YakShaving

My interest in emerging markets and bottom of the pyramid has taken me beyond India– I feel it is important to understand the other roaring tiger, China. Will says I’ve been Friedmanized — probably so
Part of the problem with China is the veritable language and cultural barrier that a non-native faces in designing and marketing products and services for the indigenous population. I thought I’d try my hand at learning Mandarin before I backpack there this year (I am so close with Northwest Worldperks to have that round trip to China).

I thought I’d share some of the resources that I’ve used:
* Pimsleur’s Learn Mandarin: This is a good start. I haven’t made it past Lesson 6.. It gets very repetitive, which I actually like, because it drills the point home and you really learn.
* Beginner’s Chinese from the “Teach Yourself Chinese” series. This is good, but somewhat useless without someone telling you if you’re pronouncing something correctly. The CDs that come with it are not as good. What I still cannot get very well is differentiating between the 4 tones (especially the rising and falling tone)
* ChinesePod: This is a good resource. There are a few speakers (two native, and one non-native) who help you learn with a podcast a day. I think this is going to come very handy when I start taking the subway this fall. (I didn’t subscribe yet, but I am considering it).
In addition to this, I might join meetup.com’s KC Mandarin meetup in order to help me with pronunciation.
* Friends who correct me when I say something wrong and teach me slang. My Lao roommate knows a little bit of Mandarin.. enough to correct me when I make a silly mistake (often).
* I’ve seen the Rosetta Stone stuff, but the price is a little out of my reach. I know that others have found it effective, but I’d prefer to learn away from my computer (I spend way too much time in front of this thing)
* There’s an inexpensive class opening up on the Kansas side (Leawood), but I dont think I’m going to go to it, since its a hike and its on Wednesdays at 6pm. I’d have to haul tail to get over there in time.