Chinese Grammar Chinese Characters How can you know which ones are good? How do you know which materials to use first? So, we worked out this guide which contains the information you need to know as a beginner. This content will help you speed up quickly for how to learn Chinese and start your own venture confidently! Before trying to learn some new words, you need to practice pronunciation for about 15 lessons.
The system of Chinese pronunciation is very different from English. When you learn English, you need to learn the pronunciation of each word one by one, but in Chinese, after you have practiced for about one month, you can read any word in the dictionary as long as there is Pinyin written above it. When you finish this step successfully, congratulations! You are ready to learn regular lessons. You will learn words first, then grammar, then read passages. One is the traditional one while the other is the simplified one which has less number of strokes.
Most Mandarin courses across the globe teach the simplified form of writing. There are different viewpoints about both the scripts.
Some feel that it is a good idea to stick to the complex but aesthetic looking traditional characters, while others feel that the simplified version is perfect for them. Basically, it is a matter of choice of each individual. One need to consider the place he lives in and the actual reason for mastering Mandarin before opting for the traditional or the simplified script.
However, in order to master a language such as Mandarin you need to devote a lot of time in the initial stages to have a strong foundation. This is because an English speaker will find the language completely alien and weird. The basics are very important in Chinese and you need to master the four tones, the Pinyin which is required in order to pronounce logographic characters as well as mastering the order of the strokes which help in the formation of the characters.
You need to put in endless hours trying to write, listen and speak the basics. I remember the experience of an Italian buddy who used to attend a class once a week at the Confucius Institute in Milan.
Despite having attended classes for more than eight months she was unable to master the nuances of the language. She later opted for intense classes at training center located in Shanghai. She used to undergo six hours of training every day for five days a week and within a month there was a marked improvement. She was able to speak and listen like a Chinese toddler. This is indeed some progress to applaud.
She later on opted for a lesser intense daily program. She still attributes her success to her intense program due to which she got her fundamentals in place. Even if you opt for a one on one tutoring program, you will not see results if you do not practice it every day.
You can choose whatever you wish to watch. It is not a bad idea to watch some cartoons if you enjoy them. To begin with you can start watching a single show or mini-series.
Once you are hooked onto the storyline then you are motivated to continue to watch it. This also helps to enhance your listening skills and mark the accents of the speakers. This will also give you a platform to meet and interact with other Chinese netizens. Presently you will not be able to use Facebook or Twitter in China. There are around six levels of achievements in this exam.
The most basic one tests you on just words while the toughest one will check your ability to more than words. At times people take the HSK to procure admission into a Chinese university while others wish to get a short-term language study scholarship. For those individuals who do not have any specific reason for learning Mandarin I recommend considering the skill mastered as the final goal.
In case you have a specific goal in mind then you are motivated to do better. However, hundreds of millions are still diverted from learning it by misconceptions and stereotyping. This article explains why some commonly held myths about learning Mandarin Chinese should be forgotten. It is not much more difficult than any other language. Many studies have consistently demonstrated that adults perform even better than kids under the same conditions.
Every Chinese character has its meaning and then used as a part of other words. Letters used in both words have no meaning on their own.
As a conclusion of this passage, good memory is not a must. It is Mandarin that helps to improve memory — whatever is your age! Myth 3: It is impossible to sound like Chinese due to the difficult tones Truth: Mandarin is a tonal language. Practicing Chinese four tones is necessary but pronunciation in any language needs practice, too.
The good news is that the number of syllables in Mandarin is very limited. Some people think that each Chinese character has its own pronunciation and students have to learn endless number of sound combinations. It is completely wrong! In the chart below you can see pinyin transcription for all possible Chinese syllables. The same transcription is used for dozens of characters so no worries about this! Myth 4: Mandarin is completely different from other languages; nothing in common with European languages Truth: Mandarin Chinese has many distinctive features but you will be surprised by some similar concepts.
Basic grammatical terms are the same. There are nouns, adverbs, verbs, prepositions, etc. The sentence structure has much in common with other languages. Moreover, some proverbs and idioms have straight forward translation into English and Russian I am sure there are even greater examples in other languages.
If you persevere, you can achieve whatever goal. Myth 5: It takes years to be able to speak Mandarin on basic level Truth: Mandarin grammar is much simpler than that of most European languages. There are no articles like in English , genders like in German and French and cases like in Russian. The verb is not changed to express the tense. The time of the action is indicated in the context. Many foreigners are satisfied with learning just typing in Mandarin on a computer.
