Not that I want to put anybody off learning this fascinating language, but from personal experience it took me about 2 years of hard study abroad to reach basic conversational level and a further 3 years living in studying/working in China to reach minimal professional working level. And really I still try to improve everyday. I think the best thing you can do to improve once you reach a certain level is to make friends with as many locals as possible who can't speak English. Don't fall in to the trap of falling back on English just because it's easier. Forcing yourself to speak it as much as possible with as many people as possible will improve your language ability beyond measure
That is truly the secret to learning any language well. It takes courage and a willingness to suffer embarrassment, but the payoff is definitely worth it.
Great series, now do this: 1) Get a WIND MIC. It blocks the wind, very annoying. 2) Get a PERSONAL MIC. It clips onto your shirt, allows for better sound when you are far from your phone.
Eric, the owner of school is absolutely right when he advise to learn speaking AND reading character at the same time. The reading dimension add-up so much more the comprehension of the language. For example, many word songs the same and if you don't read, you might end-up thinking why they use the same word for different stuff when in fact the characters are different. Also after time, if you don't learn to read Chinese, you might start feeling the emptiness of what illiterate peoples feel.
I would add that it is important for new english-speaking learners (like myself) to come to terms with the lack of verb-conjugation (words transforming through tense, i.e. said, say, says), and to appreciate the art and history of Chinese culture contained within the language. Excellent video.
Having chinese friends is an absolute MUST. Not just for asking for corrections, but just for the general daily life usage of the language, not to mention a big part of language learning that many forget, the cultural aspect. There are so many subtleties that must be understood about the culture in order to properly understand the language and the general social accepted way of speaking.
Shoot if your Chinese was a solid “intermediate” all those years ago then I can only imagine how your Chinese is in 2019!! Would love an update on your language journey :)
Winston my man, I enjoy every video you do, especially newer ones as you've learned to edit for brevity. I love you for the adventurous life you're living and for openly sharing the experience with us all. STAY AWESOME!
Like your videos. I worked and lived in Hainan dao for a year back in 2004 and have experienced almost everything you have mentioned in you vids. As a geologist, I worked in a gold mine in southern Hainan. I had to work with many corrupt government officals so my education about "how it is in China" was vastly accelerated. My advice for foreigners first lesson in Chinese is learning the importance of north, south, east and west, and words like lake river mountain to learn place names.
I have just come back from doing a 2 week language course in beijing. I learnt so much in that time, especially since i was in beijing, being immersed in the language. I had not learnt how to tell the taxi turn right turn left etc. so this video was useful. I will continue to study Chinese at home.
i think it will be very helpful to people getting a start, or just learning a few things to get them going. every bit helps. and its surprising what sticks in the brain.
li hai is the right way to write Chinese "pinyin". But, lee hai has a more accurate pronunciation when non-Chinese native speaker speak it. I think it's even better be written as "lee high" if you really want to speak it.
Great video, very interesting! By the way, I was wondering if it is in general difficult to master the tones of Mandarin. Do you need to be musically talented (good at singing etc) in order to learn them? Do you find them difficult? Greetings from Estonia!
I was completely immersed, and yes I did learn fast, but you still need some direction, Chinese is a completely alien language for us Europeans, a fantastic and interesting language yes, but very difficult for most people to grasp
Please can you cover more chinese mandarin like you did on this video at Eric's school. I found Yan Li very easy to grasp and like how she explains the 'what' of the character.
@@vhh1992 yeah 😔 I haven't caught up yet and am kind of avoiding, because for me his videos and life in China were a wonderful escape and hope to one day live in China too
@@jackg5321 then don't watch them or your dreams might become nightmares XD. Jokes aside, you can still live there for a while, but try not to think about staying there long-term.
just found this now and very much enjoyed. Been very interested in the chinese culture and language and appreciate any video that will help me learn more. Love the work you do and your channel!! Thank you !
I had the luck to be interested in writing as well as speaking and so I started in parallel. I recognized immediately the advantage to have multiple ways to come to the meaning and I suggest it always to my course colleagues. Unfortunately they stick on pin yin.
Hi, I liked your video very much, I plan to visit Beijing/China for the first time soon, I hope to to still learn a great deal from your videos! Thank you, johan.
Thank you for all of your informative Videos. I gained a lot of useful information and I feel a bit more prepared. Keep up the good work! I am coming to China next weekend to work there for at least two years, mainly in Chongqing and Hongkong.
Hi. I'm a new subscriber and find your logs on China quite fascinating. Just a quick question. 只是一个快速的问题。Would you prescribe using 'Google translate' to learn Chinese? It uses 'Simplified Chinese' - whatever that means... Thanks!
