When you study Chinese, you’re not only learning a language, or at least you shouldn’t be only learning a language.
To really get into the mindset of the people who speak it, you probably need to study a bit of Chinese culture along with practicing your tones and sorting out stroke order. The Chinese do, after all, have thousands of years of culture for you to investigate and explore. Learning about Chinese culture can help you with your Mandarin Chinese lessons in a few different ways.
You can understand the people you’ll be conversing with much better when you understand their culture. This cannot be underestimated. Making Chinese friends will help you improve your Mandarin more than almost anything else, but if you don’t get them and they don’t get you, there’s no room to develop those beneficial kinds of friendships.
You can appreciate your travels in China much more. Whether you plan on visiting for a week or two, taking a year off to travel the country end-to-end, or moving to Shanghai for business, the more you understand about Chinese people and their culture, the more you’ll be able to absorb in your time there.
Your mind will be opened to new ideas. You’re already in learning mode while you study the Mandarin language. Why not learn some cultural things,too, while you’re in this prime learning mode?
