Chinese Learning thread (mandarin)

Hey all, I saw a few other language learning threads on the hobbies board and was really hoping someone would make a thread during chinese new year but it looks like I will have to be the one. the next paragraph will just be my story on why i started learning, what ive learned, and how ignorant i was to Chinese culture, language, and its people. So you can skip that if you wanna, or maybe learn something yourself.
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most of my schools were pretty white, and I never really was the type to try and meet new people. In school I remember being taught that there were 2 Chinese languages, Cantonese and Mandarin. I'm pretty sure this is still what most the western world believes, and it cannot be further from the truth. It wasnt until early 2022 did i learn that in fact there were actually over 100 different Chinese dialects, but all of them use either simplified or traditional characters. Even though someone across the country may speak a totally different dialect they could still communicate with the written language. Anyways, march 2022 I started a new job at a local store and most of my coworkers were chinese, including the owner of the store. About a week into working there i meet his parents who speak no english except for 'hello, goodbye, and thank you', to this day i still do not know their real names, we only refer to them as auntie,uncle (a yi, shu shu) So it was at this point that i decided i needed to learn Chinese to be able to communicate with this cute old chinese couple who worked everyday at this humble little pizza shop.

I started with Duolingo, which was a good starting platform but i felt really restricted so I really started looking for something that could teach me faster. watching lots of youtube. and then i found out about Anki decks from Xiaoma, which is really great for cramming knowledge, some sort of fancy science based algorithm for flash cards. not sure about the shit but honestly i felt like was learning 10 new characters a day and retaining that information. I was studying an hour a day up until halloween and i have just been unable to get back in the habit to take time to study everyday, blaming on the ADHD, blame it on the kids, blame it on work or the crippling depression but I still try and learn something everyday from my coworkers.

kinda just wanted to make this post to see if anyone else is learning the language and has any resources they would like to share. and also partly to show our Chinese community that we arent all against you, I hope the right people can find this thread and it doesnt get derailed into some hatemongering shit show.


no tldr AMA

edit: just reformatting and some typos

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Translation:
(Hi, I am a chinese, and usually I spoke with my parents in English. Therefore, I also have some difficulties learning this language. But, in the end I have learnt alot of things, and I graduated from high school. Although I don't have the resources to help you, but I believe if you have the determination to do it, you could successfully learn this language.)

PS> I also took second language of chinese in high school, so never think that you are alone and never stop trying.

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Great thread, Stoon! I honestly needed this.

My ethnicity is Chinese, and I wasn't interested in learning Chinese until most recently. I avoided learning Chinese because I thought it was too hard for me. I had no idea what the slab of words on the paper meant and it was just... incredibly dull. and dumb. I also didn't have an interest in writing but I'm working on that. I'm aware that I'm terrible at writing and need improvement.

Anyway, I found it fascinating when I heard someone reading a piece of a short story. Coupled with some encouragement, I decided to start from scratch- I listened to children's songs and stories and it's been quite effective! It's enjoyable and engaging, making things fun to learn. Not sure what I'll do for the next step yet- maybe I'll start watching Chinese TV shows or the news (I MUST watch the news).

Also tried doing Duolingo a couple of times but I always dropped it. oops.

I'm just applying the stuff on how I learned English- through games, books and cartoons. Hopefully, I'll continue to learn and then I can finally actually read shit in Chinese. ^^

ps: I also hope that this thread will stay alive!

app recommendation: Pleco
(it's a great app to look up words if any of you don't know about it. It doesn't require Wi-Fi to use and it can be found on the play store!)

As a native mandarin speaker, I' m very curious about the book that you want to read. What I experience, the richness of modern publications written in english is much more than mandarin.

I'm very impressed by your patience, and I want to say that you are not slow, because mandarin is a total different language. If you need any help, I would glad to contribute what I know for you.

Same words to everyone in this thread.:)

I am currently attending University and there are tons of Chinese students here so I started learning from my friends and Duolingo.

I think the best way to learn new words is identifying stuff that you'd like to say and then going to people and saying it because learning random vocabulary isn't as helpful as learning words you'll actually use.

If you have Chinese friends that you talk to, I'd also recommend getting WeChat. If you don't look Chinese, any Chinese person will be surprised by you having it and you will have a good chance of adding them just by that fact alone. I have met many people at Uni just by overhearing some Mandarin and then just trying to talk to them.

I'm a Chinese Malaysian, we learned to speak 3 languages in our schools which are Malay, English and Chinese. My primary school is mostly a Chinese school but they are still other students of different cultures. In my secondary school, its a government secondary school, the teaching occurs in Malay mostly, except for maybe additional math, Chemistry or Physics, but it really depends on the teachers. Currently I'm in a univerisity, thus English is the main teaching medium.

Right now I'm learning German and Japanese, with Duolingo, cant say I put a lot of effort into it. But I've tried to learn these 2 languages since I was in secondary school, but laziness prevents me from doing so. A few months ago I have restarted my lessons and continues until today, won't be stopping for one day, stopping one days means laziness will catch up to me again.

During my learning Japanese lesson, I can say that my Chinese foundation had helped me a lot, all those Kanji I don't need to memorize it, which saved me a lot of time. A lot of times, I always admire those people who don't have a Chinese foundation or so to learn Japanese or Chinese. So much words, so little time, through their persistent, I constantly remind of myself how lucky am I to learn 3 languages already since I'm a kid.

To me, learning a language means that learning other culture's specialty. No matter how much native speakers that language has, it's always important to look at how they evolved over time, how the language's speakers literature, history, science and so much more!

For those who are learning Chinese or Japanese, I wish you best of luck! Don't give up, think of when you can speak fluently with other people in the language you are learning, it will feels fantastic!

Thank you if you managed to read all my babble. Hope you have a nice day!

thank you for posting your story!
I definitely think finding the time to study everyday and building the habit is really important. I'm still working on that myself.

I've heard there are some platforms for language sharing (some German may want to learn Malay or Chinese and you could teach eachother) I've been considering looking for someone from mainland China who would like to improve their English.
good luck with your studies!

I'm Singaporean Chinese.
I'm always available to teach Chinese to those interested.