Introduction:
Is learning Chinese useful to non-natives? If yes, in what ways?
China is one of the most spoken languages in the world. It belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages. It is also one of the most sought-after languages in the world since knowing the language opens doors to many areas or opportunities of career for one. One can be an interpreter, translator, transcriber, Chinese language professor or instructor, international product launch strategist, marketer, advertiser, government’s foreign affairs department executive, a company’s foreign delegate, a country’s representative to international organizations, defense or security personnel, etc.
Is learning Chinese possible and also easy for a non-native individual?
Learning Chinese is possible for one at any age and/or at any stage of life. There is no hard and fast rule regarding when to learn Chinese, nor is there a fixed single way to learn the Chinese language. There are many ways which one can use to learn the language.
Things to keep in mind
Learn Chinese characters:
Chinese characters are also called Hanzi. They are logograms developed for writing in the Chinese script. There are tens of thousands of Chinese characters. It is not easy to tell exactly what the total number of these characters is. One should be able to understand at least about five thousand of these characters to be able to read a simple piece of writing. These characters are mostly contextual in nature, that is, their meanings can be derived only when they come in combination with other characters.
Learn Chinese phonetics to understand the sound of characters
Understanding the sounds of characters is very important to know how a word is pronounced correctly in the Chinese language. One can use online search tools to find the sounds.
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Use (Another language – Chinese) dictionary
Using a dictionary is an excellent way to learn a new language. It is, but, important that one chooses the right dictionary to develop one’s Chinese vocabulary. (A known language to Chinese) the dictionary will prove to be of immense help if one wishes to learn the meanings of basic Chinese words.
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Get acquainted with the concepts in Chinese grammar
One needs to understand and accept the fact that every language has different grammar rules. One cannot, literally, translate everything from one language to another, or it can lead to translation disasters. It is, therefore, important to learn the grammar of any language thoroughly before one begins to communicate in the language.
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Check translation tools for single words
Translation tools available online can be used to translate or learn single words in Chinese. One should not rely only on these tools for translation of a complete piece of writing, without knowing the basics of the language and its grammar concepts, but one can definitely know what a single word is spoken as in Chinese, with the help of these tools.
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Get books to learn Chinese
Many books are easily available for learning Chinese right from its basic levels up to the advanced levels. These books vary from books for learning beginners’ Chinese, basic level Chinese, intermediate level Chinese, advanced-level Chinese, Chinese for all, etc.
Books for beginners also have pictures, symbols, etc. to make it easy for the novices to understand the meanings of words quickly.
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Use online language learning apps
Online language learning apps use interesting ways such as daily quizzes, short lessons, and online tests to teach languages. Learning Chinese is not just possible, but is also fun by using these apps.
After seeing the above ways to learn Chinese, we shall now take a look at the easiest way to learn the language. To benefit more from the above methods, one should enroll in an excellent and reliable online Chinese learning course. Learning Chinese Online has the following benefits:
- It is time-saving in the sense that one need not spend any additional time commuting to attend physical classroom training or to visit a conventional language training institute.
- It is money-saving as well, as one does not need to spend one’s hard-earned income for traveling or commuting to any place to learn Chinese.
- Audio-visual online Chinese learning sessions allow face–to–face interaction between a student and an instructor, facilitating real-time communication, and the clearing of doubts or queries, if any, right during the sessions.
Last, but not the least, one can choose timings convenient for taking these sessions as per one’s schedule.