Advice For A Beginner

[AmberOng]

Hey there,

I'm new to the site and have only been learning Chinese for a few weeks. I know pinyin, some very basic grammar, and a hand full or two of characters. I can already see that the hardest part for me is going to be listening and pushing myself to practice speaking. (The most important part for me, because my in-laws are Chinese and don't speak English..)

Does anyone have some helpful/useful advice on the best way to practice speaking and listening when first starting out? I try to watch movies and shows, but they speak a little too fast and recordings meant for beginners are too slow. What would you recommend? 

Also what is the best method for learning sentence structure? I'm struggling with putting together sentences on my own.

Thanks in advance!

[Flickserve]

The hardest part is listening. There is just so much to absorb.

 

To make it more manageable in the first instance is to limit it to some practical circumstances. No book nor dialogue is going exactly replicate your circumstances.

 

One way to approach it is this. Buy a voice recorder (smartphone is a bit cumbersome). Have some really simple common tasks at home and learn how to say them in three or four word sentences. Get your wife to repeat them into your voice recorder and listen to them again and again. Then get her to say these to you. 

 

Things like

 

i want to have a bath

i want to brush my teeth

i am really tired

i am really hungry 

throw these into the bin

please sit here

this space is for you

 

etc

 

basically anything you you feel is interesting to you. Don't build up complex sentences. Then get used to these common phrases at home and slowly build up from there. Time is the other component. You need to spend time. And then you need prompting which means sometimes your wife saying some of those phrases/simple sentences every couple of days and you trying to understand. 

 

Once you have got used to listening to some phrases, then it's time to learn what you would like to say to your in-laws. Greetings, being polite etc. Have that recorder ready so you can ask your wife what did they say in Chinese and she repeats the Chinese plus translation. Not just the translation. Record and review.  Just try and copy the pattern in the sounds. Keep repeating and you will have a solid basis of words that you are frequently used to. That should set you off to learning from other sources.

[Shelley]

Welcome to the forum, this is very good place to have found

 

You don't say what materials you are using to study. I found that the speaking and listening part is also difficult to do on your own. i would like to recommend to you an app called HelloChinese. There is more about it here https://www.chinese-forums.com/forums/topic/49944-hellochinese-–-new-chinese-mandarin-learning-app-learn-chinese-speak-chinese/

 

It has lots to do that is free and some recently added premium sections that although are fun do not detract from the apps worth if you don't pay for them. There are sections in the lesson where you speak and it checks your pronunciation and scores it. There are also listening, reading, writing characters sections and more.

 

I found it useful to make me practice my speaking.

You might find it useful too.

 

If you decide you would like to take a more traditional learning route and start a textbook course, I would recommend New Practical Chinese Reader. I would consider this series a standard. It is widely available, has textbooks. workbooks and importantly for self learners an instructors book with the answers.