I am Charlie: A 21-year old Marketing Student who has set up his own marketing/rebranding company with one of his housemates which also does webdesign and graphics work. I have always been enthralled by Chinese culture and have wanted to learn Mandarin for years. But never had the opportunity until last year when I got a little disillusioned with my university course, and I vowed to myself over the summer I would start to learn Mandarin.
The main aim is to move to China with my girlfriend (who isn't Chinese; though one of her favourite cuisines is Chinese food) after a couple of years, possibly to teach English, or if things go really well, maybe even links to business.
I initially wanted to set this blog up so I could have dialogue with other Mandarin learners to inspire me to learn and stay committed. My housemates, started to learn Japanese as I started to learn Mandarin, and although it's not a race. I want to get fluent as they do, but they have each other to test each other on.
I hope that Discovering Mandarin will be able to document my progression through the language with others, and also start to write about the Chinese culture, and offer some interesting articles giving you further insight into the diverse and mysterious Chinese culture.
I also intend this to be a reference bank full of material that can be used for everyone in the future, and there are thoughts of getting my own hosting and a forum...
If there is anything in the site that isn't here that you think should be; please email me I welcome any feedback or comments and feel free to get in touch.
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Hello Charlie!
Thank you for your comment!
Chinese grammar is quite similar to English. Indeed, it's easier since we don't have tenses, singular/ plural nouns, etc. The only catch is probably our hard-to-remember writing system.
So if you kick off with pinyin and master speaking and listening skills first. Then, you'll probably find it quicker to improve your reading and writing skills.
Just give me a shout if you need any help, mate!
London Caller
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for your comment on my weblog. I'm really glad to see how people are passionate about Chinese language. If there is anything I can help you learning Chinese, just let me know.
jiāyóu加油！
Hua
Hi, I think 发现 is an inappropriate translation for discovering in your blog's title. 发现 implies that something has been discovered rather than an ongoing sense of discovery. Consider instead something like 发掘.
that is a really interesting point.
I will look into it, and if you are right (you may well be. I will change it.)
After all this is a learning curve. Thanks.
Charlie.
Hey Charlie,
Just wanted to say I've been really enjoying your blog here!
加油加油！
:-)
Hey,
Thanks for the lovely comment Puerhan. I am glad you are enjoying it. I have been really busy and only posting in between times when I could.
So hopefully a better service will resume.
I am looking for opinions about better ways to keep old articles surfacing, so people can find them easily... any ideas?
Charlie
你好 Charlie,
Thank you for your email to nihaohello.org about the proverb 千里之行，始于足下
This blog of yours about discovering Mandarin is a great way to share your learning journey! I'm really glad you started it!
Wish your dreams come true!
And do write me should you need any help about learning chinese along your way!
Hi Charlie,
I think that you are doing a great job with your blog. I also just recently started a blog about learning Mandarin. I am learning Mandarin myself, but also decided that I would like to offer free, quality information to anyone else attempting to learn Mandarin. Check out my blog if you have time. Maybe we can even add our blogs to each other links section.
Great work on the site.
Tiah from www.simplystellarmandarin.com