The word for China in the Chinese language means ‘the middle kingdom.’ As this ancient civilization opens the doors of their borders to the outside world for trade and tourism, more and more people want to learn Chinese. Learning Chinese is the most important means of breaking down misunderstanding and open the doors of our personal borders to welcome someone foreign to us.
The benefits of learning Chinese
With China fast becoming the next world economic super power, learning Chinese can take you places; which can be great for travel, romance or your career. Having the ability to speak Chinese in the business world will give you a definite advantage. Learning the language can also enable you to teach Chinese in a foreign country or become a translator or interpreter.
The best way to learn Chinese
Learning Chinese in China is the best way; this is the fastest way to learn and the best way to make sure your pronunciation is clear and accurate. Whether you are learning Mandarin or Cantonese, foreign language learning in context is undoubtedly the most ideal. If you are unable to do this, it is still possible to learn the language outside of China.
Learning Chinese means learning one of the most difficult languages in the world for people from English speaking backgrounds. For people from Asian language speaking backgrounds, it will be easier. In my experience, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese people always learn Chinese much faster and their pronunciation was much clearer than their western counterparts. A different background means we need a different approach and strategy.
The easy parts of learning Chinese
Unlike European languages, Chinese has very few similarities with English, except for sentence order. Both English and Chinese sentence order is generally the same; sentence, verb and object. Grammar is one great aspect of the Chinese language. Chinese grammar is very simple, with no ‘a’, ‘the’ or changes in the verb with tenses, this is something that makes learning the language a little easier.
There are no gender specifics; both he and she have one pronunciation, nor are there words like 'actor' and 'actress'; just one word for both. There are few honorifics. Honorifics is language that uses different sets of words, phrases and meanings according to the social context and status of the person you are speaking to. These are the easy parts of learning the language.
The hard parts of learning Chinese
Chinese does not use a Roman alphabet based writing system and has no tenses and no plurals. The absence of tenses is one that is at first confusing for the new student learning the language, but after grasping the use of tense particles, this becomes easier. This means you add a word after the verb or at the end of a sentence to show the event has already happened.
The two most difficult aspects of learning Chinese for westerners are the tones and written characters. Both of these must be mastered to gain a deep understanding and a firm grasp on the language. The different tones are particularly important for pronunciation. There are five tones in Mandarin with one of these being the neutral tone and therefore relatively insignificant. For understandable pronunciation, these absolutely must be mastered and there is no short cut.
Because learning the language is difficult, many westerners think they will short cut the process by not learning Chinese characters. Learning the characters is vital and should not be avoided and will bring a much deeper understanding of the Chinese language. It also becomes easier to learn new words when you have a picture in your mind to hang them on. The potential to increase vocabulary is also gained when you attain fluency in reading.
Learning Chinese is worth it
With many companies promising unrealistically fast language-learning programs, make sure you don’t forget the basics of foreign language learning, which can be read here. The tips included in the linked article will ensure your time is not wasted. If its worth doing, its worth doing right. It's a long and worthwhile process, and I speak from experience.
Rhys Emmanuel - Living and doing development work as a medical professional in Asia has given me unique insight into many areas of life and work and a ...
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