Hello from England - new Chinese learner

[Azarna]

Hi!

I am a (rather old) woman from England, trying to learn new languages for fun and to learn more about the world, and it's people.

I speak (rusty) school-girl French, studied German as part of my degree but am very rusty in that too, and know a wee bit about Japanese and Korean.

English is my native language. I am a published author (books and magazine articles) and regular blogger.  I am a serious bookworm and my poor tiny house is bursting with books.

I have recently started to study Mandarin Chinese which I am really enjoying.  Such a fascinating language. 

Like many people, I have always thought Mandarin was practically impossible to learn as an adult - and yet I seem to be getting on better than I did with Korean or Japanese.

I am currently using the Paul Noble course to learn spoken Mandarin.  I am amazed how much is staying in my head from this!  I have pootled about with so many language courses over the years and usually give up early because they just throw so much vocabulary etc at you, and I can't seem to remember it.

But with the Paul Noble course everything is repeated over and over and, much to my surprise and delight, stuff sticks!

I am also using a Tuttle course book - "Mandarin Chinese for Beginners" to see things written down (I have the Audible version of the Paul Noble course, so the booklet is in PDF format only, which is not always as convenient as having a printed copy on hand). I also have "Reading and Writing Chinese" by William McNaughton and have just started looking into learning hanzi - again, fascinating!

It is still very early days and so far I can really only order fried rice and complain if you drink my tea!  But every day I am adding more words and grammar and slowly the scope of my conversations are growing.  One day I may have the courage to try talking to a real live person!

On eBay, I won a bunch of children's books and magazines in Chinese - both language text books and stories, and my goal now is to be able to read some of them.

I am very happy to have discovered these forums. I love discussing language and have been enjoying reading the posts here.  Such a friendly community!

Azarna