One thing I would suggest, is that when you write the Chinese pronunciation on the screen, you could add those little indicators that tell if if the pitch goes down, up or both. Otherwise great video, thanks.
congrat, i learn chinese in beijing at university 5 years and truly learning chinese just by communicate in every day life and situation is not an easy thing to me
Awesome video man :-) I liked it very much I hope you keep making them I learn so much about China and now I'm thinking of visiting that country to see it all with my own eyes. Thanks for everything you posted.
Just a helpful note, in Mandarin you have a different sentence structure and things are relative in all languages. For example, onions are 'western onions' and scallions are 'onions'.
the series of interviews went pretty smoothly, good job.. and yeah micro lessons would be interesting.. maybe even start doing some video where you speak only in chinese through out a normal day to day interactions with people... and then your subs can translate and post
I just ran across this video. I don’t know if you ever see any new comments on old posts, but in the event you so - I would like to see you do more videos similar to this even though you are no longer in China. I don’t really have an interest in learning Chinese fluently, but I find the language very interesting especially how the characters came about and how they are interpreted. Also, do you think there is a significant advantage in the English language over Chinese when it comes to communicating effectively in writing considering all the Chinese’s characters?
Hello, I loved your video; yes please do some more on learning Mandarin Chinese. Should I focus “More” on Chinese traditional or simplified or both and what is the difference? Thanks again for doing the videos on China.
Nice video. I'm getting ready to sign up for Mandarin lessons next week. I definitely appreciate the tip about learning to write and speak at the same time. Keep these vids coming! thanks.
Just curious....Is Mandarin so different from Cantonese that you have to learn a whole new language from scratch? Winston, you can only be described as the “James Bond of China”....a very cool guy who inspires the rest of us!
It’s very true what Winston said about needing the ‘catalyst’ to take you to the next level. I don’t have this (yet), but I know enough to do my shopping, get a taxi or a bus, buy clothes, order a meal...... the usual stuff. However living in Guangdong where the local dialect to Cantonese, the BIGGEST problem I face when trying to improve my Chinese is that some people are speaking and teaching you Cantonese, while others are teaching you Mandarin, and trust me when I say that due to the HUGE numbers of provincial workers here who largely DONT speak Cantonese, it’s a problem. For somebody trying to learn and interact, it’s absolutely sole destroying if say you listen to phrase, memorise and practice it, then when you try to use it, all you get is completely blank looks because you may be speaking Mandarin to a Cantonese-only speaker, or visa-versa! One last point, even then if you learn the word in the correct language of the person you’re trying to communicate with, you have the problem with the TONE of the word! For some reason, in my experience, Chinese do not seem to possess the ability to think, ‘is he trying to say this?’ As a result you just get the completely blank look which DESTROYS your confidence, just because the tone of the last letter of the word you’re attempting to say was incorrect!
Im fluent in Chinese after a year, as a linguist I can say there is no magic short cuts or tricks. The main thing is hard work and learning at a pace you can manage.
Great video series. I have been to China many times and love the culture. I will be there next summer. I hope to see you there if you have time for a beer...my treat. Thanks Jim D
Depends on cities (beijing, shanghai, guangzhou), higher chance if you ask a younger (below 30 and around 30) who are willing to speak with you in english, but in terms of how smooth the communication can go, that depends, i would say higher chance in those cities. For hongkong, the chance is almost like 100% that you can get help from some1 in english.
very awesome this video and this apresentation for this schooll. I felt impressive about the knowledge and the skill of this Chinese to spoke and provide lessons about chinese at english ! Please let me see more videos like that, i'm planning to learn and i want a quite idea about what should I expect for my future lessons. Anyway, is it possible make a video about "action figure stores " ? ? Can you show me an reptile store ? or maybe just some dogs that you can find at street. Wich kind languages did you develop ? ( isn't necessaryt answer this if you don't need " Aprecciate your attention.
I like that directions were used as first useful subject to learn. The basic hello, how are you are below are the first thing that tourist learn quickly. Of course you'll learn a lot more and faster if you live in China. Does the school have a website with real classroom teaching online? Could be a good thing for the school.
Really enjoying your videos. They're informative and well thought out. I was in Guang Zho briefly at the end of 1988. I was living in Japan at the time. I'd love to go back to China and explore more. I remember a particularly beautiful place called Seven Star Crag, which I'm sure you've been too (maybe it's even in one of your videos).
