As a new teacher in Chinese language, in addition to hello, thanks for the daily life dialogue, is it necessary for Chinese characters to beginners? What textbooks are recommended? Where should I start? How do I arrange the courses? How to teach Chinese for beginners?

Teach Chinese is difficult?

In general, a teacher in Chinese a formalized thing, like McDonald’s making hamburgers, we do not really know what to cook, but the taste is still good.

We can say that teacher in Chinese is difficult. Because the student is like a blank sheet of paper, while we need to build their system of Chinese language. That’s include of phonetics, vocabulary, grammar and Chinese characters. At the same time, as teachers, we should also raise students’ interest in learning; explain the sequence of grammar, and choose what textbooks to learning, so there is a lot of things to do.

But we also think the teacher in Chinese is easy because we have studied through the system of education for beginner teaching. Therefore in general as long as the simple training, beginner course almost all have no problem for a new teacher.

What to teach?

In general, the following material includes the most common life scenes, if we want to learn the next 50 to 60 hours, the material is similar, but the discussion content is deepening, vocabulary, grammatical difficulty also increased.

1, Pinyin is critical, and the foundation must be played well. Otherwise, the students may give up their learning.

2, The text is practical first.

3, Grammar still has to teach, but pay attention to want to practice repeatedly, also must put in some real scene to using.

4, Chinese characters are not the critical point, we can give up directly if the students are not interested.

Those are some key points to teacher in Chinese for. That is to the teacher in Chinese, otherwise as a new learner also could find many learning skills and tricks. We infuse that the pronunciation is very very important for Chinese learner, especially for beginners. Try most of the time to practice the pronunciation and practice with these teachers who can speak the mandarin well. Generally, they should have the certification of standard mandarin testing.

Who is the professional teacher in Chinese?

If we are a beginner in Chinese learning, we had to choose a professional teacher in Chinese, so that our study will be more effective. At the same time, before we study, we should also clarify our learning objectives. In general, these learning objectives are:

1. if we just want to learn some spoken Chinese and know some basic Chinese knowledge. We can find a language partner and exchange languages with each other.

A) Pros: No cost, very flexible learning time, make some friends.

B) Cons: There is no learning method, the learning effect is not high, and it is likely to give up.

2. To achieve a certain level of Chinese, there are clear learning goals, such as basic 100 dialogues in Chinese. It is necessary to find a teacher with some tutor experience teacher, the teacher lack professional skills but full of enthusiasm.

A) Pros: We have short-term goals and achieve part of targets, the cost is cheap

B) Cons: There are all kinds of difficulties that can be encountered in a step-by-step learning process, and it is likely to learn more and more difficult.

3. The purpose of learning is very clear. We have found some materials before learning and even know some basic Chinese knowledge. This requires professional teacher in Chinese to provide learning methods, learning materials and medium, long-term learning plans.

A) Pros: With clear goals, it is easiest to achieve learning results, and it is most helpful for systematic learn Chinese.

B) Cons: It is not easy to find suitable professional teachers, the cost is higher.

There are three types of the teacher in Chinese to choose from.

1, Language partner, because it is a partner, so it is more casual, the teacher is a Chinese native, but not necessarily good learning method. Because the learning goal is to know some basic Chinese, so long as the teacher is stable, Chinese pronunciation standard, foreign language fluency will be ok.

2. Some teachers with Chinese teaching experience may not have received professional training, but they have a better understanding of Chinese teaching, but there is no good teaching skill.

We hope that this kind of teacher will be stable, responsible, enthusiastic, mandarin pronunciation standard, and can find ways to solve the needs of Chinese learners.

3. The third type of teacher in Chinese is a professional teacher in Chinese. It is not easy for us to judge the level of such teachers, and we are sorry to ask for certificates. So in general, we look for these teachers through third-party platforms. Teaching Chinese is not difficult while teaching Chinese well is not easy. In addition to requiring such teachers to have professional knowledge and qualifications, we can also judge the level of the teacher from the following points.

1) in class, there are few foreign languages used, and Chinese teaching has methods. It is not necessary to explain the Chinese in a foreign language. If the teacher uses many foreign languages to explain Chinese, it means that the teacher has not enough Chinese teaching skills, she is just a good translator but not a teacher.

2) the classroom atmosphere is pleasant, and the teacher will often use interesting examples to make the class atmosphere lively. This shows that the teacher has abundant teaching experience, besides theoretical knowledge, she also knows how to skillfully apply this theoretical knowledge to the actual classroom.

3) be patient. It shows that the teacher knows all levels of students and knows how to guide the students to learn.

4) learning content is close to life. It shows that the teacher has prepared before the lesson and designed the learning content and lesson time in advance. This can best reflect the quality of professional teachers.

5) proper dress, professional teachers will care about their teachers’ image and will not dress casually.

6) whether to know the culture of some students’ country is also the basic requirement of professional teachers.

7) in short, the more professional teachers are, the more they know how to make students learn easier.

Used by the Han people in China, the Chinese language has a long history, having established a fairly mature written language more than 3 000 years ago.

The Chinese language has more than 1.2 billion users and can be regarded as the one spoken by the greatest number of persons. In addition to China, some people in Singapore and Malaysia also use Chinese and millions of overseas Chinese and foreign citizens of Chinese origin distributed around the world use various Chinese dialects as a native language.

The Chinese language is the main language used by Chinese, also one of the working languages of the United Nations. The standard language of Chinese is Putonghua (Mandarin) (which is called Guoyu (national language) in Taiwan area). It is called Huayu (Chinese language) in Singapore and Malaysia. Mandarin has the Beijing pronunciation as its standard pronunciation, the northern dialect as its basic dialect, and the typical modern vernacular Chinese as its grammatical standard. Mandarin offers convenience for communication between people in different areas or of different ethnic groups in China.

China has a vast territory and a large population. Even though people all use the Chinese language, they speak in different ways in different areas, which are called dialects. Generally called local languages, dialects are branches of the Chinese language and are only used in certain areas. At present, the Chinese language has seven dialects: the northern dialect, the Wu dialect, the Xiang dialect, the Gan dialect, the Hakka, the Min dialect and the Yue or Guangdong dialect. Among them, the northern dialect is used most widely. The Hakka, the Fujian dialect, and the Guangdong dialect are also used by overseas Chinese.

The dialects of the Chinese language are very complicated. Various dialects differ from each other in three aspects: pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. And the difference in pronunciation is the most outstanding. There is a saying in the coastal areas of southeastern China: Pronunciations differ within  5km area. If all people in different areas speak in local dialects, it will lead to the trouble in communications.

The Chinese people had realized very early that a common language should be used in social intercourse. Compared with dialects differing within 10-li area, mandarin can be understood by all people. Since it is beneficial for cultural exchange and information transmission between ethnic groups and people in different places, the Chinese Government attaches great importance to popularizing mandarin and encourages people to learn it.

With the fast improvement of the worldwide economy, sustenance culture is fundamental for the human. The need for fragile sustenance is requesting. Chinese eating regimen is significant. Chinese nourishment fronts a few issues, one of which is English interpretation. In this paper, the creator means to discover the guidelines of Chinese dishes translation which impact the interpretation of Chinese courses and finish up the interpretation techniques. In modernized China, interpreters ought to enhance the nature of Chinese nourishment deciphering in light of Chinese and western sustenance distinction.

1. Presentation

With numerous incredible Chinese accomplishments, many outsiders start to focus on Chinese culture, completely including nourishment dish. Nourishment dish is the aggregate of material riches and otherworldly riches made by the Chinese individuals in the long haul dietary practice exercises yet in addition a critical window for remote visitors understanding China. The interpreter must take after the standards of “precisely comprehend and pass on food includes, the spread of Chinese culture with western culture (Carole 2007)” in light of the fact that there are diverse interpretation strategies in various events and setting. Chinese dish names are not only an image of dialect. One might say that most dishes are exemplified with rich social data. The dish can be made an interpretation of precisely into English with little learning of Chinese eating regimen. Dish name interpretation is only one of the numerous interpretation points and needs to mishandle incessantly by and by. The interpretation of the Chinese dish name is extremely sporadic, which may have misconception and boundary towards the world. The principles of interpretation and the strategies for tackling the interpretation issues will be examined.

2. Fundamental Chinese Food Culture

Since China is a tremendous nation, there are critical contrasts between the atmosphere, traditions and eating routine and after that frame an extraordinary flavor. The main, China has had tastes that the southern sweet, north salty, east acids and west hot—"Bashu, Qili, Huaiyang, Guangdong, Fujian and the four flavors.“ Chinese nourishment culture is significant. In any event there ought to be a huge number of years of history, the investigation of the arrangement and the attributes. The second, four seasons are diverse consistently. Eating season is another element of Chinese cooking. China has been regular changes since antiquated time, for example, in winter dish require stew, and in summer it can be chilly and dressed with sauce. The third, in cooking the magnificence is focused on, including sustenance shading, notice, taste, shape. Magnificence gives a high level of solidarity of soul and matter, exceptional happiness. The forward, cooking concentrated on taste before. Taste isn’t just the shade of the sustenance and smell. It incorporates a great deal of detail things. A considerable lot of the qualities of the Chinese sustenance culture reflect in the above nourishment culture: an immediate effect on the advancement of China’s sustenance culture. On account of the nearness of populace weight, and in addition an assortment of different reasons,

Chinese eating regimen from the pre-Qin, meat and not so much grain but rather more grain-based, supplemented by vegetables is a run of the mill supper structure. Rice is the staple nourishment and the vegetable is all together with rice, which is to help the rice to swallow. For what reason does rice help swallow? That is on account of the staple sustenance isn’t heavenly; there must be a substance to help it to enable individuals to eat. Obviously, the capacity of the dish is in like manner.

