I have decided to teach myself Mandarin Chinese... what should I use?

Question

Given that China's economy is pretty much is rockin out with their c*ck out I feel that learning chinese would serve me much better than any other language (I already am conversational in Spanish)

I have seen stuff like Rosetta Stone, Textbooks, and other stuff but does someone know of a program which will really work that I could do on my own at night? Also do you think it would be possible to master the language within 1-2 years? I am looking to distinguish myself for when I apply to UGA's MBA school and to secure a big $ job when I finish.

Answer 1

www.livemocha.com is a great way to start learning a language and it does include Mandarin. It has various courses and you can chat with native speakers. And it's totally free!

I've actually never tried to learn Mandarin, but I've heard that it's pretty hard, I'm not sure you could learn it in 1-2 years. Maybe if you found a good language partner to help you.

Answer 2

www.chinesepod.com

The podcasts are well done and original.  It's nice having a dynamic system that is constantly generating new material, rather than relying on the same old software or CDs that never change.  There is also a great online forum that you can use to ask questions.  

If you are willing to pay more, they also have a plan that let's you have regular conversations with native speakers over skype.  

The entire site is great--I've been using it for the past 6 months or so, and got much further along in my studies than any previous attempts at self-studying Mandarin.

Answer 3

Mandarin Chinese is the hardest language to learn in the world. (Statistics)

Rosetta Stone is, from user reviews, a highly effective interactive program. It is pricey, but you can try rosettastone.com, and work with some programs there, and if you want to go further, then you can buy the program itself, for a few hundred dollars.

There are always the free websites, where you can learn bits of languages for no charge, but they are usually not very helpful.

Here's a few free websites:

http://learnchinese.elanguageschool.net/

http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chine...

http://www.hellomandarin.net/

It's great that you want to challenge yourself with another language, in order to further yourself in learning.

Answer 4

Personally, I've been helping people translate on Yahoo! Answers. I find the best way to learn a language is a hands-on experience.

You'd be surprised how many people are like "How do you say this in Chinese?" I whip out the MDBG dictionary, and have at it. This also gives me the opportunity to research a bit of grammar (to make sure my phrase sounds okay), and the MDBG also has sound clips, so when I'm done translating, I can listen to how you'd pronounce the word.

I've learned a lot from translating here, even if my phrases haven't been a hundred percent correct. ;)

Edit: Oh, and as for how long it takes you - depends how much effort you put into it. It took me about five years to get good with Italian, and I lived in the country for a few years. Mandarin is much harder than most foreign languages (owing to the fact that they have no alphabet), so be prepared for it to take longer than you think. But don't give up, it's a beautiful language and well worth learning!