Well, I have a friend. He is from the People's Republic of China (Taiwan). And he wants to go to Spain. He is also interested in learning Spanish. However, I am a Mexican, who is interested in learning Chinese (Mandarin dialect), because I would like to visit parts of East Asia sometime like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China, S. Korea, Japanese (I am also trying to learn Japanese btw). Well, I have done some research on the Chinese language, and what I liked is that I heard that the grammar is very simple. I like that because I am not really good at grammar, and don't normally like to mess with that stuff so much. Well, I have gotten some books and tapes from the Library that teach Chinese, on and off for months now, and well, some things I noticed:

Ok. I'm thinking of taking up Chinese as my third language in Secondary school. What do I learn and what would be tested in the 'O' Level?

I know it is Mandarin. My friend sent me it just for me to try to find out. can you help me? thank you so much!

And do any of you have any good song recommendations that are Mandarin (not really old ones)

Currently learning mandarin but only verbally, wondering if I should learn to read it at the same time?

Chinese is my native language, but it's not a piece of cake to me since I was born/grew up here in America and English is pretty much the only language I speak (took Chinese school before...). my mom made me take the chinese sat so i did, but i have yet to tell her the results... i Got a 5 on the AP Chinese Test lat year and a 740 (!!!!!!! omg >< not even 750..) on sat 2 chinese this year. should i just not send this score to colleges? i was expecting a low score, but not this low... maybe like a 760 or something...sigh

Either answer, I am told that I have that gift ( I don't really mean to brag about it) because I picked up speaking chinese (a lot of native chinese speakers say that I speak as good as a native, but I don't think so) and reading it too in about a year, but I'm still not fluent in it. I also try to teach myself German, Spanish, Japanese, along with Mandarin. I will learn other languages in the future though, its because I really love languages and I really want to have the opportunity to get to travel someday.

I'm in college majoring in philosophy and want a language since I know it will stimulate new ways of thinking and new perspectives. I seek wisdom. I think an Asian language will be great for this and I have zeroed in on just these two languages of all the other Asian languages. Note: I'm not interested in career prospects, just the language that will stimulate my mind and help me develop new ways of thinking.

I am probably going to move on to upper level German soon but at the same time I'd like to start learning Spanish or Mandarin. Would that be a bad idea? Does learning a language as different as those two from the ones I have been studying mean my understanding o them may become skewed (start getting syntax and pronunciations wrong)?

I've learned that the chinese word for older brother is "Gege" (sorry, no pinyin marks) but in an episode of Show(Xiao Zhu) i heard him say "Ge". Is this a shorter way of saying gege? And does this also apply for mama, baba, meimei etc.? Do people accept this?

I need to know how to write it in pinyin. Thanks!

Hi. I am writing something for Chinese School. It's sort of...bad, but anyway, if anyone speaks/reads Chinese could you please proofread? I'm not very good with grammar... 在20年来，我赢了彩票。我不知道我是怎么赢了彩票。 有了这笔钱我收到来自彩票，我会生活得很幸福。我会住在巧克力做成的房子。我将拥… 30。生活会好的。 And no yelling at me for writing something so weird.

I'm learning to speak the basics of Chinese (Mandarin not Cantonese) and am worrying about the writing part. I'm learning the romanised form of spelling as I go along, not the symbols they use. If I wrote in this would it still be understood? The reason I'm learning this is because I love China and plan on living there or holidaying there later on in life (I'm 18 years of age).

Not TOO fast, clear and catchy songs would be preferable.

I WILL GO TO NEW ZEALAND ON FEBRUARY. I WANT TO CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY IN SOUTHERN ALPS. I WILL BE GOING WITH MY MOTHER. WE WILL BE SPENDING MOST OF OUR TIME IN CHRISTCHURCH. IT’S GOING TO BE REALLY FUN. I AM SO EXCITED. LEARNING CHINESE IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE IT IS ONE OF THE MAJOR LANGUAGES OF THE WORLD. ANYWHERE, THERE’S ALWAYS CHINESE. THIS LANGUAGE IS VERY USEFUL IN BUSINESS AS WELL. MOST OF MY FRIENDS SPEAK MANDARIN SO IT IS VERY BENEFICIAL FOR ME.

any Enlish -speaking country is ok