CHINESE LEARN MANDARIN

Learning and Speaking The Chinese Way

Archive for May, 2009

The beauty of languageThe Chinese language is a complicated communication system that has numerous written characters as well as a number of different dialects. If you are interested in learning how to speak Mandarin, you will first need to understand the basics of this Chinese dialect.

Mandarin was originally defines as a group of dialects that was spoken by the people of Beijing as well as the area of northern China. The term is now used to describe the standard Chinese language, in which case it is the type that is spoken by the largest amount of Chinese people. This language is spoken in the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of China (Taiwan), and is one of four official languages that are spoken in Singapore. This factor means that your knowledge of this language will allow for easier communication with the greatest number of Chinese-speaking countries, making your decision to learn to speak Mandarin a good one.

Mandarin pronunciationThe mandarin language utilizes the Pinyin alphabet, which is Latin based and uses four different tones. There are many Web sites that allow you to hear these tones as you learn to speak Mandarin. The following are a few basic phrases that you can learn to help you to become acquainted with the Mandarin pronunciation.

1. Ni Hao - Pronounced like "Nee How." Translates into "You Good" and
can be used as a greeting.

2. Xie Xie - Pronounced like "Shi-e Shi-e" or "Zhi-Zhi." It means "Thank
you" in Mandarin.

3. Bu Ke Qi - Pronounced like "Boo Ker Chi" with the "r" in "Ker" being
pronounced with a British accent. It means "You’re Welcome."

4. Tai Hao Le - Pronounced like "Thai Hao Lah." It means "Wonderful."

5. Na Li Na Li - Pronounced "Nah Lee Nah Lee." This phrase is the proper
Chinese response when someone compliments you or your spouse.
You should not use the term "Xie Xie" as this is not the way the
Chinese respond to compliments.

6. Wo Jiao - Pronounced "Wah Jee Ow." It means "My Name is…" and
you should fill in your name.

7. Wu de ming je shi - Pronounced "Wuu Duh Meeng Jee Shi". It also
means "My name is…"

8. Da Jia Hao - Pronounced as "Dah Jee Ah How." Loosely translated, it
means "Hello, everyone," Good day, everyone," or "wish everyone
well." This is a good opening if you are planning on making a speech
to a Mandarin-speaking audience.

9. Zao Shang - Pronounced like "Zow Shahng." It means "Good Morning."

10. Xia Shang - Pronounced like "Shee ah Shahng." It means "Good Afternoon."

11. Wan Shang - Pronounced like "Wahn Shahng." It means "Good Evening."

12. Zai Jian - Pronounced like "Zigh Jee In." It means "Goodbye."

13. Wo Hui Yi Dianr Zhong Wen - Pronounced like "Waw Hway Ee Dee In A Zah Hoong Wun" It Means: "I speak a little Chinese."

Chinese conducting a promotionThese are just a few basic conversational phrases that you can use when you learn to speak Mandarin. There are a few helpful tips that you may want to keep in mind when using these phrases. You should always repeat them as this is the way the Chinese conduct themselves during a conversation. You should smile as this is part of the Chinese etiquette system and avoid shrugging, as this has no meaning in the Chinese culture.

When you want to learn to speak Mandarin, you must also be sure to have the proper tone in your speech as well as maintaining Chinese etiquette, so that you can be clearly understood while giving no offense.

Author: Shun Minh

The 4 ultimate tips for learning Chinese
You should follow these tips on how to learn to speak Chinese, whether your goal is just to learn more and to be able to carry out a conversations.

Learning Mandarin: A Few Tips
Mandarin is one of the most useful languages to learn, with a large part of the world able to speak it.

Top 10 Most Spoken Languages In The World
Beating second-place English by a 2 to 1 ratio, but don’t let that lull you into thinking that Mandarin is easy to learn.

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When I tell people that I speak and write fluent Chinese, they usually respond, "That’s impossible. Isn’t Chinese the hardest language in the world?" I tell them that one thing makes Mandarin Chinese easy to learn: there are so many people to practice with!

Internet usageChina has probably already surpassed the US in Internet usage. One estimation says that around 200 million people in China are on the ‘net (that’s more surfers than the US, but still only 1/6 of the Chinese population). Many of these Chinese Internet surfers are curious about the outside world, and eager to make friends with foreigners. All you need is a place to meet online.

Once you find Chinese friends, learning the language is a breeze. Since English is a required class through High School in China, the first barrier to communication is gone. If you are willing to help each other out, perhaps agreeing to split your chatting time half-and-half English and Chinese, you’ll both be improving your language skills. Chinese Character

Chinese writing is one of the hardest barriers to crack when learning the Chinese language. However, don’t worry about learning brush strokes and calligraphythis is the Internet age. Most people use Pinyin, which is essentially the English alphabet, to input Chinese characters on their computer on a normal keyboard. It’s just a matter of remembering how to spell the words, and Pinyin is much simpler than English spelling! For example, type "ni hao" and the two Chinese characters meaning "Hello!" will show up. Most computers already have this input method installed as an option.

