Oook!

The Taiwanese people seem to be very resourceful when it comes to learning languages. Yesterday I saw a book in a bookstore that supposedly teaches you how to improve your listening skills by watching CNN news. And the other day there was this taxi driver who puts his daughter on the phone when he has English guests in his taxi, so that she can practice a little. Luckily she did not practice with me and my German accented English.

Tonight, I was shopping for some more or less needed or useful items for my life here: lights for my bicycle, glue, notepad... and as I was paying for my stuff, an Asian guy was approaching me and asked if I speak Chinese. Well, I actually speak very very little, definitely not enough to have a decent conversation in this language, but enough to get breakfast. So I told him that I was speaking very very very very little Chinese, since I was kind of afraid to not understand whatever he might be telling me next in Chinese.

But actually he did not know Chinese as well (or he was at my level) and wanted me to translate for him. He is from Mongolia and speaks English by the way. Luckily I was with one of my Taiwanese friends there who will be going to Germany.

So I talked to the guy in English, translated it to my friend into German who in turn asked the shopkeeper in Chinese. After a little confusion, the Mongolian guy got what he needed for 5 Taiwan Doller.

And everyone was happy

http://www.livemocha.com - have not tested it yet

http://www.mangolanguages.com - I think good to practice with (and some community features)

http://chinesepod.com - small mp3 lesssons (and some community features)

http://spanishsense.com same concept as chinesepod

You all (well Ying, Diana and Yuki) favored Chinese over Japanese. No one is in favor of Japanese. Today I applied for the course in the coming semester, I hope I will get accepted. Did I mention that you all were drafted as my tutors by leaving your comments? . I defintely need people to force me to practice.

I have been learning a little Japanese before and I still want to get better at it. But recently I also have been thinking about learning Chinese. Now learning two languages at the same time is a little too much for me, so I should decide which one I wanna learn. Previously I have been dismissing to learn Chinese because I just cannot hear the different tonal pronounciations of the same word - but then again I do have a lot more friends that speak Chinese than Japanese...

What would you suggest?