Aishe

I've only recently started Mandarin, so take my words with a grain of salt, but I think learning them as they appear would be more useful than learning them on their own. I would take perhaps the first five or ten most commonly used, make sure I know their meanings, and then see if I am able to recognise them when being used in characters.

I'm currently living in a really diverse area with people from all over the world, so I am usually very aware of my own accent as well as others'. I grew up in New Zealand so there's that bit of Kiwi twang as a base, I would say, but being exposed to American and British media has led me to pick up certain quirks from their accents. Also, being in an Asian country (this may come off as a bit racist), I've also developed an almost cliche Asian accent when speaking to someone whom I'm not sure would completely understand me. I think I do it because I just hope it makes it easier for them to understand me if I sound at least a bit familiar. So yes, I do have an accent, and it's a huge mess of things!

I think a bit of both works really well. In a formal classroom setting it's easier to break the language down into its core components and build up from there to prevent fatal errors as you get better, than perhaps if you were suddenly immersed in a new language and you'd just be picking up slang and the such. On top of that, I think a person needs some base knowledge for immersion to really work, or else everything around you is just gibberish and you wouldn't really be able to figure out meanings for yourself, I suppose?

I would have to agree with Kotro here, a lot of the "sexiness" has to do with a person's actual voice. That aside, I like accents that flow well and aren't clipped and harsh all the time. I have a thing for guttural sounds and rolled/trilled r's just because I can't do them myself personally!

Hey everyone! New here, and whilst English has always been my dominant tongue, I did grow up around Thai and Thai people so I have a good grasp of it. Only started learning Mandarin a few months ago though. I always find that speaking and listening and reading are the easiest parts, it's always the writing that trips me up. I've been actively around the Thai language for about 3 years now and still don't have a firm grasp on how I should formulate my words. I guess that means I'm not good with non-roman alphabets? Anyway, it's nice to be here and hopefully have some nice discussions with you all.