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