| Facts Regarding the Chinese Language
By: David Stevens
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Today, the most standard form of Chinese that is spoken is known as Standard Mandarin or Mandarin Chinese, which is based on a dialect spoken in Beijing. It is also the official language now used by the people of China.
Now lets look closely at how to learn Mandarin Chinese either online or somewhere else. Most of the dialects now spoken by the Chinese people will often consist of words spoken by their ancestors, back when China was made up of various different ethnic groups. It was only after these groups had come together under the Chinese empire, did they start to unite the languages that they spoke. However, as the Chinese use a standard formal written language, no matter what dialect they speak, often people will regard these dialects as being equal. But in fact, they are like any other country, their own individuals; they just use a standardized form of writing. |
It was during the latter part of the 19th Century that Beijing Mandarin became the more standard form of Chinese language to be use. But it was at this time many Chinese did speak variations of Mandarin, though they were very limited.
However, things changed when the education system in China was based on Standard Mandarin, and was to be used as the language for carrying out instructions. Today, nearly every person in mainland China speaks Mandarin.
It is important to note that the various different dialects of spoken Chinese use tones. Some areas of China (in the North) will only use as many as 3 tones, while in Southern China, they can use between 6 or 10 tones as they speak.
When it comes to learning Chinese, the first thing anyone should do is learn Chinese Pinyin. It is this which contains the Chinese phonetic alphabets that are used to pronounce the Chinese characters. Also, learning Pinyin will help you to distinguish the 4 different tones that are used in the Chinese language.
You will need to spend time listening, as well as practicing, both simple Chinese sentences, as well as vocabulary, so that you can memorize it.
Below are some tips which should help you to achieve your goals :
a. If you are able to, take a local community Chinese class as well as carrying out practice drills with a study partner. The more you are able to speak the language, then the easier it will get.
b. Get yourself a good dictionary, and ensure it is one which has the right phonetic spellings of each word.
c. If you can, find someone whose native language is Chinese, and spend time with them conversing in their own language. There are a lot of Chinese students now coming to the US on exchange programs that would like to spend time with Americans learning English, and will in return provide Americans with chances to learn and speak Chinese.
d. Get hold of some tapes where you have to listen to, and then repeat out loud, what they have said. Also, try and get hold of some Chinese newspapers and magazines so that you can read what iscontained within out loud.
e. Sing some Chinese songs. Go to your local library, or purchase online some tapes, and then listen to them frequently until such time as you are able to speak the words and the sentences on your own.
f. It is important that you review all the other words you have learned previously on a regular basis so that they become fresh in your memory again.
Today, more and more people are looking to learn Mandarin online or at a Chinese language school in the Western hemisphere of the world. Up until about 10 years ago, it was proving to be extremely difficult to find someone who could teach others this language. |