Whats the easiest way for an American to learn how to speak mandarin Chinese fast?
The absolute easiest and best way to learn Mandarin Chinese fast is to come to China, take an immersion course and live her for a couple years. Unfortunately, this is not something that everyone can afford. Luckily though there are quite a few great online resources online that can still help. Of course, the best way to learn any language is to be able to use what you learn, so I’m always a big advocate on finding one-on-one, or a maximum of one-on-three courses with a teacher at an offline school. The problem with this is that, it can be very, very expensive. Average private tutors for Chinese in the US are close to $30/lesson! If you are looking for something that is asynchronous, online and free, Chinese-tools.com is actually quite good. There’s also the BBC series called Real Chinese, which has received rave reviews. ChinesePod is also great, but from what I hear, they have now started charging for even podcasts. One thing to be aware of though, when starting off as a beginner, the
Here’s a thought: dispense with the good ol’ American “value” of looking for the easiest way to do something, and look for the most proficient way to do it instead. Depending on what your goal is; basic conversational Mandarin Chinese, becoming fluent, business application, social issues, etc, and you’re good at studying, it will take dilligence, perseverance and hard work. If you just want to dabble in it, stick with questions and answers on a English-language website such as answerbag.com.
