I'm watching My Queen episode 9 without english subs. Surprisingly, I am able to understand a lot more than I thought I would (not that that's a LOT, per se, but it's something!) Yay Mandarin learnings
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Oh believe me, I'm not learning that fast! The thing with the characters is that I have actually been studying them more than I've been studying pinyin. I've been fascinated with them since my Japanese learning days.
I'm not really using programs. There's two huge problems with learning Mandarin from a program in the US; the characters are almost always in simplified, and the audio is always with a Beijing (Standard) Mandarin dialect. Since I'm only really interested in Taiwan, I want to learn Mandarin how the Taiwanese use it. Taiwanese use traditional script, and they use the Taiwanese Mandarin dialect. I don't plan on seriously studying Mandarin until I can go to Taiwan, to learn the Mandarin I want to learn.
I do have books; my favorite is this book about writing traditional Chinese. I have this one too. It doesn't have characters though. Only pinyin. I also have some ipod apps that are useful.
But actually, my most useful tool is a simple online Chinese-English dictionary. I watch dramas, see a character or hear a word I don't know, so I just look it up. That's mostly how I'm learning stuff. (That's why twdramas without Chinese subtitles tend to freak me out, and make me sad)
I'm not really using programs. There's two huge problems with learning Mandarin from a program in the US; the characters are almost always in simplified, and the audio is always with a Beijing (Standard) Mandarin dialect. Since I'm only really interested in Taiwan, I want to learn Mandarin how the Taiwanese use it. Taiwanese use traditional script, and they use the Taiwanese Mandarin dialect. I don't plan on seriously studying Mandarin until I can go to Taiwan, to learn the Mandarin I want to learn.
I do have books; my favorite is this book about writing traditional Chinese. I have this one too. It doesn't have characters though. Only pinyin. I also have some ipod apps that are useful.
But actually, my most useful tool is a simple online Chinese-English dictionary. I watch dramas, see a character or hear a word I don't know, so I just look it up. That's mostly how I'm learning stuff. (That's why twdramas without Chinese subtitles tend to freak me out, and make me sad)
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