I want to learn Mandarin [and eventually russian]. Where do i start?

>>75286863
Start by tying the noose and setting up the stool.

Finish by putting your head through it and kicking the stool.

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>>75286883

>>75286863
Have you learnt some Latin?

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Learn pinyin then Chinese sentences, spoonfed
Remove the English->Chinese cards
Learn any characters that come up using a separate anki deck.

>>75286863
Is that a boy or a girl?

>>75287031
Spanish and Portuguese

I'm used 42 different conjugations

Haven't learned it, but dabbled into the theory.

DON'T get fixated by tones.
Just learn the language by ear, use shadowing all the time. You can learn the hanzi and pinyin, but the important bit is to forget about tones until you have a grasp of the language. Else you're going to give up.

>>75287927
This but like, spend the initial 15 minutes learning about tones just don't spent 10 hours practicing them.

>>75287927
>Just learn the language by ear, use shadowing all the time. You can learn the hanzi and pinyin, but the important bit is to forget about tones until you have a grasp of the language. Else you're going to give up.
If you go that route, people are going to have a hard time understanding you or they're not going to understand you at all. And you'll have to go back and relearn how to say the words correctly, after learning how to say them the wrong way. That's counter-productive.

Consider using this: http://www.speakgoodchinese.org/

>>75287856
If you try to learn Russian you can clarify these forms:

videt' - to see

vižu - (I) see <-- Proto-Slavic *vid'ǫ <-- *vidion(di --> ž/ on --> ǫ)
vidiš' - (sg. you) see <-- Proto-Slavic *vidiš'ǐ <-- *vidisi(si --> š'i)
vidit - (he) sees <-- Proto-Slavic *viditǐ
vidim - (we) see <-- Proto-Slavic *vidimǔ <-- *vidimos
vidite - (pl. you) see <-- Proto-Slavic *vidite <-- *viditis
vidjat - (they) see <-- Proto-Slavic *vidętǐ(en --> ę)

Compare words in Wiktionary and you'll see a lot of similarities

>>75288049
No, that's what shadowing is for. You learn to say words in context, instead of trying to get their pitches perfectly in isolation (which is what most beginners seem to think they have to do).

>>75288049
>If you go that route, people are going to have a hard time understanding you or they're not going to understand you at all. And you'll have to go back and relearn how to say the words correctly, after learning how to say them the wrong way. That's counter-productive.

Not if you do tons of listening and shadowing like he suggested. Which you need to do anyway. If you haven't listened enough to have a good feel for tones you definitely haven't listened enough to sound natural no matter how much you have practiced speaking.

>>75287927
>>75288049
>>75288125
>>75288138
w-what is shadowing?

>>75288292
basically just repeating after what you hear

technically it means something more specific (repeating after what you hear in pretty much real time, like an interpreter does (except an interpreter translates too) but that requires you to pretty much already be fluent. So basically just repeating after what you hear is enough, or playing the audio again and speaking along with it.

>>75286863
拼音pinyin first.