I have enjoyed watching many of your videos thank you! I currently reside in Australia and have been to China 3 times now and loved everything about China and its wonderfull people and culture I am thinking of moving there, can I ask you what would be your best advised for me im looking at eiher Guangzhou or Shenzhen....thanks once again.. from Ciro
Hi Winston, I am planning to take Mandarin classes in China. What region or city would you recommend where people speak a more "standard" Mandarin regarding accent and regionalism? And also a city where it is easier to get in contact with Chinese and interact with them. Thanks!
I would certainly enjoy learning a little more Chinese or a lot actually. Together with my wife 25 years and we've spent the time teaching her English. So now it's my turn😆
Good video. One suggestion though. I have been making youtube videos for 11 years and audio quality is the number one consideration. When you were interviewing the director the mike was not close to either of you so the ratio or volume of the speech was low relative to the background noise. This means that the viewer must concentrate harder which is not an ideal outcome. I suggest that you buy an audiotechnica atr35s which is a cheap lavalier with a 10ft cord and then put the microphone part in cheap handheld mike housing. Then when interviewing someone you can share the mike. Or alternatively get an audio adapter and 2 of the mikes and the interviewers mike can be on the left channel and the interviewees mike on the right channel. I hope that helps.
Thank you for explaining how it is that you learn Mandarin Chinese. I will check the app out it sounds like a good one. Thank you for your advice I enjoy both of your videos.
I know this was an older vid, but I loved it!! I learned simple Japanese travel speak also from UA-cam. It took a while to find a person that taught in a way I could understand, but was awesome.
I agree with some comments already made, the sound is not very good. but outside recording is always like that. Try using a mic that is jacked into the recording device. Also it will look more exciting since the mic is going to be in your hand and directed toward the source being recorded. I found your channel very useful and I hope you continue doing more videos. Thank you.
Where I grew up we never use 掉頭 diào tóu to express turn around or do a U-turn. Instead we use 轉 zhuǎn and 回頭 huí tóu as follows: 轉回頭 zhuǎn huí tóu - turn around or do a U-turn. Likewise, we say: 轉左 zhuǎn zuǒ or 左轉 zuǒ zhuǎn - Turn left 轉右 zhuǎn yòu or 右轉 yòu zhuǎn - Turn right We use 掉 diào mostly to express dropping something.
Again, it's 调， not 掉。调means adjust. You can use both 转头 or 调头。 The only difference is 调头 is a little more popular in oral Chinese. 转头 is more popular in writing Chinese.
.If 调头 is a little more popular in oral Chinese and 转头 is more popular in writing Chinese, then you won't know for sure which is it in the spoken vernacular because both sound the same.. But, in this video at 11:06, which my comment is based on, the lady specifically wrote down the character 掉. not 调 Also, whether in verbal speech or in written form I've never heard of 调 being used in the sense of turning let alone turning the head. As you said 调 means to adjust. It also means to move, transfer or investigate. Used in music it means tune or melody. But never turn. For instance: 調查 - to investigate (a crime) 調值 - pitch of tones 調子 - tune 調換 - exchange (transfer of things) 調味 - to adjust flavor (through seasoning) 調動 - to transfer or move troop It would be weird to use either 掉頭 or 調頭 to convey the sense of turn or turning in the reverse direction. For 掉頭 literally means to drop head and 調頭 means to adjust or transfer head.
Shan Lim Hey dude. I mean the lady made the mistake. Not you. But, if you've never heard about"调头", I'm sure you are not living in Mainland of China, are you? I noticed you are using traditional Chinese character. So, I guess you are from Taiwan or Hong Kong. That's fine whether you use "调头" or not. But, in Mainland China, we use "调头" a lot.
nice video - I've made pretty much the same experience as you described in the beginning of your video - I've been living in Beijing for 2.5 years with survival Chinese and started to feel more and more embarrassed not being able to have a conversation with my Chinese friends that lack English skills. Now I'm finally diving into the language thanks to learning writing Chinese characters and grammar with a system. still a long way keep it up interested in your other stuff
Learning the alphabet in conjunction with speaking is the most effective way. That's how I learned Greek and then later, Russian. Alphabets are similar but not the same. Russian is actually easier to read than Greek because the pronunciation is more phonetic. Excellent video!!
Chinese doesn't have an alphabet, it's an ideogramic language. That's why he said it's best to learn reading and writing characters along with speaking.
I think your idea concerning language is a very good idea. It would mean starting another YT channel but well worth it. Call it “SPEAKING CHINA WITH ME” I was able to learn a lot of the Lakota Sioux language before they simply stopped producing the channel. YT seems to create hardships on anyone promoting anything of real educational value. So; that alone will be a good experiment.
Hey Serp, I loved the vid. i have been trying to learn chinese for a while, but it has been a challenge fo me. but this helpped me a lot. I learn better writting as well as through lecture so learing to read and write is good for. me. thanx again.
