How do you learn Chinese?

[Etonlan]

How do you learn Chinese?

a. go to a Chinese language school
b. at a language training center
c. learn it by yourself (books, video,movies...)
d. study with an online school (like:www.masterchinese.com)
e. study with a language exchanger
e. go to China for Chinese learning

[maxx]

C and E.And from my wife.And her Eletronic translator.Are 2 and a half year old son speaks more Chinese then I do.But I understand more then he does.I can follow the conversation.Where he can't yet

[Willy The Londoner]

My choice is G.

Give up on all the others and teach her to speak English. 

After 15 months here I cannot follow a conversation unless it is no longer than three words.  But our combined Chinglish is OK. 

Willy

[Sylvain D]

C & D. I also learn from my wife some words.
The most difficult for me is in fact to write in chinese, but well... I have time to make that change

[Vince G]

Or perhaps just go to his website and pay for lessons. That was his intent of the post anyway.

[RobertBfrom aust]

Funny , I went to China several times and learnt very little Chinese , but Sujuan and I speak in Chinglish and fully understand each other , no means yes and yes means yes also ha ha , as in January she spoke no English , now she can talk with all our friends and family , but because she speaks to all her employees and family every day in Mandarin it is not helping her with writing English , but her daughter is fine with her learning , regards Robert .

[Willy The Londoner]

Exactly what I meant Robert.  Too much talking when both sides are unclear what is actually being said causes more problems to mixed relationships than anything else.

At least with Chinglish both sides know exactly what you both mean.

Whatever, do not expect to have deep and meaningful conversations that both sides understand for many, many years.

Willy

Strange how all the testimonials on that website are from people who think the course is great BUT HAVE never been to China ye.  When they do they, like many others, will find that most people will not understand you other than for the normal everyday greeting words.  They are striving to understand a foreigner struggling with their language in dialects and accents they have never heard before.  Learning from a Beijing voice is no good for Guangdong or even Hunan where they use different words all together.

Willy

[Jimmy]

I figure if I want it bad enough I will learn to ask for it.
And My wife doesn't need to hit me to many times before I learn what she is saying too.
I listen to a few tapes that got old pretty fast.
I teach her she teaches me it working well.