An aspect of Mandarin learning that many students find difficult is the concept of tones. It also happens to be one of the first things you’ll learn in your Mandarin Chinese lessons. It’s all part of what you should expect when you first start studying Mandarin Chinese.
There are four tones in Mandarin. First tone is a steady tone, like a musical note held steady. Second tone is a rising tone, like what is used at the end of a question in English. Third tone drops down and then up again. Fourth tone is a falling tone that drops down at the end.
Tones are important because if you say the wrong one it changes the meaning of the word completely. A good Chinese teacher will make sure your tones are correct and you may have to try it hundreds of times before you consistently get your tones right. It can be frustrating to feel like you are repeating the same word over and over again, but keep in mind that the end result- speaking flawless Mandarin- will be well worth the effort.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
What is Chinese Immersion?
One of the terms you may hear when discussing your language lessons is “Chinese Immersion.” Basically, what this means is being completely surrounded, or immersed, in Chinese 24/7. During a Chinese immersion program, everything you do will be done in Chinese and speaking other languages – including English– isn’t allowed.
Chinese immersion programs come in many different forms. Some schools have a Chinese immersion option, in which students who attend that school take some or all of their classes in Mandarin. Summer programs offering language immersion may have a Chinese component or may be exclusively in Chinese. A study-abroad immersion program takes students to China or Taiwan to live, study and play in Chinese for a set time period.
In some immersion programs, the students take a language pledge, making a promise to themselves and their classmates to only speak the target language during the course of the program.
While a Chinese language immersion program may be difficult, complete immersion in any language is widely viewed as one of the most highly effective ways of learning a new language and becoming fluent in a short period of time. If you truly want to become fluent in Mandarin Chinese, at some point you will probably need to fully immerse yourself in the language, either through participation in an immersion program or through spending time living in a place where Chinese is the primary spoken language.
Chinese immersion programs come in many different forms. Some schools have a Chinese immersion option, in which students who attend that school take some or all of their classes in Mandarin. Summer programs offering language immersion may have a Chinese component or may be exclusively in Chinese. A study-abroad immersion program takes students to China or Taiwan to live, study and play in Chinese for a set time period.
In some immersion programs, the students take a language pledge, making a promise to themselves and their classmates to only speak the target language during the course of the program.
While a Chinese language immersion program may be difficult, complete immersion in any language is widely viewed as one of the most highly effective ways of learning a new language and becoming fluent in a short period of time. If you truly want to become fluent in Mandarin Chinese, at some point you will probably need to fully immerse yourself in the language, either through participation in an immersion program or through spending time living in a place where Chinese is the primary spoken language.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Review of World Learner Chinese
World Learner Chinese is an Internet-based language learning program using audio files that you can listen to online or download as mp3 files. along with transcripts of the audio and exercises to practice what you’ve learned.
Each lesson consists of an audio recording that presents a Chinese monologue, dialogue, or vocabulary lesson followed by an explanation of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Each lesson is around ten minutes, making it easy to study in small bursts between other activities.
The program is based out of Taipei, so language learners in other places, such as Beijing, may notice some differences in accent and phrasing.
One problem I had with the program is that it jumped straight into tones without really explaining what tones actually are and how they work. Granted, this information can easily be found online.
If your style of learning is primarily listen-and-repeat, this might be a good program for you to try in your quest to learn to speak Mandarin.
The newsletter hasn’t been updated since April 2009, so I’m not sure whether any new material has been added since that point, but the basic audio files are enough to keep you busy for a while regardless.
The initial 26 lessons are free, although you’ll have to scroll through them backwards to get to the beginning.
The cost for a subscription is $30 for 3 months, $57 for 6 months, and $105 for 12 months.
Each lesson consists of an audio recording that presents a Chinese monologue, dialogue, or vocabulary lesson followed by an explanation of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation.
Each lesson is around ten minutes, making it easy to study in small bursts between other activities.
The program is based out of Taipei, so language learners in other places, such as Beijing, may notice some differences in accent and phrasing.
One problem I had with the program is that it jumped straight into tones without really explaining what tones actually are and how they work. Granted, this information can easily be found online.
