Where to go from Pimsleur?

[Jhorra]

First off let me say hi I just found this site, and I'm very excited to learn. English is my first language, and I can speak a little spanish, but not fluently. I have been learning mandarin from the Pimsleur courses, and I'm 10 days from finishing the third set. I'm very interested now in continuing to learn to speak mandarin. I'm not sure when I'll try to tackle reading it. So, on to my question.

I actually found very little difficulty learning from the Pimsleur lessons. (Not saying that to be arogant, but to give you an idea of my ability) With what I have learned, I feel confident that I'm pronouncing it 90% correctly, and that I for the most part understand the grammar I have learned. My question now is, what do I do next? I found a beginning mandarin conversation course at a local community college, is that a good idea? Around the corner from my house is a chinese food restaurant where they speak mandarin that I can pop in now and again to practice, but otherwise I know no mandarin speaking people. I live in Phoenix, and I know there is a Chinese cultural center in Tempe, but its not exactly close, and I don't know how often I could get down there.

I'm very interested in becoming more proficient, but I don't know where to go from here.

Thanks in advance for the advise.

[Jhorra]

Just to give a little more context, I didn't find this thread, but my post was added to it, that's why it looks like I ignored what other people said

So I guess I'll try to find a language partner, but what do you all think about the conversational mandarin course?

[wrbt]

Having spoken to people who've taken it the community college conversational course is a waste of time... you'll be stronger from 90 lessons of pimsleur than from that crap.

I'd suggest you sign up for the full 5 credit CHI 101 course at Mesa Community College, then take the 102. I believe for many self-learning is better but starting off with a little structure, feedback, and peer interaction for the (relatively) cheap price of community college is worth the drive and time. After that either press on to 2nd year or commence self-learning with NCPR or David and Helen since they both have much audio content available.

[griz326]

I am using the book Reading and Writing Chinese by Wm McNaughton & Li Ying in combination with my Palm with Pleco on it to learn to write the characters.

I use the character recognition and see if I can get the correct word from the character I draw. Time will tell if this is a good idea or a waste of time...but it makes sense to me.

[griz326]

About how long does it take to learn all three Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese courses?

That was not mentioned in this thread...and I have just started. If the first lesson is any indication, each lesson will take 3 or 4 days. Does that sound correct?

[Jhorra]

I would listen to the lesson once on the way to work, then once on the way home from work. Remember when working through them that you won't get everything from the lesson that day. They review the content of the previous lesson for several lessons afterward. Somethings there were things I didn't get till 2 or 3 days later. Follow their guide, move on when you can answer 80% of the questions they ask in a lesson.

[runehh]

In general, I would do every lesson twice, and then move on, except for a few particularly difficult ones that I would do three or four times. I think the 80 % rule is good, don't worry if you don't remember everything, most of it will be repeated enough times in later lessons.

[flameproof]

After doing Pimsleur 1, 2 + 3 (of course forgetting a lot) and being able to move in China a little without a persoanl babysitter holding my hand I was somehow shocked when D/L stuff from Chinesepod.com

Newby stuff is easy to handle for me. But still, I do get a fair number of new words from it.

Beginners I have not really listened too yet.

Intermediate, were I believed I should be, is way to advanced. I understand a lot of words, but can't really get the meaning of what's being talked.

That was quite an eye opener. I will go on with Chinesepod now. Their lessons are quite fun to listen to and I D/L 200 or so. I only do the free stuff so far.

For all those who do Pimsleur right now, i suggest to go to ChinesePod and do listen to some lessons similtaniously.

[Horcsog]

Anyone could advise an audiobook that is similar in structure and method as Pimsleur? What I really liked is that the program constantly made me think of how I would make a sentence, that way it stuck more than just passively listening.