I would like to add the importance of learning pinyin and tones... Many learners of Chinese forget tones and it makes it harder for Chinese to understand them. It is much easier to build on good pronunciation habits developed early on. It also makes learning characters easier, because you can put a definite sound to the image, and the character will thus produce a clear sound in your mind when you read it, like an English word does.
Just FYI for anyone who wants to know...Mandarin is a category 4 language. For an English speaker, it takes 2,200 hours until fluency. So you know how hard this is, a language like Spanish is category 1 and takes between 500 to 600 hours to be fluent, so Chinese takes 4 times longer to master than Spanish for an English speaker.
谢谢你。 I found this video very interesting. I can speak a little and read a little Mandarin, All of your videos have been very good and informative. I was going to come to your presentation in Los Angeles last month with my son, but I got sick and missed it. He took a friend instead. Keep up the good work, and stay awesome!
Yes, that's right. I (German) learned a little bit to speak in a something like you would call private school for about 20h. It was really great, now I can count, use a cab, use the train, order food or find a doctor. So the standards. But I can't read chinese. And as I like old stuff eastern movies, such with David Chiang, Ti Lung and so, and I was proud to understand their 你好 or so. But often the movies are subbed and I can't read. Seems that I really have to learn more.
I enjoyed this video, because I was wondering how to learn to speak Chinese. I found this very helpful but still a far way for me before I can use anything here that I had learned. I plan to take classes here in the U.S. soon, before tuition become too expensive. I have also down load the apps you and C-Milk talked about in one of your other videos which are helpful for now.
I know this was six years ago, but please pay another visit to Eric’s school. Please ask him what does he think of the UA-camr, Laoshu’s FLR Samurai Method... And your opinion as well. I look forward to the video. Also, for your ADVChina channel, maybe a topic of how the method of teaching language changed since back in 2012. Thank you much!
Lots of people on YT do Chinese lessons, so people can get those elsewhere. I would most like to see some Surviving Shenzhen installments to hear more about your experiences and story. Even just more tidbits of daily life that you find interesting or strange (no shortage in China) would be great.
Wow! This is from so long ago! You should remake a more "sauve" and updated version now.
Not that I want to put anybody off learning this fascinating language, but from personal experience it took me about 2 years of hard study abroad to reach basic conversational level and a further 3 years living in studying/working in China to reach minimal professional working level. And really I still try to improve everyday. I think the best thing you can do to improve once you reach a certain level is to make friends with as many locals as possible who can't speak English. Don't fall in to the trap of falling back on English just because it's easier. Forcing yourself to speak it as much as possible with as many people as possible will improve your language ability beyond measure
That is truly the secret to learning any language well. It takes courage and a willingness to suffer embarrassment, but the payoff is definitely worth it.
Great series, now do this:
1) Get a WIND MIC. It blocks the wind, very annoying.
2) Get a PERSONAL MIC. It clips onto your shirt, allows for better sound when you are far from your phone.
I hope he can read these suggestions which i strongly recommend as well.
You understand you're talking about a 3 year old video, right? fool.
Almost 6 year old now.
Svein Hanssen great comment :D
6 years later and he followed both of his advice. :)
This was suggested by the youtube. This is so long ago. I had never seen these. Crazy how much things change in a short ten years.
Eric, the owner of school is absolutely right when he advise to learn speaking AND reading character at the same time. The reading dimension add-up so much more the comprehension of the language. For example, many word songs the same and if you don't read, you might end-up thinking why they use the same word for different stuff when in fact the characters are different. Also after time, if you don't learn to read Chinese, you might start feeling the emptiness of what illiterate peoples feel.
I would add that it is important for new english-speaking learners (like myself) to come to terms with the lack of verb-conjugation (words transforming through tense, i.e. said, say, says), and to appreciate the art and history of Chinese culture contained within the language.
Excellent video.
Ms. Li seems like an excellent teacher, the kind you can easily ask a question without feeling embarrassed.
I was impressed at how well that Mandarin teacher could understand and speak English.
Having chinese friends is an absolute MUST. Not just for asking for corrections, but just for the general daily life usage of the language, not to mention a big part of language learning that many forget, the cultural aspect. There are so many subtleties that must be understood about the culture in order to properly understand the language and the general social accepted way of speaking.
It is fun to watch your old videos .
I love how you treat us (your subscribers) like we are actually there and in the room with you. Good on you man!
Shoot if your Chinese was a solid “intermediate” all those years ago then I can only imagine how your Chinese is in 2019!! Would love an update on your language journey :)
You are Santa clause ? Me too!
