DS #2597: My Chinese Coach (USA)

[Issac]

I tried the spanish coach, and it sucked very bad. I mean the tests and all were great, but there were no learning involved.
"Brush up your vocabulary" would be a better slogan than "learn a new language", since it demands that you should know the language before hand, and just brush up and use what you once learned.

BUT that was spanish, hopefully these two are better... but I doubt it.

 

[xJonny]

Nihau, My Chinese Coach! Time to have kanji nightmares! (

)

Actually 'ni hao', I'm Chinese lol. Just thought I should point that out for you. Since you're trying to learn Chinese and all that.

Meh, everybody from Hong Kong speaks canto. Which is like 60% of my school, here in Canada O.o
Canto is actually much harder than Mandarin.... I've been tryin to pick it up by listenin to ppl talk at school in vain.... IMO, Canto sounds crass...

So you're family are from the north?
Mine are from South and Hong Kong, but we speak Hak Ga ("Hakka" is how it's said on the interwebs)

I think Mandarin sounds softer compared to other Chinese dialects e.g. hua vs va, pian vs pen

 

[mrbass]

I think all these French, Spanish, Chinese Coach series are excellent what they are attempting to do. Provide supplemental phrases and vocabulary learning. This shouldn't be your initial learning experience of the said language. Initial exposure is fine to see if it sparks an interest in you then great. Think of them like just quizzes to take. Kinda like reinforcing the language. However, to learn seek out a book or class at school. Best thing I did in Japan was constantly read computer magazines and learn all the kanji while on subway/train. It does wonders when reading various Japanese articles I can get the gist of it most of the time. I really can't write jack squat but on a computer it's easy to recognize the correct kanji to input. Coach series is just that a coach to spur you along in the language. Not a "Learn Chinese 101".