The Reasons I wrote This
I've long been learning Mandarin ever since I was a kid. But to be raised in the language environment I have been in, I wouldn't consider myself to be a native speaker of the Chinese language. Even today, I find it challenging to converse very fluently with the Chinese from China. I've found that I still frequently include some English expressions that I simply cannot explain in Chinese without stopping the conversation. However, my exposure to Chinese continues to be good as I majored in Chinese in university and I've been giving lessons to numerous people for a fair few years.
Over these years, I've come to realize that to master Chinese, you really need three things. You need motivation, the right techniques and good learning resources. I have my specific theory when it comes to Chinese language learning. It always frustrates me when I see how schools in my homeland are educating the students the wrong way, either by continuously lowering the bar, or giving up important areas of focus that are vital in language acquisition.
So here I am, hoping to write an article that would help others learn some correct concepts about Chinese that would help them in their learning!
The Three Aspects of Language-Pronunciation, Semantics and Language Symbols
The many learners of Chinese most often would lament that Chinese language is far from easy to achieve proficiency. They normally concentrate in learning how to communicate in Chinese.
However, they don't realize that due to the language's linguistic features, there exist a very close relationship between Chinese sounds, Chinese characters and their relevant meanings. When we chose to ignore learning the form and the meaning so that we can tackle the speaking part more efficiently, we actually are increasing the difficulty for ourselves. Let me explain, Chinese sound variants are very limited, and so the language turns to its symbols to encode the various different meanings, or semantics in the language. The result is that one sound, including its tone, can actually mean many, many things. For example: ji1 (first tone of the pronunciation "ji" in Chinese pinyin) can mean "small table", "hit", "chicken", "accumulate" to name a few. How do we know what someone is referring to when we hear the sound? We do this by learning the Chinese characters when we learn the corresponding pronunciation. When put into context, we would be able to call to our minds just what "ji" refers to. Do note that if we mispronounced the first tone into a 2nd tone, we would actually be meaning another set of very different things.
I continue to request students or beginners to put into memory the fundamentals of Chinese pinyin rules, grammar and word order, as well as how the general guidelines are for writing Chinese characters. It's just impossible to master Chinese without memory work, through creative teaching or creative learning, whatever they call it nowadays.
The greatest obstacle anyone can encounter in the course of learning Chinese characters is that they have no clue what different words mean when familiar characters come together. Although all these characters are the highest appearing characters and the student has already learned about it, they still do not know what different combinations of these characters mean.
I always emphasize that you need to learn the basic meanings of each character you come across, so that you will find it easier to learn the compound words when characters come together. It is just not possible to remember every combination of different characters. Native Chinese speakers don't learn it that way, and neither should you. Master the fundamental meanings of each character and everything will come easier in the future.
Of course there would be words that you won't be able to guess, but most of them would have some form of derived relationship from the root words that you have learned. There is one fact I have to clarify though. Most characters in Chinese have multiple root meanings, and it's important to keep expanding your understanding of these meanings. It's not impossible, when you compare it with trying to remember every word you come across. Isn't that equating to memorizing the dictionary already?
How do you prevent yourself from instantly forgetting everything that you've learned? You simple have to practise. Make sure you have the chance to see the Chinese character, listen to its pronunciation, see it in use and use it yourself, and connect the usage with actual experiences. The more senses and experiences that can be hooked to a particular piece of information, the better we'll remember it. It's even better if you can associate with feelings that you felt regarding the particular situation when you used the word. An example is that you would never forget a word if there was ever an occasion when you used the word wrongly and resulted in a very embarrassing situation.
Ways to Continue the Fight in the Long Run
Some people never really finished learning the language they set out to learn. The blame it on the language, they find excuses that it is just too time consuming, or that there wasn't anyone to practise with.
Motivation plays a vital role in ensuring that learning continues to be fun, so that we don't give up. Steve Kaufman, a polyglot who have learned ten languages revealed the secret to language learning as engaging in motivating and interest-triggering content.
Steve Kaufman continues to believe that we will have to find content that are interesting to us if we were to be continually motivated to learn the language. I agree as well. Two other examples I can think of are people learning the Korean language and Japanese language because they are crazy about the cultures of both countries.
Other motivators definitely play a part too. We can design milestones for ourselves to achieve and then reward ourselves for it. We can also keep progress reports and find the particular TV show or music video on the language that we're learning to motivate us.
Resources and Tools
We all need to find the right tools for the right job. Learning Chinese is no different.
Get yourself the essential learning tools such as dictionaries or learning softwares. You would probably also need audio tapes for practices in pronunciation and listening. Also get yourself a book on Chinese characters. All in all, do read up the Chinese culture as well, and ensure that all topics that frequently come in handy are learned. Once done, take action and start learning!
