How to Learn Chinese in 6 Months

Learn A Foreign Language in 6 Months?

When I was asked about proposing a program for an executive that would develop conversational fluency in Chinese in 6 months or less, I was intrigued - and accepted. Many feel that to develop any proficiency in such a “difficult” language requires years at a minimum. But this is not necessarily the case – with Chinese or any other foreign language for that matter. Basic fluency in the majority of foreign languages could be achieved in as little as one to three months, and certainly in 6 months, following some carefully-chosen guidelines and a rigorous, intensive, full-immersion program of foreign language learning.

Essential Foreign Language Vocabulary for Conversation

In his book, “Using Your Memory”, author Tony Buzan says that a mere 100 words comprise nearly 50% of the vocabulary used in everyday conversational speech in most languages. Learning the equivalent of these words in a foreign language will help to quickly develop essential vocabulary for everyday conversational use.

You can function at the most basic level in a foreign language with a core vocabulary of around 1000 words according to Dr. Michael Gruneberg who formalized the “LinkWord” technique. He claims that, using this technique of linking a word in your own language to a word in the new language, you can acquire a core vocabulary in a foreign language in as little as 10 hours.

Estimates by other linguists postulate that that social or otherwise meaningful conversation can be conducted using in a foreign tongue using with a working vocabulary of around 600 words. Personally, I hold to a somewhat higher standard of vocabulary level than these. For me it’s around 1200 words minimum, so you don’t sound like a child saying something like, “Mommy, me want cookie”. Sure, it will get your message across, but what self-respecting adult wants to deliberately sound like a pre-schooler?

Chinese - A Very Difficult Foreign Language

In response to my article post, “If you Think English is Difficult, Try Mandarin” reader Gary Eiber, a frequent traveler to China from Silver Lake, Ohio once wrote, “I wanted to offer what I believe is correct on the pronouns. You have Wu, ni, ta for singular, then ta, ta, nin for plural. I am quite sure it is Wo, ni, ta singular, then women, nimen, tamen for plural. Actually theta is for both male and female, same spoken "TA", whereas the characters are totally different. It is why the Chinese, even teachers who know English quite well, make the mistake of saying "he did this" when it is a female, or "She did that" when it is a male, as in Chinese both are TA.
http://bettereflteacher.blogspot.com/2006/03/if-you-think-english-is-difficult-try.html

He continues with, “I have gone to China about 50 times now and find it a remarkable country, and a VERY DIFFICULT language. I am not fluent in Chinese, but am quite certain on the above points. I speak about 1000 words, but read only about 50 characters. The spoken and easy to read Chinese for foreigners is called Ping Ying, and is phonetic in nature…”

Mandarin Chinese, Anyone?

My own Mandarin Chinese class experience ended without my having achieved much in the way of additional language, but with an added appreciation for the beauties and subtleties of other languages and a desire to deepen my understanding of how this language family “works”. For foreign language learning to be most successful, it must be undertaken in a useful, practical manner which will allow for regular practice and use.

How to Learn Chinese in 6 Months – Part Two

In the next part of this series, we’ll continue with some necessary information on the Chinese language itself; starting with the fact that it’s actually multiple languages and NOT just ONE foreign Language. We’ll also be looking at some useful and practical suggestions for quickly and easily learning Chinese – or almost any other foreign language in a matter of weeks or months – not years or a lifetime.

See you then.

Note: My complete, self-learning system for quickly and easily learning any foreign language can be found at:

http://www.escapeartist.com/e_Books/Learn_a_Foreign_Language/Learn_a_Foreign_Language.html




Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an EFL Teacher Trainer, Intellectual Development Specialist, author and speaker. He has written ESP, foreign language learning, English language teaching texts and hundreds of articles used in more than 125 countries worldwide. Get your FREE, pdf format report on CD or via e-mail, "Can You REALLY Learn a Foreign Language While You Sleep?" by requesting the title at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Part 2 Use These Examples to Create Unique Videos That Generate Massive Website Traffic

In the first part of this two-part article series, we began to discuss creating a video or series of videos in order to promote your business products or services in previous articles. The idea is to produce a unique video or series that will pique interest and drive massive traffic to your website, blog or squeeze pages. Here in part two, we’ll continue that theme and add more online examples for you to consider as well. As before, in each category I’ve tried to include two or three examples for variety of theme illustration. The videos listed are from YouTube.com, with others from the Metacafe.com video posting website.