Typing with pinyin romanization is easy. Myth 7: Living in China is necessary for learning Mandarin Truth: Of course, it is always good to practice what you have studied in everyday life but even if you have no such a possibility you still can improve speaking skills. Learning via Skype and other similar tools is very helpful since you can be guided by a native speaker.
Myth 8: Learning Mandarin is waste of time since it will never substitute English as global language. Truth: I am pretty sure that English will retain its role as a global language but anyway the knowledge of Mandarin gives you amazing career opportunities. In terms of business, China will definitely remain the biggest market for years credit trisha. Knowledge of Mandarin is a great foundation, especially when paired with other skills business, computer science, design, engineering, etc.
Oh, you are crazy! Do you speak Mandarin? Just try it! How to Find a Really Good Chinese Teacher to Guide Your Learning Here are some facts: I have many foreign friends who are learning Chinese Mandarin and complain to me that Chinese is too difficult to learn, even though they have private tutors to help them. At that time, I always tell them that they are so right and I suggest finding a professional teacher to teach them if they want to learn Chinese seriously.
The fact is the Chinese language is a far-distance language from Indo-European language for most western learners. To reach the superior level, more hours are needed for a western learner to learn Chinese than one who is learning Spanish.
With more detail, we will see the durations of language programs in American Defense Language Institute where 24 foreign languages were taught. The following scale shows the duration of formal instruction 25 class hours a week of these language programs for English speakers. In order to save time, it is worth to pay a good and qualified teacher to help you learn Chinese language. However, this thought is a very big misunderstanding. These Chinese native students studied Chinese Language and culture knowledge, foreign language mostly English and the methodologies to teach Chinese to foreigners.
In short, their training goal is to teach foreigner to speak Chinese in the most efficient way. When you look for a Chinese teacher, do firstly look for someone with the academic background of Duiwai Hanyu. Here is what Hanban developed as standards for Chinese teachers. I personally use some references to distinguish amateur Chinese teachers from experienced ones.
Q2: Does the teacher speak too fast? Q8: Does the teacher use too much translation or medium language? Q9: Does the teacher speak more than you? Q Does the teacher often butt in and correct your reply? Some people believe since an adult is smarter than child, then the problem must come from their teacher. The teacher teaches grammar rules incorrectly, they should just teach their adult learners in a natural way as their mother did.
In other words, this theory believes that language should be learned naturally over time and practice. For teachers, it means just simply give students enough in-put before asking for out-put.
For students, he or she should try to guess and use the language rather than analyze it. However, we are not children anymore. Since the aim to learn these languages is limited to reading ancient classic literatures as formal education rather than use it as a modern language in daily life communication. According this belief, students only need is to learn grammatical rules and words and then apply those rules by translating texts word-for-word. Hence this approach is also known as the Grammar-Translation Approach.
Generally speaking, this approach follows a very straight procedure. This approach was the standard way that languages were taught in schools from the 17th to 19th century and is still in use today in hybrid forms in many different situations.
However, we live in a world that changed since 17th century. But remember, the goal is to learn Chinese effectively be able to speak the language with other native speakers condiently. So, while PDFs are a great start, know that they are only part of the language learning journey of Chinese. So each lesson uses level-appropriate vocabulary and grammar taught to you in a step-by-step way. The lessons combine everything around a central theme with conversations, exercises, and discussions.
However, note that our PDFs are designed to be used in a 1-on-1 class with a professional Chinese tutor. Also, the classes are taught in a virtual classroom with lots of different whiteboard tools. If you study just the PDF, you will miss out on the interactive nature of some of these. Sign up to unlock now! Sign up our free trial to learn Mandarin and download the Chinese App for more Chinese language materials and to learn Mandarin online.
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Facebook Comments. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Chinese Title. English Title. How are you? Do you like coffee? You will have them at your disposal and you will only need your time and dedication to achieve your goal.
It is a challenge to face a Chinese character for the first time. But with the help of the books in this selection, it will no longer be an uphill task. For sure you will find it pleasurable and invigorating. Nowadays it is exactly the same. Since the middle of the previous century, a simplified system was adapted, which seeks exactly what its name indicates.
It comes to simplify the use of ideograms, logograms or characters as we usually call them more colloquially for our interpretation and reading. On our website you will be the manager of your resources.
You will be able to choose your study plan and progress, and to take it back if you consider it prudent.
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