If your style of learning is primarily listen-and-repeat, this might be a good program for you to try in your quest to learn to speak Mandarin.
The newsletter hasn’t been updated since April 2009, so I’m not sure whether any new material has been added since that point, but the basic audio files are enough to keep you busy for a while regardless.
The initial 26 lessons are free, although you’ll have to scroll through them backwards to get to the beginning.
The cost for a subscription is $30 for 3 months, $57 for 6 months, and $105 for 12 months.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
How Hard is Learning Chinese?
If you’re considering Chinese as a potential language to learn for school or on your own, you might be wondering exactly how hard it is to learn Chinese.
Long considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, Mandarin Chinese truly does have some major differences that make it problematic for Western learners. The written Chinese language, for one, can take far longer to learn than a language based on an alphabet, since every word has a different, unique character associated with it. Since Chinese has an estimated 60,000 written characters, that can make for a lot of rote memorization. Thankfully, only about 5000 characters are necessary to function in day-to-day life, including reading the newspaper.
In the Chinese spoken language alone, new learners have to cope with sounds that don’t exist in English and the tonal system, which can cause each word to have up to four different possible meanings, depending on the tone used when speaking the word.
Once learners get past the Mandarin sounds and tones, however, basic Chinese grammar turns out to be far simpler than European languages, since there are no conjugations and verb tenses.
In general, Mandarin Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, but with over a billion native speakers in the fastest growing economy in the world, the effort may be well worth it.
Long considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, Mandarin Chinese truly does have some major differences that make it problematic for Western learners. The written Chinese language, for one, can take far longer to learn than a language based on an alphabet, since every word has a different, unique character associated with it. Since Chinese has an estimated 60,000 written characters, that can make for a lot of rote memorization. Thankfully, only about 5000 characters are necessary to function in day-to-day life, including reading the newspaper.
In the Chinese spoken language alone, new learners have to cope with sounds that don’t exist in English and the tonal system, which can cause each word to have up to four different possible meanings, depending on the tone used when speaking the word.
Once learners get past the Mandarin sounds and tones, however, basic Chinese grammar turns out to be far simpler than European languages, since there are no conjugations and verb tenses.
In general, Mandarin Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn, but with over a billion native speakers in the fastest growing economy in the world, the effort may be well worth it.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Learning Mandarin Chinese vs Learning Cantonese
One big question that people who are contemplating learning Chinese may have is exactly which form of Chinese they should study. Chinese has many different dialects, but the most common ones that people in the West study and come in contact with are Cantonese and Mandarin.
Mandarin is the dialect of mainland China and Taiwan. Cantonese is the dialect of Hong Kong. Part of deciding which language to learn will depend on what you plan to do with your Chinese language skills once you’ve completed your studies.
If you plan on doing business with people in mainland China or Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese would be the obvious choice. If you have connections in Hong Kong, however, Cantonese might be a better option for you. Many Chinese speakers in the West came from Hong Kong, so Cantonese often dominates Chinatowns and other enclaves of Chinese speakers in the U.S., Canada and Europe. However, as more mainland Chinese move to these places, the balance between Cantonese and Mandarin is beginning to shift.
Choosing between Mandarin and Cantonese might be difficult for some, especially American Born Chinese whose parents speak one dialect but who would prefer to learn the other. Of course, there’s always the option of learning both, although it would probably be wise not to try to learn both at the same time.
Mandarin is the dialect of mainland China and Taiwan. Cantonese is the dialect of Hong Kong. Part of deciding which language to learn will depend on what you plan to do with your Chinese language skills once you’ve completed your studies.
If you plan on doing business with people in mainland China or Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese would be the obvious choice. If you have connections in Hong Kong, however, Cantonese might be a better option for you. Many Chinese speakers in the West came from Hong Kong, so Cantonese often dominates Chinatowns and other enclaves of Chinese speakers in the U.S., Canada and Europe. However, as more mainland Chinese move to these places, the balance between Cantonese and Mandarin is beginning to shift.
Choosing between Mandarin and Cantonese might be difficult for some, especially American Born Chinese whose parents speak one dialect but who would prefer to learn the other. Of course, there’s always the option of learning both, although it would probably be wise not to try to learn both at the same time.
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