China Travel Guide

Travel Guide for Business, Leisure and Cultural Travel across China

China Travel Guide

About China

Hotels

China Travel Guide » About China » Learning Mandarin Chinese

Learning Mandarin Chinese

Although learning a new language is never as easy as we remember having learned our own native language, it is easier for a native speaker of English to learn Mandarin than for a native speaker of Mandarin to learn English. The reason is that there are no new sounds to be learned by a native English speaker. However, native Chinese speakers have to master some sounds which are not used in their native tongue.

Since learning a language involves four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), it seems best to concentrate on the first two skills before trying to learn to read and write Mandarin. The written language is quite unlike the Roman-based languages of Europe.

There is a type of romanization that has been developed for Mandarin learners by English speakers. It involves trying to make the sounds readable by those who understand Roman script. This romanization is referred to as Pinyin, with 'pin' meaning 'spell' and 'yin' meaning 'sound'. Thus, it is an attempt to make the words spell somewhat as they sound to a native speaker of English. The most common Pinyin is called Hanyu Pinyin.

A goal to learn Mandarin Chinese is worthwhile since about twenty percent of the world's people speak that language as their native tongue. It is the most common of the natively-spoken languages on the planet. Mandarin is the official language of China although there are other languages used in the country. It is largely based on the native language of people in and around Beijing.

While immersion-learning is a noble concept when trying to learn a language, it is not as easy to arrange as learning outside the Chinese culture. Many learners of Chinese as a second language must learn it outside the native culture, using books, recordings and sometimes Chinese classes to begin their initiation to the language. Having friends who are fluent in Mandarin, of course, is an extra plus as they can be used for testing the concepts one has been studying.

Two things to keep in mind when trying to learn Mandarin are perseverance and patience. It is necessary to study several times a week every week. If you fail to persevere, you will tend to forget what you already learned. Practice what you know as often as you can to keep your mind busy with the new language. Taking a vacation from your language study is the way to become uninterested and to begin feeling as if learning Chinese is a hopeless goal. Patience involves the amount of new learning that you intend to do in a particular amount of time. It will not be possible to learn a language in a few weeks. Even if you take a course, allow yourself a year or two to become somewhat fluent in the language and to begin thinking in the language rather than translating from your native language before speaking the new language. Do not try to learn too much new vocabulary or too many grammar rules at once. You need to concentrate on quality rather than quantity as you try to learn this great language.

It may be that self-teaching will not be sufficient for your goals. If so, try to find a class that you can attend regularly. Some people learn well from self-study. They find that studying the language books and listening to recordings are effective for them. Other people really need frequent contact with native speakers of the second language. Find your own best learning tools and use them.

One of the difficult areas for English speakers is learning the tones of Mandarin. A different tone can mean a different word or phrase in the language. There are four tones to be learned in Chinese. They are listed as a high, flat tone, a rising tone, a dipping tone and a lowering tone. It is definitely worth your time to find a native speaker to help you with the tone concept. Even if a native Mandarin speaker is not available to you, recordings can help with the tone-learning part of the language.

If you are in a large city, it is surprising how often you can meet someone who speaks Mandarin. Even a stranger may be pleasantly surprised if you try to greet him in Mandarin Chinese. He may even take time to give some constructive criticism. Do not be afraid to make mistakes or to practice what you have learned, even with a stranger.

It may be hard to find a usable Chinese-English dictionary. For one thing, you probably would not know how to spell what you think you heard a native speaker say. Thus, you would not be able to look it up. Those dictionaries are best for helping you learn to speak rather than to help you learn to understand what you heard.

Learning Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, is a worthwhile goal. Be careful that the Chinese you are trying to learn is Mandarin as there are other languages used in China. The hard work will be considered time well-spent when you find you can understand a native speaker and be understood, at least to some degree, by someone from China.

About Us | Terms & Conditions |