335 dtg (secret language weapons #2)

wode mubiao xiang zhongguoren yi yang ting-shou-du-xie zhongwen
(my goal look Chinese-person the same listen-speak-read-write Chinese)

I spent some time in Hong Kong recently with a few prolific language learners - people who were fluent in at least six languages (for the record, the best performer could speak 12). I'm thinking that if you want to do something right, best to learn from the masters. After all, if you really wanted to play golf, wouldn't you want Tiger Woods as your coach?

One thing they all shared in common was the ability to sound like a native - strap on a blindfold and you would swear you were talking to a Chinese / German / Danish / Spanish person. Though, for the record, none of them were Chinese, German, Danish or Spanish.

So it's time for Product Plug #2 - Pimsleur's Language Guides. Although they err on the side of being slightly too formal, these CDs are, IMHO, great value for money. I say great value for money because the course is not what one would describe as cheap - the entire set (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced) of Mandarin lessons set me back about US$500 (you can pay as much as US$1,000 if you go to the wrong place ... personally I went here).

But, if you've got the cash it's well worth the splash (the site also has a buy-back option so you can get around US$230 back) and if not, well, the internet is a wonderful thing if you know where to look. Or, you could think of it this way. By speaking Mandarin Chinese, I can converse with one billion extra people. So if I spent U$467.85 on the couse, that works out to US$0.000000468 per person, which I reckon is pretty good value.

Pimsleur's is all about speaking and listening (there is no writing component), and for a language like Mandarin, it overcomes some of the limitations of trying to "write" sounds using English letters. Here's a few examples

Hui (can)

Pronounced "hwhey" ... with the "hwh" bit at the start sounding something like a sword being drawn from it's scabbard.

Hen (very)

Pronounced "hhhen" ... with the "hhh" bit at the start like the Dutch "g" (that funny thing that makes you sound like you have a bad cough), except that it's an "h".

Shi (am, is, are)

Pronounced "ssshhhi" ... with the "ssshhh" bit at the start sounding like that thing you do when you want someone to be quiet.

I think you get the picture - I know I certainly did. The course is broken up into 30 minute lessons, with 30 lessons in each stage, and a suggested rate of one lesson per day. Transfer the entire course to your iPod / MP3 player and you can carry them with you at all times, which means you can be conversational in a month. Nice work.

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I checked with my friend Chris and his book, "The Third Ear" will be available over the internet later in 2005. And to anyone who would like to add this blog as a link to theirs, my answer is "yes". To be frank, I am too new to blogging to really understand what that's all about, but the principle sounds pretty good!