Photo: T. Kobyashi, world hot-dog-eating champ

Let’s Pick Up With Number Six

6. Gross – Try using key words like awful, disgusting, terrible, insane, horrible, perverted and revolting to associate ideas, concepts and situations to your wares, whatever they may be. Look for unusual records in the Guinness Book of Records as shown in these examples.

Lady Popping Her Eyes Out (Guinness Book of Records)
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HX_5zIXxKEU

Watch Da Big Lady Elephant....Her Name Is in the Guinness Book Of World Records
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=EjQCqRTGRFc

Making Scars with Bubble Gum
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/847434/scars_with_bubblegum/

7. Sexy – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, many people may not like it but sex sells. It likely always has, and likely, it always will to some extent. Companies and campaigns from food, politics to clothing, cars, appliances and schools or even power tools continue to use “sexy” ads and commercials. Why? Because they work, that’s why. But sexy videos need not be risqué, distasteful or x-rated. Take a look at these covertly sexy ones for example.

Chinese Girls – Amazing Contortionists
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=JhL8OncB5CU

Photo Shoot of Riya Sen
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/856501/photo_shoot_riya_sen/

Sexy Korean Commercial
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=pIRwk6lSIyQ

Sexy Korean Commercial for Lemon Tea
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Ivuu3scBE7Q

Korean Girls Photo Sequence – Useful for Commercials
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=VIRGht3vKzU

Chinese Super Sexy High Quality Song (sung in Chinese)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZ7Sn65K2Uw

8. Funny - Who doesn’t love humor? If your video can make people laugh or even just smile, you’ve got a winner on your hands. Think of comic, humorous angles related in some way to your service or product.

Beer Portal
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=m5MK6XElfx4

Funny novelty fishing lures that really catch fish!
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KL5F-k64Nr4

Mr. Bean Dancing to an East Indian Song
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=V_bnAlxRGBg

A Really Funny Sports video clip
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/880759/really_funny/

9. Shocking – Could you associate your products and services with any surprising, stunning, stupendous or stupefying experiences, images or situations?

Giant Anaconda Attacks dog
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=0XSNlhWCPJk

Hurray for the Bull
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/872395/hurrah_for_the_bull/

The Most Terrifying Bull Ride
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/926978/the_most_terrifying_bullride/

10. Weird - Use words and phrases like odd, strange, dumb, silly, unusual, and unique to start and continue brain storming sessions to come up with possibilities, situations and ideas for your promotional videos.

World's largest Piranha (world record)
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=zc2NJDqkqPw

Incredible Night Fishing video
Link: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=cDTKCZur1vM

Weirdest Animals on the Planet
Link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/813073/weirdest_animals_on_the_planet/

Hopefully, you’ve been inspired enough by these examples to come up with your own original video segment ideas to generate massive traffic to your website or blog or squeeze pages. These examples are but a few of the literally hundreds of thousands of videos available online. YouTube.com alone has more than one million vides at the time of this writing. Look around at others. You can Google search additional video websites to generate as much input and as many unique ideas as you can. Soon you too will be producing your own personalized videos to build your niche marketing lists and online profits.


Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. View my YouTube video playlist at: http://au.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B156E95F69660E9E Do you need professional, original content and photos or images for your blog, newsletter, e-zine or website? Want more information, have a comment or special request? E-mail the author for a prompt response at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com .

Of the Thousands of Foreign Languages You Can Learn Which One is Best for You?

A Key Question

A key question people ask when thinking of embarking on the life-long quest that foreign language learning can ultimately become, is “which foreign language should I try to learn?” Certainly there’s no lack of choice. Reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language can be almost as many and as varied as the number of people themselves. Family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance and other personal concerns all may have their respective roles in the decision to learn and continue learning a foreign language.

Some Interesting Language Statistics

According to Vistawide World Languages & Culture statistics online at: http://www.vistawide.com/languages/language_statistics.htm
there are currently 6912 living languages in the world, but did you know that 516 of these are nearly extinct.

