Job Discussion Forums

anjinholuis · Joined: 30 Sep 2009 Posts: 37 Location: Shandong

GREETINGS ESL COMMUNITY Cool

I'm preparing my trip to China, Shandong, and one of the things I'm figuring out is how to learn the basics in Mandarin.

Been looking at sites with quick and easy lessons. There's a large array.

ANYONE ABLE TO RECOMMEND SOME ALREADY EFFECTIVE PROVEN SITES OR TOOLS?

As simple as possible.

Thanks for the responses.

alter ego · Joined: 24 Mar 2009 Posts: 209

http://chinesepod.com/

One of the best sites and they offer a free 7-day trial.

I had an interview recently for a corporate trainer job and the Chinese person interviewing me asked if I could speak any basic Mandarin to use in their beginner classes.

The way the industry is going learning Chinese may soon make a difference in the kind of EFL jobs some of us can get.

vikeologist · Joined: 07 Sep 2009 Posts: 600

I agree. Chinesepod have newbie lessons giving you high frequency nice lexical chunks, and I think that's very helpful in Chinese as a means of learning the stresses and sound of the language.

I'm also a big fan of Pimsleur (for all languages) because it gets you talking the language but I have primarily been using Chinesepod and practising what I've learned with chinese people every chance I get.

Renegade_o_Funk · Joined: 06 Jun 2009 Posts: 125

I agree, ChinesePod is one of the best websites out there for learning chinese. If you cant be arsed with sitting at the computer, just download the mp3's, throw them on your mp3 player and listen to chinesepod as your walking around.

CJD · Joined: 19 Jun 2009 Posts: 116

Start with Pimsleur and ChinesePod.

You can easily get both of those with torrents.

It's also important to practice with Chinese speakers. Try not to hangout with your English speaking friends all day every day when you're in China.

the chinese-forums website has GREAT forums with tons of awesome suggestions for learning chinese. there's a lot of good links to be found on those forums.