N E X T J O U R N E Y . O R G

 
Look at beautiful Gong Li.

Do you honestly believe that it is Revitalift that keeps her so  young? Well maybe it helps, but let me tell you a secret: you can stay younger by learning Mandarin. Gong Li started when she was one year old, which explains everything.

Back in late 2002, I felt that my mental capacity was deteriorating. My memory, upon which I had always been able to rely, was becoming spotty. I was taking a prescription drug at the time which was contributing to my memory trouble.

Unlike physical senescence, this was not something I was going to take lying down (of course, physical senescence is precipitated by excessive amounts of lying down, preferably while Law and Order SVU is on, but I'm not going there). In any case, I asked my mommy (I know, I know...) for a Chinese language method CD-Rom for Noël.

Instantly I was hooked. I became an addict. It has been more than four years now, and I consider a day utterly wasted if I haven't practised my Chinese a bit.

I have been learning Mandarin, which in China is called Putonghua or Guoyü. It is the language of the North, and the common language everywhere today. However, in old-fashioned American Chinatowns, you can find people who do not speak Mandarin but only Cantonese (Guandonghua). The funny thing is that speakers of Mandarin and Cantonese can read from the same texts: it is the pronunciation that is thorougly different.

The concept of tones (the tune behind the words) is very important in Mandarin. For instance, if you utter the words Gong Li one way, it is the name of the beautiful actress (Gong low and Li high). But utter Gong Li another way (Gong high, and Li low)  and it means kilometer. Beside not being able to read, tone is the main obstacle. Conversely, the easy part is that there are no genders and verbs have only one form. So whereas in German you need to think before each article and each verb to remember the proper ending in a particular context, in Mandarin you need to remember how to "sing" the words.

I have used three great methods to learn Mandarin, and I will describe their respective merits below. I have carefully indicated the comparative levels of proficiency between the methods, in case you are already familiar with one method and wish to switch to another.

I'm not kidding: learning a new language without the benefit of the printed word - doing it solely between the ears and the brain - is a fantastic exercise. I honestly believe it has helped my mental process. Now all I need is a couple of gallons of Revitalift and I'm all set.





Rosetta Stone is apparently a huge success story. When I bought a set of Mandarin CD-Roms in late 2002, I felt very cutting-edge, almost James Bond like. Nowadays, you find Rosetta Stone kiosks in airports, and their ads grace the pages of many magazines. As of late 2007, the complete Mandarin 2 CD-Rom set retails for $339. Mandarin is one of about 30 languages offered.

Rosetta Stone is basically a multiple choice program, and it is an excellent starter program. Here is how it works: there are 19 units; each unit contains 10 lessons, and each lesson features 10 consecutive screens. Each screen displays four pictures. This is the first screen of the first lesson.





A very clear voice speaks out the word for "A Girl" in Mandarin (Yi ge nü ha er) while the girl's picture is highlighted, then the word for "A Boy" while the boy's picture is highlighted and so on.  The Chinese characters can also be displayed. This is the preview.

Then come the exercises. You can approach the same lesson in different ways. For instance, you can listen to the voice saying: "Yi ge nü ha er" and it's up to you to remember to click the girl and not the cat. Or you can make it harder and only be able to see one picture at a time - or hardest and see no pictures, only Chinese characters.

You can program the software to display the writing as PinYin. PinYin is a system for writing Mandarin using the Roman alphabet. This is very handy at first, while your ear gets accustomed to new sounds: For the beginner, the word for On Top Of (Shàng) and Underneath (Xià) sound almost identical - just like pick and peek, or sick and seek for French kids starting to learn English. At the end of each lesson, you can take a test, which helps you to measure your progress.

Here is a screen from one of the final lessons, to show you how far a student is able to go:

zhè duì nán nü xiäng ài le
(This couple is in love)
zhè liâng gè rén méi yôu xiäng ài,
tä men yê bù shì péng yôu
(These two people are not in love,
neither are they friends.)

zhè liâng gè rén méi yôu xiäng ài,
tä men zhî shì péng yôu
(These two people are not in love.
They are only friends.)
zhè shì yï qún péng yôu men
(This is a group of friends)

On this particular screen, the tricky spot is between the top right and the bottom left. In Mandarin as in English, there is only a small difference between the two spoken descriptions.

Rosetta Stone is a very strong program with many advantages. There are literally tons of vocabulary: you learn how to say turtle, olive, fax machine, rectangle, ankle, purple, Venezuela, mosque, mechanic, washing machine, turnip, thief, paper towel, war, helicopter, curly, clown... You also learn to recognize a few written characters.