3. Standards of Chinese dishes translation

Newmark clarifies interpretation in such a path: frequently, though not by implies dependably, it is rendering the importance of a content into another dialect in the way that the creator proposed the content. In contrasting Newmark’s idea and Nida’s, need of Functional Equivalence lies in picking up the ubiquity among individuals, which is like Nida’s viewpoint in the receptor dialect what might as well be called the source dialect message. Like Nida’s hypothesis concentrating on comprehensibility to perusers, gathering hypothesis is a branch of current scholarly investigations with the way which artistic works are gotten by perusers. This hypothesis has here and there been utilized to allude to peruse reaction. As per renowned researcher’s hypotheses, our progenitors finished up the bunches of standards of interpretation of Chinese sustenance. In China, there are primary three standards in the interpretation of Chinese sustenance. What’s more, these principles are crucial in interpretation. They are strict interpretation, which means interpretation and transliteration.

3.1. Strict Translation

The strict interpretation technique is most normally utilized, particularly for the reasonable kind of dish. Furthermore, the technique is the best one. Chinese dishes are frequently for the most part predictable of four sections: the crude material, flavors, cooking strategies and shape. This technique takes after the standards of word development. So the outsiders would have no trouble incomprehension. For example, cooked duck with sweet glue, the crude material is duck, the dressing is sweet glue, and the cooking strategy is broiling. Exacting interpretation is the most advantageous one. An exact comprehension of the wellspring of dialect interpretation is the first factor.

Accordingly, taking in the Chinese dish, the strategy and naming ability ought to be known. Numerous dish names mirror the food of crude materials, the shape, and the first cooking. A few dishes contain the expressions of Chinese social ramifications names; it has a place with the "impressionistic compose”. Interpretations ought to be loyal and exact, succinct terms, demonstrating a dish of crude materials, cooking strategies, toppings, and so forth., letting the outside visitors out of the blue to comprehend the English interpretation, and Chinese. In this way, the interpretation must be dependable to the first content, which is vital to deciphering the name of the dish, no matter what. To put it plainly, interpretation of dish name is associated with crude materials, way, put names, et cetera, owing to various Chinese and Western ideas of eating routine.

All in all, when the exacting deciphering strategy is utilized, and afterward its material, cooking technique and neighborhood qualities ought to be broken down.

3.2. Meaning Translation

Meaning ramifications are utilized to express the significance of unique content. It stresses less on the type of words and its exacting significance. At the point when some culture-loaded words are not accessible in interpretation, it can be explained under the guideline of free interpretation. At the point when the strict interpretation approach isn’t appropriate, the interpreter can endeavor to fall back on the liberal interpretation approach. Liberal interpretation is frequently used to handle sentimental dish names and a portion of the dark and equivocal names. Because of the distinctions in histories, geographic areas, neighborhood traditions, religious conviction et cetera, there are some interpretation snags in correspondence which impede individuals from seeing each other legitimately.

Likewise, it is imperative to conquer the impediment of social contrasts in culturally diverse correspondence. In this sense, interpretation implies are more than only deciphering the Chinese dish. It implies additionally to exchange between societies. The interpretation of one dialect into another is much more mind-boggling than a great many people accept. A great many people accept that content in one dialect can be precisely converted into another dialect, inasmuch as the interpreter utilizes a decent bilingual word reference. Lamentably, a dialect isn’t so straightforward and coordinate interpretation as a rule which is troublesome, for example, Fried rice Yangzhou style, crisp mushroom and cut porket cetera.

3.3. Transliteration

Transliteration has a place with exceptional principles of interpretation. China grew quick nearly in each perspective. Also, Chinese streamed into the west, particularly in dishes. Some are even consolidated in the English word reference. Transliteration advances the nourishment culture with Chinese attributes. For example, Mantou, Jiaozi, Tofu et cetera, they are altogether acknowledged by outsiders. Since some extraordinary nourishment does not have words in the English lexicon and its name in Chinese is anything but difficult to recall.

So when outsiders hear it, they can recall, in the long run, it shows up in the English word reference. With the profound correspondence of world, numerous transliteration Chinese dishes transmit to the west. Particularly, the reflection words in English of some Chinese customary sustenance can’t be discovered, for example, wonton, shaomai, and Chaofan. Obviously, in other Asian nations, a few dishes are communicated with its unique name, for example, sushi “すし, 寿司”, purpose “さけ, 日本清酒”. At the point when converted into English, the names of Chinese dishes might be ordered into three gatherings in light of the uniqueness of their arrangement. Diverse name gatherings of Chinese dishes ought to embrace distinctive interpretation strategies, for example, strict interpretation, which means Translation and transliteration, as per the mental desire of English perusers and the attributes of cross-culture correspondence.

4. Strategies for Translation about Chinese Food

From the three essential tenets of interpretation, it inferred a few techniques for interpretation of Chinese nourishment name. The techniques are likewise identified with the contrasts between the Chinese and western nourishment.

4.1. As indicated by Cooking Method

This has a place with strict interpretation as a rule circumstance. Furthermore, it can be partitioned into a few sorts. Here three kinds are presented. One is the cooking technique; another is the implication and the third is a nearby character (Xiong, 2002).

4.1.1. Cooking Techniques

There are very nearly ten sorts of cooking strategy in Chinese nourishment. There are Stir-sear (炒), sauté (煎), brisk sear (爆), profound sear (炸), braise (烧), bubble (煮), steam (蒸), stew/stew (煲炖), smoke (熏), and cook (铁烧). Whenever interpreted, it ought to be assembled to the cooking technique. A few cases are appeared as takes after “芥末鸭掌” duck networks with mustard sauce, “葱油鸡” chicken in Scallion oil, “米酒鱼卷” angle moves with rice wine. “红烧牛肉” braised meat with darker sauce, “鱼香肉丝” fricasseed destroyed pork with Sweet and harsh sauce, “清炖猪蹄” stewed pig foot in clean soup. The western nourishment did not share these cooling systems. These are largely remarkable in Chinese nourishment. This can be finished up as the crude material with cooking procedures of interpretation strategy (Xu, 2005).

4.1.2. The Dressing and Shape of Raw Material

The aptitude of cutting vegetables and meat is likewise imperative. It is identified with the cooking technique. The materials could be sliced into various kinds with various cutting aptitudes. Like cut, piece, solid shape and knot. Interpreting dishes are likewise identified with those. For example, 例: “茄汁鱼片” cut fish with tomato sauce, “椒麻鸡块” cutlets chicken with hot pepper, “黄酒脆皮虾仁” fresh shrimps with rice wine sauce. What’s more, this can be finished up as the crude material with dressing and state of interpretation strategy.

A few dishes are identified with the cooking apparatuses, for instance, “干锅牛肉” dry pot meat. This can be finished up as cooking devices with crude material interpretation strategy. Another method for dish names interpreted with exacting strategy is these names with dressing. Cases are as per the following: “酒烤香肠” hotdog simmered in wine, “红烧肉” pork braised in dark colored sauce, “蚝油生菜” lettuce in shellfish sauce. Finally, dish names including the taste and flavor can be interpreted with strict strategy as well. Adding the support or taste to the crude material can be effortlessly named. For cases, “红烧肉” pork braised in dark colored sauce, “辣子鸡” chicken shapes blend broiled with. This has a place with exacting interpretation administer, as well.

4.2. As per Allusion

Chinese dishes as per the dish name can’t be essentially interpreted. For example, “Mapo tofu” is converted into scarred lady’s bean curd and “eight immortals crossing the ocean. This non-standard interpretation will make remote visitors disoriented, astounded and misjudging, and after that their hunger would thoroughly vanish. So the significance interpretation strategy is picked. Numerous Chinese names of dish frequently contain a considerable measure of recorded, social data. The rich, inconspicuous one worrying about expression and affiliation capacity ought to be focused on. A little measure of dishes names after crude materials. For example, "actors” - “佛跳墙”, which accords to an old story: the kind of this dish pulled in priests in the sanctuary and he bounced out of the divider to eat it. Sweetened red bean cream with lotus seeds and dried lily.

The unswerving interpretation of the Chinese title says an upbeat marriage that keeps going 100 years - “百年好合”. Hobo’s chicken “叫花鸡” can be clarified as a story. There’s an unbelievable story associated with it. Long back a poor person stole a chicken and was sought after by the proprietor. He secured the chicken done with mud which he discovered adjacent and tossed it into the fire to cook it. After an extended period of time, he expelled the mud-covered chicken from the fire. When he broke the dirt he found, to his amazement, that the chicken had been heated into a delectable dish with great flavor. That night he had an extremely pleasant dinner. Also, this is the root of the dish name. When we confront a few dishes which can’t direct deciphered, we ought to conceptualize it. What’s more, that is identified with significance interpretation rules. The technique for interpretation needs rich information of Chinese culture, so we ought to gather little by close to nothing. It is never past the point where it is possible to learn. One climbing the step must start the base.

4.3. As per Local Characteristic

Chinese cooking styles are the assortment, like Sichuan food, Shandong food and Guangdong cooking and so on. So a lot of dishes develop vigorously neighborhood attributes. For example, Hunan hamburger “湖南牛肉”, while deciphering these dishes, we pick the transliteration rules. Here the interpretation technique as per neighborhood attributes is presented. A few dishes are someplace around, and especially exceptional well known English interpretation of the first names. Regardless of whether it has no name, the name is additionally included.

For example, “叉烧”, a Cantonese dish of pork, is a meal meat marinated in flavors, one of a kind to Guangdong. In the event that it is converted into the general grill, interpretation isn’t the formula. In this manner, pork can be interpreted as Roast frosted filet of pork, Guangdong Style. It surveys delta seared wild geese, deciphered as Chaozhou broil goose or dish goose “潮州烧鹅”.