Its funny how everyone walking by him are glancing at him or staring at him like "what is he doing?" xD
I heard he born in africa。Now he pretend to be rich in china。look at that stupid suit。
It will happen to you as well even if you are not talking to a camera...
@@dragonblue594 why are you so mean?
@@dragonblue594 50 cents has been added to your WeChat account, thank you for you contribution to the CCP
The occasional small language lessons, like this one, are very much appreciated!
Winston my man, I enjoy every video you do, especially newer ones as you've learned to edit for brevity. I love you for the adventurous life you're living and for openly sharing the experience with us all. STAY AWESOME!
Like your videos. I worked and lived in Hainan dao for a year back in 2004 and have experienced almost everything you have mentioned in you vids. As a geologist, I worked in a gold mine in southern Hainan. I had to work with many corrupt government officals so my education about "how it is in China" was vastly accelerated. My advice for foreigners first lesson in Chinese is learning the importance of north, south, east and west, and words like lake river mountain to learn place names.
I have just come back from doing a 2 week language course in beijing. I learnt so much in that time, especially since i was in beijing, being immersed in the language. I had not learnt how to tell the taxi turn right turn left etc. so this video was useful. I will continue to study Chinese at home.
Eric said exactly what I believe - it is essential to speak and write. I wish I could find a school like that in the UK.
i think it will be very helpful to people getting a start, or just learning a few things to get them going. every bit helps. and its surprising what sticks in the brain.
i sink yo chinesi is so lee hai
It's li hai, not lee hai, LoL.
someone call the police. a joke has been murdered.
233333333333333
li hai is the right way to write Chinese "pinyin". But, lee hai has a more accurate pronunciation when non-Chinese native speaker speak it. I think it's even better be written as "lee high" if you really want to speak it.
If you want to dig deep there are also 28 violations of proper English, which I might add is quite well done for such a short sentence.
Great video, very interesting! By the way, I was wondering if it is in general
difficult to master the tones of Mandarin. Do you need to be musically talented
(good at singing etc) in order to learn them? Do you find them difficult?
Greetings from Estonia!
I was completely immersed, and yes I did learn fast, but you still need some direction, Chinese is a completely alien language for us Europeans, a fantastic and interesting language yes, but very difficult for most people to grasp
Please can you cover more chinese mandarin like you did on this video at Eric's school. I found Yan Li very easy to grasp and like how she explains the 'what' of the character.
You are a good ambassador for China. I have a better appreciation for China because of your vedios. Lihai
Many would say not anymore hahaha. I still think so though
@@vhh1992 yeah 😔 I haven't caught up yet and am kind of avoiding, because for me his videos and life in China were a wonderful escape and hope to one day live in China too
@@jackg5321 then don't watch them or your dreams might become nightmares XD. Jokes aside, you can still live there for a while, but try not to think about staying there long-term.
Hi Winston! It would be great if you could do a video about what Chinese learners look for in an English teacher.
Awesome, goin to China next week, possibly for longer. Your videos are so useful. Many thanks.
just found this now and very much enjoyed. Been very interested in the chinese culture and language and appreciate any video that will help me learn more. Love the work you do and your channel!! Thank you !
Which place? The first place I was filming was in dong hai, near to xiang mi hu, Eric's school is in the Futian CBD
Of course I am.Actually in mainland China ,if you want to visit youtube,facebook,etc,you will find a way to get access to them.
I had the luck to be interested in writing as well as speaking and so I started in parallel. I recognized immediately the advantage to have multiple ways to come to the meaning and I suggest it always to my course colleagues. Unfortunately they stick on pin yin.
Hi, I liked your video very much, I plan to visit Beijing/China for the first time soon, I hope to to still learn a great deal from your videos! Thank you, johan.
Great video. Great to see how much you've improved since then.
Thank you for all of your informative Videos. I gained a lot of useful information and I feel a bit more prepared. Keep up the good work! I am coming to China next weekend to work there for at least two years, mainly in Chongqing and Hongkong.
Thank you, Yan Li and Winston, for the free Mandarin lesson!
Hi. I'm a new subscriber and find your logs on China quite fascinating. Just a quick question. 只是一个快速的问题。Would you prescribe using 'Google translate' to learn Chinese? It uses 'Simplified Chinese' - whatever that means... Thanks!
Very good video now I want to learn this fascinating language. Thank you
Thanks, I enjoyed the lesson. Plan to visit China in the Fall, so would really appreciate some more...
Congratulations Peter. We are honored to be you subscribers. 😊😊😊
One thing I would suggest, is that when you write the Chinese pronunciation on the screen, you could add those little indicators that tell if if the pitch goes down, up or both. Otherwise great video, thanks.
