Mandarin

[HaddockDiem]

Hello - advice on learning some mandarin please!! Seems daunting but a family member has married into a mandarin speaking family and I really want to make the effort.

I managed to pass DELE C1 Spanish ( fairly advanced level) so I know how difficult even Romance languages ( which share many cognates)are and the level of dedication and study required but I feel mandarin is in an entirely different level.

I am enrolling on a Confucius course locally and doing Duolingo ( which in my experience can help with vocab and pronunciation but is not in itself a good way to learn a language).

Any advice greatly appreciated on how to get my head around pronunciation, any other tips on things that help

Another issue is that the family are actually Taiwanese and I know this is a very sensitive topic so, if I’m asked where the family are from would it be more diplomatic to just say Beijing rather than cause any hassle?!!

thanks

My advice would be to decide what you want to learn to speak and write before you start and stick to it as changing will waste time.

In Taiwan they use traditional Chinese characters and Mandarin is the main official language, usually called Guóyǔ rather than Putonghua. In mainland China they use Simplified Chinese characters and Standard Mandarin called Pǔtōnghuà. The Romanised forms of scripts are also different - mainland China uses Pinyin. In Taiwan they are taught Zhuyin in Taiwanese schools.

There are some differences between the two spoken languages, but there is a lot of difference between Traditional and Simplified scripts.

If you decide to learn then be upfront about why you are learning (family in Taiwan) and what you want to learn in terms of language and especially script. Maybe you could get a teacher in Taiwan on Preply (or similar) then you be sure of having exactly the right learning. Teachers in the mainland will simply tell you that Taiwan is part of China and provided you don't get into debate I don't think it'll cause problems. I've had large teams in mainland China for years and I just doesn't discuss Tibet, Taiwan etc with them.

From my own learning of Mandarin (I lived in mainland China for 3 years and visited a lot for work for 15 years) I would say:
Be prepared for a long slog of a few years (just to set your expectation, don't let it put you off).
Learn the tones from the start as they are key. I started by using Michel Thomas audio and then use the colour codes for each tone for all my learning.
Be prepared to have t columns for vocab - English to get the meaning of the word, the pinyin version and the script version with a sentence for context.
Ask your family what they speak, what script they use to write and what romanized form they use so you can align your learning.

I used a local teacher but online I used https://chinesepod.com/ this is good for you I believe as you can see the Traditional Script or Simplified Script depending on which you select. By the way I am not representing them, I'm sure there are other good ones, that is just what I used. Note: I really advise you to get help with pronunciation and tones though (not just rely on audio) because their words are said very differently and you will probably have to re-learn stuff about the tones. (When people start they usually can't hear the difference in the tones but this comes over time).

Good luck!

I really highly recommend the Chinese for Beginners course from Taiwan University on Coursera. It is really well structured and gets you speaking and reading the correct hua very quickly. I’m not sure what you mean about saying Beijing instead of Taiwan; the family name will likely be a dead giveaway. Once you know one form of Mandarin well, you will be able to make yourself understood in others. It’s the old adage of speak with one tongue, listen in many.

@FlapperFlamingo @Sesquioxides
Thanks for taking the time to reply with your thoughtful posts.

I will try your recommendations. My relatives advise me to learn pinyin because hanzi is very difficult.

Regarding the Taiwan-China issue I just didn’t want to get into any awkwardness hence I was considering just saying my family were from Beijing ( or another mainland city!). I wouldn’t dream of debating the issue or getting into any discussion but thanks for reassuring me that it’s ok just to be honest. I can play dumb very easily.

Thanks again to you both

No problem @HaddockDiem i would encourage you to try though. Even a little Chinese is appreciated and people are very friendly and encouraging :) honestly my time in China was some of the best years of my life. I am yet to travel extensively in Taiwan but I am looking forward to it when I do.

This teacher is worth lookimg up. It's all about speaking correctly from the start - if you don't learn the tones properly people will find it really difficult to understand you. Look at some of the videos of his students - ask your Chinese/ Taiwanese friends what they think of the students' progress.

imlearningmandarin.com/