Tips for learning Chinese? (Or maybe any other other language)

[Garmmon]

Tips for learning Chinese? (Or maybe any other other language)

...Yar. I've been having troubles coping with my Chinese. I'm quite attentive, but for some reason, some things just don't seep to sink in. I scored quite badly for my previous test. T___T

It may also be the fact that I'm kind of...not too interested in Chinese. I know that Chinese is important, my teacher keeps giving examples that even Americans are learning Chinese or something. But meh. I just don't seem to have any interest in it whatsoever.

Is there any way to make myself more interested - not only in Chinese, but for other languages too. How do I keep my interest? It's my mother tongue, it's important, and I'm a dead goose if I do badly. ;_; Any tips would be veeery much appreciated.

(Just a little something; 这里有谁知道华文/中文吗?)

 

[AznxLoneWolf]

I guess you could try listening to Chinese music and watching Chinese shows? It might motivate you to learn it more if you find something you like and want to understand it without subtitles or translations . Like for Japanese, which I'm taking right now, I'm really interested in it because if I can master it, I'll actually understand whatever I'm listening to and read / watch raws of whatever. I'm not so good at Chinese either...heck, I can barely read the sentence / question you typed >>. Well, reading and writing wise. Speaking it, I'm okay...although my accent is horrible now. (Sad part being I was put in ESL in elementary school.) Understanding it is a lot easier, though.
...I don't know if I was of any help...

 

[nezucho]

i'm supposed to be minoring in Chinese, so i might be able to answer some questions...

my advice would be to try and understand radicals and how characters are constructed. it makes a lot more sense than brute force memorizing the characters.

 

[Garmmon]

...Our teacher gives us spelling tests, so we have to try memorise them anyway...Well. Our teacher teaches in a certain manner. First, she goes through the text for the chapter we're studying, and starts going through the meanings and strokes for the harder/new words and phrases. Then she gives us this piece of paper with the spelling words on it, and we have to write each word/phrase 15 times. ...Yar.

I do watch Chinese shows, mostly the Chinese dramas they show here. It's quite interesting, and I'm learning not to look at the english subtitles unless I really don't know the meanings. ^^

Actually, my main problem isn't memorising how to read/write them, but remembering the meanings, since my weakest section is apparently composition writing. ^^' Some words can be linked to their meaning by appearance, I know, but some just don't seem to have any connection.

Oh, AznxLoneWolf, the stuff I typed in Chinese was 'Is there anyone here who knows Chinese'. X3

 

[AznxLoneWolf]

Ahahas, the only part I could read was like...Chinese [language] XD. Really pathetic, if you ask me. >< I can't really help with remembering meanings, though, since it just comes naturally to me...I guess the better you speak it, the easier it is? Since if you can read it then you can speak it and if you can speak it you should understand it...? Can't help you there ^ ^;;.

 

[miforever]

The only thing I can think of is sentence structures... things like Yinwei... suoyi...; Budan... erqie...; etc. (argh pinyin, sorry) I haven't done Chinese (Mandarin) since high school and that was a couple of years ago now, so I've forgotten alot, which is sad. Best advice I could give you is to memorise key words in your sentence structures, then concentrate on words that fill the gaps (nouns, adjectives, etc.).

 

[Garmmon]

Dunno, I flunked up on my Chinese oral exam...XP

Er, I tried memorising meanings of certain harder words by remembering the easier synonyms. (Like 'che di' 彻底 means the same as 'wan quan' 完全) It kinda works, but I'm confuzzled on how to remember meanings on words that don't really have easier synonyms. Especially some which I don't know of/haven't learnt any sentence structures of, like the most used one 'yin wei...suo yi' 因为...所以. But I guess speaking more of it helps, but some which I can't remember the meanings, my simple (really simple) dictionary doesn't have the meanings, and sometimes my mother is confused too. Oh well...

唉, 过一个星期就要考试了...

 

[craziiz]

How about cantonese >.< isn't that part of chinese too lol

 

[Zeromaru]

Well, I am Chinese, so any question about Chinese, please ask me. By the way, I know a little cantonese and my friend Lasty is from canton, together we could fill you with Chinese. Just contract with me if you are interested in.