Foreign Languages

The most effective ways to learn Chinese

Currently, in developed countries, Chinese is the most chosen language alongside English. Ways to learn Chinese effectively is what many learners of this language seek to quickly master, open up many future career opportunities or simply learn Chinese as a way to develop themselves.

1. Why should learn Chinese?

Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world with approximately 1,310,000,000 speakers, of which 898,000,000 speak Mandarin. Thus, 16% of the global population speaks Chinese.

Learning Chinese is easier than you think, because you don’t have to worry about verbs, plurals, no tenses, and no conjugations. Furthermore, there are now more than 80,000 characters in Chinese, but usually only 3,500 are in common use.

Career opportunities will open up when learning Chinese when China now invests in the Vietnamese market with many companies in different fields. When recruiting people, in addition to the general professional requirements, having an English certificate, Chinese language skills are always prioritized.

See also: Chinese courses

2. Is learning Chinese difficult?

Learning any language will have its own difficulties and eases, so is Chinese. The easy point when learning Chinese is the cultural similarity of the two neighboring countries, because Chinese is quite similar to Vietnamese when both have tones and patterns. Therefore, the listening and speaking parts will have many similarities that make pronunciation easier than in other countries. When pronouncing, Vietnamese people will not feel embarrassed or their mouth is not correct, so that learners can grasp and apply very quickly.

Is Chinese difficult and at what point? Speaking of difficulties, it can be mentioned that Chinese character is a hieroglyphic system, which is different from Latin system, so when you first start learning Chinese, you will not be able to help but feel confused, difficulties in learning and writing characters. However, do not worry too much, although kanji is difficult, but it also has certain rules, once you master it, you will feel that kanji has a lot of meaning and fun. Therefore, you need to have effective ways to learn Chinese.

3. Determine whether to learn traditional or simplified Chinese?

To determine what type of Chinese you want to study, you need to understand what the concept of Traditional and Simplified Chinese is.

Traditional Chinese characters are officially used in Taiwan, but people in Hong Kong and Macau often use more traditional Chinese characters.

Simplified Chinese characters are officially used in China, in addition, Singapore also often uses this script because of its simplicity in learning and writing.

If you are a foreigner who has just started to learn Chinese, you should choose to learn simplified characters that are both easier to learn and much simpler than traditional characters. After learning simplified characters, if you feel interested in Chinese culture and history, you can study more traditional characters. Whether you choose Simplified or Traditional Chinese, there are basic ways to learn Chinese as below.

See also: Foreign languages

4. Chinese self-study steps for beginners

4.1. Learn Chinese pronunciation

In Chinese, intonation is perhaps the most basic part. You should start by focusing on transcription. In which, phonetic = vowel + consonant + tone.

    • Vowel: There are 35 vowels.
    • Consonant: There are 21 consonants, including 18 single consonants and 3 double consonants, and 2 informal consonants y and w are vowels i and u when it is at the beginning of a sentence.
    • Tone: There are 4 tones, including bar 1, bar 2, bar 3, and bar 4.

4.2. Learn Chinese alphabets

Chinese alphabet is also the pinyin table dedicated to learning pronunciation, applicable to both simplified and traditional. Pinyin was born mainly to make it easier for foreigners to learn Chinese because it is a Latin alphabet.

4.3. Learn 214 Chinese characters

After learning the alphabet, we move on to learning the primordial carefully because the primordial is the only way to find out the meaning of words, similar related words and word combinations.

Example:

    • 液 – ye: fluid
    • 河 – he: river
    • 泡 – pào: foam

The three words above all have a set of water (3 water dots 氵) in front of them, so their meanings are related to water.

Example:

    • 时 – shi: time
    • 区 – qu: area

When two words are combined, we get the word 时区 which means time zone, including time and location.

4.4. Learn to write Chinese characters

After learning phonetics, you need to have a firm grasp of the writing system. In Chinese, there are 8 basic strokes and 8 main rules. To learn to write Chinese, it is imperative to master those rules.

    • Basics strokes of Chinese
      • Horizontal stroke: horizontal line, drag from left to right
      • Window stroke: vertical line, drag from top to bottom
      • Dotted stroke: a dot from top to bottom
      • Fluffy stroke: curved line, going up from left to right
      • Comma stroke: curved line, drag down from right to left
      • Marking stroke: straight line, drag down from left to right
      • Folded stroke: there is a fold in the middle of the stroke
      • Crochet stroke: the crochet stroke at the end of the other strokes
    • Order of writing rules in Chinese
      • Rule 1: Horizontal front to back
      • Rule 2: Comma before and after
      • Rule 3: Top before, bottom after
      • Rule 4: Left before, right after
      • Rule 5: Outside, first in, behind
      • Rule 6: First in, last out
      • Rule 7: Between front and back

Note: Between front and back is applied when the two sides are symmetrical, not similar.

