Tips for learning Mandarin?

[Ego ista]

I just started some after school Mandarin classes today so I’m curious to people who have learned/are learning/are native speakers do you have any tips? Make to make learning easier or something

 

I don’t really know much in terms of writing yet she only taught us like how to count, say thank you, hello, good bye etc and the like tones today

[blossoms]

Learning Pinyin as I learned characters helped me. but I don't know if that's a universal thing. 

[Rose.]

Be careful on how you say the words and accent tones. One wrong slip and it can mean a whole nother thing

[Seunghee's eyebrows]

Speaking > Writing for Chinese. As a Chinese person, I'm ashamed to say that I will NEVER be able to grasp the knowledge of Chinese characters. There's simply too many strokes. I aced Japanese with Hiragana and Katakana but once we started learning their Kanji (Chinese) I gave up lol.

 

[Candykiss]

When writing characters make sure to practice over and over - muscle memory!

[Seunghee's eyebrows]

Be careful on how you say the words and accent tones. One wrong slip and it can mean a whole nother thing

like this?

 

Click here to view the Tweet

[Ego ista]

Be careful on how you say the words and accent tones. One wrong slip and it can mean a whole nother thing

  

like this?

 

Click here to view the Tweet

Omg small chest asjdjfrufh now I’m scared

 

I mean she said I had good pronunciation when counting asjdidhdu

[Rose.]

like this?

 

Click here to view the Tweet

LMFAO IMAGINE IF SHE INTRODUCED SEULGI INSTEAD

[Bad Boy]

Learn radicals.

 

It makes it a lot easier to learn words

[PeteNelson]

Mandarin just takes a lot of practice. There are things about it that are easier than English, and other things that are much harder. For example, basic Mandarin grammar is basically the same as English (subject-verb-object) but in some ways easier, because there isn't really past, present, or future tenses and not many auxiliary verbs. On the other hand, the ways that past and future actions are indicated is really strange for a native English speaker.

 

Someone said above to pay attention to tones - that is definitely right. Also pay attention to and try to use the correct "measure word." You can unintentionally say something really awful if you aren't careful!!

 

Mandarin has *tons* of homonyms, so learning the characters and paying attention to context is also really important. Even if you can't write the characters from memory, being able to read them is really helpful as you learn.

 

I've been studying Mandarin for about 10 years - not super intensely - and although I can make myself understood and carry on basic conversations, I'm nowhere near fluent. If you are young enough and can spend the time to really study it (preferably in China or Taiwan) you can get pretty good at it, depending our how hard you work at it., but getting to native-level proficiency would be pretty hard, IMHO.

[Ego ista]

Mandarin just takes a lot of practice. There are things about it that are easier than English, and other things that are much harder. For example, basic Mandarin grammar is basically the same as English (subject-verb-object) but in some ways easier, because there isn't really past, present, or future tenses and not many auxiliary verbs. On the other hand, the ways that past and future actions are indicated is really strange for a native English speaker.

 

Someone said above to pay attention to tones - that is definitely right. Also pay attention to and try to use the correct "measure word." You can unintentionally say something really awful if you aren't careful!!

 

Mandarin has *tons* of homonyms, so learning the characters and paying attention to context is also really important. Even if you can't write the characters from memory, being able to read them is really helpful as you learn.

 

I've been studying Mandarin for about 10 years - not super intensely - and although I can make myself understood and carry on basic conversations, I'm nowhere near fluent. If you are young enough and can spend the time to really study it (preferably in China or Taiwan) you can get pretty good at it, depending our how hard you work at it., but getting to native-level proficiency would be pretty hard, IMHO.

asdjcirjjdu 10 years omg Will I even get very far in 3-ish years every school day like yikes I mean I’m still in hs is that considered young enough idk lol

[Aquamaraqua]

I suggest watching Chinese dramas, Youtubers (on anything you're interested in with Eng Subs) and shows. 

 

Honestly speaking/verbal memory >>> written stuff.

 

People are moving over to computers, so pinyin + character recognition is really all you need to survive professionally, if that's your goal. Writing characters is of course also important, but if you can't use the language practically, there's no point in learning it to write papers you're never gonna need in the future.

 

I made the mistake initially of focusing too much on just writing and reading. I excelled at that, but tones are hard to grasp, so listening is key. Consume as much Chinese media as you can from the start. Read easy books once you learn a few words.

 

Also stroke order isn't ~too~ important, but it does help, there are websites that show stroke order, so I recommend using those.

 

Also, Baidu translate>>>Google/Naver.

[seuteuraeseu]

It's really difficult. Remember to practice at all times (remembering characters and speaking) or you'll forget easily! 

[PeteNelson]

asdjcirjjdu 10 years omg Will I even get very far in 3-ish years every school day like yikes I mean I’m still in hs is that considered young enough idk lol

 

 

I suggest watching Chinese dramas, Youtubers (on anything you're interested in with Eng Subs) and shows. 

 

Honestly speaking/verbal memory >>> written stuff.

 

People are moving over to computers, so pinyin + character recognition is really all you need to survive professionally, if that's your goal. Writing characters is of course also important, but if you can't use the language practically, there's no point in learning it to write papers you're never gonna need in the future.

 

I made the mistake initially of focusing too much on just writing and reading. I excelled at that, but tones are hard to grasp, so listening is key. Consume as much Chinese media as you can from the start. Read easy books once you learn a few words.

 

Also stroke order isn't ~too~ important, but it does help, there are websites that show stroke order, so I recommend using those.

 

Also, Baidu translate>>>Google/Naver.

 

If you are still in HS, you are young enough to still pick it up pretty quickly and get good at it.

