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Dude! There's no quick-fix miracle way to learn to read...and as this is a forum...its not like this will be the answer...anyway, asians born abroad will in most cases will speak but not be able to write their traditional languages. My family speaks vietnamese and cantonese and not one of the Aussie born kids can write in either...including me...
Anyway, point is...hang in there and take it slowly...try those classes again...The only way to learn is to know the rules...(teaching yourself to speak is one thing but teaching yourself to read/write something which isn't romanised is close to impossible!)
Anyway, point is...hang in there and take it slowly...try those classes again...The only way to learn is to know the rules...(teaching yourself to speak is one thing but teaching yourself to read/write something which isn't romanised is close to impossible!)
If you're not lazy - find a good textbook - that's the only answer. At least you don't have to learn the sounds but you have to associate the words to characters.
"Teach Yourself Cantonese" is not too bad - all texts are both in Yale and characters if you want to learn to read Cantonese, there's a similar book for Mandarin - "Teach Yourself Chinese"
"New Practical Chinese Reader" goes in-depth in Chinese characters - from basics to more complex.
Some software programs are good for learning Chinese too - NJStar (there's a free trial version) and Wenlin - a small trial version is available.
I find you won't be able to learn Chinese characters well if you don't try to write them but in order tro write them you need to know how to write them correctly - stroke order is important and it's handy to understand the basic components (there are not that many of them). "New Practical Chinese Reader" and Wenlin software can provide this.
I would start with Mandarin - the formal written Chinese used in all parts of China including Hongkong/Macao. Cantonese has different pronunciation for the same characters and there are specific Cantonese characters (used mainly in Hongkong/Macao), which are used to render colloquial (!) Cantonese. If you know both spoken languages, you should be able to see the mapping between the written and spoken, Mandarin and Cantonese.
I am a learner myself.
"Teach Yourself Cantonese" is not too bad - all texts are both in Yale and characters if you want to learn to read Cantonese, there's a similar book for Mandarin - "Teach Yourself Chinese"
"New Practical Chinese Reader" goes in-depth in Chinese characters - from basics to more complex.
Some software programs are good for learning Chinese too - NJStar (there's a free trial version) and Wenlin - a small trial version is available.
I find you won't be able to learn Chinese characters well if you don't try to write them but in order tro write them you need to know how to write them correctly - stroke order is important and it's handy to understand the basic components (there are not that many of them). "New Practical Chinese Reader" and Wenlin software can provide this.
I would start with Mandarin - the formal written Chinese used in all parts of China including Hongkong/Macao. Cantonese has different pronunciation for the same characters and there are specific Cantonese characters (used mainly in Hongkong/Macao), which are used to render colloquial (!) Cantonese. If you know both spoken languages, you should be able to see the mapping between the written and spoken, Mandarin and Cantonese.
I am a learner myself.
我是俄国人,可是我住在澳大利亚
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There's this book called "Understanding Chinese" by Rita-Mei-Wah Choy. It's a pretty good book but currently out of print. If you find that book, you should definitely look at it. However, it doesn't teach Chinese simplified, but it does teach the traditional version. My advice is that if you buy some MV's with the subtitled ones or the karoake ones, you can learn a lot of the words by learning the lyrics.