Learning Mandarin – Difficulties and Opportunities

Mandarin language studies are problematic. Mostly because Mandarin is unique from other languages that people in the west have made an effort to get to grips with before hoping to learn to speak chinese Chinese, not because learning Mandarin is much harder. Mandarin is strange for most ways. The writing system is obviously completely different. Presently there no alphabet as the one that Germanic and Latin derivates have. Instead an image defines every word; or rather a string of what is termed as strokes. For example, three stokes that together make a square means mouth, one combination of strokes that regarding depicts a woman holding a kid means mother while on. But right after don’t end and then there. The grammar is largely made up of what is called fibers. For example; adding a syllable pronounced ma after a sentence turns it into a question, adding guo after a sentence means that in which it happens in there are. Combining these basic examples; you go shanghai guo master of arts? Communicates the question: an individual have gone to Shanghai? The differences are however much more explicit that these. Even the sounds of spoken Chinese are completely different from western counterparts.

Chinese spoken words are not only based on syllables as western words are. Utilized for mother in English is just 6 different sounds noted by each character; M, O, T, H, E and R. In Chinese there is 2 syllables, not four characters, ma and ma. The twist is that “mama” can be pronounced in twenty-five approaches. Each of 2 syllables, ma and ma, can be pronounced with 5 different tones, developing a total matrix of 5 times 5 possibilities, and only one means mother. The tones are called tones but are generally not tones such as A minor or G, they are pitch modulation. The very tone is a somewhat steady high toss. The second is a rising pitch. 3rd tone goes down and then -up. The fourth is a sharp decline in pitch from high to low. The fifth is called the neutral tone and does not actually possess a modulation form.

All that sounds bloody difficult, make use of is, at least at first. So how do you best go about beginning to grips with the program? Because of course it’s very possible. In fact I know one lovely French girl called Julie, her Chinese is compared to her English. Additionally know a very talented German videographer that has lived in China only for three years; he often searches for that English word to describe something and upward saying it Offshore. Basically, I would argue, that Chinese is not so much bloody difficult as it’s not bloody different.