Mandarin Help, Anyone?

[She-Claimed-War]

Ok so basically, I got accepted into a TEFL program where next year I will be going to Zhuhai, China where I will be training to teach English. I would like to try to find a job in China because of the large job market.
Needless to say, Mandarin is a very difficult language to learn since I only know English and Spanish, and Mandarin is completely different pronunciation wise. I have been trying to work on my pronunciation, but I don't feel that I am getting it quite right. My boyfriend speaks Wuhanese and understand Mandarin, but he can't tell me what I am doing wrong in pronunciation so he just makes fun of me [Yeah, thanks a lot Yangyang -_-]

So if anyone is willing to help me or reccomend any links or materials... It would be greatly appreciated whee

[An Unknown Kunoichi]

Hm, correct intonation is probably the hardest aspect of Mandarin to learn.

I reckon, it is better to find someone who can pronounce it correctly, and get them to help you, one-to-one. Very hard to learn pronounciation over the net. Set video lessons on pronounciation can have a negative effect because they cannot tell you if you're pronouncing it correctly or not.

And in my opinion, your boyfriend probably laughs because he can't do any better himself. ;]

But really, I often encourage my friends who are learning Mandarin, to speak to me in Mandarin, rather than Japanese or English, so then I can correct their pronounciation.

The only tip I can give you, is to think of curves. I often use my hands to demonstrate the curvature of the tones, and using imagery such as hills, flat land and valleys. Pinyin is a great thing, and the accents on them help a lot, with the four /, v, , and -.

Don't be afraid to overly emphasise it. After a while, slowly diminish the effect, until you can say the tones subconsciously.

[foxxfairy]

i agree...programs and stuff don't really help if you can't reproduce 100% correctly...
you should look for a "real Chinese" person as a language partner...and yes Chinese boyfriends can mess you up because they know mostly dialect which isn't going to help you...( i had a Chinese Jiangsu province boyfriend so i know what i'm talking about),try to find a university student...

if that's not working out for you i'd advise you to check out skype...it's a free via the internet telephone program...i know a few Chinese guys who use it to practice their English, French, German whatever skills...they're always looking for a language partner (you can search for them via the integrated search engine)...so what i do mostly is talking for about 2 hours ...one hour in english one in mandarin....you have to push though because real Chinese will try to get as much out of it as they can and at times you might end up being a free english tutor for 2 hours instead of a language exchange partner.....
also---- make sure you find somebody from around Beijing....not someone with a crazy dialect from the south(nanmian hua is crazy)....or from henan (they sound like normal mandarin but the tones are all mixed up) or hunan ...and by god nobody from shanghai...

also...yes the job market is nice over there ( i just returned from Nanjing 2 weeks ago) but you have to remember you'll not receive a great deal of money....depending on your qualification as a teacher it can be around 80-120 kuai per hour...it's easy to find a teaching job ( everybody wants to learn English now and there are enough private tutor schools in the bigger and middle sized cities) but China might be more of a challenge than you think...so if you feel like talking or you want to know more , you are welcome to pm me... xp

[Sharpsharp]

actually i m a chinese...so i can help if u want...
i m ready to help^^