Learning Mandarin - How I Went About It

[@Thelinguist]

spend a month with only pinyin to bet used to the language and then get into the characters is mu advice.

[@MattBrooks-Green]

I come back to this video every so often for inspiration. Us modern learners are so lucky with all the resources we have available: Skritter, Pleco, Sinolinghua, Lingq etc. Sounds like you had it hard! Thanks for showing us how it's done Steve!

[@Thelinguist]

I mostly study on my own. Read and listen and build up your vocabulary and speak when you get the chance.

[@Thelinguist]

I was in China in the late sixties and early seventies when Mao held way. Nothing I would wish on any society.

[@Thelinguist]

No I listen to and read with the help of LingQ. You need to understand what you are listening to, or at least most of it.

[@azjmiles]

im studying chinese in Taiwan right now. Their phonics system is great and I like the traditional characters.. thx for sharing ur experience,,inspirational

[@JohnCook-bx4gv]

Thank you Mr. Kaufmann for making these videos, they are as much of a blessing as they are helpful!

[@GiuseppeGrasso89]

Hello, "linguist". You are a great inspiration to us all. Where I come from learning a second language is thought of as something only people in a James Bond movie would ever do it seems (U.S.A.) but you have been helping me to stay inspired with my italian lessons. My grandfather was an old school italian and always wanted me to learn the language, so now I have begun studying. Though not mandarin, I was hoping you'd have some advice. Currently, I am only able to study alone. Ciao and grazie.

[@ThadJameson]

lots of reading and listening

[@Thelinguist]

Yes Mandarin has a simple, straight forward uncomplicated grammar. This helps. So does the way vocabulary builds from the characters. The tones is a matter of lots of listening and practice without getting too uptight about them.

[@Thelinguist]

Intermediate Reader in Modern Chinese Mills and Ni, Cornell Yale Far Eastern Publications for most of the other books. All published in the 60's

[@Thelinguist]

I read it after 6-7 months of study and it took a few weeks. I didn't look up the words I did not know and I did not understand everything very clearly.

[@Thelinguist]

Thanks!

[@Thelinguist]

I didn't do badly with my approach. I prefer to read rather than to focus on mnemonics. to each his own.

[@Thelinguist]

Yes, I don't know why nor what I can do about it.

[@TotoTitus]

What I have seen by just skimming through simple examples/exercises is that while tone "examples" are extremely clear and precise, in spoken language there is quite some leeway for emotion. For example, a difference of one semitone between two consecutive syllables with constant tone. Most notably, the difference between tones 2 and 3 can be difficult to recognise because of this leeway. (Of course, without proper practice)

[@YangJettYung]

Steve, your videos are what inspire others. I don't know if you realize the impact you have on others, like us subscribers : )

[@Thelinguist]

I'm not a big user of phrase books. By patterns I mean the basic structures of the language. The way things are said in the language. "Why... because", "although..... nevertheless, " and on and on and on.

[@nilsboyu4680]

Steve您好，发现您很爱说“必得（bìděi）这个词，我们明白这是“must”、“have to”的意思，但普通话里一般是不这么用的，用“必须”、“必须得”、“必须要”，或者就一个字“得（děi）”来表达这个意思会更地道些。 谢谢您的视频，对我的帮助真的很大！

[@klemensjeitler3678]

Hey @Steve, it would be amazing, if you could answer one simple question concerning reading in Chinese: You always stumble across new characters that you don't know how to pronounce. How do you go about that? I mean I have the feeling that I have come across certain characters many many times and I kind of get the meaning when I read them, but that doesn't mean that I recognize them in spoken speech. There is this gap between spoken and written Chinese, how do you cross that?

[@Thelinguist]

In my day I would have to look them up in Chinese dictionary. Thankless task. today if you read online you just use Text to Speech.

[@Thelinguist]

Yes, but you may need other resources as well, especially for the characters.

[@swagrip1931]

i do mot mean to be rude but i find it very interesting to listen to such stories from "old"people and what the have been through and hownthey learned.

[@akomoni]

Thank you very much Steve. This was very very inspiring video. Keep up the good work.

[@Thelinguist]

You can search for a video I did called. 学语言的7个原则

[@raycrimson900]

Thanks for explaining how you learned Chinese it was very interesting to watch this.

[@Crinklelando]

I know how to speak Cantonese. Would that mean that learning Mandarin is going to be easier for me, since Cantonese is almost the same as Mandarin, just harder?

