Learning Chinese – xuexi Putonghua
Although not related to green-technologies, this post at least relates to China:
Last week we finished our 5 weeks Mandarin course (I took part in the ‘intermediate‘ course, which in fact is more like a beginners #2 course) offered by the University to its members of staff (4d/w, 2h/d).
So, how is learning Chinese?
The pronunciation (including 4 tones plus one neutral) can be considered difficult. The grammar on the other hand is much simpler than what I am used to from European languages. Then again, I don’t even want to comment on reading and writing. Luckily there is Pinyin, the Latinised version of what is called Hanze (the Chinese writing), which enables us to study the language (especially the pronunciation) without learning how to read it.
In case you would like to get a taste of learning Chinese, I would recommend this web site.
Unfortunately I receive quite a bit of spam. Now I thought I share this one with you because at least and for once it does fit to the post (of course I have removed the links and email):
I may very well be spending time in mainland China within a year or two, so I’d like to learn simplified Chinese. I’m by no means fluent at this point, but so far I have no complaints about this book. It’s straightforward, concise, and though I haven’t used it heavily for reference so far, it seems to be organized well. If you got here after saying to yourself, “I want to learn simplified Chinese but nobody I know has any suggestions for doing so. Where should I start? Maybe I’ll just do a search on Amazon and see what comes up,” you won’t regret buying this book.
(Note that this book doesn’t teach grammar structures, just characters.)