Ceci Liang

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THE SMALL PRINT

I love communicating with children and delivery knowledge in a relaxing way. Here are some tips of learning Mandarin and Cantoneses.

1. Be careful of tones

Both Mandarin and Cantonese are tonal languages, which means that speaking the same word with different pitch will give the word different meanings. Mandarin has 4-5 primary tones, and Cantonese has 8-9. Attempts have been made at Romanization (using of the "abc" alphabet) of Chinese words to assist with language learning. However, if you wish to speak Chinese with proper tones, it is highly recommended that you use an audio-based program and focus your efforts on reproducing the sounds that you hear.

2. Learn Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese) in phrases rather than memorizing individual vocabulary character

Chinese, like other languages, has many words that have the same/similar meaning but are used in particular contexts. Therefore, most students will find it more efficient to learn vocabulary "in context", meaning in phrases where the vocabulary is used.Building vocabulary by learning phrases that contain vocabulary will help to make your communication understood by context, even if your tones are a bit off at first.

3. Do need to emphasise on grammatical rules

The complexity of Chinese vocabulary is partially offset by the simplicity of it's grammatical structure. And in languages full of exceptions-to-rules (especially in Cantonese), you'll advance more quickly by absorbing a "feeling" for grammatical structure through practice and exposure, rather than intellectual understanding of rules. It's simply more effective to learn how to speak Chinese in the manner that a child learns to speak and language - by listening and repeating what you hear over and over. Imagine asking a 8 year old child if a noun goes before a verb -- he probably won't know, but he will be able to say a sentence correctly.

4. Focus on frequent practice

A real key to learning Chinese is repeated exposure to the language. In the beginning, this means listening to your audio programs/lessons as often as possible. Soon you'll notice your ability to distinguish and reproduce the tones of Chinese becoming more honed, and you'll speak with proper grammar because it "sounds right". There is simply no substitute for frequent practice when getting started - you won't learn these skills from a book. Listen in your car, while you work out, or set aside some time each morning and evening to immerse yourself in the audios.