No matter what language you learn, the more words you master, the faster you will become fluent. Therefore, the next thing to do is to memorize some useful Chinese vocabulary. ^[2]

• Some good vocabularies to start include: time of day (morning:zǎo shàng; morning,afternoon:xià wǔ; afternoon,night:wǎn shàng; night) body part (head:tóu; head,foot:jiǎo; foot,hand: shǒu; hand) food (beef: niú ròu; beef, chicken: jī; chicken, egg: jī dàn; egg, Noodle: miàn tiáo; noodles) along with greeting, color, day of the week, month, shipping word, weather, etc.
• When you hear an English word, think about how you would say it in Mandarin. If you don't know what it is, write it down and look it up later, so you'll want to keep a small notebook with you. Place small Chinese labels (with Chinese characters, pinyin, and pronunciation) on items around your room, such as mirrors, coffee tables, and sugar bowls. You'll see these words so often that you'll learn them without even realizing it!
• Although having a broad vocabulary is a good thing, remember that in Mandarin, accuracy is more important. Although it says that it doesn’t matter if your pronunciation is not good, in fact, if you are just getting started or are curious and are learning for fun, it is It doesn’t matter, but if you’re doing business or communicating efficiently and fluently, accuracy is essential. There is no benefit in learning a word if you can't pronounce it correctly, using the correct intonation, as different pronunciations can have completely different meanings. For example, using the wrong tone (usingmāinstead ofmá) could be the difference between saying "I want cake" and "I want Coke" - two completely different meanings. You need to pay attention to some words that may cause other people to misunderstand. For example, "Huh?" expresses doubt, while "Ah." may mean perfunctory.

4.Learn how to count.

Fortunately, the number system in Mandarin is fairly simple and logical, and once you learn the first ten numbers, you can count to 99.

• Below you will see the numbers one to ten, written in simplified Chinese, followed by the Hanyu Pinyin translation and correct pronunciation. Make sure to practice using the correct tone of voice for each number.
  • one:writing (a) oryī, pronounced as[eee]
  • two:written as (ii) orèr,read[err]
  • three:writing (c) orsān,read[saan]
  • Four:written as (d) orsì,readdo [ssuh]
  • five:Writing (5) orwǔ,read[oo]
  • six:written as (6) orliù,read[lee-yoe]
  • seven:written as (seven) orqī,read[eng]
  • Eight:Writing (8) orbā,read[baa]
  • Nine:written as (nine) orjiǔ,read[jee-yoe]
  • ten:Writing (10) orshí,read[sh]
• Once you have mastered the numbers one through ten, you can do this by saying ten digits, then ten, followed by a one-digit number to continue counting in two-digit numbers. E.g:
• number 48 writingsì shí bā(forty-eight), which literally means "forty plus eight". number 30 writingsān shí(thirty), literally "three ten". number 19 writingyī shí jiǔ(一九), literally means "ten plus nine" (but in most Mandarin dialects, we omit the first letter in everyday conversationyī,Becomes "Nineteen". This makes communication more convenient and authentic).
• Hundred in Mandarin is (hundred) orbaǐ, so 100 is written asyì baǐ, 200 is written asèr baǐ, 300 is written assān baǐ,and many more.

5. Learn some basic conversational phrases.

Once you have a basic grasp of vocabulary and pronunciation, you can move on to learning basic conversational phrases used in everyday Chinese. 

