Many of us must have heard that the Chinese language is the hardest language. Credit goes to its writing system, which at first is something which you have not seen before. Moreover, the words which sound in some peculiar way, and absolutely and entirely different from your native language. I guess, anyone who is planning to learn Chinese, would feel the same way. But don’t feel intimidated thinking of these as difficulty while learning Chinese. If you give a profound attempt, you will understand that learning Chinese is easier than expected. All Chinese characters are made up of the same collection of elements which are known as radicals. Once you are acquainted with a few radical categories, they stop looking so weird to you and start to make more sense and meaning.

 

Yes, learning any language could be hard. It’s a difficult and time-consuming task to get yourself immersed in the vocabulary, grammar, and culture of any desired foreign world which is entirely different from yours. But, it’s also one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do by learning it. How about taking it the way that you get to communicate with almost a billion people. Isn’t it nice?

 

Now when you are convinced enough to take up learning the Chinese language but bewildered about where to start from? Let Multibhashi show you the way how to get started learning Chinese at home. Here we go…

Mastering the Tones:

 

Chinese is, as many of us know, a tonal language.  There are four tones in the Chinese language: one flat, one rising, one that falls and then rises, and one falling. In the Chinese language the tone, how you use, to say the word completely changes the meaning, and it may go to the point where a lot of times, especially with no context, Chinese people have no idea of what you’re saying if you say the word in the wrong tonal way. In the beginning, when the thought of different tones does not come and all intonations seem to sound exactly the same. So it’s highly recommended to hear the different tones demonstrated by a Chinese native speaker, else it’s hard to get an idea of what they sound like purely. So, instead of studying and analyzing the tones first, start the process by listening to them. Then start by mimicking words and short sentences what you hear. Imagine it as listening to a beautiful song and then repeating back only the melody. Learn one tone at a time to avoid yourself from getting confused.

 

Learn Pinyin System:

 

Pinyin, the Romanization of the Chinese characters, is basically the alphabet for the Chinese language. Pinyin can assist you to reinforce your memory as it emphasizes the pronunciation of certain phrases. It will also help you to type out Chinese words and look up phrases you don’t know. The important thing you have to remember when reading Chinese pinyin is that it’s not just new sounds that is required to be learnt. You also have to read which tone the character has by seeing the tone mark it has placed above the character.

 

Work on Chinese Pronunciation:

 

The popular Chinese phonetic system, pinyin is extremely helpful. Learning pinyin can be tricky and tough, however most letters you will encounter sound very similar to their English counterpart. The new sounds you will have to learn which include: “h”, “x”, “q”, “j”, “r”, and “ü”. There are other letter combinations too you would want to learn, including “zh”, “ch”, and “sh”. Every Chinese character is pronounced as one syllable. The best part is that there are not as many sounds in Chinese as in some other languages. When you start learning to speak the Chinese language, I suggest learning Pinyin. Each syllable or character can be written out, with a little accent above the letters to indicate which tone it refers to, i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th tone. 

 

Focus on Vocabulary: 

 

Associating words with some context is a great aid to remembering them and in particular how and when they are used. Try to take your time out for writing down the new words with the goal to learn and retain them. Once you feel confident enough about vocabulary, then try to apply those vocabularies and practice more often. It will help you in using Chinese vocabulary convincingly.

 

Counting Matters:

 

Once you have learned the first ten numbers then you will be able to count till number ninety-nine. The lower numbers in Chinese are quite straightforward to learn. 

 

• One: written as (一) or yī, pronounced [eee]
• Two: written as (二) or èr, pronounced [err]
• Three: written as (三) or sān, pronounced [saan]
• Four: written as (四) or sì, pronounced [ssuh]
• Five: written as (五) or wǔ, pronounced [oo]
• Six: written as (六) or liù, pronounced [lee-yoe]
• Seven: written as (七) or qī, pronounced [chi]
• Eight: written as (八) or bā, pronounced [baa]
• Nine: written as (九) or jiǔ, pronounced [jee-yoe]
• Ten: written as (十) or shí, pronounced [sh]

 

So, once this is learned, one will be able to say numbers in two digits by following the simple rule. For example, for calling number 38 in Chinese by saying the number in the tens position, then the word 十, followed by the number in the one’s position. The number 38 is written as sān shí bā (三十八)

Learning Chinese can be more fun, provided we have correct and relevant information. To get more insight, get connected with the team of Multibhashi, which is a one-stop solution for all your learning requirements.

 

Happy learning!