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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. For this purpose, it is convenient to carry a small notebook with you. Put small Chinese labels (with Chinese characters, pinyin, and pronunciation) on items around your home, such as mirrors, coffee tables, and sugar bowls. You will see these words so often that you will learn them before you know it!
• While it's good to have a broad vocabulary, remember that in Mandarin, accuracy is more important. There is no benefit to learning a word if you can't pronounce it correctly and use the correct tone, because 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.

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(19), literally "ten plus nine" (but in most dialects of Mandarin the initials are omitted from the numbers for teenagersyī , as it is considered unnecessary).
• 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 misconception that grammar doesn't exist in Chinese, but it doesn't. Chinese grammar rules do exist, it's just that they are very different from those in Indo-European or other language systems. Unlike these languages, Chinese is a very analytical language, which can be 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.
• 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.
• 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 like a pain, it is very beneficial for your language learning and is still much easier than learning to recognize traditional 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 important to follow the correct stroke order when writing characters. You need to follow a specific set of rules, such as left-to-right, top-to-bottom, and horizontal then vertical.
• There are many Chinese workbooks you can buy that will guide you to form the characters correctly. These are usually for elementary school students, but are useful for anyone trying to learn Chinese characters. It's better to buy a copy that is specially designed for foreign countries, such as Happy Chinese that you can use Hanban, because it also has an English translation.
• One of the main benefits of learning Chinese characters is that you also gain exposure to Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and other literary works that also use many traditional or simplified Chinese characters, even if the spoken language is different.

 

Part 3 Immersion in Mandarin Chinese