[@李白-f5u]

The best modern Chinese books I recommended for foreigners, absolutely good books and choose the articles you like(A=not too difficult; B=little difficult; C=difficult) all these books are easy to access online for free A《激荡三十年》《跌荡一百年》《浩荡两千年》《历代经济变革得失》吴晓波 A 《毛泽东选集》毛泽东 A 《沉默的大多数》《黄金时代》《思维的乐趣》《我的精神家园》王小波 B《潜规则》《血酬定律》吴思 B 《三十年河东》杨继绳 C 《万历十五年》《中国大历史》黄仁宇 C《兴盛与危机》《开放中的变迁》《中国现代思想的起源》《毛泽东思想与儒学》《中国思想史十讲（上卷）》《历史的巨镜》金观涛 C 《李敖大全集》李敖 李敖的所有书都值得一看 If only 3 I recommend you 《激荡三十年》《潜规则》《血酬定律》 I hope I could make the all into videos but I don't know how to transfer books into videos? Best English-Chinese translation extension when you read Chinese online: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/%E5%88%92%E8%AF%8D%E7%BF%BB%E8%AF%91/ikhdkkncnoglghljlkmcimlnlhkeamad?hl=zh-CN Online translation tool: fanyi.baidu.com/ OCR extension for Chinese characters: chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/baidu-screenshot-translat/obhlofkljphbenhcjnimfcdlknkdilcm?hl=zh-CN Best input method of Mandarin Chinese on PC: pinyin.sogou.com/ Best input and interpretation app of Mandarin Chinese on your smartphone: srf.xunfei.cn/ Best online dictionary of Chinese: www.google.com www.baidu.com apps.apple.com/cn/app/%E7%8E%B0%E4%BB%A3%E6%B1%89%E8%AF%AD%E8%AF%8D%E5%85%B8/id1330896529 www.zdic.net/ Best Chinese community: www.zhihu.com/

[@shayrow9480]

Thanks for the sources. I'm having an analysis paralysis episode myself right now.

[@kos37ter96]

Hey Steve. How do you choose a book to buy on any given language? For example, the Teach Yourself series has good beginner content with small applicable paragraphs and comes with audio. However, with so many different brands and methods, what qualifies a book as "up to snuff?" Or is this a non-issue and the key issue being a lot of exposure? Also, great video. I love listening to these.

[@relaxwhc]

Mandarin lovers will love its easy grammar.

[@paleaspaper4161]

嘿！我叫sorren，我一年前开始学习中文，我的中文不很好但它是越来越好了，我教我的妈妈中文。。。她不喜欢了，我也教我的弟弟了。我的爸爸想学习日语，所以我现在也教我的爸爸日语。新语言！

[@shaolin89]

Thanks alot Steve man! That was just what i wanted to know more about! Very interesting and inspiring story!:)

[@acumen321]

hey steve, I'm 22 right now, and I want to learn Chinese too. When you say 1967, how old were you? Do you think formal classes were useful in learning characters, reading, or culture and history?

[@azjmiles]

i like your method...hard work :)

[@luthieria]

Saluton !! Esperanto, man !!!!

[@Metanoia743]

Can't go wrong with Practical Chinese Reader, published by BLCU Press. For characters you gotta go with Heisig and Richardson's mnemonic memorization system. You can use it to get your first 3,000 characters. Lingosteve, could you give more details on those books? Such as the year and publisher? （如果你有空，我们都会很高兴。

[@Russianlearner17]

I was hoping you'd do this video :) Thank you!!

[@willharrison-builds]

wikipedia has a setting in preferences that will give you a small snippet of information when you hover over a link. might be of interest to you in the quest for background information when reading through an encyclopedia.

[@marianohernandez6612]

awesome story.

[@jeftetiburcio1835]

Hi my friend Steve how are you? Can you please tell me where i can find a Chinese book vocabulary and grammar but eith piyin?

[@graycam]

Great videos - been watching for a while. I'm working on JP. Regarding listening when picking up a language, do you simply listen and listen, regardless of whether you are able to comprehend, or do you try to tease out each word and figure out meaning? Thanks.

[@ennius42]

Thanks for the advice Steve. But those books that you mentioned are old books. What modern Chinese learning books would you recommend for Chinese language learners today?

