Mandarin can be a fun language to learn, or it can be extremely difficult. To make sure that you have a pleasant learning experience, stick to the 3 steps to mastering Chinese specified in this article.

Mandarin is an ancient and fascinating language, and the advantages of learning it these days are numerous. Learning this particular language, however, isn\’t simple and easy, predominantly due to the fact that it does not have a phonetic alphabet. Do not be concerned. I have lived, and studied, in China for several years, and I am about to share some knowledge that will help you achieve your Chinese language learning goals. To become good at speaking Mandarin Chinese, just follow these three important steps.

Step One: Grasping Pinyin

What on earth is Pinyin? As I mentioned previously, Chinese characters, generally, aren\’t phonetic, meaning they have no sounds attributed to them. Instead, they are pictographs, symbols that represent distinct thoughts and ideas. These pictographs are very effective for the purpose of communicating visually, through reading and writing. For example, if I sketch a stick figure in the shape of the human form, we can each view it and recognize that I\’m communicating something about a human being. The problem occurs when individuals from different geographical regions meet up and try to communicate verbally.

Why is there an issue? Because in my village people may see the aforementioned stick figure and pronounce it \”person.\” In your community, on the other hand, people may see precisely the same figure and pronounce it \”potato,\” which makes it very difficult for us to communicate verbally. Pinyin was created to solve this problem, and it is the only way for you to learn how to correctly pronounce words and phrases in Mandarin Chinese. Therefore, before learning how to read, write, or pronounce Chinese characters, you must first learn pinyin.

Step 2: Learning how to Communicate Verbally

Once you understand pinyin, you should utilize it, together with a native Chinese speaker, to learn how to accurately pronounce Chinese, including getting the hang of Chinese tones. I know, you don\’t have enough time to head to the Far East and learn with a native Chinese person. Do not be concerned. You can find a number of software programs and web-based courses out there that contain recordings made by Chinese speakers.

It\’s essential to make use of these programs. It is almost impossible to learn how to pronounce Chinese tones without hearing them spoken by a native Chinese speaker. Just how crucial is it to get the tones correct? A large number of Chinese words have four unique definitions, each of which is expressed by a change of tone. Unless you master your tones, you simply won\’t have the ability to converse effectively using the Chinese language.

Step Three: Tackling Chinese Characters

Once you\’ve mastered pinyin, you\’ll be able to move on to learning Chinese characters. Why should you do this last? Because when you memorize the meaning of a Chinese character, you will naturally assign a sound to it. Of course, in the beginning, you\’ll just translate the meaning straight into your native language. As you improve, though, you\’ll want to acquire the ability to \”hear\” the proper sound, in Mandarin, in your mind. In addition, if you plan on using your ability to read Chinese characters in a practical environment, in a restaurant, for instance, you will have to be able to pronounce them properly, and the only way to do that is to first learn pinyin and pronunciation.

Conclusion

Chinese is the most spoken language on the planet, and, with the financial and political rise of Mainland China, knowing the language has many practical benefits. Sure, it is a somewhat challenging language to understand, but if you carry out the three steps laid out above, your progress will be quick and painless.

Author Bio: Want to Learn Chinese? Check out our Free Chinese Course. Or, get more language learning tips at our Best Way to Learn a Language Page.

Category: Education
Keywords: learn Chinese, study Chinese, study Mandarin,Chinese class