The interpretation of dish name should focus on safeguard neighborhood culture, reflect nearby qualities and flavor cooking abilities. There are three strategies for interpretation. The first is the strict interpretation strategy names of crude materials. For example, Guangdong wiener “广东香肠”. The second is the name mirroring the neighborhood season. For example, Beef Cooked with Soy Sauce meat in darker sauce, Beijing Style “京酱牛肉”. The third is the name of crude materials for the nearby claim to fame, their interpretations for cooking strategy + name + materials. For example, Steamed

Nanjing Duck “南京板鸭”. Nonetheless, there are a few components keeping the interpretation of dish names (Pair, 2005). For example, the elements of dishes are extremely broad; the craft of food is exceptionally entangled and focuses on Chinese individuals’ quest for a class in naming the cooking. Those may lead the interpretation to confuse. So as a rule, it isn’t suitable to just utilize one of making an interpretation of techniques to decipher dish names, so the better strategy is to consolidate different strategies. For instance, if dish names are identified with legends with allegorical implications or with propitious ramifications, it is appropriate to utilize meaning interpretation in addition to transliteration.

5. Conclusion

From the distinctions on western and Chinese nourishment: the crude material, cooking technique, decent behavior and idea on sustenance, more about the elements which result in the misconception of dish interpretation can be scholarly. At that point from the standards of interpretation of Chinese nourishment, the strategies for interpretation are finished up.

There are just about three sorts of interpretation decides that are exacting interpretation, which means interpretation and transliteration. Here the strategies for interpretation of Chinese nourishment, as per cooking technique, reference and nearby trademark, are simply a little piece of interpretation ones. These can be utilized as a part of a wide range of interpretation, particularly in nourishment dish interpretation. The techniques for interpretation can be finished up.

Regardless it has space to culminate the strategies. It is regular that the interpretation strategies and abilities would change, as well. We as a whole realize that interpretation can’t live without the comprehension of culture, so does the sustenance dish interpretation. The interpretation of Chinese dishes is ventured into a normal and standard way. The strategies from the distinctions of sustenance can be finished up. The reason for existing is the more exact interpretation of dish names toward the west. Another point is the change. With time changing, the way of life is changing, so our interpretation strategies should be variable. So the interpretation street is long.

In the long run, our point is to accomplish the better correspondence and more prominent improvement

Learning to speak Chinese isn’t rocket science. There are some things you can do to make it painless or nearly so. You should speak to Chinese people when you get a chance, and in their native tongue. Doing so can improve your Chinese fluency quickly.

1/3 Learning to Speak Mandarin Chinese

1) Learn some basic vocabulary

The first thing to do when learning a new language is to memorize some simple yet important words and start practicing with them as soon as possible. Although things like grammar and sentence structure are important, they mean nothing until you develop a basic vocabulary. Here’s a short list to get you started:

Hello = nǐhǎo, pronounced [nee hauw] With 2 third tones. Not “ho” or “how” somewhere in the middle. Listen to a native speaker as a reference.

Yes = shì, pronounced [sher]“ But not as in “sure”. ALWAYS listen to a native speaker, as described with English pronunciations in the learners minds will be difficult.

No = bú shì, pronounced [boo sher] look above.

Goodbye = zài jiàn, pronounced [zai jee-ian]

Morning = zǎoshàng, pronounced “[zauw-shaung-hauw]”

Afternoon = xià wǔ, pronounced There is almost no clear way to describe the “x” in pinyin with English pronunciations. Look it up and listen to a native speaker say it. Contrary to popular misinformation, the “x” DOESN’T AT ALL sound like “sh”!

Evening = wǎn shàng, pronounced [wang shaung]

Head = tóu, pronounced [toe] with a 2nd tone, that goes up.

Feet = jiǎo, pronounced [jee-yau]

Hands = shǒu, pronounced [show] With a 3rd tone, this goes from neutral to lower to neutral.

Beef = niú ròu, pronounced [nee-o row] but not with the soft “r”, more defined “r”.

Chicken = jī, pronounced [jee]

Egg = jī dàn, pronounced [jee dan] “dan” has a 4th tone, that goes down. Slightly forceful sounding. (not too forceful sounding!) Literally “chicken egg”. When speaking of eggs in general, use this. Specify the egg type by using the animal’s name and then dàn.

Noodles =miantiao pronounced [miàn tiáo]

Always look up pronunciations of every word spoken by a native speaker. Most Mandarin pinyin just simply cannot be described perfectly with English sounds!

2) Learn some basic phrases.

Once you’ve built up a little vocabulary, you can start working on some basic phrases and expressions that will help you to navigate everyday conversations. Here’s a few to get you started:

How are you? = nǐ hǎo ma? pronounced [nee hau mah] (see above for pronunciations)

I’m fine = wǒ hěn hǎo, pronounced [wuh hen hau]

Thank you = xiè xiè, pronounced There is almost no clear way to describe the “x” in pinyin with English pronunciations. Look it up and listen to a native speaker say it. Contrary to popular misinformation, the “x” DOESN’T AT ALL sound like “sh”! The “ie” part sounds close to “yieh”

You’re welcome = bú yòng xiè, pronounced [boo yong xi-yeh]

Sorry = duì bu qǐ, pronounced [dway boo qi] Like with the Mandarin “x” a proper pronunciation described with English letters is almost impossible. As always, I can’t stress enough the importance of looking up native speakers pronouncing the pinyin.

I don’t understand = wǒ bù dǒng, pronounced [wuh boo dong]

What is your surname (family name)? = nín guì xìng, pronounced [neen gway xing] (I’m sure you know by now why I just put “x” instead of the phonetics.)

What’s your name? = nǐ jiào shén me míng zì, pronounced [nee-jee-yow shen-ma ming zi]“

My name is _____ = wǒ jiào _____, pronounced [wuh jee-yau]

3) Learn the tones.

Chinese is a tonal language, which means that the same word can mean different things depending on the tone used to express them (even if the spelling and pronunciation are the same). This can be difficult for English speakers to grasp, but learning the tones is essential if you want to speak Chinese properly. There are four major tones in Mandarin Chinese, as well as a neutral tone:

The first tone is a high, flat tone. It is expressed in a relatively high voice, with no rising or dipping. Using the word "ma” as an example, the first tone is expressed in writing as “mā”.

The second tone is a rising tone. It starts at a lower level and gets progressively higher, like when you say “huh?” in English. The second tone is expressed in writing as “má”.

The third tone is a dipping tone. It starts at a medium level, then dips lower before rising again, like when you say the letter “B” or the word “horse” in English. The third tone is expressed in writing as “mǎ”.

The fourth tone is a falling tone. It starts at a medium level and gets progressively lower, like when you are giving a command (such as telling someone to “stop”) in English. The fourth tone is expressed in writing as “mà”.

The fifth tone is a neutral tone. It does not rise or fall, like the first tone, but this tone is expressed in a flat voice. The fifth tone is expressed in writing as “ma”.

4) Work on your pronunciation.

Once you have learned the correct pronunciation of the tones by listening to native speakers (YouTube is good for this) and practicing them yourself, you need to work on applying them to words.

This is essential, as the same word can have a completely different meaning depending on which tone is used. For example, using the tone “mā” instead of “má” could be the difference between saying “I want cake” and “I want a coke” – two completely different meanings.

Therefore, when you’re learning vocabulary, it is not enough to learn the pronunciation, you must also learn the correct tone. Otherwise, you could use the word in the wrong context and be completely misunderstood.

The best way to work on your pronunciation is to speak with a native Chinese speaker who can encourage you when you get it right and correct you when you’re wrong.

5) Work on grammar and sentence structure.

It’s a common misconception that Chinese is a “grammar-less” language. Chinese has quite a complex grammar system; it’s just very different to that of English and other European languages.

Luckily, when learning Chinese you will not have to learn any complicated rules involving verb conjugations, agreement, gender, plural nouns or tense. Chinese is a very analytic language, which makes it quite simple and straightforward in some respects.

Another bonus is that Chinese uses a similar sentence structure to English – subject-verb-object – which makes translating back and forth between the two languages somewhat easier. For instance, the sentence “he likes cats” in English is translated as “tā (he) xǐ huan (likes) māo (cats)” in Chinese even when the pronouns change!

On the other hand, Chinese has its own grammar structures which are very different to those used in English and can, therefore, be very difficult for the English speaker to grasp. These grammatical features include things like classifiers, topic-prominence, and preference for aspect. However, there’s no point in worrying about these things until you’ve mastered basic Chinese

2/3 Learning to Read and Write in Chinese

1) Learn pinyin

Pinyin is a Chinese writing system which uses letters from the Roman alphabet instead of Chinese characters.

It is useful for Chinese language learners as it allows you to get started with reading and writing Chinese without the time involved in learning traditional characters. There are many Chinese textbooks and learning materials available in Pinyin.

However, it is important to be aware that even though Pinyin uses letters from the Roman alphabet, its pronunciation is not always intuitive to the English speaker. Therefore, it is important to use a proper pronunciation guide when learning Pinyin.

2) Learn to read some Chinese characters.

Although the ability to read traditional Chinese characters is not necessary for learning Chinese, the idea appeals to many people and makes them feel more in touch with traditional Chinese culture.

Learning to recognize and read Chinese characters is no easy task. In order to read a newspaper, the average Chinese reader will need to be familiar with about 2000 different characters – and that’s just the beginning. It is believed that there are over 50,000 Chinese characters in total (though many of them are no longer in use).

The major benefit of learning to read Chinese characters is that you will have access to a broad array of other literature, including Cantonese, Japanese and Korean – all of which use Chinese characters (or a simplified version of them) in their writings, despite the fact that the spoken languages are very different.

3) Learn to write some Chinese characters.

Once you have learned to read Chinese characters, you may be interested in learning how to form them yourself. Writing Chinese characters is a complex skill, which requires patience and a touch of artistry.

The first step in learning how to write Chinese characters is to learn the “radicals” – these are the individual brush strokes that form the building blocks of each character. There are 214 radicals in total – some can stand on their own as individual characters, while others are only used as part of a more complex character.