4.5. Learn Chinese vocabulary

    • Converting words into pictures: Chinese is a figurative language, so it is imperative that we enhance our imagination. You can think of an image related to Chinese vocabulary, it doesn’t have to be true for all, just suitable for you is enough.
    • Magic flashcards: 50% improvement in memory is a study by University of Washington for using flashcards when learning a foreign language. You can easily take it with you to study anywhere, anytime, especially with new words that will be explained thoroughly and have specific examples.
    • Writing, writing and writing: Typing on a computer is what makes us passive and forget about the characters in Chinese. Instead of learning by typing on a computer, you can write by hand many times. Each time you put the handwriting, remember more and more.
    • Verbal repetition: You don’t speak but only learn, it’s just plain knowledge. Only when you say it with your own mouth will not only help you check pronunciation but also help you remember longer.
    • Memorizing words in context: Memorizing vocabulary is not about memorizing individual letters. That is learning words in sentences, sentences in paragraphs and paragraphs in lessons. You have to learn in each context to apply in each situation.
    • Perception through music: Each melody of the song will be absorbed so quickly that you will be surprised. So why not through songs to memorize vocabulary?

4.6. Learn Chinese grammar

    • Use your notebook to put all your grammar in clusters: For example, you can allocate pages 1-20 for the types of complements, pages 21-30 for special adverbs, pages 31-40 for special sentence structures…
    • Learn grammar systematically instead of independently: With modern Chinese, in terms of sentence structure, it can be divided into basic structured sentences and specially structured sentences. In which, basic sentences will comply with 1 subject – 1 predicate – 1 object, while special sentences or the order of sentence components will be reversed, or not comply with the number of 1-1-1.
    • Smart note-taking: When learning a new grammar, first sort out where it is in your notebook. Next, whether it is an adverb, a particle, or a complement, you should write down the structure of the affirmative, negative, or interrogative form (if any), with lots of examples.
    • Think about whether this grammar is similar or opposite to Vietnamese: Try to find as many comparisons as possible between Chinese and a language you are familiar with, this will make it much easier to remember.

4.7. Practice communicating in Chinese

Regardless of learning any language, communication skills are always considered the most important because the ultimate purpose of a language is to help learners communicate with each other. You can learn Chinese for everyday communication with simple topics or through the following ways:

    • Watching Chinese movies and listening to music improves listening skill: This is an easy and effective method to apply. Watching movies and listening to music will help you accumulate vocabulary.
    • Learn basic Chinese learning applications: Popular Chinese learning applications such as Hello Chinese, Hello Talk, Super Chinese, Pandarow… help you learn anywhere, in your free time, you can open it to review your knowledge.

4.8. Choose the right Chinese curriculum

There are many books, but not all books bring high learning efficiency. That’s why, before you start learning, find the type of communication Chinese textbook that suits you best.

    • Boya curriculum: Boya curriculum focuses on grammar, vocabulary, long conversations, lots of exercises to practice and encapsulates a lot of knowledge.
    • Chinese language textbook: Chinese language textbook consists of 6 books, is divided according to increasing level, so it is very suitable for beginners. When you follow the curriculum, you will have a relatively basic knowledge of both grammar and vocabulary.

These above are the most common ways to learn Chinese that everyone has to go through, however, depending on the specific field such as factory Chinese, Chinese for import and export, Chinese for exam preparation, Chinese for translation, … that each person will develop different ways of learning accordingly.

5. Ways to learn Chinese easy to remember and memorize for long time

As with any language, no matter what method you learn, one of the easiest ways to learn and remember is to learn by topic. If you learn vocabulary but learn it in an embracing way, every time you see every word you start to learn, you will be very confused and quickly forget it after a while. Therefore, when learning Chinese, you should divide the topic to learn, learn according to the pathway, thereby linking the vocabulary, structure, and sentence patterns together. And another thing that is equally important is to maintain the habit of learning Chinese every day, so that you can achieve a high efficiency in learning.

6. Where to find Chinese learning materials?

Currently, there are many types of Chinese language books on the market that are appreciated by many people, bringing success to learners in a short time. Most of the textbooks such as MUSTONG, HSK from level 1 to level 6, 301 Chinese conversation sentences, Chinese – Vietnamese dictionary with pictures… have both hard and soft copies. You can easily find it in bookstores or download so you can learn Chinese at home, if you persevere, you will surely conquer the foreign language you pursue.

See also: Effective Chinese textbooks and materials

7. Where is a good place to learn Chinese?

Chinese is already popular, so the number of centers that teach this language is not rare. Depending on your needs and learning goals, you can choose a reputable and quality training center, based on the evaluation criteria of those around you.

Intertu Education is currently enrolling students for communicative English, academic English, specialized English, business English, Chinese, French, Spanish. If you have any questions, please contact us directly, via email or hotline for a free consultation.