Studying Chinese?

Question

I would like to collect some advice on studying Chinese
can you give me one or two suggestions about
listening
spoken
writing
reading remmeber characters
and anything else you might think to be helpful for foreigners studying Chinese

techniques, methods and so on

Answer 1

Good job for studying Chinese, it'll prove useful in the near future :)



Listening - I would suggest taking up some Chinese/Taiwanese dramas. You would hear how Chinese actually sounds like and you can get a sense of how it is spoken and you practice your listening skills. Also, with subtitles in both Chinese and English (if you get it subbed), you can understand what's going on and in the long run, you can listen to chinese pretty well.



Spoken - I would accustom myself to a Chinese environment such as a host family or going abroad in China or Taiwan. Here, you just frequently speak Chinese and you can keep practicing and try to lose the accent.



Writing - There is the painful, but the most effective way of learning how to write chinese which is to write each word over and over and over again. I'd suggest doing a vocabulary list and write each word at least 75-100 times. Make sure that you don't stop writing Chinese and enforce the vocabulary by creating sentences using previous vocabulary. Don't stop writing though, because you may forget how to write some words. (Remember, each chinese character has the rule, write left right, and then up down!)



Reading - Again, watch some Chinese/Taiwanese dramas. They have Chinese subtitles on them so what you can do is follow what they say and what words come up. As they repeat a lot of words a lot you can remember how to read the word because you've heard it so many times.



Overall tips - I would suggest that you attend a Chinese School. They're typically for first generation Chinese children, however, many non-Chinese people do attend them. They're usually weekly but you can really accustom yourself in a Chinese environment where the classes are primarily just spoken in Chinese. It is like attending school again, there is homework, tests, and sometimes projects that you have to complete and you of course get a letter grade. But take the time to work with your teacher and hopefully it will work out for you.

You could also study abroad in China or Taiwan, where you are really forced to learn Chinese since you are over there. The environment is good because you constantly see Chinese characters and hear a lot of people speaking Chinese so it can help you listening, speaking, and reading skills.



I wish you the best of luck studying Chinese. It is a challenging language by far of any I've ever studied. But I believe that anybody can succeed in learning Chinese.



Good Luck!

Answer 2

Learning Chinese isn't easy, and I recommend doing it with the guidance of an experienced teacher. A teacher will make sure you stay on the right path and learn the right things first. Here are some other suggestions I think will help you:



Make a plan:



First, you’ll want to make a plan for how you’ll go about learning and memorizing. I recommend going from the most commonly used characters and terms to the least used. A number of different resources are available online that organize the characters this way already. There are also textbooks, like “Learning Chinese Characters” that do the same.



It’s okay to adjust the plan as you move on, but don’t keep changing things up. Find something that works as quickly as possible and stick to it.



Writing by hand:



This one is controversial.



I bet you’ve seen the pictures and videos of students writing the same characters over and over again. For some learners, this is the way to go, even if it seems like a daunting (and boring) method. All learners should use it to some extent, though. It commits characters to your muscle memory so that recalling and writing them becomes reflexive. This can only get anyone so far though. For native-speakers, writing is a part of their daily routine. They do it all of the time, which further reinforces the characters in the memory. For others, this isn’t the case. The muscle-memory approach won’t work beyond the first few hundred characters. That’s where another memorization method comes into play.



Learn the radicals:



Chinese characters are broken down into 214 smaller parts called “radicals.” You should get to know these components and their individual meanings. Most Chinese characters aren’t new and consist of multiple radicals.



Knowing the radicals helps because they’ll help you construct a mnemonic device for keeping a word stored in your memory. For example, what some of my students like to do is create stories about characters. If you know the radicals in a character, you can link them together into a story. This method is especially useful for those characters you just can’t seem to memorize any other way.



Flashcards:



A tried-and-true method. You can make them by hand, but I recommend a program called Anki. Anki allows you to create digital cards that learn as you do. This means that the more familiar you are with a card, the less often you’ll see that card in the deck. Anki is highly customizable and, combined with other methods, can be extremely useful. Don’t spend all day flipping through flashcards though. That brings me to my final point.



Use it or lose it:



The most powerful learning method is to actually get out there and put what you’ve learned to use. Try to slip what you’ve learned into your conversations with Chinese people, and pay attention as you wander around. Listen to what other people are saying and read the signs around you.



Of course, this method only works if you’re living in China. If you’re not, your best bet is to communicate with a native speaker. You should already be working with a teacher, but if you’re not, I strongly encourage it. It will allow you to simulate being in China to some extent, as you’ll have someone you can talk to. Better yet, they’ll be able to give you feedback. Do a quick search for eChineseLearning, my language school, for additional resources that'll help you learn the language. You can even get a free Chinese lesson. You can add me on WeChat: AC_eChineseLearning.



Those are my suggestions! Good luck!

Answer 3

I have been studying Chinese for about 5 years and here is my advice. Certainly follow the tones as sometimes natives have trouble understanding a foreigner's tones. Something else I liked to do is carry flashcards everywhere I go. I eve use post it notes on everything around the house with the character on it. Get yourself a kids sketch board or a little whiteboard and practice writing. Good luck!

