What can be done in 4 hours:

====== hour 1 ======

- Understand what toned languages really are, comparing cantonese and mandarin as real life examples

- Demystify why there's no real way to say "yes" or "no" in chinese

- Why saying "thank you" to native speakers will get you funny looks, and other cultural nuances

- Break down chinese characters into understandable bits and why that makes you smarter

====== hour 2 ======

- Overview of the completely free tools and resources, online and off, fluent chinese learners use for self-study and how do people even write chinese on a keyboard??

- Look at the physical tools I use to self-study and master chinese. hint: it's pen, paper and some creativity

====== hour 3 and 4 ======

- Evaluate some of the paid platforms and discuss their merits

- Get our feet wet in the larger online learning communities

- How to start with chinese social media and is facebook really blocked there?

- The importance of positive feedback loops in a language learning context or "Save Those Fortune Cookie Paper Scraps"

- Review of your new arsenal of independent, relevant self-study program to chinese language mastery

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Every "Learn Chinese" software, website or CD starts with the same thing...Hello, Colors, Genders, Ordering in a Restaurant, Asking Directions, saying thank you and so on. Match some flashcards, parrot a recording and drag n' drop a few ...words? kanji? pictures?? (what are those symbols, exactly, anyways?). An hour later and German is looking a LOT more appealing.

China is arguably the oldest extant culture in the world, while simultaneously being one of the youngest countries today. In a language learning context, this particular paradox means finding accessible, relevant and results driven language learning resources is nearly impossible...In my experience it also turns many off from acquiring such an elegant, powerful, diverse and beautiful language.

Let me guide you in the beginning steps of exploring the world's most spoken language. If your goal is to move to China to teach ESL, travel Asia easily, test your entrepreneurial tenacity in the most rapidly growing, capitalistic environment in the world, find your fish in the sea, help your child through a Mandarin immersion program's homework or purely for the beauty of Classical Chinese (original zen, anyone?) language acquisition is inspired by self.