[@Mynameisntmegan]

Steve I don't understand the character learning method. Do you go downward until you reach the end of the column and go up to the next one, eventually reaching the column with the written definition?

[@georgegu0613]

民国那个时期的文人真的很有才华也很有思想和风骨。

[@prepped]

How many years of study did it take you to be able to read the rickshaw boy? And how long did it take you to read said book? --Thanks.

[@MuhammadKhalid-jw1gd]

Pronounciation is not the problem, the main problem is how to remember the tone combination of each word.....any video about that?

[@raeesmerelda]

this is fascinating. thank you!

[@greenwhiskey7]

Are flash cards a part of Steven Krashen learning system? If not what are some ways to acquire vocabulary?

[@Horwellston]

There's a good site with slow audio readings and transcript called " slow chinese"

[@duddersrules]

Hey Kaufmann cheers for the guidance. Academics are still squabbling over whether the input hypothesis is correct or not, I think it is and to be honest, the hyperglots on youtube seem to be proof of that. Cheers from Australia mate, I'll be learning Malay and Mandaring well because of you ;)

[@azizulhafizi3140]

malay? hii. how it is going now.

[@sebna13]

I want to learn chinese. Should I learn chinese characters from the beginning or is it better to learn first pinjing and to do some speaking practice?

[@marcopolo3001]

I've got to get that book!

[@chris_outh]

how fast should you move on from beginner mandarin material onto more interesting stuff?

[@RavenWood495]

It may have already been done I just haven't found the video yet( I only stumbled upon this channel yesterday) but is it possible to get list and links of where to get them of some of the books you use for each language you have learned?

[@6663000]

Such an interesting history.

[@isab9101]

Hello Steve. I would like to know how many characters can you recognize?. Or how many do you think are necessary to know for a B2 level ?. 謝謝！

[@XenoZona]

Do you know of any Chinese (Mandarin) radio/podcast with a transcript?

[@BurganBeABeatnick]

I've had trouble finding audio books in Chinese to help with my learning. Could you kindly point me in the right direction for Chinese audio books?

[@sebna13]

ok thanks. I learn chinese at university and today was my second time ther. we learn characters from the beginning and the teacher want us to write in characters. my chinese exame will be in less than 3 months. I don`t know how many characters Is there a trick how to get the characters in my head? how many characters should I learn each day?

[@ihsaan786]

Seeing that you lived in Hong Kong, and learned traditional characters, which pronunciation did you learn? I read online that the characters are pronounced differently, depending on whether one lives in HK or mainland China. Also, when reading books in Mandarin, do you read books both in trad. and simplified characters, or do you stick to those using traditional ones only? Thank you.

[@Thelinguist]

I read in both traditional and simplified characters, and I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese, although Mandarin far more fluently.

[@ihsaan786]

Thank you for replying.

[@msycz009]

best chinese character learning tool i've used is memrise.com, especially the HSK vocabulary lists

[@sandymoonstone855]

🍎 老师好 。 你很了不起 。 谢谢

[@fujisakisan133]

i'm chinese and now living in Canada. Last time I saw one classmate writing a whole page of 死死死死死死 lol. I think he's trying very hard without knowing the meaning...

[@schicktmirkarakale1232]

He probably knows it, just praticing the character via rote drilling is all. Or maybe he's an edgelord, who knows.

[@erozionzeall6371]

He really seems to like that character......

[@AJGress]

Death.

[@MuhammadAli-jd2ut]

你的说话很帮助.

[@temp___]

Tones also vary from region to region. It took me about 4-6 weeks to get accustomed to the tones (especially 2 and 3) and the tone sandhis still trip me up from time to time when speaking or reading aloud. Aside from homonyms, spoken Chinese isn't that hard, and the grammar is pretty straight forward (but not trivial). It's just the writing that's difficult, but like Steve said, once you learn a few hundred characters it's quite pleasant how it builds on itself and, dare I say, almost logical.

[@unfad1ng]

write them down on papper, that helps for me at least

[@slatterypod]

Thanks, this was really helpful and inspirational.

[@InochinoMichi]

You should make a video in Mandarin :)

[@TotoTitus]

Is it true that Mandarin has a simple, even trivial grammar? [From the perspective of Romanian, whose grammar is perhaps almost as difficult as the grammar of Russian. We have cases, number and gender-wise declension, all the things English speakers are usually afraid of]. If my question is pertinent and the answer is yes, then how much does this help in learning Mandarin? Also, how much time and practice is needed to surpass the initial "tonal hurdle" in Mandarin? Thank you.

