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Mandarin Tones

Chinese Mandarin is quite a complex language to learn, especially for English speakers. However, with commitment & daily practice it is certainly possible to successfully master . If they can't find any Chinese films to buy, try renting them from a movie rental store, which often have foreign language sections. Alternatively, see if your local library has any Chinese films or ask if they would be able to source some for they. Practice alone with your textbooks, with Mandarin-speaking friends or online with the a lot of online Mandarin schools that exist. Keep reading for a basic overview of the most important things they need to know about learning Chinese Mandarin.




Practice using the four Mandarin tones. Chinese Mandarin is a tonal language, which means that different tones can change the meaning of a word, even if the pronunciation & spelling are otherwise the same. If they're feeling particularly proactive, try pausing the video after a simple sentence & repeat what has just been said. This will lend your Chinese accent an air of authenticity!  It is essential to learn the different tones if they wish to speak Chinese Mandarin correctly. Chinese Mandarin has four main tones, as follows:


When they hear a word in English, think about how they would say it in Mandarin. If they don't know what it is, jot it down & look it up later. It's handy to keep a little notebook on they for this purpose. Watch Chinese films & cartoons. Get your hands on some Chinese DVDs (with subtitles) or watch Chinese cartoons online. This is an easy, entertaining way to get a feel for the sound & structure of the Chinese Mandarin language. Attach little Chinese labels (with the character, the pinyin & the pronunciation) to items around your house, such as the mirror, the coffee table & the sugar bowl. They'll see the words so often that they'll learn them without realizing it!
Although having a wide vocabulary is better, remember that in Mandarin, accuracy is more important. It's no better learning a word if they can't pronounce it properly, using the correct tone, as different pronunciations could have entirely different meanings. For example, using the wrong tone (using mā instead of má) could be the difference between saying "I want cake" & "I want coke" - two completely different meanings.


Study basic grammar. There is a common misconception that grammar does not exist in the Chinese language, but this is not true. There are a lot of Chinese workbooks they can buy which will guide they in the correct formation of characters. These are usually intended for schoolchildren, but are useful to anyone attempting to learn Chinese characters. Chinese grammar rules do exist, they are just very different to those in European or other language systems. Unlike these languages, Chinese is a very analytic language which is both better news & bad news for language learners. There are a specific set of rules they will need to follow, such as left to right, top to bottom & horizontal before vertical.

For instance, in Chinese there are no complicated rules about conjugations, agreement, gender, plural nouns or tense. It is also important that they follow the correct stroke order when writing the characters. However, Chinese has its own set of grammar rules which do not have an equivalent in English, or other European languages. For example, Chinese uses grammatical features such as classifiers, topic-prominence & preference for aspect. As these features are not used in English, they can be quite difficult for learners to grasp. Most words consist of single syllables which are then combined to make compound words. This makes sentence construction fairly straightforward. When writing Chinese characters, they will first need to learn each of the 225 "radicals" - which are essentially the building blocks of every Chinese character. Some radicals can stand on their own as independent characters, while others are used only within more complex characters.




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