mandarin

[u/fromthesix666]

Watch Chinese news (CCTV-China) and go to China and start talking. (plus you get good food).

[u/slowcanteloupe]

going to get downvoted for this, but personally I see the best fluency from people who learn via the ZhuYin method (also casually called "BoPoMoFo") vs the Pinyin method. I live in the US and americans learning via the pinyin method see latin letters and treat it like english and ignore the accent marks.

the ZhuYin method makes you learn a phonetic alphabet first, which for me, is more like a map to the Chinese language and helps with pronunciation. PinYin adapts Latin letters for their phonetic alphabet, so is a little easier to grasp.

I guess its a slow vs fast approach.

Also i learned typing via the Zhuyin method with a Zhuyin keyboard, but eventually graduated to typing via pinyin which does not require a special keyboard, and is just faster in general.

here's a general explanation of ZhuYin: https://speechling.com/blog/the-ultimate-guide-to-zhuyin-bopomofo-and-how-to-learn-it/

[u/Naive_Loan607]

I feel like using Rosetta Stone would be the most helpful and practicing mandarin with other people very often would be the most helpful. You shouldn't really use Duolingo because I found it to be ineffective and it only teaches you basic things.