When writing Chinese characters, the order of the brush strokes is very important and you must follow a specific set of rules – such as top to bottom, left to right and horizontal before vertical. If the stroke order is incorrect, the completed character will not be accurate.

4) Read Chinese texts.

If you want to improve your Chinese reading skills, you’ll need to practice a little reading for at least 15 to 20 minutes a day.

To begin with, you could try using some children’s readers or workbooks (which are nearly always written in Pinyin) to practice your basic reading skills. You should also be able to find some good resources for reading Chinese online.

You can also try to incorporate your Chinese learning into your everyday life. You can do this by reading the Chinese labels on food products at the Asian supermarket, or asking your server for the Chinese language menu at a restaurant.

Once your reading becomes more advanced, you could try to get your hands on a Chinese newspaper (which are printed using traditional Chinese characters) and do your best to read the articles. This is also a good way of familiarizing yourself with Chinese culture and current affairs.

5) Write a little Chinese every day.

In order to practice your Chinese writing skills, you should try to write a little every day, whether in Pinyin or in Chinese characters.

One option is to keep a small personal diary in Chinese, where you write down simple things like a description of the weather, how you are feeling that day, or what you did. If you’re not to say about it, you could ask a Chinese-speaking friend or acquaintance to look it over and check for any mistakes.

Alternatively, you could try to find a Chinese pen-pal to write letters to. This could be mutually beneficial, as you could get some practice writing in Chinese, while your pen-pal could practice their English. You could also ask your pen-pal to include the corrected version of your original letter when replying.

The last way of practicing your writing is to make simple lists in Chinese, like your shopping list, or to make Chinese labels for items around the house.

3/3 Immersing Yourself in the Chinese Language    

1) Practice with a native Chinese speaker.

The absolute best way to learn  Chinese is just to speak it with a native speaker – this will force you to think on your feet, help with your accent and expose you to more informal or colloquial forms of speech that you won’t find in a textbook.

If you have a Chinese-speaking friend, ask them if they’d be willing to sit down with you for an hour or two each week. They’d probably be happy to help – as long as the coffee’s on you!

If you don’t know any Chinese speakers personally, you could try placing an ad in your local paper or online forum. Alternatively, you could look into finding a Chinese conversation group or oral Chinese class in your local area.

If all else fails, you could try to connect with a Chinese speaker on Skype, one who’d be willing to learn Chinese online in 30 minutes.

2) Listen to  Chinese tapes/CDs.

Listening to Chinese podcasts or CDs is a great way to immerse yourself in the language – even when you’re on the go!

It doesn’t matter if you can’t follow everything that’s being said – just try to be an active listener and attempt to pick out keywords and phrases. Slowly but surely your overall comprehension will improve.

This is a great option for people who have long commutes as they can simply stick a Chinese CD on in the car or listen to a Chinese podcast on the train. You could also try listening while exercising or doing housework.

3) Watch  Chinese films and cartoons.

Watching Chinese films and cartoons is a more fun, relaxed way of immersing yourself in the language,  however, it will still help to expose you to the sounds and structure of  Chinese.

Try watching short cartoons or clips on YouTube, or rent a full-length Chinese film from your local movie store. You may need to use subtitles at first, but try not to rely on them too much – see how much of the dialogue you can understand on your own.

If you’re feeling particularly proactive, you could pause the film after particular words or phrases and try to repeat them – this will help your accent to sound more authentic.

4) Don’t be afraid of making mistakes.

The biggest obstacle that will stand in your way of learning Chinese is your fear of making mistakes.

You need to try to overcome this fear – and even embrace it  – if you are to reach your goal of fluency.

Remember that everyone makes mistakes when they are learning a  new language, and you are bound to have your fair share of embarrassing mistakes and awkward moments, but this is all part of the process.

Remember that you are not aiming for perfection when you are learning Chinese, you are aiming for progress. So go ahead and make as many mistakes as you like – as long as you learn from them and continue to improve.

5) Consider taking a trip to China.

Can you think of a better way to immerse yourself in the  Chinese language than a trip to its native land?

China is an amazingly diverse country – from the busy, bustling streets of Beijing to the ancient majesty of the Great Wall. There is something for every traveler – whether you’re looking to immerse yourself in traditional ethnic cultures, to sample the many delicious Chinese delicacies or to travel to the sites of ancient ruins and epic battles.

Alternatively, you could take a tour of other places with large Chinese-speaking populations, like Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore and the  Philippines. Just make sure that you are prepared for differences in dialect  (not all are mutually intelligible) before you book your flight!

Beijing vernacular has a place with Beijing Mandarin dialect. It is prominent in focus of Beijing City. A few people respected the Beijing vernacular, or Beijing tongue of Mandarin emphasize as “Jing Pian Zi”. Beijing vernacular more often than not alludes to the emphasize the urban zone of Beijing, barring the Beijing tongue of rural districts. Standard Chinese language (Mandarin) depends on Beijing tongue. By and by, there are sure contrasts between Beijing vernacular and Mandarin. Relatively talking with the Mandarin, the Beijing vernacular is additionally a lingo. Beijing vernacular is the nearest dialect to the Mandarin lingo.

Beijing vernacular is very engaging. Voyagers from different zones by and large make dissension that they infrequently realize what Beijing neighborhood individuals discussed. Beijing neighborhood individuals talk rapidly utilizing various everyday words and expressions. Despite the fact that the Beijing vernacular and Standard Chinese are very comparable, an assortment of refinements clarifies to Chinese speakers whether a man is hugely nearby of Beijing talking the neighborhood Beijing variation or is unquestionably a man imparting in Standard Chinese. Beijing tongue distinctively uses a few words and expressions which is normally viewed as slang, and along these lines seem significantly less or not in the least in Standard Chinese. Individuals probably not nearby to Beijing here and there have issues knowing a few or the more significant part of these.

What takes after is a rundown of informal articulations of Beijing, which can give you incredible help:

bié Jie — don’t (Normally utilized while dismissing some help or good manners from dear companions)

bèir —, particularly (alluding to way or trait)

diār le — to leave; to flee

cuō huǒr — to be furious

zhé — path (to accomplish something)

sóng/niār — no spine, spiritless

sa ya zi — to give up on feet, to go, clear out.

èr bǎ dāo — a man with restricted capacities, clumsy person

xiāo ting — to at last and fortunately turn out to be peaceful and quiet

Highlights of Beijing tongue

Beijing vernacular is the nearest dialect to the Mandarin tongue. A considerable lot of such slang words utilize the rhotic postfix - r significantly more than Mandarin. All rhotic vowels are the consequence of the utilization of the - 儿/ - ɻ/, a thing postfix, aside from a couple of words articulated/ɑɻ/that don’t have this addition. The Beijing vernacular is milder contrasted and Mandarin. What’s more, there are a significant number of nearby words. The old Beijing inhabitants keep more nearby words. Numerous Beijingers themselves depict the Beijing vernacular with “Pi”, which implies rabble in Chinese. Illustrations include:

kōumér – niggardly, stingy (might be utilized even outside Beijing)

qíxiǎor – since a youthful age

tàocír – to hurl into the circle; utilized of b-ball

Moreover, Beijing tongue has extensive slur discourse sound changes, which we, for the most part, called “syllable combination”. For instance, in quick discourse, starting consonants experience lenition on the off chance that they are in an unstressed syllable so bùzhīdào (“don’t have the foggiest idea”) can seem like bùrdào.

Need to learn Korean? Great call! Korean is hot property. Enthusiasm for the dialect has taken off finished the previous couple of years. Korean books, for example, Please Look after Mom are beginning to enter the worldwide blockbusters list as well. Also, South Korea is a youthful, technically knowledgeable nation that is home to well known tech brands including Samsung and LG. For what reason not make Korean the following dialect you learn?

Is Learning Korean Difficult?

Albeit Korean may be positioned as one of the more troublesome dialects to learn by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), it is in no way, shape or form inconceivable. Truth be told, contrasted with Japanese and Chinese, Korean has some enormous focal points that make it simple to learn. We should discover more about these.

Why the Korean Alphabet is Easy to Learn

The initial phase in taking in the Korean dialect is getting comfortable with the Korean letter set, as it’s feasible impressively not quite the same as alternate dialects you’re acquainted with. At the point when first observing the Korean letter set, numerous individuals accept that it is only a cluster of squiggles and that it is as impervious as taking in a great many Chinese characters that understudies of Mandarin confront. Trust it or not, this makes a few students surrender before they even begin!

While there are methods for learning Chinese and Japanese characters rapidly, the Korean letters in order are in no way like Chinese characters. It is far simpler to learn that even the Japanese ‘content’ letter sets of Katakana or Hiragana, and perhaps Cyrillic. The purpose behind this backpedals hundreds of years and lies in its beginning.

Not at all like different letter sets that developed naturally, Hangul, the Korean letters in order, was concocted. Was it developed, as well as it was made with the particular reason for being anything but difficult to learn and utilize? Fundamentally, it’s relatively difficult to outline a less difficult composition framework than Hangul that would in any case work with the Korean dialect.

It is said that “an astute man can familiarize himself with them [the alphabet] before the morning is more than; a moron can learn them in the space of ten days.” in all actuality utilizing present day learning systems, anyone can learn Hangul in only an hour and a half.

Consider that for a moment – this dialect was built in light of dialect students! Hangul exists not to confound and scare students, but instead to give them the fastest access to Korean culture conceivable. The letter set itself isn’t scaring in any way – the main threatening part is the underlying newness you can move beyond in under an hour and a half.

With just twenty-four letters in the Korean letter set, it doesn’t take long to learn. Similarly, while some composition frameworks look difficult to the recorder, Korean is simple. One of the letters is a circle, one is a square, and two are truly straight lines!