Here are the few drawbacks of the program:
  • Pretty early in the series, the illustrations lose their Chinese personality. The voices are 100% authentic but they mostly narrate the actions of a group of ordinaire people in Virginia through dull interiors and sad offices.
  • On occasion, you can't tell what the picture's important element is supposed to be, and you get stuck until you figure it out through elimination.
  • You get to listen and to look a lot, but there isn't all that much occasion to talk.
  • Since there is no "teacher," no mention is made of the all-important concept of tones. You do gather a little bit of it along the way, but it is not explained, much less drilled in.
  • There is no opportunity for you to answer questions - you only guess and repeat, never anticipate. Therefore, you do not learn as much about sentence construction.
I visited China after finishing the program (it took me two years to complete, I would not go from one lesson to the next unless knew it well and I went over the whole program twice from start to finish). While far from fluent, I was able to express myself. This was a great thrill. Revisiting Rosetta Stone today to write this article, I find that some of the vocabulary has escaped my memory. Perhaps I should take a refresher course.

There is a free demo on the Rosetta Stone web site.









The Pimsleur method is audio based. There is nothing to see. The instructions explicitly advise you not to take notes. The Pimsleur method is available in 34 languages.

The full course consists of three cases, each containing 16 CDs. Each CD holds an hour of material. On a discount web site such as Lingoshop, the full course will set you back $475. Pimsleur courses are always available on eBay, probably for the same reason that treadmills are always available at yard sales. Since the demand is high, the used sets go for close to the full price.

Unlike Rosetta Stone, the Pimsleur method starts with a bang. Having completed Rosetta Stone beforehand, I hesitated before purchasing Pimsleur Volume I. What if it were too easy, back to the dog and the cat? Not to worry: very early on, the Pimsleur method takes you on a thoroughly different path from that of Rosetta Stone.

Each CD holds two half-hour lessons. After a short dialogue in Chinese, an English speaking host with a soothing voice gives you cues that are short: "Bank," or long: "Could you go to the drugstore for me, pick up some medicine and come back?" A silent time long enough for you to translate the cue in Mandarin follows. Then the sentence is heard in Mandarin, then another silence for you to repeat it better. Then on to the next word or sentence. The principle is simple and straightforward. It works well.

Unlike Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur addresses the issue of tone, but in an unusual way. The tones are described as High Level, Rising, Falling-Rising, and Falling. This is good for beginners who might be intimidated by the number system, but it is time consuming: after the Chinese speaker has uttered a new word, the English speaker says:"This is pronounced with a High Level, Falling, then Falling-Rising tone." I'd rather bite the bullet and hear:"First, Fourth, then Third tone." Pimsleur does not address the fact that a tone can be modified by the adjacent tones.

The other main drawback of Pimsleur is the limited vocabulary. By the end of the last lesson, you will know one color: green. That's all. Rosetta Stone teaches you many colors: red car, blue car, pink car, black car... Pimsleur teaches you: "Would you like to go to Beihai park tomorrow to drink some green tea with Mrs. Mu?" The difference in approach is fundamental, and both methods have their distinct strengths to help you learn. The strongest suit of the Pimsleur is sentence construction and the fact that you have to speak out loud, which results in good pronunciation.

If you are a Pimsleur graduate, there would still be some value in starting Rosetta Stone, for vocabulary acquisition.

I finished the Pimsleur course a while back, but I still manage to go over three or four lessons a week for maintenance. I am much more confident with Pimsleur under my belt than I was with Rosetta Stone alone. The Pimsleur lessons can easily be trasferred to an iPod, which allows you to exercise your mind while walking.

Michaux Forest - A great Pimsleur classroom





ChinesePod is a daily podcast from Shanghai. You can subscribe to the podcast for free on iTunes. The lessons are divided between five levels.
  • Newbie: suitable for the beginner, but still instructive later on. Newbie podcasts from ChinesePod might be the smoothest way to start learning a few words of Mandarin. The Newbie lessons are hosted by good-natured Ken Carroll, the man behind ChinesePod, and the exquisite, witty, enchanting and delectable Jenny Zhu.
  • Elementary: also hosted by Ken and Jenny, Elementary lessons are more complex. Still, every sentence is translated into English and deconstructed carefully to explain the structure. Having polished repeatedly both the Rosetta Stone and the Pimsleur method, I am very comfortable on the ChinesePod scale at the upper edge of the Elementary level.
  • Intermediate: hosted by Jenny and linguist John Pasden, Intermediate lessons are almost entirely in Mandarin, with a word of English thrown here and there for clarity. Intermediate lessons are challenging and I can't always catch what is being said word for word. However, it is very useful to hear the music of a language even if you don't grasp every nuance. I should know: this is how I became fluent in English.
  • The Upper-Intermediate and Advanced levels are extremely difficult. A student like me will only grasp a few words out of each sentence. There is very little in common between a Newbie and an Advanced lesson.
As I said, the podcasts are free on iTunes. However, on the web site, ChinesePod offers many study aids and access to older lessons, via a paid subscrition. John Pasden has his own blog / web site, Sinosplice, which is a great source of information on the rich subject of tones.


ChinesePod is a superb resource, which requires discipline and initiative from the student. More didactic methods like Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur are extremely helpful during a beginner's first years of studying. Nothing replaces actual conversation, of course, and you should take advantage of every opportunity to speak Mandarin. In the American wasteland (i.e. anywhere between Philadelphia and San Francisco), this means talking in Mandarin in Chinese restaurants.

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