I enjoyed it, surely wouldn't mind if it turned into a series.
congrat, i learn chinese in beijing at university 5 years and truly learning chinese just by communicate in every day life and situation is not an easy thing to me
Awesome video man :-)
I liked it very much I hope you keep making them I learn so much about China and now I'm thinking of visiting that country to see it all with my own eyes.
Thanks for everything you posted.
I've been researching different language schools in Beijing and found this very useful! It was interesting to see it kind of laid out!
This is awesome. Never thought of going to an actual school. I found a learning center in Chongqing, so gonna do this.
Just a helpful note, in Mandarin you have a different sentence structure and things are relative in all languages. For example, onions are 'western onions' and scallions are 'onions'.
the series of interviews went pretty smoothly, good job.. and yeah micro lessons would be interesting.. maybe even start doing some video where you speak only in chinese through out a normal day to day interactions with people... and then your subs can translate and post
I just ran across this video. I don’t know if you ever see any new comments on old posts, but in the event you so - I would like to see you do more videos similar to this even though you are no longer in China. I don’t really have an interest in learning Chinese fluently, but I find the language very interesting especially how the characters came about and how they are interpreted. Also, do you think there is a significant advantage in the English language over Chinese when it comes to communicating effectively in writing considering all the Chinese’s characters?
That was Awesome! It was really great of Eric to allow us in and see his school. I would like to see more, and thank you for showing us.
Hello, I loved your video; yes please do some more on learning Mandarin Chinese. Should I focus “More” on Chinese traditional or simplified or both and what is the difference? Thanks again for doing the videos on China.
Nice video. I'm getting ready to sign up for Mandarin lessons next week. I definitely appreciate the tip about learning to write and speak at the same time. Keep these vids coming! thanks.
Just curious....Is Mandarin so different from Cantonese that you have to learn a whole new language from scratch? Winston, you can only be described as the “James Bond of China”....a very cool guy who inspires the rest of us!
Thank you, Yama Boy!
It’s very true what Winston said about needing the ‘catalyst’ to take you to the next level. I don’t have this (yet), but I know enough to do my shopping, get a taxi or a bus, buy clothes, order a meal...... the usual stuff.
However living in Guangdong where the local dialect to Cantonese, the BIGGEST problem I face when trying to improve my Chinese is that some people are speaking and teaching you Cantonese, while others are teaching you Mandarin, and trust me when I say that due to the HUGE numbers of provincial workers here who largely DONT speak Cantonese, it’s a problem.
For somebody trying to learn and interact, it’s absolutely sole destroying if say you listen to phrase, memorise and practice it, then when you try to use it, all you get is completely blank looks because you may be speaking Mandarin to a Cantonese-only speaker, or visa-versa!
One last point, even then if you learn the word in the correct language of the person you’re trying to communicate with, you have the problem with the TONE of the word! For some reason, in my experience, Chinese do not seem to possess the ability to think, ‘is he trying to say this?’ As a result you just get the completely blank look which DESTROYS your confidence, just because the tone of the last letter of the word you’re attempting to say was incorrect!
Im fluent in Chinese after a year, as a linguist I can say there is no magic short cuts or tricks. The main thing is hard work and learning at a pace you can manage.
Great video series. I have been to China many times and love the culture. I will be there next summer. I hope to see you there if you have time for a beer...my treat.
Thanks
Jim D
Respectful saying, welcome to China.
Depends on cities (beijing, shanghai, guangzhou), higher chance if you ask a younger (below 30 and around 30) who are willing to speak with you in english, but in terms of how smooth the communication can go, that depends, i would say higher chance in those cities. For hongkong, the chance is almost like 100% that you can get help from some1 in english.
very awesome this video and this apresentation for this schooll.
I felt impressive about the knowledge and the skill of this Chinese to spoke and provide lessons about chinese at english !
Please let me see more videos like that, i'm planning to learn and i want a quite idea about what should I expect for my future lessons.
Anyway, is it possible make a video about "action figure stores " ? ?
Can you show me an reptile store ? or maybe just some dogs that you can find at street.
Wich kind languages did you develop ? ( isn't necessaryt answer this if you don't need "
Aprecciate your attention.
I like that directions were used as first useful subject to learn. The basic hello, how are you are below are the first thing that tourist learn quickly. Of course you'll learn a lot more and faster if you live in China. Does the school have a website with real classroom teaching online? Could be a good thing for the school.
Really enjoying your videos. They're informative and well thought out. I was in Guang Zho briefly at the end of 1988. I was living in Japan at the time. I'd love to go back to China and explore more. I remember a particularly beautiful place called Seven Star Crag, which I'm sure you've been too (maybe it's even in one of your videos).