Answer 4

Just like learning English, learn Chinese also need some time and hard work. You should practice more, and speak more. Especially pay attention to pronunciation. Also, you can watch more Chinese movie and TV program. They can be a big help.

Answer 5

For listening and speaking, I will suggest that you can listen to more Chinese songs and follow the tunes. That's how I learn to speak Chinese. For writing it's really difficult, so I suggest to attend a Chinese school.

Answer 6

The study of the Chinese language opens the way to different important fields such as Chinese politics, economy, history or archaeology. But to study Chinese finally means to study a culture, a people. At the heart of Chinese civilization is its rich heritage of novels, short stories, poetry, drama, and, more recently, film. Mandarin is spoken in the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, The Philippines, and Mongolia.

Answer 7

I‘m a Chinese，my enlish is not good. just tell something i think of.

Even if I'm a Chinese,Chinese is not easy for me .

At first,i learn english just because i want to get a good job.

In China,every student have to study enlish.

many people learn enlish which they will never use in their rest of life.

but if you don't learn it,you can't go to college.

I often ask why we have to use the thing we don't need.

but one day,i found that i can get some imformation by it.

So I planed to learn Japanese.

after that,I found every people（when you are just a baby） understand a language by hearing the voice of other people. so ,listen first,then speak,and then write.

in my opnion,listening Chinese and speak Chinese and read Chinese are easy,but writing is difficult.

you must write each word over and over again.

Chinese words look like pictures,you can recognize each of them when you see it.

but it is difficult to draw it by your memory.

I have many thing i can say.but i don't know what you want to konw.

And i am still learning enlish,so i want make some friends who speak enlish.

Answer 8

Yes, the tones are crazy - I've been in China for 3 months and can finally hear them and speak a little. It will take years for me to become fluent...



But yes, the tone is the most important thing in the language really and also, the pinyin pronunciations are not quite like english - ang, eng, and ong all sound very familar.



On another note, for why to make sure you get the tones rights...



mai3 means "to buy"

mai4 means "to sell"



But yes, i would recommend practicing with someone that is very knowledgeable. I have only gotten better because I sit down with a local Chinese friend here (I'm about 4 hours outside of Shanghai) and I practice with him for about an hour every night...

Answer 9

1.) Listening/ Speaking- Listen to how they say things. The pitch is very important- a little lower or higher can have a complete different meaning and practice it too so people can understand.

2.) Writing- There's an order for which stroke goes first. Follow this order and then practice saying the word each time you write it so you can memorize more easily.

3.) Remembering- Write down each words/ phrase 10 times then repeat after yourself. Have flashcards ready and in the back with the definition and maybe the pinyin so you can have someone test your self.

4.) Other suggestions- Practice with someone. Maybe they can teach you more and maybe pen pals can help in reading/ writing.... possibly even having fun learning watch movies with subtitles or learning to sing a song in chinese



Anyways take care and have fun

Answer 10

The best way to improve speaking is to talk with native person. But there still have many methods, if you are a beginner, it's better to grasp the pinyin and essential Chinese characters. And you'd better to use tools, such as online resources, app, and flashcards.

Answer 11

As a Chinese, I would tell you primary school children will started with PIN YIN learning, it is helpful to remember pronounce of words, and the PIN YIN system is transformed from English alphabet, it is very easy for English native speakers. Any question you can E-mail me: [e-mail]

BTW: I m looking for someone who can have oral English practice with me, maybe we could help each other :-)

Answer 12

I am an Chinese want to learn English, i can teach you Chinese, but you teach me English. let's be friend together.

Answer 13

I can't add anything new but the 2 main dialects of Chinese language is Cantonese & Mandarin. Cantonese is much simpler to speak & can make a good stepping stone to speaking Mandarin. Although both use the same written language.



Mandarin uses up to 4 different tones to indicate context, moods. Which takes some getting used to.

Answer 14

Holy crap... Of all languages to study. Lol. If you're taking Mandarin then for Listening: Just make sure you catch the "tones". Be careful on how you interpret them. Spoken: Be CAREFUL how you SAY them. Giving them a different tone can sometimes give it a different meaning. Writing: Honestly, if you don't have a good memory, there's no way so just keep on practicing writing them over and over and over again. Make sure you follow written procedures. You have to start from top left to bottom right most of the times. Good luck. It's going to take a LOOOOOOOOOOONNNGGGG time... Oh yeah. It's supposed to take like....average six months to learn 500 words. So like 100 for all 50000 characters?

Answer 15

You dont need to learn chinese, every chinese can speak english, you'll there you'll know.

...just kidding, they scuk

Answer 16

Maybe you can learn it with a native Chinese e pal. That would be better.

And i think i can help you.

Answer 17

汉语不好学，放弃吧

Answer 18

hand out with native speaker

Answer 19

i'm from china, and i want to learn english well ,my english is terrible... maybe we can help each other?

Answer 20

You can ask for me help, What IM do you use? I think i can tell you my QQ

Answer 21

hah

Answer 22

i am chinese so u konw

Answer 23

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