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So Just Exactly What Made Me Write 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.
Thus, I decided to write down what I know that works, so that other beginners can use these proper techniques and concepts when they do their Chinese language learning.
The Three Aspects of Language-Pronunciation, Semantics and Language Symbols
Most non native speakers who ever tried learning Chinese or are currently learning Chinese never fail to complain that Chinese is a very difficult language to learn. These people often concentrate on mastering Chinese in the spoken form.
However, they did not think about the differences in language features that are bound to exist in every different language. The fact that they had not noticed the close relationship between sound, form and meaning in each individual Chinese character, had only made learning the language, even if it's just the speaking part, that much harder. Chinese do not have so many ways of pronunciation as does English. If we're not going to learn the characters which differentiates the meaning of one similar Chinese sound to another, we will not be able to memorize enough "Chinese sounds in context" to become proficient in the language.
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.
For Chinese vocabulary, perhaps our greatest problem is that although the Chinese characters that have the highest frequency keep appearing, how they combine together with other characters to form new words has made memorizing the meanings of these words very difficult.
I cannot stop stressing that individual Chinese characters can combine to form compound words, and we would need to have a solid foundation in those meanings of those characters of the most frequent occurrence so that we can guess the derived meaning of the words when characters join together to form new words. These are the basic concepts in Chinese language that would save us tremendous time in the future.
There are bound to be words that can't be guessed from the basic meanings of each character that forms the word. However before you jump to a conclusion saying that most combinations can't be guessed, I need to tell you the ugly truth that many Chinese characters have multiple basic meanings. Some basic meanings can even be more than one. You might start to wonder just how large the amount of basic meanings you need to commit to memory.
Next, to actually using the stuff you learn. My take is simple, which is to try to engage as many of your senses as possible, exposing them to all things Chinese, and then creating links and relationships between concepts, forms, sounds, grammar and images. My brain remembers better when it takes in more information. Sounds unbelievable? Try making up ten things you have done from the morning till the evening, then try saying them out backwards. Try the exercise again, only that this time round the ten things should be really stuffs you experienced. You will find that the latter is easier. That's because made up stuff are just like memorizing Chinese vocabulary, they are only words and concepts in your mind, like the stuff you made up in your mind. However, experiences engage with your whole being. You see, you hear, you touch, you remember when you thought about at that moment, you listen, and all these come together to form a strong linkage in your mind, so you don't forget easily. Learning and using Chinese is the same, you have to use it, listen to it and see the images relevant to the word to experience its use in different contexts.
Ways to Continue the Fight in the Long Run
There will be a portion of those who started out learning the language, who will surrender before mastering Chinese. These people sometimes will find fault with the language so that they can feel better about giving up.
Motivation is very important in language acquisition. It doesn't just prevent us from giving up, it actually makes the process much more efficient and fun. Steve Kaufman, someone who had found language learning difficult, became a polyglot who speaks ten languages because he found the secret of language learning: fun interesting 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
Learning Chinese language is similar to everything else. And that includes getting hold of the right tools to help us learn better.
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.
Thus, I decided to write down what I know that works, so that other beginners can use these proper techniques and concepts when they do their Chinese language learning.
The Three Aspects of Language-Pronunciation, Semantics and Language Symbols
Most non native speakers who ever tried learning Chinese or are currently learning Chinese never fail to complain that Chinese is a very difficult language to learn. These people often concentrate on mastering Chinese in the spoken form.
However, they did not think about the differences in language features that are bound to exist in every different language. The fact that they had not noticed the close relationship between sound, form and meaning in each individual Chinese character, had only made learning the language, even if it's just the speaking part, that much harder. Chinese do not have so many ways of pronunciation as does English. If we're not going to learn the characters which differentiates the meaning of one similar Chinese sound to another, we will not be able to memorize enough "Chinese sounds in context" to become proficient in the language.
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.
For Chinese vocabulary, perhaps our greatest problem is that although the Chinese characters that have the highest frequency keep appearing, how they combine together with other characters to form new words has made memorizing the meanings of these words very difficult.
I cannot stop stressing that individual Chinese characters can combine to form compound words, and we would need to have a solid foundation in those meanings of those characters of the most frequent occurrence so that we can guess the derived meaning of the words when characters join together to form new words. These are the basic concepts in Chinese language that would save us tremendous time in the future.
There are bound to be words that can't be guessed from the basic meanings of each character that forms the word. However before you jump to a conclusion saying that most combinations can't be guessed, I need to tell you the ugly truth that many Chinese characters have multiple basic meanings. Some basic meanings can even be more than one. You might start to wonder just how large the amount of basic meanings you need to commit to memory.
Next, to actually using the stuff you learn. My take is simple, which is to try to engage as many of your senses as possible, exposing them to all things Chinese, and then creating links and relationships between concepts, forms, sounds, grammar and images. My brain remembers better when it takes in more information. Sounds unbelievable? Try making up ten things you have done from the morning till the evening, then try saying them out backwards. Try the exercise again, only that this time round the ten things should be really stuffs you experienced. You will find that the latter is easier. That's because made up stuff are just like memorizing Chinese vocabulary, they are only words and concepts in your mind, like the stuff you made up in your mind. However, experiences engage with your whole being. You see, you hear, you touch, you remember when you thought about at that moment, you listen, and all these come together to form a strong linkage in your mind, so you don't forget easily. Learning and using Chinese is the same, you have to use it, listen to it and see the images relevant to the word to experience its use in different contexts.
Ways to Continue the Fight in the Long Run
There will be a portion of those who started out learning the language, who will surrender before mastering Chinese. These people sometimes will find fault with the language so that they can feel better about giving up.
Motivation is very important in language acquisition. It doesn't just prevent us from giving up, it actually makes the process much more efficient and fun. Steve Kaufman, someone who had found language learning difficult, became a polyglot who speaks ten languages because he found the secret of language learning: fun interesting 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
Learning Chinese language is similar to everything else. And that includes getting hold of the right tools to help us learn better.
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:
Do not miss our popular guide to learning Chinese here, or alternatively you can read up more on our useful blog posts on Chinese language here.
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