Mandarin ChineseAn Intro to Mandarin Chinese, how to learn it and demystifying some concepts

What is Mandarin?• Mandarin is the official standard language of China

(based on northern dialects)

• However, there are several Chinese dialects, mostly spoken in the southern part of China:– Cantonese (Hong Kong, Guangdong, Guangxi)– Hakka, Minnanhua (Fujian), Xiang (Hunnan), Wu (Shanghai,

Zhejiang)– In spoken form, they are often mutually unintelligible, but

they use the same form of writing

• Names for the Chinese language:– 汉语 Hànyŭ 中文 Zhōngwén 普通话 Pŭtōnghuà

Why Learn Mandarin?• Gain competitive advantage professionally• Doing business in China could get easier

with some Mandarin• You could be eligible to apply for some

scholarships in China• You could take classes in universities in

China • Your travels to China will be much easier

after mastering Mandarin

Is Mandarin one of the hardest languages to learn?

• First, certainly, the Chinese are not smarter than other people in the world, nor other people in the world are less smart than the Chinese, so Mandarin is neither harder nor easier than other languages.

• Second, Mandarin is very different from the English language, but not “harder” than the English language. Choosing the right method is the most important aspect to learn Mandarin well and easily.

The easy part• Mandarin has very little grammar to learn,

and has no verb conjugation• You only need to know how to pronounce

400 syllables and 1200 and you can pronounce every word in Mandarin

• You need to learn less vocabulary in the language to read, than you would need in English, for example. In English, you need to know 4000 syllables to pronounce every word in English.

A French verb versus a Chinese verb

去 qù

What is different in Chinese?• Particles or sentence patterns to express tenses

– 了 le used after the verb to express completion or past– 过 guo used after the verb to express past experience– 快要。。。了 kuài yào … le construction to express something

which is going to happen in the near future– There are many other fixed structures which never change, and

practicing these grammar drills with a teacher will do the trick!

• ‘Measure words’ (or ‘Classifiers’)– In English, some measure words exists such as ‘a cup of tea’ , ‘a

pair of jeans’, ‘a pinch of salt’, ….– In Chinese, every word has such measure word

• 个 gè: generic measure words, can be used whenever you don’t know

• 张 zhāng: for flat objects (e.g. sheet of paper, a table, …)• 座 zuò: for big heavy objects (e.g. a building, a mountain, …)

The hard part• It’s different. Mandarin tones take time to master.• Character recognition, if you have never studied

a language with characters, will take some time to get used to it.

• Different from English where people can learn by watching movies, it is hard to learn Mandarin alone without a native speaker because of the tones and subtlety of tone changes.

• Sometimes one can figure out the meaning of the character, but not know the pronunciation.

The 4 tones of Mandarin

Mandarin actually has a 5th tone, the so-called neutral tonee.g. Xièxie māma second syllable is pronounced short and soft

Do tones matter? YES & NO

• Yes!– Because a different tone will imply a different meaning

• Mā 妈 = mother Māma, usually bisyllabic• Má 麻 = hemp Dàmá : marijuana• Mă 马 = horse usually monosyllabic• Mà 骂 = to scold as a verb, will be preceded by subject

and following by direct object• No!

– In basic communication, the context and the grammatical function will usually make clear what is meant, even if the tone is not pronounced accurately

• Make sure you know the tone of each character, but don’t worry about mistakes in the beginning. The feeling for the melody will come step by step.

Fun Fact• Some Chinese do not even know for

sure which tone is right because they might be from a region that does not speak Standard Chinese

• Only 7% Chinese speak relatively standard mandarin. (98 million out of the 1.4 billion Chinese) and only a very small amount of this 7% are professional teachers.

How to best learn the tones?

• With a trained native and certified teacher that has very good pronunciation

Chinese Characters• With all technologies that exist today, students

need to learn character recognition, not handwriting. Nowadays, in China, only clerks and calligraphers need to study and be proficient in character handwriting, so do not worry about this issue.

• Due to the rise of word processors the writing task can be separated into the three tasks: typing using Pinyin recognition, typing using stroke order, and handwriting Chinese characters using pen and paper.

Chinese Writing• Although Mandarin is standardized in

spoken form, there are 2 different ways of writing it

• Simplified characters: – Used in Mainland China– Introduced in 1956 to facilitate literacy

since it reduced number of strokes of characters

• Traditional characters:– Are still used in Taiwan, HK and Macao

Examples from traditional to simplified writing

車 → 车觀 → 观麗 → 丽陽 → 阳 陰 → 阴 Much simpler, no?

How many Chinese characters should you learn?

Let’s take newspaper reading, for example:– With only 900 characters, you can read 90% of

newspapers!– With 2500 characters you can read 97.97 % (2500 for

HSK6)

Chinese Characters Can be Easy

• Some characters are pictographic• You can learn radicals and the

radicals can give you a clue to the meaning of the character

Months and Days of the week一月 yīyuè 七月 qīyuè二月 èryuè 八月 bāyuè三月 sānyuè 九月 jiŭyuè四月 sìyuè 十月 shíyuè五月 wŭyuè 十一月 shíyīyuè六月 liùyuè 十二月 shíèryuè

January JulyFebruary AugustMarch SeptemberApril OctoberMayNovemberJune December

Monday FridayTuesdaySaturdayWednesday SundayThursday

星期一 xīngqīyī 星期五 xīngqīwŭ星期二 xīngqīèr 星期六xīngqīliù星期三 xīngqīsān 星期天 xīngqītiān星期四 xīngqīsì

• Once you learn how to can count until 10, you just need to learn the words for week, month and heaven and you will know how to speak all months and days of the week as well!

Can be confusingSome characters have multiple pronunciation. Some characters mean different things. However, with time, you will understand the difference based on context.

How many hours of study do I need to take to study in order to

be able to work in China?• A total of 500 hours to learn 3000

words is enough to become almost fluent. These 500 hours could be finished in 2 years of dedicated study. If you are trained properly and disciplined about studying, you can even reach a higher level in a shorter period.

• In any method used, making a study plan is the best idea.

A Note for Beginners• Separate learning Spoken to Written

Chinese– Learn to speak those words that are used regularly in

daily life, but don’t worry about the characters (yet)• Xièxie = thank you ! quite easy to say• 谢谢 hard to write if this is one of your first

characters, don’t force yourself ! Learn the components first

– Learn to recognize and write simple characters first, even if they are not commonly used in speech• 口 kŏu = mouth easy to write, also radical in many

other characters, but rarely used as a word in conversation

• 木 mù = wood same as above, it is a common radical

More Notes for Beginners

Make up stories about characters to memorize them 楼 lóu: building is a construction of wood (木） where a woman （女） is cooking rice （米）

Use Chinese whenever and wherever you can, even if you feel you are using the same words over and over again

Don’t worry about tonal mistakes in the beginning, but always make sure you know the tone of each syllable

Read aloud whenever you read something

At the beginning level, studying Chinese is like walking on marsh. If you are too slow or stopping often, you will sink into the mud. So, go fast early!

mmMandarinFor more tips on how to learn

Mandarin, visit: www.mmMandarin.com