The Mild Suggestions for Learning Chinese
Article by Ucb Jerke
Once Chinese is mentioned, people from all parts of the world must have something to say. Probably they will generate the wish to learn this language. So how do learn Chinese then? I bet every language learner must have their own ideas of learning, but today I would love to speak something on Chinese learning to you. I am Chinese, I will show you my personal feeling on how to learn Chinese wisely.
Chinese and English have obviously different systems of speaking and writing. In this case you shall try to insert yourself into the Chinese system of speaking and writing, so that you will be able to learn this langugae more successfully. English has the alphabet, so does Chinese. The Chinese alphabet shares the letters with the English alphabet, but they are not pronounced the same. But at least you know this is the similarity you can catch, right? Thus learning Chinese in this way must be an approachable idea. Learn the Chinese alphabet! As for the difference in pronunciation, you should stress a lot. For example, in Chinese "a" is pronounced "/a/", while in English, it is pronounced "/ei/". Even though the form is the same, the sounds differ largely. But Chinese letters were created based on the English letters, so you will understand Chinese more quickly than any other way. Certainly this way is just for the Chinese beginners, not for the intermediate and advanced learners. Do you think you can read a piece of newspaper in Chinese letters, or we call them Hanyu Pinyin? Definitely not! You will read nothing but Chinese characters.
Whereas I don't need to describe Chinese characters to you, I want to address the spoken Chinese. In English we may always discuss "oral English", and in Chinese there must be "oral Chinese" or "spoken Chinese". Why should I stress the spoken format of Chinese language? Because you will speak this language more than you will write down. Language is for people to communicate, now speaking the language is the best tunnel for good communication. Another point is t! hat the spoken Chinese is much easier than the written form. In the spoken format you don't have to worry about your grammar, since Chinese doesn't often stress grammar in contrast to English. So learning Chinese, you don't have to learn Chinese grammar attentively even though your Chinese teacher may address this problem to you from time to time. I don't love those teachers who speak highly of grammar learning as well as the relation between grammar and language. I love the Rosetta Stone Chinese software, for it teaches you without visible grammar rules. You will never understand how this software works until you have one for you to check. Even though you don't have to remember the grammar to a large extent, you should learn its patterns of speaking, which will help you a lot while you are speaking Chinese.
In English we don't use any symbol to direct the tone we pronounce while we speak, while in Chinese we have such symbols to direct us to speak each Chinese character, including "flat", "rise", "curve" and "drop". If you speak Chinese, you must notice this problem. Otherwise, you will use your English tone to drive your Chinese. Probably Chinese people can understand you, but they must pick up their ears to know what you are really speaking, for they use such tones, but you don't. Using Cheap Rosetta Stone to obtain each Chinese pronunciation, you will never suffer from such proble!
Aside from all such things, you should learn this language characters and proverbs, for Chinese people write characters rather than Hanyu Pinyin and people, especially middle-aged and old people often use short and concise proverbs to express their real meanings. When people talk something about their lives, they must speak a lot of culture-related things. If you have no idea about Chinese culture, you will probably misunderstand them or get confused yourself. So learning some bits of Chinese culture should also be helpful.
About the Author
Even though you can find out many ways to learn one new language, you should select one to help you learn it effectively. When you learn Swedish, you can use Rosetta Stone Swedish. You can accumulate vocabulary and learn how to talk too.
(Old version) Learn Chinese - Speak Mandarin - "Basic Verbs"
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