Vocabulary

I was considering the fastest way to accumulate useful vocabulary and I've decide to first memorize the word list of Charles K. Ogden as well as the vocabulary in the textbook I am studying. That textbook is Mandarin Chinese the Easy Way with Audio CD (Barron's E-Z Series).
I'm still working on the first chapter.



Ogden's list has 850 words so it will probably take me a while. But how long is that? If I use Harry Lorayne and Jerry Lucas' techniques (as described in The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play), could I get it done much much faster?
I'll have to try.

Hěn Hǎo!

A small bit of Chinese speaking today. I was discussing the progress of work with one of my Chinese co-workers (in English). At the end of it all I said "Hěn hǎo!" in Chinese. She gave me the thumbs up.

Hěn hǎo! of course, means "very good" in Mandarin.

Of course I have to do a lot better than that if I am to make significant progress.

Lion Market

Some time ago, I began wondering what the Chinese characters on many of the Chinese themed stores meant. So I bought a copy of the Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary (Chinese/English English/Chinese) and deciphered the Chinese characters on the Lion Market sign near my home in San Jose. I discovered that the Chinese characters said "Lion Market" just like the English version of the sign. I felt foolish. That was obvious. I don't know what I thought it might say. In hindsight, it seems pretty funny.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins With The First Step

I work in the electronics hardware industry in California. The workforce is very diverse which sometimes leads me to wonder what my Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc... co-workers are saying. So I decide to pick one of these languages and start learning it. Chinese seemed like a good choice considering how powerful China is becoming economically and considering the number of speakers.

A few questions revealed that Mandarin Chinese is the official version of the language but like other languages I'm familiar with (e.g. German) it has many variants and dialects. So I bought a book on learning spoken Chinese ("Mandarin Chinese The Easy Way" by Williams and Wu) and began studying it.

This blog will record my attempts to learn and speak Mandarin Chinese in the U.S. I'm not learning the language to travel to China. I just want to figure out what all these Chinese in the U.S. are saying.