Recognizing characters is even easier, especially when you see them used in conversation. There are hundreds of dictionary websites where you can copy and paste Chinese characters, and see the meaning and pronunciation. Chinese characters are designed to be memorable, with different parts to indicate both meaning and pronunciation. It’s not as hard as it looks! And if you have any questions on the meaning of a character, ask someone online. Finally, if you don’t feel like learning any characters, just chat in Pinyin (writing Chinese with the English alphabet) and you can concentrate on conversation skills, vocabulary, and cultural exchange.

Author: Craig Batts

How to Learn Chinese Online: Learn Mandarin the Cheap and Easy Way

Online Chinese lessons are the best option for busy people to learn on their own schedule and at their own pace. … There are a large number of companies that provide free tutors.

CTSS - Chat Translator and Speaker for Skype - Skype Developer
Maybe you can even all get together all at the same time by creating a Skype chat based in another language and practice learning new languages in a Skype Group chat?

A beginner tutorial on learning Chinese
One of the most innovative ways to learn Chinese is by joining a chat room or virtual reality environment. The design of software programs have allowed the use of multi-lingual input.

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Many people would love to be able to learn an addition language. There are many benefits to learning a second, third or even fourth language. It is common knowledge that prospects that are capable of speaking more than one language make more money than those only capable of speaking one language.

Chinese WritingsIt is also important to be able to speak the basics of a language whenever you travel to another country for a business or personal trip. English, French, Spanish and Chinese are often the most sought after languages that people wish to learn. If you wish to learn Chinese then you will need to be able to decipher each Chinese character.

In order to be able to learn to read Chinese writing you will need to be able to understand Chinese characters. There are many different methods that can be used to learn Chinese characters. It is possible to learn how to read Chinese writing one your own using videos, books, and flashcards. You can also enroll in a university or school that offers Chinese classes. You can also enroll in an online school and learn to read Chinese writing over the internet. There are plenty of online schools that offer Chinese courses.

There are many advantages to learn how to read Chinese writing and Chinese character over the internet as opposed to enrolling in a school or university. MANDO MANDARIN is an online school that provides students with live lessons with certified private Chinese tutors residing in China. These lessons will teach you how to write Chinese character in your own home, office, or school. Free online chinese lesson

Enrolling in an online school means that you will not have to commute back and forth. This means that you’ll save a lot of gas money as well as reduce the amount of wear and tear you put on your vehicle.

MANDO MANDARIN uses a unique method that incorporates unique teaching materials and distinguished textbooks to ensure that you learn to read Chinese writing with the least effort in the shortest amount of time possible.

The online school uses a fun yet effective method to make sure that you will learn Chinese character within a short period of time. The good thing about the method used by the MANDO MANDARIN is that it doesn’t require the student to do any self studying or any homework whatever so ever.

People who wish to learn to read Chinese writing will be happy to learn that the school offers a unique system to teach you how to do it. The school will teach you how to read the one hundred and eight most commonly used Chinese radicals. You will also learn each radical’s name, origin, and meaning. By learning each of the one hundred and eight radicals you will be able to recognize each Chinese character much easier. You will also learn how to write these Chinese characters. In just about four hours of schooling you will be able to learn the eight basic character strokes and structures.

By: Vikram kuamr

Character Development
"You can’t learn to read Chinese without memorizing the characters, and you can’t memorize the characters without writing them many many times."

Is Chinese Character difficult to learn?
"Writing Chinese is becoming easier with modern technology (but that may further erode the basic ability to write it or read it), but it still requires an enormous input of time to learn."

6 Ways of Forming Chinese Characters
"Once you know these 6 types of Chinese characters, you’ll find that learning Chinese writing isn’t so difficult after all."

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China

China used to be an isolated country that few people knew anything about. Today, due to the vast numbers of products that this country is exporting to the rest of the globe, Chinese is becoming an international language in the business world. If you wish to learn how to speak Chinese, there are several online classes as well computer software available to help you in your quest.

To learn how to speak Chinese, there are several things that you will want to keep in mind. There are several different dialects spoken in the various areas of the country. Many of these spoken languages sound nothing alike, and are based on the tones in which certain words are spoken. These dialects include Mandarin, Cantonese, Putonghua, and Pinyin.

When learning how to speak Chinese, you may want to work with the Mandarin dialect. This type of Chinese is mainly spoken in Beijing and the area of northern China. The spoken language of this dialect consists of four different tones.