I have enjoyed watching many of your videos thank you! I currently reside in Australia and have been to China 3 times now and loved everything about China and its wonderfull people and culture I am thinking of moving there, can I ask you what would be your best advised for me im looking at eiher Guangzhou or Shenzhen....thanks once again.. from Ciro
Hi Winston, I am planning to take Mandarin classes in China. What region or city would you recommend where people speak a more "standard" Mandarin regarding accent and regionalism? And also a city where it is easier to get in contact with Chinese and interact with them. Thanks!
I would certainly enjoy learning a little more Chinese or a lot actually. Together with my wife 25 years and we've spent the time teaching her English. So now it's my turn😆
Good video. One suggestion though. I have been making youtube videos for 11 years and audio quality is the number one consideration. When you were interviewing the director the mike was not close to either of you so the ratio or volume of the speech was low relative to the background noise. This means that the viewer must concentrate harder which is not an ideal outcome. I suggest that you buy an audiotechnica atr35s which is a cheap lavalier with a 10ft cord and then put the microphone part in cheap handheld mike housing. Then when interviewing someone you can share the mike. Or alternatively get an audio adapter and 2 of the mikes and the interviewers mike can be on the left channel and the interviewees mike on the right channel. I hope that helps.
I'm chinese and I can read read right and speak but I still enjoy your videos a lot.
Thanks , all your videos are helpful. It would be great to have more information about your friends school, I'm planning on moving to China
Thank you for explaining how it is that you learn Mandarin Chinese. I will check the app out it sounds like a good one. Thank you for your advice I enjoy both of your videos.
This is a very intresting video. There are a lot of nice people in it. Beautiful place.Very helpful,thank you.
Amazing.I am a Chinese motorcycle boy.But now I am going to university in Japan. If I were in China,maybe I can give you more help.
I know this was an older vid, but I loved it!! I learned simple Japanese travel speak also from UA-cam. It took a while to find a person that taught in a way I could understand, but was awesome.
I agree with some comments already made, the sound is not very good. but outside recording is always like that. Try using a mic that is jacked into the recording device. Also it will look more exciting since the mic is going to be in your hand and directed toward the source being recorded.
I found your channel very useful and I hope you continue doing more videos. Thank you.
Thanks but this video is super old, try watching my newer videos
I just found this video :) I'm kinda shocked how much progress you did Winston! :) Those were busy 6 years :)
that was 100% awesome. please show more from the school and Lanyi!
Where I grew up we never use 掉頭 diào tóu to express turn around or do a U-turn. Instead we use 轉 zhuǎn and 回頭 huí tóu as follows:
轉回頭 zhuǎn huí tóu - turn around or do a U-turn.
Likewise, we say:
轉左 zhuǎn zuǒ or 左轉 zuǒ zhuǎn - Turn left
轉右 zhuǎn yòu or 右轉 yòu zhuǎn - Turn right
We use 掉 diào mostly to express dropping something.
Again, it's 调， not 掉。调means adjust.
You can use both 转头 or 调头。 The only difference is 调头 is a little more popular in oral Chinese. 转头 is more popular in writing Chinese.
.If 调头 is a little more popular in oral Chinese and 转头 is more popular in writing Chinese, then you won't know for sure which is it in the spoken vernacular because both sound the same..
But, in this video at 11:06, which my comment is based on, the lady specifically wrote down the character 掉. not 调
Also, whether in verbal speech or in written form I've never heard of 调 being used in the sense of turning let alone turning the head.
As you said 调 means to adjust. It also means to move, transfer or investigate. Used in music it means tune or melody. But never turn.
For instance:
調查 - to investigate (a crime)
調值 - pitch of tones
調子 - tune
調換 - exchange (transfer of things)
調味 - to adjust flavor (through seasoning)
調動 - to transfer or move troop
It would be weird to use either 掉頭 or 調頭 to convey the sense of turn or turning in the reverse direction. For 掉頭 literally means to drop head and 調頭 means to adjust or transfer head.
Shan Lim Hey dude. I mean the lady made the mistake. Not you. But, if you've never heard about"调头", I'm sure you are not living in Mainland of China, are you? I noticed you are using traditional Chinese character. So, I guess you are from Taiwan or Hong Kong. That's fine whether you use "调头" or not. But, in Mainland China, we use "调头" a lot.
Great video, regular micro lessons would be fantastic. I liked the way she taught the tone changes.
