Well, any free online resource? Plus, I have heard that there are versions of the Chinese language. What are those? And which one to learn for business and communication purposes?
204801
There are many different "dialects" such as Mandarin (the national language AKA "putonghua"), Cantonese, Hakka, Shanghainese, Minnan, and the list goes on and on. Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong and a couple provinces in China. All education in all Chinese regions, including Taiwan, is done in Mandarin. Mandarin is the only language you will want to learn for business in China. I live in China and speak fluent Mandarin.\n\nIn fact you can check back on my website from time to time as I plan to have Mandarin lessons one day soon.\n\nwww.culturev.com\n\nI found a few sites for you below.\n\nZai Jian! (see you later)
182142
Let me revise your question. Is it better to learn Chinese or Japanese? If this is what you are asking, it really depends on how you'll use the language.\nIn terms of population, there are much much more people in the whole world speaking Chinese than Japanese.\nMany job opportunities have out-sourced to China. Many people are learning the language for this reason.
228788
The information highway is only as good as the input. I have found many mistakes while surfing for research material. It seems too many opinions are spicing up the Internet; but it lowers value to information. Case in point; I did some research on Chinese Shaolin. Since there were so many differing articles, I finally decided to get a translator and gain the correct information from some monks.
389953
Hello! Welcome to management in a culturally diverse environment!\n\nThere are some websites that offer online lessons of varying degrees of quality, but it depends on what languages you need to learn. \n\nFor the moment, however, you might want to use http://world.altavista.com to translate common words and phrases in different languages so that you can at least speak and give direction, even if you can't understand your staff's responses.\n\nBetter yet, make it a team project to teach and to learn each others language. Consider asking your staff to teach you basic words and phrases in their language and you can teach them English. Is a member of your staff bilingual enough to coach you in the language and culture? \n\nIf you have staff meetings, create a standing 15-20 minute agenda item on teaching and learning new words--and keep it fun!  \n\nBe creative! \n\nDo use hand and body language, draw pictures. That's how people get along in a foreign country...it works! And you don't have to be good at it, but your staff will appreciate the effort you make to learn their language. \n\nIf you can, get a "teach yourself" language book or take a class to learn basic grammar and words. Ultimately, the best way to learn a foreign language is to try to speak it--that's the "organic" way to learn it. \n\nAs you work to learn each other's languages, you'll find that you'll establish working relationships with your staff, which is key to good management. And you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll learn to communicate! \n\nGood luck!
68953
i had a patient once whose son was white, but learned chinese. he took it in HS and college. he is now a vp at a company in china. he lives 6mo in china and 6mo in the US. apply for internships with international companies. or, if you are experienced enough, apply for a job. work your way up the ladder.
20893
My girlfriend uses it. Its a simple program which she downloaded from the net. If you are asking how to use it, Well its simple, If you want to type a chinese word then you have to know how it sounds like, for example you want to type Wa(means I in chinese) then you type WA and the program will show you a list of chinese words to choose from, if you know which it is, you just pick it and then type the next word and so on...
446182
Sainsburys is a good starting point, as they get a lot of customers. But a small ad in the local paper can help, too. Check out tutoring companies as they get a lot of requests for such things. \n\nHere in Torquay there are a lot of language schools. Their main function is to take the kids of wealthy Europeans and teach them English - but if there are language schools in your area get in touch with them (try your Yellow Pages)\n\nTry these web-sites too\n\nwww.talklanguages.net\n/www.fleet-tutors.co.uk\n\nYou could also make a 'myspace' or Yaho 360 site about teaching chinese and have people contact you from that.\nThe more varied your approach the more likely you are to find ways that work.\n\nYou could start with teaching me Mandarin???>>>\n\n                                   ;-)
103952
j-talk.com is the best one I know of.\nThe kanji flashcard system they have there is very convenient.\nGood luck!