If you wish to learn how to speak Chinese, the Cantonese dialect may be of interest to you. This is the type of Chinese language that is spoken by most Chinese-American immigrants and is spoken mainly in the southeastern part of the country. The Cantonese dialect consists of nine different tones and is nothing like its Mandarin counterpart.

The official Chinese dialect that is used in the government as well as the schools is called Putonghua, and may be the best type for you to utilize when learning how to speak Chinese. This dialect is the based on the Mandarin type, and is the mandatory language that every Chinese citizen is expected to speak.

Pinyin SystemThe Pinyin system is an alphabet that may help you to learn how to speak Chinese. This writing system is Latin based and was developed in the 1950 to replace the Wade-Giles system, which did not represent the sounds very accurately. The government has begun using this method in educational programs so that the natives can learn to write in Chinese using this form of alphabet. The Pinyin system is based on the Putonghua dialect, using this dialect’s sounds to orally represent Chinese written characters.

When learning how to speak Chinese, there is also a simplified system that is used everywhere that may be of interest to you. When China was the People’ Republic of China, the simplified dialect was the language of choice for government officials, which in turn expected all the citizens to learn it as well.

In areas such as Hong Kong and Taiwan where Chinese is spoken, the dialect is much older and utilizes much more complex symbols when compared with the other types of dialects. If you are learning how to speak Chinese, this dialect may not be the best for you to start with due to these complexities.

If you wish to learn how to speak Chinese, you will first need to decide the dialect that you wish to study. For business practices, you will probably wish to study Putonghua as well as the Pinyin alphabet system. This dialect will enable you to deal with contracts as well as to communicate with anyone that you might happen to meet in the business world.

Author: Shun Minh

Tips to Learn Chinese
Here are some tips on learning Chinese or Mandarin taken from http:// www.wikihow.com/ Learn-Mandarin-Chinese: Start small. Don’t push yourself to do too.

Learn to Speak Mandarin Chinese
Moreover, it is much earise to fef speak Mandarin Chinese than ever before. You can hire Chinese language tutors online or learning Chinese online for free. It’s one of the best ways.

Learning Chinese - Why Learn Chines
To take advantage of this huge economic shift and opportunities, learning to speak Chinese is a great way to give your children an advantage in the increasingly competitive business world.

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Mandarin Chinese I 2nd edition bookFirst things first: Which Chinese to Learn?

Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan. It is the dialect of the majority in Mainland China and the Chinese overseas. Cantonese is not as commonly used since Britain’s turnover of Hong Kong to China. It may become a dialect that is used among family and friends.or business purposes, Mandarin is more practical to learn. ChildBook has also carried Cantonese products in the past that took forever to sell.

Learning Chinese at Home

A great way to start your children in learning the Chinese Language is through Learn Chinese DVDs and videos and audio CDs. These DVDs are specially designed to optimally expose your child to the tones of Chinese with fun things to watch. The learning pace in DVDs are carefully programmed to help your child remember the words and phrases. Chinese songs on CDs on the other hand, are great to use while travelling or during your child’s relaxation time. For bigger children, Chinese stories on CDs can be played to expose them further to more Chinese vocabulary and sentence construction.

If one parent speaks Chinese, arrangements can be made that 1 parent will speak to the children in Chinese and the other will speak to them in English. Kids have an amazing ability to keep up with each parent’s language.

Exposing Children to Native Chinese Speakers

Chinese TutorChinese tutors are available to teach children and even the entire family to speak Chinese. Check online or newspaper ads for available tutors.
Play dates with children who are learning or already know Chinese is a fantastic way to expose your kids.
Another option is to hire Chinese-speaking baby sitters. Local universities often have students who are half-Chinese or spouses of Chinese. This can be an option you can try.

Other families get au pairs from China.

Some families hire Chinese nannies to ensure the children grow up hearing the native Chinese tones. Be careful in the hiring though. Truth to be told, there is a large number of people in the US from China who don’t have the necessary papers but are working as nannies. Nannies also take care of your children, so picking the right person is extremely important, especially if they live with you. Friends of ours have gone through multiple nannies and it was not a good experience.

Learning Chinese Online

There are online Chinese programs available for adult English speakers. So far, ChildBook is not aware if there are any online programs available for English speaking children.

Chinese Private Schools

Traditionally, non-public Chinese schools teach a child the Chinese language when the child is old enough to sit still and copy characters. Most schools still use the method of rote teaching used in China and Taiwan. Children in the US are very independent, therefore the rote method may not be the best way for children to learn the words and characters. Instead, the Montessori or ESL method may be used to interest the kids to learn Chinese. These methods place emphasis on using Chinese in conversation . Other programs that teach using a lot of singing and other fun activities will definitely make children learn Chinese easier.