Hangul has another tremendous favorable position over Chinese characters in that it is phonetic. Regardless of whether numerous Chinese characters may have phonetic components to them, Korean is completely phonetic. There aren’t shrouded sounds or elocutions that new students are required to know immediately. Truth be told, it has this favorable position over the Latin letter set as well. For instance, on the off chance that you are an American making a trip to the U.K. what’s more, you go over a sign saying 'Leicester’. You may well accept this is perused 'Lie-kest-er’ when it is in reality articulated 'Lester’.

There are innumerable cases of this in English and in the Romance Languages. For instance, there is a wide range of approaches to articulate 'ough’ in English. The distinctions in spelling and elocution can make it hard to come to an obvious conclusion. However, you are easily perusing English right now, notwithstanding the dubious spelling and articulation that goes with the job.

On the off chance that you can read Hangul, at that point it is extremely uncommon that you will have comparative issues with elocution. While articulating a Korean place or name, there are just a modest bunch of circumstances where the elocution isn’t precisely the same as how the word is composed. Fortunately, you can without much of a stretch take in these special cases in the blink of an eye!

That is the reason it’s anything but difficult to associate composed and communicated in Korean. For instance, on the off chance that you hear someone looking at setting off to an 'a gwa’ at that point you may recollect that word when you are strolling down the road and see a sign saying '안과’ over a shop offering displays. The connection between the sound and the composed word makes it simpler to recollect these new words. After you get comfortable with the characters in the dialect, getting new Korean words will occur in a matter of seconds!

Hangul is so natural to realize, that an online comic can show it to you in 15 minutes!

Word Families: How Korean Words Are Built

You may think 'if the Korean letters in order are so intelligent, at that point why are every one of the letters scrambled up rather than simply being in a straight line?’ Well, this is the virtuoso piece of the Korean letter set that makes adapting new words and thoughts extremely basic! Nonetheless, it is no doubt unique in relation to the letter arranges in the letters in the order you are most comfortable with utilizing.

In Korean:

•       'ㅅ’ sounds like ’s’;

•       'ㅏ’ sounds like 'a’;

•       'ㄴ’ sounds like 'n’.

At the point when assembled, they resemble '산’, which is articulated as 'san’. As opposed to being only three letters in a line, it makes a pleasant independent square!

Korean is primarily comprised of three sorts of words:

1.      Words that are 'unadulterated’ Korean;

2.      Words that depend on English (we will go to these later);

3.      Words that depend on Chinese characters.

When we see 山 in Chinese we know this implies mountain. Similarly, in the Korean words that depend on Chinese, each piece in Korean has an indistinguishable significance from a Chinese character. 산, in this setting more often than not signifies 'mountain’. This implies whenever we see 산 toward the finish of a word, we can figure that it most likely has a comment with a mountain. Sufficiently simple, isn’t that so?

In English, the spelling of the words 'well of lava’ and 'chunk of ice’ are very surprising from 'mountain’. In Korean, they are 화산 (fire-mountain) and 빙산 (ice-mountain). This can enable you to learn words rapidly and figure new words while never observing them sometime recently. When you learn a single word, you will approach right away with different words and expressions that expand upon that first word.

For instance, from our prior word 안과, on the off chance that we are strolling around the lanes and see words like 내과, 치과, 피부과, and so forth., at that point we can figure that they have a comment with medicinal care. Similarly, on the off chance that some individual inquiries as to whether you wear 안경 then we can figure that they are discussing glasses.

Take a gander at the accompanying rundown to perceive how brisk it can be to learn new words utilizing a touch of rationale.

•       1 (and sun) = il

•       2 = ee

•       3 = sam

•       4 = sa

•       5 = o

•       Moon = wol

•       January = il-wol

•       February = ee-wol

•       1st March = sam-wol il-il

•       2nd April = sa-wol ee-il

•       3rd May = o-wol sam-il

•       Country = guk

•       Korea = han

•       Middle = jung

•       Person = in

•       Language/angle = eo

•       Korea = Han-guk

•       China = Jung-guk

•       Korean dialect = han-guk-eo

•       Chinese individual = Jung-guk-in

•       Mermaid = in-eo

The most effective method to Pronounce Korean Words: No Tones

When you start learning Korean, you’ll begin with figuring out how to peruse words in the Korean letter set, at that point proceed onward to figuring out how to articulate those words. While learning elocution can be scary at to start with, it’s less demanding with Korean that with numerous different dialects. Every Korean word, or letter-piece, has a few unique implications. Nonetheless, they have altogether articulated a similar way. This is awesome news as you don’t need to stress overtones,. Tones are a whole extra component of the dialect that can influence the figuring out how to process considerably more convoluted.

Obviously, the way that single word can have various implications can be confounding. For instance, 어 (articulated like the 'o’ in the word 'melody’) frequently implies either 'fish’ or 'dialect’. Notwithstanding, practically, how often would you say you will have a discussion that includes both fish and dialect? Setting pieces of information are wherever in Korean and will incredibly accelerate the learning procedure for amateurs.

Konglish: You Already Know Thousands of Korean Words

Consistently new words are added to dialects. Fortunately, with Korean, these new words are regularly in light of English. That implies that consistently you are showing signs of improvement at Korean without examining (unless you are North Korean)!

Some Korean words, for example, PC, taxi, and frozen yogurt are precisely the same as English words in both their importance and articulation. Different words depend on English, however, have slight contrasts to standard English. Nonetheless, in light of the fact that they depend on English words, they are anything but difficult to recollect.

As a speaker of English start to learn Korean, you will find that you are as of now quite acquainted with some Korean dialect words and ideas – it’s relatively similar to the work was improved the situation you! The parallel amongst Korean and English words isn’t the main simple part of learning Korean — Korean tenses and sentence structure are likewise substantially more direct than dialects like French and Spanish.

Korean Grammar Is Easy

If your regular French class at school comprised of an endless supply of 'I am’, 'he is’, 'they are’ et cetera, at that point do whatever it takes not to bounce for euphoria when I reveal to you that you don’t have to do this in Korean.

Truth be told, when you begin learning Korean, it’s best not to waste time with pronouns by any stretch of the imagination. When learning Korean, you can speed directly through conjugation before long. Korean verbs change in view of a few components, for example, tense and neighborliness level. Be that as it may, notwithstanding when they do change, at that point they change typically in light of the last consonant of the verb (or vowel in the event that it closes in a vowel).

Since there are a predetermined number of consonants, and just around five sorts of sporadic verbs, figuring out how those verbs change doesn’t take long. Surprisingly better, the verbs remain similar when the pronouns in the sentence change. For instance 'to do’ (하다) will dependably be 해요 (do) paying little heed to whether 'I do’, 'he does’, or 'they do’.

Pronouns are once in a while utilized as a part of Korean, so you can frequently simply say the verb. The other individual can figure from setting your identity alluding to. Therefore, here is a verb conjugation list for the verb 먹다 (to eat) in the current state:

•       I eat – 먹어요

•       you eat – 먹어요

•       he eats – 먹어요

•       she eats – 먹어요

•       they eat – 먹어요

•       we eat – 먹어요 (if you didn’t see, they are all the same).

I have all the more uplifting news: this applies to modifiers as well! On the off chance that you need to tell someone that the gimbap, a mainstream Korean road nourishment, was heavenly, at that point you can simply say 'delectable’. Moreover on the off chance that you need to inquire as to whether that sustenance was tasty then you simply ask, 'delectable?’

Tenses in Korean are likewise standard, so you don’t have to learn additional words as you do in English (instruct educated, is-was, and so forth.). There aren’t any uncommon past participles, either. Rather you simply stick an additional word onto the finish of the sentence to transform it from 'ate’ to 'have eaten’. Sufficiently simple, isn’t that so? Fortunately, because of how direct punctuation and tenses are in Korean, you can gain a ton of ground in learning Korean before you need to handle the more intricate components of the dialect.

Manage the 'Troublesome’ Parts of Korean Down the Road

When learning Korean, you can put off the troublesome parts of the dialect for some other time.

One troublesome part of Korean is that it is a various leveled dialect. This implies you utilize distinctive words relying on who you address. While this sounds overwhelming, in the event that you simply utilize the customary type of the word (verbs that end with 'yo’) at that point no one will be affronted. Adhere to the “yo”, and you’ll be ready!

Aside from that, on the off chance that you utilize the wrong word with someone who is more established than you, the most noticeably bad that will happen is that they will redress you (hopeful people could consider this to be 'the most exceedingly bad that will happen is that you will get some free master educational cost from a local speaker’).

As you show signs of improvement at Korean, you can begin utilizing the distinctive levels of dialect legitimately and smoothly. Notwithstanding, you don’t need to get worked up about at an early stage in your dialect contemplate. There’s no motivation to be uneasy about utilizing your new Korean information with local talking outsiders – on the off chance that anything, it’ll just remain to enable you to get more learning!

On the off chance that you are considering how honorifics and chain of command function in Korean, fundamentally there is a method for representing individuals who are near you and a path for addressing individuals more far off. The more far off form (finishing off with 'imnida’ or 'sumnida’) frequently comes up in reading material at an opportune time. In any case, you will just ever utilize it on the off chance that you are completing a prospective employee meeting, giving an introduction, or talking on the news (things that are far-fetched for apprentice understudies to do). In this way, you should concentrate on the 'yo’ framework, which you will utilize considerably more regularly.

In the event that you are addressing some individual who is more youthful than you and near you, at that point, you can drop the 'yo’. This will be convenient when you start making Korean companions and associates. Honorifics are utilized for indicating admiration to individuals above you. This fundamentally includes embeddings a 시 someplace into the verb (not very troublesome in itself).

A few words have exceptional renditions that ought to be utilized when talking utilizing honorifics. For instance 'to eat’, 'to exist’, 'birthday’ and 'age’ all have exceptional words (there aren’t an excessive number of uncommon words, just around twenty or somewhere in the vicinity, so don’t stress). You ought to never utilize honorifics when discussing yourself, yet dissimilar to Japanese, you can utilize them when alluding to your own family (particularly your grandparents).