[@juniortaylor1943]

How can we read if we don't understand, how can a beginner read if we didn't learn the ping jing

[@Thelinguist]

if you mean pinyin, This is usually available in any beginner material. So is the audio.

[@juniortaylor1943]

@@Thelinguist so basically when u say read you mean follow along with the audio? Because it's gonna be difficult to read without audio right? That's where I get confused when u say read. You mean read along or without the audio? Thanks in advanced

[@Thelinguist]

You can read while listening, read without listening, listen without reading. I do all of these things in order to gradually become familiar with a new language.

[@rollingdownfalling]

I have just stumbled upon your channel, you are amazing. your experience are motivating me to learn another language. I have to thank you. btw, modern Chinese really don't care much about 毛泽东 anymore.

[@ricardogonsalosampaiosampa501]

lovelly

[@Dedudes4723]

Hey Steve, I love your videos. I'm learning Taiwanese and I find that I'm able pick up on the characters quickly but struggle with remembering how to say the words. Do you have any tips on memorizing how to remember how to say the words.

[@mt1235]

Startiger Zhao Taiwanese is another name for Taiwanese Hokkien, also known as Taiwanese Minnan.

[@ksawerykaminski2606]

are you sure you're learning Taiwanese? Because this language also known as Minnan is rarely written.

[@elenakewke2879]

thank U! it was a useful lesson for me ... by the way I saw good chinese lessons on coursmos.com... for those who are just starting to learn chinese...

[@DontPaniku]

Wow to bad you didn't have Heisig back in the day. Learning characters like that sounds like pulling teeth.

[@MuhammadEgypt]

When will you start learning Arabic?

[@unfad1ng]

He did do some great things, which he should rightly be remembered for, for example: he is responsible for the unification of China. However he did do some terrible mistakes like for example: The great leap forward and the cultural revolution. a much better hero for the chinese people is 邓小平. He really should be remembered and revered more. Becasue he is the one who brought China out of povert. ofc this couldnt have been done without 毛泽东' previous work of unification.

[@MrLangam]

Please cut your hair bold. You look so much like Walter White.

[@unfad1ng]

*out of poverty

[@yeahbestday]

There is only, just only one person should be respected in whole CCP: that is 胡耀邦

[@georgegu0613]

您居然看毛泽东选集学中文？不过那个年代这本书确实是人手一本。哈哈哈哈哈

[@edresmn7869]

Are you Anti Arabs? I see you learnt a lot of languages and one day said not interested in Arabic. Although a very important language.

[@Thelinguist]

Edres Mn I don't remember saying I am not interested in learning Arabic. We have Arabic at LingQ and I have bought a few books on it, and even started learning the writing system, which for me would be the first step. But all in due course. Of course it is an important language with a rich culture.

[@edresmn7869]

Mr.Steve, I read in your book that you have now forgotten how to write by hand. You lived 10 years in China, should I take the shortcut and not learn to write by hand and invest that time in reading and listening? I am beginner.

[@Thelinguist]

I never lived in China. When I learned Chinese, I found that writing by hand helped me to learn the characters. If you are going to learn Chinese I would suggest you learn the characters. Whether it is still necessary to write them by hand in order to learn them, I don't know. There are new ways to learn the characters now.

[@edresmn7869]

Thanks Mr.Steve. If you just could tell me one of these new ways, I have searched and found a book called chineasy claim that he has a new way of learning characters, is it what you mean?

[@kliudrsfhlih]

Edres Mn This is a list of materials that could help you: 1.- Anki Flash Cards. 2.- The website called iKnow (it's mainly for vocab but still helps a lot). 3.- The books callled "Remmembering the Hanzi". 4.- The software called DimSum wich you can use to practice your typing... I'm 23 years old I study Chinese and Japanese and in my experience you need to learn how to hand write at least the basic radicals to notice the little diferences between similar characters more easily. But really now a days even natives have a hard time writing by hand. My Japanese teachers are almost my age and they regularly hesitate on how certain characters are written. Everyone types now.

[@marileerburt8384]

you think you speak mandarin?? AHAHAHA

[@elenakewke2879]

thank U! it was a useful lesson for me ... by the way I saw good chinese lessons on coursmos.com... for those who are just starting to learn chinese...