 

Also, as Aquamaraqua said, watching and listening to Chinese media is super, super helpful. I watch tons of Chinese TV shows and watch Mandarin-language movies on viki.com and dramafever.com. I still have to use subtitles, even after studying for so many years, but even if you don't understand much at first, it helps you get used to the flow of the language, and it will definitely help your vocabulary. You'll hear some phrases over and over - stop and look them up to figure out what they mean. Install Pleco on your phone so you can look up words while you watch TV shows on your computer.

 

I also made the mistake of concentrating too much on reading/writing at first (Chinese classes tend to encourage that), but I think it's pretty helpful, especially for a non-native speaker. Since you probably won't be immersed in a Chinese-language culture, reading as much as you can helps, especially with vocabulary. I guess I would say that any kind of learning you can spend time doing is helpful. For me, watching Chinese TV shows is a relaxing way to learn; it isn't intense, and I probably learn a little more slowly, but after working all day, I can just come home and watch TV - and if I watch Chinese TV, I'm "studying" and relaxing at the same time.   Writing characters over and over is a way to learn them pretty fast, and for me anyway, I can get into kind of a relaxed frame of mind doing it sometimes. Many of the characters are really beautiful, and some people just enjoy writing them and trying to make their writing look beautiful. Chinese calligraphy is definitely a beautiful art form, and you may find that you really enjoy writing the characters.

 

So, I guess I would say, try lots of different ways to learn and see what you enjoy most and what motivates you most. Of course, if you are doing it as part of your high school coursework, you will need to study the books and do the assignments that your teacher gives you, but watching Chinese TV, listening to Chinese music, practicing writing characters, and so on, combined with your coursework, will help you learn that much faster. One other thing - find a *patient* Chinese native speaker that is willing to practice with you, correct your mistakes, and let you speak your bad Chinese with him/her. Also, don't bother asking "why" the Chinese say something in some way - - it's a human language, and a lot of it just won't make sense logically. There's a lot of English that isn't logical, either. So asking why just won't help very much - there is no reason, it just is. Finally, get over feeling embarrassed when speaking Chinese - and you *will* feel embarrassed. There will be times you will think, "hey, I'm getting Chinese pretty well!" Then 10 minutes later, you'll say something really dumb, feel like an idiot, and want to crawl under the nearest rock. It happens - but you can't let it stop you. Just laugh it off and keep on trying.

 

Chinese is a fascinating and wonderful language - good luck with your studies! At first it will often seem overwhelming, and like you will never get it, but as your vocabulary grows and your understanding of the grammar and usage grows, you will be able to learn it faster and faster. You are lucky to start studying it at such a young age. I was, um, significantly older than you when I started!   

 

One more last thing (really): Chinese is considered one of the 5 or so most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn, so don't expect that you will be able to start having significant conversations with native Chinese speakers after a few months or even a year. The Defense Language Institute (the U.S. government agency that trains military people in languages) says it takes over 2200 hours of *intense* study to learn Mandarin (that's well over a year if you were to study 5 days a week, 8 hours a day). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_as_a_foreign_language

[starsocks]

Speaking > Writing for Chinese. As a Chinese person, I'm ashamed to say that I will NEVER be able to grasp the knowledge of Chinese characters. There's simply too many strokes. I aced Japanese with Hiragana and Katakana but once we started learning their Kanji (Chinese) I gave up lol.

 

I need to have learned 200 kanji by my year twelve exam, mess

[Seunghee's eyebrows]

I need to have learned 200 kanji by my year twelve exam, mess

YIKES! yeah I'm Chinese and I find their characters just too difficult. I learnt all of the Korean alphabet in 3 weeks tops lol

[Ego ista]

I should start listening to some songs and dramas in Mandarin then I’ll definitely practice pronouncing words too

[PeteNelson]

YIKES! yeah I'm Chinese and I find their characters just too difficult. I learnt all of the Korean alphabet in 3 weeks tops lol

 

Remembering how to write the characters from memory is hard, no doubt about it. It takes tons of repetition. Being immersed in a Chinese-language culture, where you see them all the time, helps a lot. These days, using a computer or phone with pinyin, handwriting recognition, and so on for input, makes it a *lot* easier. When I first started learning 10+ years ago, there weren't nearly as many of those kinds of resources.

 

On the other hand, learning to read the Chinese characters isn't all that difficult - it just takes *lots* of practice because there are so many characters. *Understanding* what you read can be difficult, though. Chinese (like English and probably every other language) has a lot of slang, weird phrases, cultural references, and so on that as a non-native student, you just have to learn and memorize - but so do native Chinese students, so that isn't all that different. They just hear them more often.

 

The Chinese characters are a lot more systematic than most people think. They are made up of parts - from 1 to 4 parts usually, (most often 2 parts) where some part (usually the right part) gives a hint to the pronunciation and the left part giving a hint to the meaning. Often the left part is the "radical" which is a hint to the meaning, and also is how the characters are looked up in traditional dictionaries.

 

Here's a simple example:

马 = ma3 (ma in the third - high-low-high - tone). It means horse.

妈 = ma1 (ma in the first - high - tone). It means mother. Notice how this character has two parts: 女 and 马. The left side, 女, is the character for "female" so it gives a hint to the meaning, and the right side, 马, give a hint to the pronunciation - just the tone is changed.

 

Of course, like in any human language, there are lots of exceptions to this rule, but often when you see a character you can't remember the meaning for right away, this rule can be helpful. When I first started learning Chinese, the characters looked to me like a bunch of random symbols, and I was under the (mostly) false impression that they are pictographs, like Egyptian hieroglyphics. When I found out that most of them aren't pictographs and they are much more systematic than I thought, I was really hooked on learning them as much as I can.