Why Am I Writing This?
I've long been learning Mandarin ever since I was a kid. But to be raised in the language environment I have been in, I wouldn't consider myself to be a native speaker of the Chinese language. Even today, I find it challenging to converse very fluently with the Chinese from China. I've found that I still frequently include some English expressions that I simply cannot explain in Chinese without stopping the conversation. However, my exposure to Chinese continues to be good as I majored in Chinese in university and I've been giving lessons to numerous people for a fair few years.
Since the time when I finished college, I have come to believe that to succeed in learn Chinese, one would need passion, as well as proper coaching and the right learning tools. I have my own unique philosophy and pedagogy about how to go about learning the Chinese language. I always get very annoyed when I read on the newspaper on how the schools in my country is going about teaching Chinese to young children, because they are doing it in the wrong way and missing some key aspects in imparting the language and learning skills.
Therefore, I find that I have to write something to enable others to pick up on the proper concepts about the Chinese language so that they can excel.
The Relationship Between Chinese Sounds, Characters and their Meanings
Most non native speakers who ever tried learning Chinese or are currently learning Chinese never fail to complain that Chinese is a very difficult language to learn. These people often concentrate on mastering Chinese in the spoken form.
However, they don't realize that due to the language's linguistic features, there exist a very close relationship between Chinese sounds, Chinese characters and their relevant meanings. When we chose to ignore learning the form and the meaning so that we can tackle the speaking part more efficiently, we actually are increasing the difficulty for ourselves. Let me explain, Chinese sound variants are very limited, and so the language turns to its symbols to encode the various different meanings, or semantics in the language. The result is that one sound, including its tone, can actually mean many, many things. For example: ji1 (first tone of the pronunciation "ji" in Chinese pinyin) can mean "small table", "hit", "chicken", "accumulate" to name a few. How do we know what someone is referring to when we hear the sound? We do this by learning the Chinese characters when we learn the corresponding pronunciation. When put into context, we would be able to call to our minds just what "ji" refers to. Do note that if we mispronounced the first tone into a 2nd tone, we would actually be meaning another set of very different things.
I continue to request students or beginners to put into memory the fundamentals of Chinese pinyin rules, grammar and word order, as well as how the general guidelines are for writing Chinese characters. It's just impossible to master Chinese without memory work, through creative teaching or creative learning, whatever they call it nowadays.
Beginners learning the Chinese language often could not understand why the characters that they have mastered could turn out to mean very different things when stringed together with other just as familiar characters, especially when these characters happen to show up so frequently.
I always emphasize that you need to learn the basic meanings of each character you come across, so that you will find it easier to learn the compound words when characters come together. It is just not possible to remember every combination of different characters. Native Chinese speakers don't learn it that way, and neither should you. Master the fundamental meanings of each character and everything will come easier in the future.
There will definitely be words that we cannot guess from the characters that form the word, but the number of those words are not large. There are actually many fundamental meanings to every Chinese character, and the more we understand, the easier it will become. It is actually doable, so long as you persevere in your learning and practice of the language.
Next, to actually using the stuff you learn. My take is simple, which is to try to engage as many of your senses as possible, exposing them to all things Chinese, and then creating links and relationships between concepts, forms, sounds, grammar and images. My brain remembers better when it takes in more information. Sounds unbelievable? Try making up ten things you have done from the morning till the evening, then try saying them out backwards. Try the exercise again, only that this time round the ten things should be really stuffs you experienced. You will find that the latter is easier. That's because made up stuff are just like memorizing Chinese vocabulary, they are only words and concepts in your mind, like the stuff you made up in your mind. However, experiences engage with your whole being. You see, you hear, you touch, you remember when you thought about at that moment, you listen, and all these come together to form a strong linkage in your mind, so you don't forget easily. Learning and using Chinese is the same, you have to use it, listen to it and see the images relevant to the word to experience its use in different contexts.
How to Keep the Fire Burning
There will be a portion of those who started out learning the language, who will surrender before mastering Chinese. These people sometimes will find fault with the language so that they can feel better about giving up.
Motivation is crucial to maintain our passion in learning and it also adds fun to learning. Steve Kaufman, who have till date mastered ten languages, would tell you that the only way to keep yourself interested in language learning, is to continue to find reading materials that are interesting to you.
Steve Kaufman maintains that interesting articles would push us to continue learning just so we can finish reading whatever we have set out to finish. Two other similar examples are people who learned korean and Japanese because they fell in love with Korean TV variety shows and Japanese anime cartoons.
Other ways to keep ourselves motivated is by tracking our own progress and uncovering what other aspect of the language and culture makes us tick. If it's movies, TV shows and music videos, then we can always use them as learning resources and pushing factors to find out more about Chinese.
Resources and Tools
You need the right tools to get the right job done, and done well. The same can be said for Chinese language learning.
Get yourself the essential learning tools such as dictionaries or learning softwares. You would probably also need audio tapes for practices in pronunciation and listening. Also get yourself a book on Chinese characters. All in all, do read up the Chinese culture as well, and ensure that all topics that frequently come in handy are learned. Once done, take action and start learning!
