Want to learn to speak Chinese?
Article by Roshana Ariel
If you're planning a trip to China, you might be thinking about learning to speak Chinese. If you are, you may be thinking that learning to speak the Chinese language is terribly difficult.
Yes, it's true that learning how to speak Chinese very well takes time and patience and much practice, but learning to speak the language conversationally for your trip is not that hard. It's attainable. And it's fun to learn.
You'll want to learn Standard Mandarin Chinese if you're going anywhere on Mainland China or Taiwan. In Hong Kong, though, they speak Cantonese, although Mandarin is also spoken in Hong Kong.
With it's up-tones and down-tones, the Chinese language might seem almost impossible at first. It's a completely different way of looking at language. You might wonder how they ask a question if they can't have that upward slant at the end of a sentence, as we do in Western countries? Or how do they show expression if their individual words have up-tones and down-tones and "un-tones" rather than being able to put inflections on parts of a sentence or certain words based on how they feel?
But the Chinese people add inflection by speaking louder or softer, rather than having the inflection of their voice go up or down throughout their sentences. Or they add more emphasis to their words, again without changing the carefully spoken tones with each syllable.
Still, all of this can be acquired when you are learning to speak Mandarin Chinese, even though it sounds crazy now. It just takes practice and persistence, and it begins to make sense.
I was surprised to find that there were some things that came pretty easily to me in Chinese. For one thing, numbers were fairly easy: ling, yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi - that's zero through ten in Chinese. Then, for the teen numbers, it's shiyi, shier, shisan, etc. -- so it's ten plus the other number. That makes more sense than our teen numbers, especially "eleven" and "twelve," although our thirteen through nin! eteen ro ughly follow the rule of adding "teen" to the back of our three-through-nine numbers, more or less.
Also, the days of the week work the same way. A week is "xingqi." Then, the days of the week are numbered, so it's "xingqiyi" or Monday, the first day of the week; and "xingqier" or Tuesday, the second day of the week. Can you see how they use the numbers again to name the days of the week?
I found some Chinese words were easy to remember because they sound like the thing they're describing. For example, "mao" means cat (referring to the sound a cat makes).
But, oh my gosh, those tones!. For example, shi (pronounced "shr") with an up-tone means "ten," but also "stone" or "rock." With a down-tone, it means "to be," "am," "is," and "are." You really have to be careful about the tones, because they don't understand you, even if you're saying the syllables correctly, if you don't have the tones right.
To learn conversational Mandarin Chinese, I got a couple of CDs to listen to and practice with. I also got a workbook called "Chinese in 10 minutes a day." It included lots of stickers that I could cut out and put around my house (and outside) to label all kinds of stuff with the Chinese words. That helped a lot for learning everyday words such as "chair," "table," "bathroom," "car," "book," etc.
That kind of two-pronged approach worked well, but I understand systems like those available through Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur are excellent, as well.
I had a blast (and ended up with a few funny stories) speaking Chinese with the locals once I was there. People who could speak a little English were very eager to practice their chops with me. Little children would often run up to us and say, "Hello!" and then run off again. My son told me a couple of times that they were telling their friends, "I spoke to a foreigner!" in Chinese as they ran off.
I really believe it's worth it to put a little effort into learning some of the language before you travel to China, even if yo! u'll be with a tour group. You never know when it will come in handy if you get separated from your group or just find a friendly national to speak with. You'll be rewarded many times over if you're able to have even a short, meaningful conversation with someone who lives on the other side of the planet.
About the Author
Roshana Ariel is a longtime editor and writer. She enjoys writing about her traveling adventures at http://www.adventuresinchinatravel.com/learn_chinese.html, and her dogs at http://www.love-those-doggies.com. She also manages a website devoted to another passion: brainwave technology and brain science at http://www.brainwavejourneys.com.
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