These diverse levels of Korean regularly alarm individuals, however, English and different dialects likewise have these levels (For instance, “to kick the bucket” versus “to pass away”). When you consider it, Korea’s progressive framework is simpler to disclose than attempting to clarify these levels in the English dialect, and you’ve just been utilizing a various leveled framework for quite a long time regardless of whether you’ve understood it!

Once you’ve taken in the more congenial parts of Korean like the letters in order, tenses, and words in light of English, you’ll feel sufficiently great to start utilizing Korean conversationally. It’s through discussion and introduction that you’ll turn out to be more alright with the more mind-boggling parts of the dialect like various leveled changes and words that aren’t founded on English.

Breaking Apart Korean Words

Utilizing Korean words is extremely basic. In the event that you need to utilize them as a verb, at that point you can simply stick the verb 'to do’ (하다) toward the finish of the word. When you figure out how to change this verb into various tenses and how to append modular verbs to it, at that point you can abruptly say an absurdly extensive sum with almost no exertion.

Keep in mind, you once in a while need to utilize pronouns and you don’t have to conjugate in view of pronouns. You’ll be shocked at how rapidly you will figure out how to convey fundamental ideas in Korean without hardly lifting a finger!

Something else that makes getting these new Korean words and ideas a breeze is a manner by which available Korean-learning assets are. After you start your voyage to learn Korean and begin glancing around for enable, you’ll to be amazed about the plenitude of assets accessible through books and the Internet.

Why It’s Easy to Find Resources for Learning Korean

Obviously, individuals have been communicating in Korean for a large number of years – it’s not precisely another dialect. However, when learning Korean, you won’t need to get the hang of utilizing the Korean adaptation of Shakespeare or anything similarly out of date.

Whatever is left of the world began thinking about Korean culture significantly more toward the begin of this thousand years so the vast majority of the social assets for learning Korean are new and effectively open. There are numerous awesome online assets for concentrate Korean, and regularly educators will give current cases or utilize late video cuts while clarifying troublesome ideas. When contemplating the Korean dialect, the exact opposite thing you will do is looking through a dusty old course book. Korean assets are present and significant, influencing the figuring out how to process substantially more fun! Alongside current social assets, you’ll additionally have the chance to learn by communicating in Korean to local speakers when you’re even somewhat conversationally familiar.

Learn Korean: How to Get Korean Speaking Practice

Most Koreans are extremely pleased with their nation and dialect and would love it if more individuals could communicate in Korean. Subsequently, there are a lot of individuals who will show you Korean. Particularly in Seoul, it is very simple to discover free Korean classes.

Similarly, Koreans once in a while anticipate that nonnatives will communicate in Korean splendidly so they won’t pass judgment on you as cruelly as individuals from some different nations in the event that you misspeak a word. Take in the nuts and bolts with some assistance, and afterward get out there and explore different avenues regarding every one of the entryways that you’ve opened by starting the Korean learning process! Those Korean dramatizations wouldn’t watch themselves…

While learning Chinese Characters at an essential level isn’t that considerably harder than learning different dialects (it’s significantly less demanding in a few territories), figuring out how to compose is unquestionably and point of fact substantially more requesting.

Figuring out how to peruse and compose Chinese is not simple

There are numerous purposes behind this. To start with, this is because the connection between the composed and talked dialect is exceptionally frail. While in Spanish you can, for the most part, read what you can comprehend when spoken and you can write what you can state (bar some minor spelling issues), in Chinese, the two are pretty much discrete.

Second, the way Chinese characters speak to sounds is confused and requires substantially more than taking in a letter set. On the off chance that you know how to state something, composing is not simply an issue of checking how it has spelled, you need to take in the individual characters, how they are composed and how they are joined to frame words. To wind up plainly educated, you require near 2500 and 4500 characters, contingent upon what you mean by the expression “proficient”. You require commonly more than the number of words.

Nevertheless, the way toward figuring out how to peruse and compose can be made a ton more straightforward than it initially appears. Learning 3500 characters is not unimaginable and with legitimate investigating and dynamic utilization, you can likewise abstain from blending them up (this is really the fundamental test for non-fledglings). All things considered, 3500 is a huge number. It would mean just about 10 characters for each day for a year. Added to that, you would likewise need to learn words, which are blends of characters that occasionally have non-clear implications.

Nevertheless, it need not be outlandish either!

Looks troublesome, isn’t that so? Indeed, yet in the event that you separate these 3500 characters into little segments, you will find that the quantity of parts you have to take in is extremely distant from 3500. Truth be told, with only a couple of hundred parts, you can fabricate a large portion of those 3500 characters.

Before we proceed onward, it’s maybe significant here that I’m utilizing “part” purposely as opposed to utilizing “radical”, which is a little subset of segments that are utilized to order words in lexicons. In case you are befuddled and do not perceive how they are extraordinary, please check this article.

Taking in the building squares of Chinese characters

In this way, by taking in the parts of characters, you make a storehouse of building obstructs that you would then be able to use to comprehend, learn and recall characters. This is not exceptionally productive in the here and now in light of the fact that each time you take in a character; you have to learn that character, as well as the little segments it is made of.

Be that as it may, this speculation will be reimbursed liberally later. It will not be a smart thought to take in all parts of all characters specifically, yet concentrate on the most vital ones first. I will acquaint a few assets with help you both with separating characters into their segment parts and where you can discover more data about which segments to learn first.

Useful segments

It is critical to comprehend that every segment has a capacity in the character; it is not thereby shot. Now and again the genuine reason the character appears as though it does is lost in the fogs of time, yet frequently it is known or even straightforwardly clear from concentrate the character.

At different circumstances, a clarification may introduce itself that is extremely persuading, and despite the fact that it will not be etymologically right, it can even now help you to learn and recollect that character.

Largely, parts are incorporated into characters for two reasons: first in view of the way, they sound, and second because of what they mean. We call these phonetic or sound parts and semantic or meaning segments. This is an exceptionally valuable method for taking a gander at characters that frequently yields considerably more intriguing and helpful outcomes than taking a gander at the conventional clarification of how characters are shaped. It is yet beneficial to have that in the back of your mind when adapting, yet you do not generally need to consider it in detail.

An illustration

How about we take a gander at a character most understudies learn right off the bat: 妈/媽 (rearranged/customary), which is articulated mā (first tone) and signifies “mother”.

The left part 女 signifies “lady” and is plainly identified with the importance of the entire character (your mom is apparently a lady). The correct part 马/馬 signifies “horse” and is plainly not identified with the significance. In any case, it is articulated mǎ (third tone), which is near the elocution of the entire character (just the tone is unique). This is the very most Chinese characters work, but not all.

Assemble a house

This abandons us with hundreds (as opposed to thousands) of characters to recall. Aside from that, we likewise have the extra undertaking of consolidating the parts we have learned into compound characters. This is what we will take a gander at now.

Consolidating characters is not that hard, in any event not in the event that you utilize the correct technique this is because on the off chance that you comprehend what the segments mean, the character piece itself implies a comment and that makes it a ton less demanding to recollect. There is an immense contrast between takings in an arbitrary clutter of strokes (hard) and joining known parts (moderately simple).

Enhance your memory

Consolidating things is one of the principal zones of memory preparing and something that individuals have been keen on for a large number of years. There are many, numerous techniques out there that work extremely well and that show you how to recall that A, B and C have a place with each other (and in a specific order, on the off chance that you like, despite the fact that this is regularly a bit much with regards to Chinese characters, since you rapidly discover that and just a few characters can be stirred up by unintentionally moving character segments around).

On the off chance that you do not know anything about memory methods, I propose you read this article initially, or on the off chance that you do not have that much time, simply watch this TED talk by Joshua Foer. The primary takeaway is that memory is an ability and it is something you can prepare. That normally incorporates your capacity to learn and recall Chinese characters.

Recollecting Chinese characters

The most ideal method for consolidating segments is to make a photo or scene that incorporates every one of the segments notably. This ought to be preposterous, interesting or overstated somehow. Precisely what influences you to recollect something will be something you have to make sense of by experimentation, yet going for the ludicrous and misrepresented regularly functions admirably for the vast majority.

You can obviously draw or utilize genuine pictures as opposed to simply fanciful ones, yet in the event that you do, you should be extremely watchful that you do not break the structure of the character. What do I mean by this? The photos you use to learn Chinese characters should save the building hinders that that character comprises of.

The explanation behind this ought to be evident now. On the off chance that you simply utilize a photo that is appropriate for that character, yet which doesn’t save the structure of the character, it may be valuable for discovering that very character. In the event that you take the structure of the character, you can utilize the photos for the individual parts to learn tens or many different characters. To put it plainly, on the off chance that you utilize terrible pictures, you lose the advantage of building squares examined in this article.

Assets for learning Chinese characters

Presently, how about we take a gander at a couple of assets for taking in the building pieces of Chinese characters:

Kickstart your character learning with the 100 most normal radicals - This is a rundown of the 100 most regular radicals. I said over that we are extremely worried about segments here, not radicals, but rather it so happens that radicals are frequently semantic parts, so this rundown is yet valuable. I made it myself since I could not locate some other great records.

Hanzicraft - This astounding site enables you to separate Chinese characters into their segment parts. I have really composed a survey of the site here. Note that the breakdown is visual, so it does not generally mind if it is verifiably right. You can likewise discover phonetic data here, which is again construct just with respect to the mechanical examination of the articulation of the parts and the full character (it’s not verifiably revising either, as such). I like this site since it is quick and simple to utilize.

Zdic.net - This is an on the web, free word reference that offers respectable data about the structure of a character that is additionally more by what we think about the advancement of a particular character (it’s manual, not programmed).

Arch Chinese - This is another online lexicon that enables you to both separate characters and sees segments in setting (with recurrence data, which is very uncommon in different word references).