I've long been learning Mandarin ever since I was a kid. But to be raised in the language environment I have been in, I wouldn't consider myself to be a native speaker of the Chinese language. Even today, I find it challenging to converse very fluently with the Chinese from China. I've found that I still frequently include some English expressions that I simply cannot explain in Chinese without stopping the conversation. However, my exposure to Chinese continues to be good as I majored in Chinese in university and I've been giving lessons to numerous people for a fair few years.
Since the time when I finished college, I have come to believe that to succeed in learn Chinese, one would need passion, as well as proper coaching and the right learning tools. I have my own unique philosophy and pedagogy about how to go about learning the Chinese language. I always get very annoyed when I read on the newspaper on how the schools in my country is going about teaching Chinese to young children, because they are doing it in the wrong way and missing some key aspects in imparting the language and learning skills.
Therefore, I find that I have to write something to enable others to pick up on the proper concepts about the Chinese language so that they can excel.
The Relationship Between Chinese Sounds, Characters and their Meanings
Most non native speakers who ever tried learning Chinese or are currently learning Chinese never fail to complain that Chinese is a very difficult language to learn. These people often concentrate on mastering Chinese in the spoken form.
However, they don't realize that due to the language's linguistic features, there exist a very close relationship between Chinese sounds, Chinese characters and their relevant meanings. When we chose to ignore learning the form and the meaning so that we can tackle the speaking part more efficiently, we actually are increasing the difficulty for ourselves. Let me explain, Chinese sound variants are very limited, and so the language turns to its symbols to encode the various different meanings, or semantics in the language. The result is that one sound, including its tone, can actually mean many, many things. For example: ji1 (first tone of the pronunciation "ji" in Chinese pinyin) can mean "small table", "hit", "chicken", "accumulate" to name a few. How do we know what someone is referring to when we hear the sound? We do this by learning the Chinese characters when we learn the corresponding pronunciation. When put into context, we would be able to call to our minds just what "ji" refers to. Do note that if we mispronounced the first tone into a 2nd tone, we would actually be meaning another set of very different things.
I continue to request students or beginners to put into memory the fundamentals of Chinese pinyin rules, grammar and word order, as well as how the general guidelines are for writing Chinese characters. It's just impossible to master Chinese without memory work, through creative teaching or creative learning, whatever they call it nowadays.
Beginners learning the Chinese language often could not understand why the characters that they have mastered could turn out to mean very different things when stringed together with other just as familiar characters, especially when these characters happen to show up so frequently.
I always emphasize that you need to learn the basic meanings of each character you come across, so that you will find it easier to learn the compound words when characters come together. It is just not possible to remember every combination of different characters. Native Chinese speakers don't learn it that way, and neither should you. Master the fundamental meanings of each character and everything will come easier in the future.
There will definitely be words that we cannot guess from the characters that form the word, but the number of those words are not large. There are actually many fundamental meanings to every Chinese character, and the more we understand, the easier it will become. It is actually doable, so long as you persevere in your learning and practice of the language.
Next, to actually using the stuff you learn. My take is simple, which is to try to engage as many of your senses as possible, exposing them to all things Chinese, and then creating links and relationships between concepts, forms, sounds, grammar and images. My brain remembers better when it takes in more information. Sounds unbelievable? Try making up ten things you have done from the morning till the evening, then try saying them out backwards. Try the exercise again, only that this time round the ten things should be really stuffs you experienced. You will find that the latter is easier. That's because made up stuff are just like memorizing Chinese vocabulary, they are only words and concepts in your mind, like the stuff you made up in your mind. However, experiences engage with your whole being. You see, you hear, you touch, you remember when you thought about at that moment, you listen, and all these come together to form a strong linkage in your mind, so you don't forget easily. Learning and using Chinese is the same, you have to use it, listen to it and see the images relevant to the word to experience its use in different contexts.
How to Keep the Fire Burning
There will be a portion of those who started out learning the language, who will surrender before mastering Chinese. These people sometimes will find fault with the language so that they can feel better about giving up.
Motivation is crucial to maintain our passion in learning and it also adds fun to learning. Steve Kaufman, who have till date mastered ten languages, would tell you that the only way to keep yourself interested in language learning, is to continue to find reading materials that are interesting to you.
Steve Kaufman maintains that interesting articles would push us to continue learning just so we can finish reading whatever we have set out to finish. Two other similar examples are people who learned korean and Japanese because they fell in love with Korean TV variety shows and Japanese anime cartoons.
Other ways to keep ourselves motivated is by tracking our own progress and uncovering what other aspect of the language and culture makes us tick. If it's movies, TV shows and music videos, then we can always use them as learning resources and pushing factors to find out more about Chinese.
Resources and Tools
You need the right tools to get the right job done, and done well. The same can be said for Chinese language learning.
Get yourself the essential learning tools such as dictionaries or learning softwares. You would probably also need audio tapes for practices in pronunciation and listening. Also get yourself a book on Chinese characters. All in all, do read up the Chinese culture as well, and ensure that all topics that frequently come in handy are learned. Once done, take action and start learning!
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