Summer Camps

Chinese summer camps expose the child to full immersion of the Chinese language. Summer camps may be a weekend trip in the US, a full boarding school stay, or travelling to live for several weeks to China or Taiwan. ChildBook produces the largest list of Chinese summer camps available so stay tuned for updates.

Learning Chinese Materials Learn-Chinese Materials

There are a lot of products available in the market to help children learn Chinese. Books, videos, audio CDs/ cassettes and software can be used at home to learn Chinese. These materials not only expose the child to vocabulary or tones, but also show the beauty of Chinese culture. These materials can also be used for parents and children to spend time together.

Books

A big challenge to teaching Chinese from books is that one parent/ adult should know how to read it. For families who are starting to learn from scratch together, bi-lingual books are a big help. Story books that can be read along with audio CDs are useful to learn the proper pronunciation. A great introductory book to reading and writing Chinese characters is Long is the Dragon. For smaller children, I Won’t Bite is a very interesting material. Kids will be able to touch and feel the different types of animal skin textures.

Videos

Videos teach through engaging visuals, songs, and repetitive vocabulary. Viewers will also be exposed to how different places and persons look like. In 1 DVD of the Follow Jade series, Teacher Jade goes to a Chinese Kindergarten. Children will be able to compare how their own school and classmates look like. The Bao Bei series has 5 enjoyable videos that teach Chinese vocabulary of a lot of common words. Bao Bei is a panda puppet that children will like to study Chinese words.

Audio CDs

Chinese CDs can be grouped into 2:
100% Chinese songs and stories. Some do not have printed guides, others include a book/ booklet Learn-Chinese CDs specifically designed for those learning Chinese as a second language. These CDs usually include books, booklets with Chinese, English and Pinyin. Songs are sung in both Chinese and English, or booklets show the English translations. For example, the songs in Teach Me Chinese Book and CD are popular and sung in both English and Chinese. Parents can also learn songs to sing for their children, such as Happy Birthday. This series also comes with a Teacher Guide. Other Learn-Chinese Book and CD series such as Sing and Learn Chinese Series and Let’s Sing Chinese also engages its listeners with interesting songs.

Software

So far, ChildBook is still waiting for a very highly recommended software that is easy for learners to use.

By: Ray Ritchey

Learn Chinese the Easy Way: Basic Mandarin for Children
The official language of China and Taiwan is Mandarin. The dialect is the majority in Mainland China and the Chinese overseas. Cantonese is not as commonly used since Britain’s turnover of Hong Kong.

Helping Children to Learn Chinese Language -Childbook.com
Blog by the owner of Childbook.com, which since 1997 been helping Children Learn Chinese language and the Culture by supplying quality English and Chinese Children Books, Videos, Songs.

Tips to help kids learn Chinese for non-Chinese speaking parents
Studies have shown that children learn language much more from live speakers than they do from recorded ones. So by all means, engage your kids with native-Chinese speakers as much as you can. 

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Are you trying to to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese, but don’t know that best place to do it? From a recent experience, I have come to the conclusion that it is always best to take take an online course to learn any foreign language.

Their are five main reasons why I would suggest using an online course;
thousand dollars1. Price- If you were to take a local class, you may end up spending over ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS. That is your hard-earned money quickly being wasted for a mediocre class. With an online program, you will get a much better program, and SAVE HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS.

2. Time- Personally, I live a busy life. I would not have time to attend every class at a specific time. With an online program, I am able to learn what I want, when I want. This may also help if you have a certain date that you need to learn by. Chances are your class will last over 3 months, but you can set your own deadline with an online program.

online education3. Lifetime supply of education- Once your local class ends, your education goes with it. But, with an online course you will have the same information for the rest of your life. If you need to look over something, you can simply log onto your computer and re-read.

4. Appearance- To most this may seem like a minor factor, but it can really be a hassle. It is very important to worry about your appearance walking out of the door to class, but that is not how I want to spend my life. With an online program you can literally work in your pajamas!

 

online teachers5. Teacher accents- In the first class that I attended, my teacher could barely even speak English. This created a huge set-back in my quest to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese. On the online course that I used, all of the video tutorials were in plain English, and everything was written for everyone to understand.

Based on these reasons, I hope that you make the right decision and learn Mandarin Chinese through an online program.

Author: Luke Hancock

Find the best way to learn mandarin chinese
Bad Reasons Not To Learn Chinese Find the best way to learn mandarin “Because it’s to hard” Well, yea…it can be if you approach it with a bad. 

New Way To Learn Chinese is Online
Communicate with a native Mandarin Chinese speaker is one of the best and easiest ways to learn Mandarin Chinese online. You can do this by using instant messagers. 

Learn to Speak Chinese » The best way to learn chinese characters?
Learn Chinese online magazine is very good way to know more about China and … Chinese Learner - Learn Chinese Online, Free Mandarin Chinese Lessons.

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