Semantic segment publications from Outlier Linguistics - These blurbs demonstrate 100 semantic segments and separated from being exceptionally enlightening, they additionally look extraordinary on your divider. They accompany utilization data and precise depictions (physically made by individuals who know a considerable measure about Chinese characters).

That ought to be sufficient to kick you off. There will at present be cases you cannot discover or that do not sound good to you. On the off chance that you experience these, you can attempt various distinctive techniques. Make a photo particularly of that character or makeup significance all alone. This is superior to anything attempting to recall trivial strokes, which is extremely hard.

Conclusion

Finally, I would get a kick out of the chance to rehash what I said in the presentation. This technique for learning Chinese characters will not be speedier in the here and now since you are in reality adapting more characters (tallying the segments of characters as characters here). The aggregate sum of data you have to focus on memory is in this way bigger. The more characters you learn, however, the more the circumstance changes and it will be a different way.

On the off chance that you regard Chinese characters as pictures, keeping in mind the end goal to learn 3500 characters, you need to learn 3500 pictures. On the off chance that you separate them

Hanzi and kanji are the Chinese and Japanese pronunciations of the term 漢字 that is used in both languages. It refers to the Chinese characters that both languages make use of in their writing systems. Chinese is written entirely in hanzi, and Japanese makes heavy use of Chinese characters.

But are hanzi and kanji the same thing? They’re both 漢字 and could be translated as “Chinese characters”, but are the character sets the same?

I wrote about this before, saying that the Chinese and Japanese character sets are the same most of the time. I still stand by that statement, but I’ve been meaning to write a little more on the topic for a while. Note that what I’m interested in here is quite specifically the two character sets of hanzi and kanji, how much they overlap and where they vary. This is intended to be a very simplified, generalized overview of hanzi and kanji today for the casual reader.

This, of course, glosses over huge swathes of detail, but it is meant to be easy to follow. The main thing it’s missing is any of the histories of how the present situation came about, which is quite an interesting series of developments. What’s below is, hopefully, a casual summary of the obvious differences between hanzi and kanji character sets in the present day.

Hanzi and kanji are of course pronounced differently!

Let’s start with a super-obvious difference between hanzi and kanji. Despite being the same writing system (or at least very similar to each other), hanzi and kanji serve entirely different languages. As such, the Chinese pronunciation of a hanzi is usually very different to the Japanese pronunciation of the equivalent kanji (sometimes the pronunciations may be somewhat similar, though).

This actually extends further than Chinese and Japanese. Korean also uses Chinese characters, calling them hanja (한자), and the pronunciations are somewhat different again (although closer to Chinese than Japanese, as far as I know). Beyond that, China’s huge variety of dialects and language groups can also be written using hanzi, despite having very different pronunciations.

A quick example:

誠

That character is pronounced chéng in Mandarin Chinese but Makoto or sei in Japanese. Note that there are multiple possible pronunciations for Japanese kanji, whereas the majority of hanzi in Chinese have only one possible pronunciation. There are some Chinese hanzi with multiple possible pronunciations, but they’re singled out as special in the category 多音字 (duōyīnzì - multiple reading characters).

This difference isn’t really that relevant to distinguishing the writing systems, but it might be helpful to be aware of this point if you’re totally unfamiliar with either language.

I think European languages use the Latin alphabet makes an acceptable analogy for this. Many words may be written the same way across European languages but pronounced differently. This is similar in some ways to the situation with hanzi/ kanji/hanja in East Asia (and very different in other ways).

But the pronunciation plot thickens!

However, the issue of hanzi and kanji being pronounced differently isn’t so stark when you go back in history. Modern Mandarin Chinese is linguistically quite a recent thing, and its pronunciation can be quite different to pronunciation to the Chinese of the past and to other Chinese languages/dialects.

If you consider that Mandarin (普通话) used to be called 官话 - “official speech” - you can see that it developed from the start as a formalized, standardized language, and not so much as an organic one (although it is of course heavily based on organic Beijing Chinese). The Chinese of the past was actually much more similar to Japanese in its pronunciation of hanzi/kanji.

Also, consider that many Chinese languages/dialects are more similar to Japanese in pronunciation than Mandarin is. One example that springs to mind are the hanzi transliterations of place names.

For example, Cambridge is called 劍橋 (Jiànqiáo) in Mandarin. The second character is the bridge, which makes sense for its meaning, so let’s ignore it for the pronunciation. The first character doesn’t seem to make much sense - it doesn’t sound very similar to the English Cam, and the meaning “sword” seems to be unrelated.

In Cantonese, however, that hanzi is pronounced gim₃, and in Japanese, the same kanji is pronounced ken. These are much more similar to the English Cam, and, more importantly, to each other. So you can see that whilst Mandarin pronunciation of hanzi can be very different, other Chinese languages may have retained greater similarity with Japanese from the older Chinese that the pronunciation of both languages is based on.

Japanese has other systems besides kanji

This is just a quick note for anyone reading this who has no knowledge of either language involved. Chinese is written entirely in hanzi. Japanese makes use of kanji (mostly similar to hanzi), but also has two syllabaries of its own: hiragana and katakana. 

So whilst written Chinese looks like a series of regular block-shaped characters, Japanese also has a lot of squiggly bits thrown in:

Chinese: 我的氣墊船滿是鱔魚。

Japanese: 私のホバークラフトは鰻でいっぱいです.

What we’re interested in here, though, are the Chinese characters used in both languages. The Chinese sentence above is written in them entirely, whilst the Japanese sentences only use two (私 and 鰻).

Simplified hanzi and kanji are clearly different

Another fairly obvious distinction. During the twentieth century, various iterations of the Chinese government took the chance to simplify and standardize the Chinese character set (hanzi). This new/standardized character set is known as Simplified Chinese (简体字 - jiǎntǐzì) and is easily distinguishable from Japanese kanji where the differences apply.

I’ve never liked the term Simplified Chinese and the way it’s used. Firstly, if you’re not familiar with these issues, ‘Simplified Chinese’ makes it sound like the actual language has been simplified in some way. That’s not the case at all - only the actual form of the characters has been changed. It would be the equivalent of making the Latin alphabet faster to write by simplifying the letters.

Secondly, Simplified Chinese is often offered as a choice amongst other languages. This makes sense when you want your interface or website in different languages, as most people who read Chinese are far more comfortable with one character set than the other. Despite that, I still dislike presenting it as a different “language” when it’s not.

Anyway, Simplified Chinese hanzi are very easy to distinguish from Japanese kanji. However, only a small proportion of hanzi was ever simplified - most have been left unchanged. So you can only distinguish simplified hanzi and kanji when you’ve actually got one of the simplified hanzi.

Let’s reuse our example from before:

诚 vs 誠

This hanzi/kanji means “honesty” and “sincerity” in both languages, although in Japanese it also means things like “admonish” and “prohibit” (more on variant meanings below).

The version on the left is the simplified Chinese hanzi, and the version on the right is used in both traditional Chinese and Japanese. The difference is in the radical on the left of the character, which means “speech”. It’s written 讠 in simplified Chinese and 言 in the other character sets.

Where hanzi have been simplified, they are immediately identifiable as Chinese. Simplified Chinese is used mainly in Singapore, Malaysia and of course mainland China.

Japanese kanji have also been simplified

Written Chinese is not alone in having undergone simplification. Japanese kanji were also simplified by the Japanese government after the Second World War. This new character set is called 新字体 (shinjitai). It’s different again to simplified Chinese (简体字 jiǎntǐzì), despite having a similar methodology: reduce the number of strokes in some characters and streamline components.

Before this simplification, the written forms of Japanese kanji were equivalent to traditional Chinese hanzi. So now we’re dealing with three different character sets traditional hanzi (繁體字), simplified hanzi (简体字), and simplified kanji ( 新字体).

So there are of course characters that are different in all three sets:

鐵 - 铁 - 鉄 traditional / original - simplified Chinese - simplified Japanese

That’s the hanzi/kanji for “iron”, the metal. The first is the original, traditional / “original” Chinese version, the one in the middle is the simplified Chinese hanzi, and the one on the right is simplified Japanese kanji.

This is an interesting example. The Chinese simplification altered both sides of the character, whilst the Japanese simplification has left the radical 金 unchanged but simplified the right-hand side.

However, what I think often gets lost in all this is the point that in both simplifications, Chinese and Japanese, it was only ever a minority of characters that got changed. So both Chinese hanzi and Japanese kanji are still largely the same character set as the “original” traditional Chinese.

Meanings often vary between hanzi and kanji

The introduction of Chinese hanzi into Japan was not systematic or done with any speed. It happened over a long period of time, and one result of this is that Japanese kanji often have several extra meanings to their Chinese hanzi counterparts, or have different meanings entirely. This cropped up with the 誠 example above. As a Japanese kanji, it has several more meanings than the Chinese hanzi.

Again though, despite these differences, most of the time the meanings are the same or very similar, leading me to say that hanzi and kanji are generally the same writing system.

There are different writing styles for hanzi and kanji

A final difference to note. Whilst digital versions of hanzi and kanji are the same (e.g. the Unicode 誠 character is the same for either language), they can be written differently by hand. The day-to-day handwriting is, of course, different, just as Latin handwriting varies between European countries. Stroke order can also vary between Chinese and Japanese, even if the end result is the same character.

Starker differences can be found in Chinese and Japanese calligraphy styles, many of which are of course distinct to their native countries. Despite that, there is still a lot of exchange and cross-over between Chinese and Japanese calligraphy, just as you would expect.

Otherwise, hanzi and kanji are almost entirely the same

I’ve listed various differences between hanzi and kanji here, but ultimately I want to emphasize that these character sets are largely the same. There are various versions and differences in style etc., but as writing systems, they are clearly extremely similar. I think the equivalent of spoken language would be two accents for the same language.