The Fabulous Five

Of the top five spoken world languages, Mandarin Chinese has the greatest number of speakers with a whopping 1.051 billion who manage one of the nearly one dozen forms or dialects.

Photo: one of my Mandarin teachers, Shutzng Zhang, is on the right in the photo

English is a “distant” second with an approximate total of 510 million speakers in 64 different countries. It is also the world’s most widely published language and has the largest number of words - approx. 250,000* distinct words. (*Some linguists even contend that there are as many as one million or more words in the English language.) English also has the greatest number of people who speak it as a second language – with up to 350 million non-native speakers.

Hindi is in third position with 490 million.

Fourth place is occupied by Spanish with 420 million native and second language speakers.

Arabic comes in fifth with 255 million speakers when all of its varieties are combined according to a World Almanac estimate.

Additional Language Statistics

The language with the fewest number of words is Taki-Taki, also called Sranan, which is spoken in Surinam. It has a mere 340 words.

The country where the largest number of languages is spoken is Papua New Guinea with 820 different languages even though it has only around 5,545,268 people. (That’s one language for every 6762 people for all of you statistics freaks out there)

Number two Indonesia has 742 languages among its 241,973,879 people.

Nigeria, with 516 languages spread through its 128,771,988 people, steps in at third.

In India 1,080,264,388 people spread across the country’s vast reaches speak an astounding 427 languages among them.

These statistics are likely, one of the reasons English has been adopted as an official language in each one of these countries.

Summary

So whether your reasons for wanting or needing to learn a foreign language include family, ancestry, employment, business, education, travel, adventure, romance or other more personal ones, a wide variety of language choices are available.

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

How the Guinness Book of Records Can Help YOU to Learn any Foreign Language

Meet Jorge Fernandez Gates

At only 18 years of age, Jorge Fernandez Gates can speak, read and write in 11 foreign languages. They are not all related languages either. Some already under his belt include Mandarin Chinese, Catalan, Galician, English, French, German, Swedish, Romanian, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch.

Not only that, but Jorge only started learning foreign languages a little over 5 years ago, which means he’s been “picking up” a foreign lingo at the rate of two foreign languages per year. His goal is to get into the Guinness Book of Records by mastering at least 25 foreign languages.

Already recognized as the “youngest polyglot in Peru”, in several interviews given primarily in his native Spanish, he discusses some techniques he (and you) can use to develop fluency in whatever foreign language you’re striving to acquire.

He says, “For me, foreign language learning is a hobby, I can’t control it, at any moment I could open a dictionary to look up a new word for my vocabulary.”

His principal ally in the quest to master enough foreign languages to make the Guinness Book of Records is the internet which he credits with up to 70% of his foreign language learning success.

He cites in particular Radio Bucharest online at: (http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-radio.html) that features both live and pre-recorded radio programming in 38 European and Asian languages as well as 18 African continental languages, and online language courses as aids in helping him to familiarize himself with foreign languages.

Other tactics he has frequently employed include:

- Talking with the staff in ethnic restaurants
- Watching television programs in or about target languages
- Using the radio as a key listening and comprehension development resource “to help accustom your ear to the pronunciation of the language”
- Using the internet to listen and study foreign languages

A major concern he has had was that “one day his brain would explode” from the constant linguistic input or that he would linguistically get “his wires crossed” and become totally confused. A neurologist he consulted assured him that “there are no limits” to the brain’s capacity to take in and store knowledge.

Jorge Fernandez gives these “keys” as essential to his linguistic accomplishments:

- Learn the foreign language grammar “forwards and backwards”
- Acquire a basis vocabulary of high-frequency words and phrases
- Never stop augmenting new vocabulary in your new language – He tries to learn at least two new words each day
- Practice your new language with friends, language teachers or whomever you can regularly

And just what started it all?

“I’m not a good student and as punishment my Mother decided to take away my cell phone and prohibited me from chatting online. I couldn’t go out, so to keep from spending the entire day sleeping I enrolled in a French course.” Then things began to change for him. “I liked it and decided to take Italian too.” He later discovered a course in Romanian on the internet and “loved it”.

