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But first, there is a bit of catching up to do.
Exactly 0ne year, 5 months, and 2 days ago, I started the process of learning Chinese. Why Chinese? Well, one day, I was bored after school, and like any person who is properly bored nowadays, I was surfing on the internet. In a crucial, random moment of fate, I clicked on an ad for Rosetta Stone, explored the website, and saw that they had a trial lesson for Mandarin Chinese. I was intrigued... after all, isn't Chinese one of the most difficult languages? So, I started the lesson, guided by the automatic features and slick interface of Rosetta Stone, and after 20 minutes, realized that Chinese was like any other language. I mean, sure, it has that strange "tones" issue (where if you say a word while raising your pitch, it means something different than saying that exact same word with a lowering pitch), but after the trial lesson, I knew how to say "The boy runs", and "The girls sit", and understood what the different parts of the sentences meant....suddenly, Chinese seemed like a very real possibility.
And I ran with it.
Slowly, I began to tell people that I wanted to learn Chinese, and I checked-out a few websites about Chinese... Oh, and let's not forget wikipedia! (speaking of wiki, I donated $5 during their last fund-drive).
But I was poor, too poor to afford Rosetta Stone... Difficulty can breed ingenuity. So of course, I downloaded an illegal copy of Rosetta Stone, through a popular peer-to-peer filesharing network (In a hypocritic stance, I don't suggest other people do this). Et Viola! I was in business.
Or so I thought.
I, a language enthusiast (tried to learn arabic on my own too :P, and speaking passable Spanish), realized that I needed some sort of a manual. So, I went to Amazon and gazed at several grammar books, and a vocabulary book. Two weeks later, I had my books in hand, and was eager to learn.
But alas, such things are never easy. I still had quite a way to go, in order to find my current path...
Nice work!!! Very impressive!!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea of keeping a "diary" and sharing your learning experience with the others! To me, learning a language entails a lot of commitments,time, and efforts. I will do whatever I can to support you!!
hello! I am a guy from mainland china. i happend to read your blog from a result of a google search.
ReplyDeleteLearning chinese via internet is a good way cause of the increase of internet users in china.(A recent report from CNN shows China surpassed the US in 2008 as the world's top user of the Internet.)
Like most languages, study simple chinese is quite easy. You can even basically communicate with chinese only after learning three handred characters. while as a saying Rome Was Not Built In One Day, mastering a language completely is really a long way to journey.
you can msn me for any help. good luck.
adamguan@hotmail.com