A mini-timeline of hanzi and kanji

As you’ve probably noticed, the whole issue of the differences between hanzi and kanji is pretty complicated and can’t be summarised without a fair bit of explanation. Ignoring that complexity, I’ve tried to massively reduce the issues involved and make a streamlined sequence of events for the divergence of hanzi and kanji. This isn’t at all faithful to chronology, it’s just supposed to be a rough list of all the relevant events:

Hanzi develop in China. Kanji does not exist yet. Hanzi are introduced in Japan as Chinese writing. Japanese people adopt hanzi to write their own language: kanji.  Japanese people add to and alter meanings of some kanji. Japanese people invent some kanji of their own. Japanese people generate new scripts loosely based on kanji. Separately, Chinese government simplifies hanzi and Japanese government simplifies kanji.

Chinese is one of the two world languages with over a billion speakers. It is the most used mother tongue on the planet with over 900 million native speakers and more learning it as their second (or more) language. Let’s take a look at 10 facts you should know about this complicated and very different language.

1. Chinese Is the Most Used Mother Tongue  

China has many minority groups that speak their own unique languages and dialects but Mandarin Chinese is still the most used language in China.

While the Internet has sealed the place of English as the most used (second) language, Chinese (Mandarin) still holds the top position as the most used mother tongue. In 2010, the number of Chinese native speakers totaled 955 million people. Just think of how many more people you’d be able to talk to after learning some Chinese!

2. It’s Considered One of the Hardest Languages to Learn

Multiple factors blend together into making Chinese one of the hardest languages learn for native English speakers. With a different writing system, different grammar, and even different pronunciation style and sound, there are not many things English and Chinese have in common.

People who wish to study Chinese must put in years of work to reach fluency and even then it is rare to achieve native-like proficiency. Typically, you must learn 3,000 characters in order to be considered fluent enough to read the morning newspaper. However, the language consists of tens of thousands of characters that make ultimate fluency a daunting task.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that the written forms of Chinese words give no clues on the pronunciation and must be learned separately. With over 67% of the words being made up of two or more characters, you can see how it earns the title as one of the most difficult languages to learn.

3. Chinese Has Different Calligraphy Styles

Artists work diligently to perfect the art of their calligraphy.

There are five traditional forms of Chinese calligraphy: Seal Character, Official Script, Formal Script, Running Script, Formal Script, Running Script, and Cursive Hand. These are considered classical arts and representative of Chinese art styles.
The most popular calligraphy style is the Seal Character style developed by the Han people.  It first appeared during the Zhou Dynasty (1045 - 221 BC) and is still popular among calligraphy artists today.  

4. Chinese Has The Most Similar Sounding Words

Thanks to its unique sound system, Chinese is filled with similar sounding words. This makes it quite difficult for non-native speakers to differentiate between words and sound combinations. When you add in the ones we will discuss below, it adds up to make Chinese one of the most difficult languages listen to and understand. Since we have not been exposed to these similar sounds, it is often impossible for English speakers to pick out the differences.

5. It’s the Only Modern Pictographic Language

These 3 mountain peaks show how the character 山 came to be.

Reminiscent of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt, Chinese is the only extant pictographic language.

The Chinese language was developed using images, which means in its simplest form it resembles a game of Pictionary. Many (not all) of the Chinese characters we use today come from ancient drawings of the items they are meant to describe. This can be very helpful for those learning Chinese for the first time. A common example is a word for mountain “shan, 山.” The three points of the character are meant to resemble the three peaks of a mountain ridge.

6. Chinese Handwriting Is the Most Unrecognizable

While most of us in the West have a hard time recognizing the handwriting on our prescriptions, the Chinese struggle with handwriting in almost every situation. This is due to the large variation in writing styles and the changes that occur between typed text and handwritten characters.

For example, the most used character (de, 的) has a very neat structure when typed here but becomes almost unrecognizable (a couple of loops) when scrawled at speed by native speakers of Chinese. Because we learn from books where clearly font text is used, making the transition to reading handwritten Chinese is incredibly difficult for language learners.

7. Chinese Is One of the Oldest Languages Still in Use

A man draws characters carefully with a brush and water in the park.

The origin of Chinese comes from the discovery of the famous Oracle Bones and what is believed to be the earliest samplings of Chinese script. These bones date from the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE). With such a rich history, Chinese has obviously undergone many changes and influences due to wars and cultural shifts. However, the language has taken these all in stride and continued to grow.

8. Chinese Is a Tonal Language

If you are an English speaker first learning Chinese, the most difficult part may very well be the five tones. Since Chinese is a tonal language, the meaning of your words can change drastically based on the tone you use to pronounce them.

For example, the syllable ma can have multiple different meanings depending on whether you speak it using the first, second, third, fourth, or fifth (neutral) tone: mā má mǎ mà ma. This can cause some serious errors for Chinese learners. You don’t want to slip up and call your mother (妈, mā) a horse (马, mǎ).

9. The Most Complicated Character in Chinese Is…

biang Chinese character

You might be thinking it would be difficult to pick one character as the MOST difficult and complex out of all the varied characters in Chinese. However, there is one character so complex it stands out from the rest: biang. and it takes a total of 57 strokes or 11 radicals (pictographic parts) to write. It’s an onomatopoeia for the sound of noodles slapping against the chef’s table. The word occurs in the famous biangbiang noodle dish, (biángbiáng miàn).

[𪚥 (zhé ‘verbose’) and 𠔻 (zhèng 'flourishing’) each have 64 strokes, but both repeat a radical four times, so aren’t really so complicated.]

10. Borrowed Words from English Might Sound Familiar

When you’re walking around China, you might be surprised at the number of words you’re able to pick up quickly. Thanks to an increase in exposure to Western culture, Chinese has many loanwords, or words borrowed from English, in use today. Some examples include: kafei (咖啡 /kaa-fay/) = coffee, shafa (沙发 /shaa-faa/) = sofa, and qiaokeli (巧克力 /chyaow-ker-lee/) = chocolate.

Chinese (Hànyǔ), also known as Mandarin Chinese, Chinese, etc., belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language, at least 1.5 billion users worldwide, is the official language in China, Singapore, and also is one of the six working languages. The main circulation in China and Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and other southeast Asian countries and the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and other countries of the Chinese community. Generally speaking, Chinese refers to Mandarin Chinese.

Chinese is an analysis language with three to fifteen tones. The Chinese character is a kind of ideo-phonograph, which has the function of both ideogram and phonograph. The Chinese language includes both spoken and written parts. Ancient written Chinese is called classical Chinese, and modern written Chinese is called vernacular Chinese, which is standardized in modern standard Chinese.

Chinese has a standard language and dialect. The modern standard Chinese is the standard pronunciation of Beijing, the dialect based on official dialect and the canonical modern vernacular works. There are five tones, and the online Xinhua dictionary now contains 20,959 Chinese characters. Chinese is generally divided into 13 dialects (such as ISO 639-3 international language codes), which can be divided into multiple dialects. Level 13 kinds of Chinese dialects: mandarin language官话, Jin language晋语, Cantonese language粤语, Xiang language湘语, Wu language吴语, Hui language徽语, Gan language赣语, Hakka language客家语, Minbei language闽北语, Hokkien language闽南语, Mindong language闽东语, Minzhong language闽中语and Puxian dialect莆仙话.

Mandarin is the most common language in the world as it is the official language of Mainland China, Taiwan, and one of the official languages of Singapore. Thus, Mandarin is commonly referred to as “Chinese.”

But in fact, it is just one of many Chinese languages. China is an old and vast country geographically speaking, and the many mountain ranges, rivers, and deserts create natural regional borders.

Over time, each region has developed its own spoken language. Depending on the region, Chinese people also speak Wu, Hunanese, Jiangxinese, Hakka, Yue (including Cantonese-Taishanese), Ping, Shaojiang, Min, and many other languages. Even in one province, there can be multiple languages spoken. For example, in Fujian province, you can hear Min, Fuzhounese, and Mandarin being spoken, each being very distinct from the other.

Dialect vs. Language

Classifying these Chinese languages as dialects or languages is a contested topic. They are often classified as dialects, but they have their own vocabulary and grammar systems. These different rules make them mutually unintelligible. A Cantonese speaker and a Min speaker will not be able to communicate with each other. Similarly, a Hakka speaker will not be able to understand Hunanese, and so on. Given these major differences, they could be designated as languages.

On the other hand, they all share a common writing system (Chinese characters). Even though characters can be pronounced in completely different ways depending on what language/dialect one speaks, the written language is understandable across all regions. This supports the argument that they are dialects of the official Chinese language – Mandarin.

Different Types of Mandarin

It is interesting to note, though, that Mandarin itself is broken up into dialects spoken mostly in China’s northern regions. Many large and established cities, like Baoding, Beijing Dalian, Shenyang, and Tianjin, have their own particular style of Mandarin that vary in pronunciation and grammar. Standard Mandarin, the official Chinese language, is based on the Beijing dialect.

Chinese Tonal System

All types of Chinese have a tonal system. Meaning, the tone in which a syllable is uttered determines its meaning. Tones are very important when it comes to differentiating between homonyms.

Mandarin Chinese has four tones, but other Chinese languages have more. Yue (Cantonese), for example, has nine tones. The difference in tonal systems is another reason why the different forms of Chinese are mutually unintelligible and are considered by many as separate languages.

Different Written Chinese Languages

Chinese characters have a history dating back more than two thousand years. The early forms of Chinese characters were pictographs (graphic representations of real objects), but characters became more and more stylized over time. Eventually, they came to represent ideas as well as objects.

Each Chinese character represents a syllable of the spoken language. Characters represent words and meanings, but not every character is used independently.

In an attempt to improve literacy, the Chinese government began simplifying characters in the 1950s. These simplified characters are used in Mainland China, Singapore, and Malaysia, while Taiwan and Hong Kong still use the traditional characters.