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Chinese lessons online
Why Mandarin Chinese isn’t as difficult as you think
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First things first...• Where is this coming from?
• I’m a native speaker of English and Chinese
• Wanna shed a bit on learning Chinese
A (bigger) pic of me! :)(I’m from HK, btw)
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First things first...
• Address 2 main questions today, e.g.
• Why do people think Chinese is difficult?
• Any ways to make it easier to learn?
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Why Mandarin is hard
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Why Mandarin is hard
• The language isn’t hard
• Grammar is much simpler than English
• Very predictable rules
• Few exceptions too! (e.g. spelling, conjugations, phrasal verbs, etc. A LOT to learn here)
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Why Mandarin is hard
• So why do people think it is?
• 3 reasons, really
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Why Mandarin is hard
• Reason 1: Characters
• The most complex writing system across all languages
• Every character is unique
• More than 100,000 characters
• English only has 26!
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Why Mandarin is hard
• Reason 2: Literature
• Literary flair
• Study a year of Chinese - still find Chinese newspapers difficult to read
• Study half a year of English, you’re breezing through English newspapers
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Why Mandarin is hard• Chinese novels are ridiculously difficult
to read
• Intricate shades of meaning impossible to derive unless you are taught or native
• Lots of cultural inferences that confuse even native speakers
• With English, you can derive meaning of imagery, plot, characters bit by bit and build up
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Why Mandarin is hard
• Reason 3: Writing
• Question at hand isn’t difficulty...
• ...but one of standards
• Chinese writing = grossly higher standards than English
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Why Mandarin is hard• Chinese people are perfectionists here
• Not only does it have to be technically correct
• Can’t use substitution as in English (e.g. He’s really nice - just replace nice with decent to give variety) - descriptors + nouns are fixed
• Also have to be rhythmic (i.e. it sounds structured, e.g. Part A; Part B. The structure of these have to be symmetric.)
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Why Mandarin isn’t hard
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Debunking these myths• Reason 1: Characters system
• Biggest debunker...scope!
• 100k words in existence...do you need ‘em all?
• Probably not...
• So how many?
• Only 1,200 words!
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Debunking these myths• Reason 2: Literature
• It takes a while longer to understand newspapers
• But why?
• Not to do with a lack of technical proficiency, but cultural discrepancies
• True that learning curve is steeper, but only in the beginning
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Debunking these myths
• Literature, poems, archaic Chinese is very difficult to decode + almost like learning Chinese v2.0
• But do you need it?
• Probably not...okay to skip it and come back to it if interested
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Debunking these myths
• Reason 3: Writing
• Practice makes perfect
• Isn’t that how you learnt English writing as well?
• Always the most difficult aspect of any language
• Because it takes time
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Debunking these myths• Ask yourself - what proficiency do you need?
• Emails / SMS (friends) - pretty easy
• Technical reports (business / job) - fairly easy
• Newspaper / magazine / editorial reviews - moderate difficulty
• Novelist - very tough
• Write in archaic Chinese - reserved for the erudite folks
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Ways to make Mandarin easier
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Making Mandarin easier
• These might sound strange, but I think you need these
• (1) Understanding of structure
• (2) A plan
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Making Mandarin easier
• What’s structure?
• How the language works, i.e.
• (1) The pinyin system
• (2) Basic grammar counterparts (to your native language)
• (3) Stroke order
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Making Mandarin easier
• (4) Radicals (positioning and meaning)
• (5) Functional vocabulary
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Making Mandarin easier• As you can see, I advocate a spoken
based strategy
• I order the four “pillars” of language this way
• Speaking
• Listening
• Reading
• Writing
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Making Mandarin easier
• A plan?
• Be very realistic about how much time you have each day
• Be consistent
• Best if you have a tutor / course to guide you through
• Example on next slide
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Month Goals Tasks
1 PinyinMaster all 400 sounds of
pinyin
2Strokes + radicals
Learn 12 strokes, 10 stroke rules, and 40 most commonly
used radicals
3Basic
grammar
Learn 15 Chinese grammar points + compare to English
4Basic
grammarLearn 15 more Chinese
grammar points
5Common
expressionsLearn 2 - 3 phrases a day
6 VocabularyStart reading to increase
vocabulary
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Making Mandarin easier
• Do I recommend a tutor?
• Yes...and no
• Yes for when you’re more advanced
• Great to get real time, instant feedback
• More fun!
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Making Mandarin easier
• No because...
• The problem isn’t in the idea...it’s in finding a compatible one
• Great Chinese + Bad English?
• Great English + Bad Chinese?
• Great Chinese + English + bad attitude?
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Making Mandarin easier
• Bilingual + doesn’t know how to teach?
• Chinese + English + bad pronunciation?
• ...you get the idea.
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Making Mandarin easier
• Seen LOTS of those
• Not to be perfect, but difficult to find a good tutor.
• Main reason is because Chinese culture is fundamentally very different to Western culture
• Difficult to establish equal grounds
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Making Mandarin easier
• Learning by yourself?
• I recommend this for the basics (beginners to intermediate)
• Cover a LOT more ground on your own (basics are always easy to grasp and very little room for error)
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Making Mandarin easier
• What about resources?
• I recommend online, but feel free to stick to books if you like the tangible feel better!
• Click below to read my review of Rocket Chinese, an online Chinese course - I’ve posted a video demo + video review + textual review
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Conclusion
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Conclusion
• Mandarin isn’t difficult to learn
• If you aren’t aiming to be the next Du Fu of China
• If you’re looking to use Chinese to make friends
• If you’re looking to talk in Chinese in daily social situations
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For more tips on Chinese culture, learning and my recommended resources, please visit
http://rocket-chinese-review.com/
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谢谢!(Thanks!)