Are there any courses which focus on Spoken Mandarin only?

[keith]

Hi there this is Keith, I'm new here. This forum is great, I just found it yesterday whilst surfing and I must say I'm very impressed!

Basically, my question is "Can I take a course which deals specifically with Mandarin speaking and listening?". To be honest, die to my background, I am not that interested in learning the grammar, although I guess I need to adjust to Simplified Chinese characters up there instead of the traditional ones I'm used to.

I can hardly speak any Mandarin though I'm really keen to learn , problem is I'm not sure if I should consider myself a beginner or not if I can read/write Chinese already.

In case you need it, here's my language background:

I'm fluent in spoken Cantonese as well as reading and writing Traditional Chinese fluently, as I spent 9 years studying in Hong Kong as a kid before spending another 9 years studying in the UK (ps: I'm a New Zealander of Hong Kong extraction, although I consider myself more Hong Kong/British than Kiwi nowadays ).

Oh and another thing: ideally I'd like to study in Beijing, if possible.

I would really appreciate some feedback on my question. Thanks!

[kentsuarez]

The best "course" is to move there and board with a family who speak only Mandarin. Go out and find a different conversation partner for every day of the week, and spend one hour teaching them English or Cantonese in return for Mandarin conversation. Tune your radio and TV to Mandarin stations only, and hang out only with locals who speak only Mandarin. You'll soon be fluent. I did exactly this, but in Taibei, with great success, and haven't spent a dime on courses. Good luck!

K

[keith]

Thanks Kentsuarez for your kind input!

Keith

[roddy]

There's a department at BLCU that specialises in teaching Mandarin to Cantonese speakers, I think, that might be a good choice for you. If I remember correctly there's also a place called the College of Chinese Language and Culture or something similar - there's a post in this Universities and Schools forum about it somewhere - not sure there's much info, but theres a link - I think they do the same thing.

Let us know how you get on.

Roddy

EDIT: Found the link for the BLCU course I mentioned - aimed at folk from HK, Macau and Overseas Chinese. Sound about right?

http://www.blcu.edu.cn/jlch/GATStud/2003PTH_CN.asp

[keith]

Thanks Roddy, great link, very useful info. Will let you know if I decide to take up the offer!

Cheers.

[Guest Yau]

Pimsleur's audio class may be good for you.

I find it quite useful for starting to learn french. There's no book with it, what you can do is to hear the sound. The magic here is that it creates dozens of ways to repeat and repeat the sounds, expresssions and vocab.

Though I really doubt how well you may communicate with Chinese after taking the audios, it's a good start anyway.

Just it's too expensive. Try to borrow it on your local library.............and .... hmmm, I know it's also avaliable on some P2P network.

http://www.simonsays.com/content/content.cfm?sid=128&pid=410706