• Hello– hello – nǐhǎo, pronounced[nee how]
• What is your last name?(formal) - your last name? - nín guì xìng, pronounced as[neen gway shing]
• or what is your last name? - nǐ xìng shén me ( inf. ), pronounced as[nee shing shurn muh]
• May I have your name?- What's your name? - nǐ jiào shén me míng zì, pronounced as[nee jee-ou shurn muh ming zi] ^[4]
• Yes– yes – shì, pronounced as[sh]
• Do not– not – bú shì, pronounced as[boo sh]
• thanks– Thank you – xiè xiè, pronounced as[shie shie]
• You're welcome – no thanks – bú yòng xiè, pronounced as[boo yong shee-e]
• Excuse me – sorry – duì bu qǐ, pronounced as[dway boo chee]
• I don't know– I don’t understand – wǒ bù dǒng, pronunciation[wuo boo downg]
• Goodbye – goodbye – zài jiàn, pronunciation[zay jee-en]

the second part

Improve your language skills

1. Learn basic grammar.

There is a common misunderstood knowledge point that there is no grammar in Chinese, but this is not the case. Chinese grammar rules do exist, but they are very different from those in Indo-European or other language systems. Chinese is a very analytical and adaptable language, which is both good news and bad news for language learners.

• In Chinese, for example, there are no complicated rules about conjugation, concord, gender, plural nouns, or tenses. Most words consist of single syllables, which are then combined into compound words. This makes sentence structure fairly simple.
• Moreover, the words in the sentences can be interchanged to a certain extent, such as "Have you had breakfast?", "Have you had breakfast?" and "Have you had breakfast?".
• However, Chinese has its own set of grammatical rules, and there are no corresponding grammatical rules in English or other Indo-European languages. For example, Chinese uses grammatical features such as classifiers, topic prominence, and aspect preference. Since these functions are not used in English, it may be difficult for learners to master them.
• For example, "delicious" and "majestic".
• However, despite the differences, Chinese does use the same word order as English, subject-verb-object, making word-for-word translation easier. For example, the English phrase "he likes cats" translates directly to "tā (he) xǐ huan (likes) māo (cats).

2.Learn how to use Pinyin.

Pinyin is a system of writing Mandarin using the Roman alphabet. Hanyu Pinyin is the most common form of this Roman pinyin and is used in many textbooks and teaching materials.

• Pinyin allows students learning Mandarin to focus on pronunciation, while also allowing them to read and write without having to learn complex Chinese characters. Although Pinyin uses the Roman alphabet, the pronunciation of its letters is often unintuitive to English speakers, which is why it is necessary to study it carefully before using it.
• For example, the letter "c" in Pinyin is pronounced as "ts" in "bits", the letter "e" is pronounced as "er" in "hers", and the letter "q" is pronounced like in the word "cheap" "ch". Because of these differences, you must learn the correct Pinyin pronunciation before using it as a guide.
• Although learning Pinyin pronunciation may seem painful, it can be very beneficial to your language learning and is still much easier than learning to recognize traditional and simplified Chinese characters.

3. Practice reading and writing Chinese characters.

The final hurdle in learning Mandarin is learning to read and write traditional characters. This can take a long time (even years) to master because the only way to learn them is through memorization and continuous practice.

• According to the BBC, there are more than 50,000 Chinese characters in existence, but most of them are rarely used, if ever. A well-educated Chinese might know about 8000 characters, but reading a newspaper only needs about 2000 characters.
• When writing Chinese characters, you first need to learn each of the 214 "radicals" - which are essentially the components of each character. Some radicals can stand on their own as separate characters, while others are used only in more complex characters.
• It is also very important to follow the correct stroke order when writing characters. However, let me tell you secretly that some native Chinese speakers do not write exactly according to the stroke order in the textbook, but this does not mean that it is not important. If you want to write well, you can only write according to the standard. Follow the stroke order specified in the textbook. Among them, a specific set of rules such as left to right, top to bottom, and horizontal before vertical.
• There are many Chinese practice books you can purchase that will guide you through the correct strokes to form characters. These are usually intended for elementary school students, but are useful for anyone trying to learn Chinese characters. It’s best to buy one designed specifically for foreigners, such as Hanban’s Happy Chinese, which you can use as it also has an English translation.
• One of the main benefits of learning Chinese characters is that you also gain access to Cantonese, Japanese, Korean and other literature, as these languages all have more or less in common influences from the Chinese language.

the third part

Immerse yourself in Mandarin