66 years old, retired site manager for the company HPB (Holiday Property
Bond), I took up Mandarin Chinese out of intellectual curiosity and artistic
interest in its writing. Very quickly fascinated by this language and the
Chinese culture, I completed the Learn-chinese.online training in 3 and a half
years and can only recommend this fabulous method; I am very impressed by its
efficiency. Although it requires a considerable amount of individual work like
any learning process, the flexible schedule of an online method allows you to
progress at your own pace. Added to this is the exceptional quality/price ratio
of this online course. But more than anything, its major interest and
particularity lie in its structured and progressive spiral method with a
snowball effect that ensures a solid base and continuous growth. Everything is
well thought out and well balanced. The new characters are broken down to
practice writing them, with an indication of their graphic components to better
memorize them. New vocabulary and grammar points are reviewed in sentences,
texts, written and oral comprehension exercises, then revised in subsequent
lessons. Consequently, if despite the effort made, it is still difficult to
assimilate certain words or characters - which are not necessarily the most
complicated but are then difficult to memorize for whatever reason - there is
no need to be discouraged, to get bogged down, we can move forward with
confidence because these words or characters will be reintroduced in new
contexts, confronted with homonyms, homophones, homographs, heteronyms,
associated with other characters, with additional information on their use,
etc. etc. Moreover, one must also let oneself be 'carried' by the language and
not seek a Cartesian explanation or a literal translation at all costs. This
method promotes adaptation to a different frame of thoughts through its
excellent introduction to Chinese culture. To me, Mandarin Chinese is a bit
like Pointillism in painting. If too close, we do not see much. If we
take a step back, we see and “feel” the painting very well. For Mandarin
Chinese, you also have to let yourself be 'immersed', you don’t have to explain
everything. This language requires a precise analysis of the genre '7 errors
game’ to differentiate between very similar
characters, a grammatical and syntactic knowledge, but also a ‘cognitive
reframing software’ to replace for example our
notions of conjugation by different grammar structures just as interesting,
very rewarding. I also really like 'chengyu', these 4-character expressions
with effective conciseness combined with a poetic halo. The exercises proposed
at the end of the lessons also occasionally introduce new words formed from the
juxtaposition of characters already seen, the meaning of the association is
then quite obvious, and it is, again, a gentle introduction to the
construction of words in that language. In addition to the usual visual and auditory
memories, Mandarin Chinese also uses kinesthetic memory; it is sometimes very
surprising not to be able to “visualize” a sinogram when the hand can reproduce
it without visual support. And for oral comprehension, icing on the cake, the
voices are extremely pleasant to listen to!
It is also important to supplement this learning with revisions via other
resources, depending on individual interests. Personally, I watch a lot of
subtitled series, I also listen to/read a lot of songs and, oh wonder 😊, the more vocabulary you learn in the course, the more you are able to recognize words, then whole sentences, on the different media used: very exciting and motivating!
Besides his integrative method, I am also very impressed by Tianxiang’s availability
on the forum, his quick and encouraging responses, his kindness and his
modesty. Truly admirable: a big thank you, Professor, for sharing with us your
passion and your knowledge in such a generous way.
Dominique