learn to speak and read chinese fluently

I would really like to learn Chinese. I thiught about Japanese but then I saw this interesting movie, but I couldn’t understand something someone said and I want to understand and learn!

I would really like to learn Chinese. I thiught about Japanese but then I saw this interesting movie, but I couldn’t understand something someone said and I want to understand and learn!

My roommate who is Taiwanese gave me a quick lesson. I hope to get in two more before she moves to Paris next week. I learn much faster from other people.

yesterday, i went into chinatown in lower manhattan. we ate at dumpling house which was delicious. their dumplings remind me of the ones my mother would make, although with fewer vegetables, they are perfectly fried and the sesame cakes are a new delight. there are many chinese here, on the street. it is freely spoken, and i need to know it. perhaps the immediacy of having it in my environment will spur me to learn it faster. a few years ago, i sought out streaming radio and mp3 for learning chinese, but the resources were scant then, and heavily priced. now they pretty much flow freely. when i can get my own computer on the internet, i think that is where i will start. i need a job and i need a place to live, but inside a week, or bust.

in two days since arriving, i have also picked out polish, japanese, spanish, french, creole, and russian. if i had time, i would like to learn them all, especially with reading the cryptonomicon lately. language seems like a practical, literal, intuitive cousin of crytography.

For a long time, it seemed impossible, but I would like to do this and spend some time actually living in China. I think Chinese as a language may be more ubiquitous than English in 30 years. Plus, as part of my over-arching fascination with language, Chinese is about the most distant from any language I have previously studied.

It may be of note that I am half-Chinese, born and raised speaking english only in the US.

To this goal, I have already watched about 20 movies in Chinese, borrowed from the university library. About 5 of them were Cantonese, which isn’t really going to help me because I want to learn the people’s Chinese.

Next step – tapes? books? classes? work in a Chinese restaurant?

I am moving to New York soon. If I can find a place in Chinatown, I might just take it.

Halfway through the summer I was accepted to teach English as a foreign language to small Chinese children in Beijing. When all my information was sent to the Bureau of Foreign affairs, however, I was deemed too young and inexperienced to qualify for the required working visa. So BOO, CHINA and its stinking language.

... but hopefully, now that my wife wants to learn, I’ll be motivated too.