To “prove” his language abilities, family members have gone with him to Chinese restaurants to have him converse with the cook and contacted TV programs and foreign language professors to verify his linguistic skills in other languages.

So began the linguistic journey of Jorge Fernandez Gates. So as not to create a “Babel” in his brain, he restricts himself to “calmly learning only two languages” at a time per year. You can listen to journalist Rosa Maria Palacios do a 26 minute video interview with him (in Spanish) on his language-learning adventures at: http://www.youtube.com/

Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

An Expert Foreign Language Teacher in Lord of the Rings Country Gives Priceless Tips on Learning a Foreign Language

An Ancient Chinese Saying

There is an ancient Chinese proverb which says, "To know the road ahead, ask those coming back." So a fellow ex-pat speaks on the realities of learning a foreign language “on the fly.”

Native English speaker Katherine Peckitt originally from Britain, now residing and teaching in Auckland, New Zealand; speaks Finnish, Polish, Portuguese and English

“I was actually in Finland for a bit, but I have also taught English in Poland and Portugal.”

“Poland was probably the funniest place to communicate because they speak so little English and I spoke absolutely no Polish. I remember going into a shop on the first day needing milk and eggs and we ended up acting out a cow being milked and a chicken laying eggs because everything was behind a counter!! We very quickly learnt the words and I'll never forget them!! But for the rest of my Polish we tried to learn functional stuff - so I actually was quite good at ordering a pizza over the phone, giving directions home in a taxi and haggling in a market.”

Key Point: “I definitely think that you need to learn functional things first that you will need to use everyday.”

“Portuguese was easier because I already spoke French which in a way made it also more frustrating because I could understand so much more than I could produce - but in the case of Portugal I actually met more local people and joined a gym which made me have to speak more. I also lived in a smaller town that didn't have so many tourists.”

Key Point: Smaller towns and non-tourist areas offer better, more frequent contact with the locals which can boost your practice and acquisition considerably.

Katie continues, “Finnish was quite probably the most difficult language I've ever tried to learn which wasn't helped by the fact that most people over there speak English anyway!

What I found most useful was having the radio on in the mornings as I was getting ready for work and then very slowly I found that I could understand how to tell the time and what the weather was like. I did join a class but being a complete beginner and not really having enough time or energy to study after teaching all day I quickly got left behind - and so at the end of my year there I still got the numbers 5 and 6 muddled up and I have absolutely no idea what the months of the year are!!”

Key Point: Listen to local radio stations to pick up vocabulary and phrases by ear.

Katie also says, “I think the best phrase you can learn is,
"Sorry, I don't speak _________"!!

No matter which foreign language you might wish to tackle, these “front line trenches” tips can be useful tools in your English or other foreign language learning arsenal.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for the no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Why You Should Learn to Speak a Foreign Language

There are a multitude of reasons for wanting to speak the lingua franca of another people; travel, business, education, matrimony, retirement, personal pleasure, even family or friends among many others.

Indeed it’s no small feat to habla Español, parlez Francaise, or sprechenze Deutcsh, but the prestige, financial gains, personal satisfaction and even peer envy that can accompany this easily-nurtured skill, can be supremely rewarding. If you’re not already an ex-pat, don’t start packing your bags just yet though, you’ve got a little “work” to do first.

If you’re already an ex-pat, then learning or improving your communicative skills in a foreign language may be a moot point. There you are, one of the millions of “escapees” from the USA, UK or other country, now surrounded by new horizons, vistas, culture, everyday life and a foreign language you need to master as quickly and adeptly as possible out of necessity.

Perhaps you’d like to study abroad; Fashion Design or the Culinary Arts in Paris with French as the medium of communication. Learning Renaissance Art in Milan or Rome would certainly be enriched by your fluency in Italian. Delving into Architecture or beer-brewing in Germany will be far more rewarding if you integrate into their society using your best German.

If you want to immerse yourself into Anthropology or Mayan Culture in the Yucatan, Mayan or Nahuatl would serve you even better than Spanish might. You could also simply double up and learn both languages. (Yes, you most certainly can!)

