Hi Gang,
Brendan here -- I will be your guide this year as we learn to speak some basic Mandarin Chinese.
I think this
is my fourth year teaching this class for ALESN. I actually
learned Mandarin from scratch myself in the ALESN program. Other than
additional self study and some language trades with friends and
immersion travel in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan over the past few years, I have never
studied Mandarin anywhere else.
I was
supposed to study at the Chinese University of Hong Kong this fall,
but my plans changed and I have put my studies on hold for the time
being. I placed into level 3 out of 5 in their
curriculum purely based on what I have learned at ALESN and on my own.
I AM NOT TELLING YOU THIS TO BRAG; I am merely hinting at the potential quality of your language learning experience here at ALESN
-- if each of you puts in the appropriate amount of time and effort
outside of class by supplementing your school time with self study,
watching movies and Youtube videos, speaking with friends or relatives,
listening to audio resources on your mp3 players around town, and in
general TEACHING YOURSELVES this language during your spare time. The
most successful among you this year will show some degree of obsession with
your learning process, and the top students in class will fall in love
with the process of learning a new language. I speak from experience,
and I am happy to share my experiences with you all this coming year.
Before
my plans changed, I was also going to apply to graduate schools to
pursue a PhD in Applied Linguistics (how language is taught and
learned). I have some very definite opinions about effective ways to
learn to speak Mandarin Chinese, and I am happy to share these with you
throughout the course.
Our main focus this year for those who have never spoken Mandarin before is going to be one thing and one thing only:
ACCEPTABLE
PRONUNCIATION OF ALL MANDARIN CHINESE SYLLABLES AND TONES IN REAL TIME AS YOU
SPEAK OR ATTEMPT TO SPEAK THE MATERIALS THAT WE WILL LEARN IN CLASS.
I
have had hundreds of students over the years fail miserably while
attempting to learn Cantonese or Mandarin (or God forbid both at the
same time, especially if they were not ethnically Chinese with a family
"support system" already in place to help reinforce class materials),
simply because they could not step out of their English speaking shoes
and approach the sounds, rhythms, and intonation of Chinese as A BRAND
NEW EXPERIENCE AND A BRAND NEW WAY OF MAKING SOUNDS TO COMMUNICATE WITH
OTHER PEOPLE -- different from anything related to American English (or
French or Spanish or whatever their first language might have been).
YOU MUST FIRST AND FOREMOST LEARN TO PRONOUNCE MANDARIN SYLLABLES PROPERLY IN REAL TIME
(SLOWLY)
WITH THE CORRECT INTONATION.
If you only learn one thing this year, it MUST MUST MUST be this:
How
to read romanized Mandarin Chinese (spelled out in English language letters called "pinyin")
and pronounce it properly when speaking it (however slowly) in real time
so that a native speaker who doesn't know you and who doesn't know what
you are trying to say will understand what you have said EVEN IF YOU YOURSELF HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST SAID.
Our
goal, you and I, is NOT to have you speak Mandarin like a native,
unless you are an ABC looking to take your childhood exposure to the
language and firm it up with some grammar structures and deeper
knowledge of the basic workings of the language (which we will
definitely cover this year). Rather, my goal for you is the same as my
absolute beginner goal that I had for myself 5 years ago when I started studying Mandarin at ALESN:
I
want to help each of you put aside your preconceived notions of how
words and syllables and sentences and statements and questions are
"supposed to" sound in English or your native language and to just LEARN
THE SOUNDS AND CHANGES IN PITCH LEVELS SPECIFIC TO MANDARIN CHINESE --
so that you will be able to open your mouth and be understood by a
real-life native speaker of the language -- period. You want to be able
to ask someone where the bathroom is and have them understand you immediately, without charades and without having to repeat yourself 3 or 4 times.
You want to be understood before you pee on yourself -- plain and simple.
This should be your #1 goal when learning Mandarin at ALESN this year:
YOU
WILL PRONOUNCE EACH SYLLABLE PROPERLY WITH THE PROPER TONE SO THAT YOU
CAN COMMUNICATE YOUR INTENTION TO A NATIVE SPEAKER AND BE UNDERSTOOD -- EVEN IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT NATIVE SPEAKER MIGHT HAVE SAID TO YOU IN RESPONSE.
Going
back to my initial statement: I have seen hundreds of failed students
quit studying this language at ALESN over the years because they never
made it their number one absolute top priority in this class to learn to
pronounce the syllables and tones of this new language correctly.
There
is nothing goofier or more assinine than a beginner language learner
pronouncing the new language exactly like his or her first language!
Please, please, please, commit to yourself that you will always follow this mantra:
MANDARIN CHINESE DOESN'T SOUND ANYTHING LIKE ANY LANGUAGE I HAVE EVER SPOKEN BEFORE (even other Chinese dialects!)
AND I WILL DO WHATEVER I NEED TO DO TO ALWAYS REMEMBER THAT -- AND TO
EITHER LEARN TO SPEAK THIS LANGUAGE IN A WAY THAT REAL CHINESE PEOPLE
WILL UNDERSTAND ME OR I WILL QUIT AND TAKE A COOKING CLASS.
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