I didn't ask someone to 'teach me', I asked if there is someone to let me practice.
Thanks for your advice :)
Good day, Ben
Pardon me, I'd like to ask you out of curiosity. I saw your discussion 6 days ago, and there were three Chinese speakers who have responded to you. Why are you still looking for language partners?
How basic is your proficiency level? I mean, how many expressions can you deliver?
您好，Ben
I'm very sorry to hear that. You said you find it very hard to stay motivated. You live in Shanghai, is it very hard to find any Chinese to learn with? I've never been to Shanghai, but from I heard, the Chinese over there tends to speak English with expatriates. If there's anything I could do...
I'm not a Chinese, I used to study in China for 2.5 years, and I teach Chinese to 5th and 6th grader in a private school here. I'm still improving my written Chinese and preparing myself to have an online study on teaching Chinese as a foreign language here.
Perhaps, you should make a small goal and have a companion ( a Chinese learner preferably) to make you stay motivated. Good luck with your study.
You also probably haven't found the right learning method as well. Don't ask language partners to 'teach' - ask them 'how to say' certain sentences using Chinese.
A) spend a lot of time trying to recognise the sounds and learning pinyin. Boring stuff. Listen lots and use apps to practice. It will help in the long run. I did more than 20 lessons and i stil have issues, though now I am understandable
B) Find short sentences - learn them off by heart. LIsten and repeat. it will take 200 or more repetitions
C) try to go around with a person (or more) in daily life, ask them how do you say xyz in Chinese. Write it down. Get someone to record it. Drill the listening.
D) Initially follow a book with a teacher. Lessons might be boring. Reinforce the lesson by taking the book around, then asking a work colleague at a quiet moment, how to say this sentence again, then try to repeat out loud. That's a quickie 2 minute reinforcement.
E) Expert polygots I found out spend a high proportion of time listening
F) Speaking a basic conversation in Chinese would take a year or more - for french you could probably do it in six months.