Exploring the mysteries of Oriental Antiquities, culture or martial arts in the Yellow River Valley of China requires at least some communicative skills in one of the dialects of Chinese, don’t you think?

Acquiring knowledge of ancient and modern agricultural techniques or perhaps the secrets of Yoga in the vast stretches of exotic India will be far more enriching with one of the local dialects of the country flowing like honey from your tongue.

Would you like to learn Karate, Judo or the art of making Sushi in Japan? Do you think knowing how to speak Japanese might make things easier?

You might be thinking of honing your Tango dancing skills in Buenos Aires, or improving your Salsa steps in Cuba or Colombia, then Spanish could pave the way to your progress. The list could go on and on, but just think how the “right” foreign language could not only make it all very possible, but expand and deepen your quest as well.

But, you’re thinking, how can you, with limited time, resources and perhaps even more limited patience, make any decent headway in a reasonably short time? You may well ask, “Can I indeed, at my age, really develop good communicative skills in a new tongue?”

Yes, you can and you will if you’ll use some of my “quick tricks” for heightening your language–learning experience and incorporating your prospective new language into your present everyday life.



Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. Now YOU too can live your dreams in paradise, find romance, high adventure and get paid while travelling for free. For more information on entering or advancing in the fascinating field of teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, by sending an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Learn a Foreign Language in 48 Hours

The Clock Starts Ticking

Starting tomorrow morning, you’re going to practice English, Spanish, French or other foreign language. For the following 6 days, for 8 hours per day, you’ll work on grammar, pronunciation, watch videos and listen to audio materials. You’ll write short notes, grocery lists and play games in the target foreign language. All well and good – BUT – a week from today, is it really reasonable to think you’ll be fluent in English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese or any other foreign language?

Of course not.

Could you learn a lot?
Yes.

Could you manage key words and phrases?
Sure.

Could you conduct a very basic “conversation” with someone in the foreign language?
Perhaps.

Yet many language institutes and foreign language programs give prospective learners the distinct impression that in 48 hours, a weekend or a week, they can “speak” the foreign language of their choice. This is misleading for the learners, but often quite profitable for the language institute or program directors.

How sad.

Learning any foreign language is not an easy, quick or simple affair. Real mastery, if indeed it ever truly comes, may take years of practice and painstaking effort. This need not at all to be a dull, boring affair. Foreign language learners can, and should, enjoy the majority of the process. They should continuously applying their continually improving foreign language skills to chat with friends and neighbors, conduct everyday life tasks, interact with target language-speaking locals on the job, to shop, to sample a variety of foods and in general soak up the culture associated with their target foreign language.

Functional Ability

When considering or continuing the learning of a foreign language, you should pay no heed to outrageous claims of super-rapid foreign language acquisition. Instead, focus on developing functional ability.

You might think, for example, can you:

· Ask for or give directions?
· Tell the time?
· Shop and bargain for purchased goods?
· Conduct a bank or other financial transaction?
· Introduce yourself?
· Order food and drink in a restaurant or on the street?
· Haggle with a street vendor?
· Make “small talk” with a stranger?

By focusing on what you can do in the foreign language, you will shift your view of its acquisition to long term vs. short term progress, enjoying your skills development along the way.

So, starting tomorrow morning, you’re going to practice English, Spanish, French or other foreign language. For the following 6 days, for 8 hours per day, you’ll work on grammar, pronunciation, watch videos and listen to audio materials. You’ll write short notes, grocery lists and play games in the target foreign language. Only this time you’ll be focused on your functional skills development – that is, what you’ll be able to do in your target language.

No, you can’t learn a foreign language in 48 hours, but you can take a few steps forward towards greater fluency.


Prof. Larry M. Lynch is an English language teaching and learning expert author and university professor in Cali, Colombia. For more information on entering into or advancing in the fascinating field of ELT send for his no-cost pdf Ebook, “If You Want to Teach English Abroad, Here’s What You Need to Know”, send an e-mail with "free ELT Ebook" in the subject line. For comments, questions, requests, to receive more information or to be added to his free TESOL articles and teaching materials mailing list, e-mail: lynchlarrym@gmail.com