Learning a new Language

[Teny]

I want to learn an language, which is Chinese. I know how to speak Chinese at an elementary level since my parents speaks Chinese, and thats how we communicate. I want to learn how to write, read, and speak Chinese fluently. Anybody know where I can learn it for free?
I prefer through online since then I can move at my own pace.

 

[FlightSimBoy]

I think there are a few active Chinese members on this forum, maybe they can help out some. Other than that, the best way to learn is Rosetta Stone. It isn't free, mind you, but I was speaking full sentences in German after the first 2 or 3 days. Rosetta Stone helps with the reading, and it also has voice recognition, so that takes care of speech. Writing, on the other hand, is an entirely different story.

I don't know of any freebies out there.

 

[vampist]

This link might help.

 

[Teny]

This link might help.

haha, and do you know how many of those are actually BS?
I tried that before, I went for a couple of pages, and couldnt find what I wanted.

 

[vampist]

haha, and do you know how many of those are actually BS?
I tried that before, I went for a couple of pages, and couldnt find what I wanted.

I have read up on learning to read Chinese a little. I found that it was rather simple in some cases. Like the word "tree" verses the word "forest". Forest is just a bunch of "Tree" symbols. As for pronouncing. Good luck to you. Through a few ching and chongs in there.. You might get it. But if you get a good source online let me know.

 

[Teny]

If I were to need help, I could ask my parents, since they can read, write and speak Chinese.
But I think it might be easier to learn online since online can give me an English definition of the word, where as my parents cant since they dont speak English very well.

 

[jo5h]

learn Chinese in 5 minutes
http://www.xs4all.nl/~pjbrink/apekool/150/103.html

 

[Ahyoka]

Honestly dude, the easiest way to learn a language is by being around the people who speak it. If your parent's or grandparent's speak it fluently you will learn a lot just by listening to them, things that the book can't explain like accents and the order of words. When I was learning Spanish I hung around my Latino friends and I picked up more Spanish just by hearing them talk than reading a book, or what they did that really helped me was they wouldn't talk to me in English, I had to figure out what was going on by paying attention.

That method was easier for me than when I learned German solely through reading books.

 

[UK31337]

Read news articles in the language you're learning, watch YouTube vids and listen to the natives speaking, try saying little things to yourself in your chosen language.

Trust me, it really helps you learn.

 

[muz]

i agree with reading news articles ,books and watching tv programs etc . My spanish teacher in high school made us do that and it made our understanding better seeing as you see the language in use in an everyday setting rather than just textbook examples

Another tip is if your watching a dvd with different audio tracks switch it to the language you want to learn and put subtitles in english you will quickly pick up frequently used words

I know its expensive but the way rosetta stone does it is very clever because it dosent give you any english translation it just shows you pictures of what the foreign words are so it will have a picture of a car and then the word for it . Thats a method i think works seeing as my first 3 weeks of spanish in high school where simply picture and spanish word no english translation and it worked because i remember pretty much every word i ever learnt by that method