Like your videos, And the way you're presenting things
I would say local great restaurants, cheap fun bars, streets foods to try, and any theatre or not well known attractions to visit
Great video, I was thinking of learning Mandarin but I really don't know where to start.
Thanks man for this vid. And thanks to Yan Li for teaching those directions that was actually very useful.
ah closing in on 3 years now and barely studied at all. It's about time I climbed over that hurdle from survival into conversational. Bring it on!
really nice video. Where is this school?
nice video - I've made pretty much the same experience as you described in the beginning of your video - I've been living in Beijing for 2.5 years with survival Chinese and started to feel more and more embarrassed not being able to have a conversation with my Chinese friends that lack English skills. Now I'm finally diving into the language thanks to learning writing Chinese characters and grammar with a system.
still a long way
keep it up
interested in your other stuff
I took Chinese 8 at UC Berkeley then went to BeiJing. It helped a lot that I had gone class first.
Learning the alphabet in conjunction with speaking is the most effective way. That's how I learned Greek and then later, Russian. Alphabets are similar but not the same. Russian is actually easier to read than Greek because the pronunciation is more phonetic. Excellent video!!
Chinese doesn't have an alphabet, it's an ideogramic language. That's why he said it's best to learn reading and writing characters along with speaking.
David Westernall LOL Yeah, that and Wheel of Fortune aren't even possible here.
yes good idea, id like some quick mandarin lessons although ive already forgotten the direction one but thatd be great
All of your videos are very practical! Thank you!
I think your idea concerning language is a very good idea. It would mean starting another YT channel but well worth it. Call it “SPEAKING CHINA WITH ME”
I was able to learn a lot of the Lakota Sioux language before they simply stopped producing the channel.
YT seems to create hardships on anyone promoting anything of real educational value. So; that alone will be a good experiment.
Hey Serp, I loved the vid. i have been trying to learn chinese for a while, but it has been a challenge fo me. but this helpped me a lot. I learn better writting as well as through lecture so learing to read and write is good for. me. thanx again.
I would like to add the importance of learning pinyin and tones... Many learners of Chinese forget tones and it makes it harder for Chinese to understand them. It is much easier to build on good pronunciation habits developed early on. It also makes learning characters easier, because you can put a definite sound to the image, and the character will thus produce a clear sound in your mind when you read it, like an English word does.
Just FYI for anyone who wants to know...Mandarin is a category 4 language. For an English speaker, it takes 2,200 hours until fluency. So you know how hard this is, a language like Spanish is category 1 and takes between 500 to 600 hours to be fluent, so Chinese takes 4 times longer to master than Spanish for an English speaker.
谢谢你。 I found this video very interesting. I can speak a little and read a little Mandarin, All of your videos have been very good and informative. I was going to come to your presentation in Los Angeles last month with my son, but I got sick and missed it. He took a friend instead. Keep up the good work, and stay awesome!
So guai means turn. Is it being used as a verb or a noun. Are you saying.....'turn' left as a verb or left 'turn' as a noun?
You look like you would be a movie star honestly..you got that presence..thanks for the lesson!
Awesome video. I will definitely check their website.
First time I seen you do a serious interview. You did great. You should interview more people.
brilliant video! very helpful! well done ! hoping to meet you sometime when I go back to china.
I liked the little lesson. Something different then the common lessons is see on UA-cam
Yes, that's right.
I (German) learned a little bit to speak in a something like you would call private school for about 20h.
It was really great, now I can count, use a cab, use the train, order food or find a doctor. So the standards. But I can't read chinese. And as I like old stuff eastern movies, such with David Chiang, Ti Lung and so, and I was proud to understand their 你好 or so. But often the movies are subbed and I can't read. Seems that I really have to learn more.
I enjoyed this video, because I was wondering how to learn to speak Chinese. I found this very helpful but still a far way for me before I can use anything here that I had learned. I plan to take classes here in the U.S. soon, before tuition become too expensive. I have also down load the apps you and C-Milk talked about in one of your other videos which are helpful for now.
+Alfa M free classes through Tsinghua University online. Go to EdX website and look for Mandarin courses. www.edx.org/
I've been waiting for this video for a long time. Thanks for the effort and information. Very nice!
I know this was six years ago, but please pay another visit to Eric’s school. Please ask him what does he think of the UA-camr, Laoshu’s FLR Samurai Method... And your opinion as well. I look forward to the video. Also, for your ADVChina channel, maybe a topic of how the method of teaching language changed since back in 2012. Thank you much!
Lots of people on YT do Chinese lessons, so people can get those elsewhere. I would most like to see some Surviving Shenzhen installments to hear more about your experiences and story. Even just more tidbits of daily life that you find interesting or strange (no shortage in China) would be great.