I've long been learning Mandarin ever since I was a kid. But to be raised in the language environment I have been in, I wouldn't consider myself to be a native speaker of the Chinese language. Even today, I find it challenging to converse very fluently with the Chinese from China. I've found that I still frequently include some English expressions that I simply cannot explain in Chinese without stopping the conversation. However, my exposure to Chinese continues to be good as I majored in Chinese in university and I've been giving lessons to numerous people for a fair few years.
Over these years, I've come to realize that to master Chinese, you really need three things. You need motivation, the right techniques and good learning resources. I have my specific theory when it comes to Chinese language learning. It always frustrates me when I see how schools in my homeland are educating the students the wrong way, either by continuously lowering the bar, or giving up important areas of focus that are vital in language acquisition.
So here I am, hoping to write an article that would help others learn some correct concepts about Chinese that would help them in their learning!
The Three Aspects of Language-Pronunciation, Semantics and Language Symbols
The many learners of Chinese most often would lament that Chinese language is far from easy to achieve proficiency. They normally concentrate in learning how to communicate in Chinese.
However, they don't realize that due to the language's linguistic features, there exist a very close relationship between Chinese sounds, Chinese characters and their relevant meanings. When we chose to ignore learning the form and the meaning so that we can tackle the speaking part more efficiently, we actually are increasing the difficulty for ourselves. Let me explain, Chinese sound variants are very limited, and so the language turns to its symbols to encode the various different meanings, or semantics in the language. The result is that one sound, including its tone, can actually mean many, many things. For example: ji1 (first tone of the pronunciation "ji" in Chinese pinyin) can mean "small table", "hit", "chicken", "accumulate" to name a few. How do we know what someone is referring to when we hear the sound? We do this by learning the Chinese characters when we learn the corresponding pronunciation. When put into context, we would be able to call to our minds just what "ji" refers to. Do note that if we mispronounced the first tone into a 2nd tone, we would actually be meaning another set of very different things.
I continue to request students or beginners to put into memory the fundamentals of Chinese pinyin rules, grammar and word order, as well as how the general guidelines are for writing Chinese characters. It's just impossible to master Chinese without memory work, through creative teaching or creative learning, whatever they call it nowadays.
The greatest obstacle anyone can encounter in the course of learning Chinese characters is that they have no clue what different words mean when familiar characters come together. Although all these characters are the highest appearing characters and the student has already learned about it, they still do not know what different combinations of these characters mean.
I always emphasize that you need to learn the basic meanings of each character you come across, so that you will find it easier to learn the compound words when characters come together. It is just not possible to remember every combination of different characters. Native Chinese speakers don't learn it that way, and neither should you. Master the fundamental meanings of each character and everything will come easier in the future.
Of course there would be words that you won't be able to guess, but most of them would have some form of derived relationship from the root words that you have learned. There is one fact I have to clarify though. Most characters in Chinese have multiple root meanings, and it's important to keep expanding your understanding of these meanings. It's not impossible, when you compare it with trying to remember every word you come across. Isn't that equating to memorizing the dictionary already?
How do you prevent yourself from instantly forgetting everything that you've learned? You simple have to practise. Make sure you have the chance to see the Chinese character, listen to its pronunciation, see it in use and use it yourself, and connect the usage with actual experiences. The more senses and experiences that can be hooked to a particular piece of information, the better we'll remember it. It's even better if you can associate with feelings that you felt regarding the particular situation when you used the word. An example is that you would never forget a word if there was ever an occasion when you used the word wrongly and resulted in a very embarrassing situation.
Ways to Continue the Fight in the Long Run
Some people never really finished learning the language they set out to learn. The blame it on the language, they find excuses that it is just too time consuming, or that there wasn't anyone to practise with.
Motivation plays a vital role in ensuring that learning continues to be fun, so that we don't give up. Steve Kaufman, a polyglot who have learned ten languages revealed the secret to language learning as engaging in motivating and interest-triggering content.
Steve Kaufman continues to believe that we will have to find content that are interesting to us if we were to be continually motivated to learn the language. I agree as well. Two other examples I can think of are people learning the Korean language and Japanese language because they are crazy about the cultures of both countries.
Other motivators definitely play a part too. We can design milestones for ourselves to achieve and then reward ourselves for it. We can also keep progress reports and find the particular TV show or music video on the language that we're learning to motivate us.
Resources and Tools
We all need to find the right tools for the right job. Learning Chinese is no different.
Get yourself the essential learning tools such as dictionaries or learning softwares. You would probably also need audio tapes for practices in pronunciation and listening. Also get yourself a book on Chinese characters. All in all, do read up the Chinese culture as well, and ensure that all topics that frequently come in handy are learned. Once done, take action and start learning!
About the Author:
Find out proven techniques on how to learn Chinese with detailed information on our blog. Also, do not miss out on your free report on an explosive guide to learning languages here.. This article, The Guide To Learn Chinese Before you Actually Start Out is available for free reprint.
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