Problem
What's the quickest, easiest way to learn Chinese, which costs little in case I drop it, but will keep me going?
Answer
Duolingo. Why? At the moment the beginners' courses are all free. It is on both a laptop and a mobile phone, although the phone version seems restricted, in terms of the languages available and functions available. The system sends you daily reminders. I might ignore them if I am busy for a day, or a week, but eventually, I will go back and there are many stretches of a week or more when I work solidly and consistently.
Even if after a lapse I have to start at the beginning again, the second time around goes quicker and more easily.
Chinese starters
If you take a tour in China your guide will often teach you one or two phrases, most commonly the greeting equivalent to hello, which is ni haou. (Pronounced 'knee how?' I think of it as greeting granny and asking her, 'how are your knees?')
I went to a bilingual Chinese-English Toastmasters international meeting where the Chinese speaking Toastmasters of the evening kept asking Ni haou and getting the reply haou. In the interval, I asked what that meant.
The answers were, 'You good?'
'Good!'
So far, so good!
Then the system asks you to pair up the Chinese characters with the spoken words.
Recognizing the written Chinese proved harder. You have to find your own memory aid and create an image or picture using one of more of the strokes.
Ni haou is a longer word in Chinese spoken and more characters.
Ni haou sign starts with what looks like a diagonal tray balanced on a stick lower leg or knee, a big like the letter t with a broad horizontal, diagonal.
I used to be a home tutor. Half the job is leading the pupil through the steps. Half the job is simply being a homework babysitter. The duolingo website does that for you. It breaks the lesson down into small steps. It reminds you daily (like a Herbalife coach or Slimming world weekly lesson).
So now we know three words:
Chinese - English
'how' (haou) - good
'knee' (ni) - you
knee how? - how are you?
'how!' - good (equivalent to 'Good', 'Great!' or 'Very well, thank you')
English - Chinese
you - ni (knee)
good? - how? (haou)
knee how / how are you - ni haou?
good (very well, thank you) - how (haou)
Useful Website
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.
What's the quickest, easiest way to learn Chinese, which costs little in case I drop it, but will keep me going?
Answer
Duolingo. Why? At the moment the beginners' courses are all free. It is on both a laptop and a mobile phone, although the phone version seems restricted, in terms of the languages available and functions available. The system sends you daily reminders. I might ignore them if I am busy for a day, or a week, but eventually, I will go back and there are many stretches of a week or more when I work solidly and consistently.
Even if after a lapse I have to start at the beginning again, the second time around goes quicker and more easily.
Chinese starters
If you take a tour in China your guide will often teach you one or two phrases, most commonly the greeting equivalent to hello, which is ni haou. (Pronounced 'knee how?' I think of it as greeting granny and asking her, 'how are your knees?')
I went to a bilingual Chinese-English Toastmasters international meeting where the Chinese speaking Toastmasters of the evening kept asking Ni haou and getting the reply haou. In the interval, I asked what that meant.
The answers were, 'You good?'
'Good!'
So far, so good!
Then the system asks you to pair up the Chinese characters with the spoken words.
Recognizing the written Chinese proved harder. You have to find your own memory aid and create an image or picture using one of more of the strokes.
Ni haou is a longer word in Chinese spoken and more characters.
Ni haou sign starts with what looks like a diagonal tray balanced on a stick lower leg or knee, a big like the letter t with a broad horizontal, diagonal.
I used to be a home tutor. Half the job is leading the pupil through the steps. Half the job is simply being a homework babysitter. The duolingo website does that for you. It breaks the lesson down into small steps. It reminds you daily (like a Herbalife coach or Slimming world weekly lesson).
So now we know three words:
Chinese - English
'how' (haou) - good
'knee' (ni) - you
knee how? - how are you?
'how!' - good (equivalent to 'Good', 'Great!' or 'Very well, thank you')
English - Chinese
you - ni (knee)
good? - how? (haou)
knee how / how are you - ni haou?
good (very well, thank you) - how (haou)
Useful Website
duolingo.com
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages.
No comments:
Post a Comment