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don't listen to that other girl, because I was wondering this same thing, that site is just some commercial thing where you pay them money and they translate something for you, complete forget her, doesn't know what she is talking about.\n\nI was actually hoping someone was going to answer this question, so I had to go look for myself, I found this....\nhttp://www.studyspanish.com/freesite.htm\n\nnot quite what you were looking for, and I don't know if that even exists, so I would suggest you keep looking, like on yahoo.com or google.com, hopefully you find it.\n\n**Added @ 10:54**\nOk perfect, I think I finally found it. Not only do I think I might of helped you, I might be taking my own advice ^_^\nhttp://www.donquijote.org/\n\n**Added @ 11:02**\nWell upon closer inspection, I'm not actually sure if it was the great thing I thought it was. It claims to have a free beginners part, but I have yet to be able to get onto it, but it does have alot of other free stuff, so I just suggest you check it out.
216280
Chinese... you learn Chinese, and you'll have a tremendous advantage in business. You learn Chinese and you can ask for $100K -150K salaries. Can't say that for the Russian.  If you were to learn one of those two languages, you would find a good home in the American military, FBI, CIA, or State department, though you would have some competition. Less so, if you learned Arabic or Persian. Only Chinese, however, will give you advantage in both the public and private sectors. As for the law degree.... Well, negotiating or disputing Chinese contracts is like playing Monday morning quarterback. It's all academic. You ain't gonna walk in and tell a Chinese factory or person that they violated any kind of agreement. The government or Chinese government doesn't respect international business etiquette and law like nations of the free world do.\n\nBut, good luck. Learning Chinese ain't like learnin' Spanish. Compared to Chinese, Spanish and English might as well be the same language. Russian grammar is very difficult, but at least you can get your fingers around it. The Chinese really don't have complicated grammar, but if you can't here those tones... forget it. And if you do learn Chinese, you need to play the "dumb American" occasionally and not let them know that you can speak it. They all know English, but where Chinese will give you an advantage is that it will allow you to move freely within the country and figure out what they're not telling you.\n\nI'm in the import business, and we have learned to accept the fact that the Chinese lie to your face. They will raise their price when they've agreed to hold it for a year. They will ALWAYS ship a month late. It's a real problem.\n\nAnd Russian? I would learn another language first.
168413
Try these please\n\nlearn_chinese.ckungfu.com\nhttp://www.pinyin.org/index.cfm\nhttp://www.chinawestexchange.com/Mandarin/Pinyin/index.htm\nhttp://www.mandarintools.com\n\nPut "learn + pinyin" in google search engin, and you will find more.\n\nHappy learning!
385905
I finally did it. This activity is kind of difficult for me, but i learned through the activity that there are many beautiful and fun places in Kaohsiung. The activity is great. I learned not only a lot about history, but also about the origin of the hometown. Furthermore, my eloquence in Spanish has become better. I hope there are a lot of activities like this one in the future that will teach me more about what is unknown to me.\n\nAre you Chinese? Me too! I'm learning Spanish too...
294959
Try "the last fantasy", it's in chinese, but it works perfectly
93827
Let's see...\n\nI'd recomend japanese.about.com for japanese if what you wnat are the basics.\n\nI'm a native spanish speaker so I haven't checked it out, but I'm guessing they have a spanish.about.com too.\n\nHope they help.
96761
In your web browser (Explorer/Firefox), click "View" on the toolbar and go to "Encoding" or "Character Encoding". From there you should be able to find Chinese under "More...". \n\nThe type of Chinese encoding you will need depends on the email, so just try all of them until you get to one that works.
337056
I'm in china too, and I've found that most Chinese textbooks for learning chinese are not very useful or applicable to real life.\n\nI started with the pronunciation of the pinyin with the free class my school gave.  Then I moved to writing/reading (which should be combined but they don't understand that) I used "Reading and Writing Chinese" by Tuttle Publishing, Hong Kong.  can buy in major cities' foreign language bookstore for around 120RMB.  It mostly teaches the old characters but is very useful because it has english explanations and step-by-step (or stroke-by-stroke) writing diagrams.  And if you know the old you can learn the new ones easily, but not the other way around.\n\nOnce you have basic numbers, travel words and everyday needs, you should sit down with a phrasebook or a restaurant menu and study the foods.  It is a must-do!  Eat something different every day and study the characters and pronunciation of the food words.\n\nBeyond that, I would recommend you take a chinese friend to the bookstore and look through a few books until you find one that best suits you.  DONT buy the one your friend recommends, keep looking... you will find one, but it has to be challenging and interesting, not the "Kunming is the spring city" type of book, thats BS that you will never need in your daily life as a foreigner.
167457
learn chinese or carry a translator