Learn Chinese Rapidly
If you are looking to learn Chinese easily, it is important to spend time and effort in developing your skills and understanding of the four Mandarin tones. This is because this is a language that is based on tones, and a different tone can change a word’s meaning. This is the case even if the standard pronunciation and spelling are the exact same. It is easy to see how this can cause problems for many people looking to develop their Chinese skills, but taking the time to comprehend the main four tones will provide you with the platform to develop your Chinese skills.
- The first tone is a tone that is flat and high
- The second tone is a tone that rises
- The third tone is a tone that dips
- The fourth tone is a tone that lowers itself
The first tone stays flat throughout while the second tone is a tone that rises to a middle pitch, akin to asking someone a question when using English. The third tone goes from a middle pitch to a low pitch while the fourth tone moves from high to low, akin to making a command in English.
Focus on the simple parts of the vocabulary
If you are keen to develop your use and understanding of the Chinese language, it makes sense to develop your skills and confidence in the basics. When you have more language components at your disposal, you will find that you will become fluent at a much quicker rate. This is why you should start with vocabulary components that you will use regularly.
A good example would include learning the times of the day, with morning, afternoon and evening being zǎoshàng, xiàwǔ and wǎnshàng. Similarly, you may wish to focus on body parts, such as the head, feet or hands, which are tóu, jiǎo andshǒu.
Think about comparisons between English and Mandarin
One way to develop your skills is to make comparisons between English and Mandarin. When you hear a term or word in English, think about how it would be pronounced in Mandarin. If you are unaware of how it should be pronounced in Mandarin, make a note to check it out at a later date. Doing this will ensure that you increase your vocabulary. You may also find it helps to make notes for yourself and you can even label items around the house to remind you of the correct pronunciation and spelling, which will help you to take the meanings and pronunciation in without realising you are learning.
Of course, while expanding your vocabulary is important, it is more important to be accurate. This is why you should take some time to ensure that you are pronouncing words in the correct manner, as this will provide you with the tools to be a success when learning Chinese.
Another great way to develop your confidence and skills with Chinese is to focus on learning how to count. You will find that once you are able to count to ten in Chinese that the rest of the numbers up to 99 come very easily.
- One is pronounced eee
- Two is pronounced arr
- Three is pronounced saan
- Four is pronounced ssuh
- Five is pronounced woo
- Six is pronounced lee-yoe
- Seven is pronounced chi
- Eight is pronounced baa
- Nine is pronounced jee-yo
- Ten is pronounced sh
After you have mastered numbers one through ten, you can count the double digit numbers by taking the number that is the ten’s position, saying shi and then saying the number in the one’s position. This means that 27 is pronounced arrshi chi. The word hundred in Mandarin is pronounced as bai, so 100 would be pronounced as eeebai.
After you have developed these skills with respect to learning Chinese, you should look to learn basic pieces of conversational phrases that are used on a daily basis. You will find that learning basic pieces will be of great benefit, so you should look to work out terms like:
- Hello
- What is your name?
- Yes
- No
- Excuse me
- Thank you
- Goodbye
Learn Chinese Rapidly