Ni hao.

I’m another Chinese-learning Alan using Serge’s fantastic site. I come from North-west England – my work involves communication with Taiwan sometimes – so I started learning about a year ago. Don’t be disheartened if you need a lot of time. I’ve learned a lot of French and German – but Mandarin involves a different mind-set and a different approach I think. Serge’s explanations are very thorough and the lessons are very well thought-out – especially, I think from a Westerner’s point of view.

Good luck with your Chinese learning

Yours

Alan (Lancashire, England)

Well I’ve managed to get as far as lesson 6 and it’s an amazing feeling to
be able to just about make myself understood at our local Chinese
restaurant! The waiters seem to appreciate and enjoy my attempts although
sometimes my pronunciation is not exactly perfect! They are very patient.

One waiter said that I speak too smoothly and quietly. It seems to me that
they do tend to clip the syllables and almost shout at each other all the
time! Is this your experience.

I’ve bought the transcripts for lessons 1 to 12 and they help a lot. I
notice that some of the spellings don’t seem to match the pronunciation and
lead to a bit of confusion. For example, to me, “Qing” sounds exactly like
the English word “Sing”. Is there a difference?

Also I cannot detect a difference between the second syllables in Bu2cou4
and Qing3zuo4.

If you are able to help with these points, I’d really appreciate it.

So, a lot of work for me to do (91 lessons!) but it’s a something I can
truly enjoy as I drive to work. Thanks for doing all this!

Alan