As our topic, if you are a beginner, also, you are not in a Mandarin-speaking environment, how can you learn Chinese/Mandarin well? Let’s see the advice from an experienced Chinese/Mandarin teacher.
First, you have to know what you’re learning.
Of course, you know you are learning Chinese /Mandarin. However, do you really know what it is?
Mandarin Chinese is a very different language compared with western languages, or, I should say spelling languages.
As the grammar, Chinese/Mandarin has it only systems and logic like any other languages in the world. So, understand the grammatical logic can help you build a solid foundation.
Second, don’t ignore pronunciation, especially tones.
Chinese/Mandarin is a language with tones. You might not be able to pronounce it as good as a native speaker, but try to make it clear and accurate.
There is an example about tones,
助教/ zhùjiào, which means teaching assistant
豬腳/ zhū jiǎo, which means pig legs
These two vocabularies are with same pronunciation, however, with different tones!
This is another example about pronunciation:
床/ chuáng, which means a bed
船/ chuán, which means a boat
These two vocabularies are with same tones but different pronunciation. I think, “I met someone on the boat” is very different with “I met someone on the bed”.
If you don’t people misunderstood you, pay more attention to pronunciations.
Last, but not the latest, you need know your purpose and goal.
Set up the right goals is very important. You learn Chinese/Mandarin because of traveling, living, working or becoming a master?
Set up your goal according to your purpose. And the goal must be reasonable and reachable. A great dream here won’t really make us big. Learning is a life-long processes, just keep moving towards your goal.
Knowing what you are going to swallow is one of the most important things when visiting a foreign country. Let’s see how to read Chinese menu as a beginner.
First, if the food you choose is a “western style” food, the food name probably be a translated name. Herewith provide you certain popular dishes name.
Second, if the food you choose is more like “Chinese style” or “Asian style”, there is a common order when we write the dish’s name. Here is the rule:
Below is some popular cooking methods and main ingredients:
Cooking methods:
Main ingredients (meat):
For example：紅燒牛肉飯 hóngshāo niúròu fàn / Braised Beef with Rice
In this case, “紅燒hóngshāo” is the cooking method
“牛肉niúròu” is the main ingredient
“飯fàn” is rice, if what you choose is a combo meal
However, if what you order is based on “rice” or “noodle”, I mean, a plate of stir fry rice or noodle, the order will be like below:
For example,
蝦仁蛋炒飯 xiārén dàn chǎofàn/ Fried Rice with Shrimp and Egg
排骨湯麵 páigǔ tāngmiàn/ pork ribs soup with noodle
According to this basic information, you can have a roughly idea about what you order and eat.
Here comes a practice. Read the following article and check how much you can understand. Try to read it without checking a dictionary. Understand what does it say by sentences instead of words.
Here are some ideas about how to improve your Chinese reading skills. Reading is a very challenging topic when learning a language. Let’s check it out here.
Select the materials at the right level
How to know is the material at the right level or not? Ask yourself the following questions:
Q1: Can I understand the general meanings about the test without using a dictionary?
Q2: Can I understand the sentence meaning about the test without using checking a dictionary?
Q3: How many time do you use for understanding the test?
Too easy or too hard are not good nether. There is theory be called as “i+1”，”i” means your current level, “+1”means bit harder than what you are now.
Find something you are interested in
Improving reading skills is a long turn plan. It is not easy to see the improvement within a short time. It needs quite strong motivation.
So, how keep the motivation? Of course, there are lots of ways to do, but something you are interested in will defiantly be one of the best options.
In the other side, what you are interested in will be easier to decode. It means that you can catch the meaning easier even though there are certain word you don’t understand or some sentences you are not sure.
Read varieties of test
Read something different every day.
First, it helps you not feeling bord. Reading same type of article may make you feel tired, even it is something interesting in the beginning.
Second, if you always read same type of test, you may become an expert in that field, but how about the other topics?
We are living in a real world, be surrounded by varieties of information. Language is for communication and build up the connection with the world. So, knowing one type of topic is not enough for long turn learning progress.
Language level always be a matter
Vocabulary and grammar knowledge are the foundation of improving your language level.
Anyone who want to read fluently need to instantly recognize words. To understand what you’re reading, you need to understand most of the vocabularies in the text.
Grammar knowledge can help you understand how sentences are built and how to analyze those sentences you are struggling with. It also useful to know how ideas link up at the sentence level.
When we read, we are not only reading vocabularies, single sentence, we are also read the ideas about the whole paragraph.
Set up the right goals
Improving reading ability needs a lot of time. Do it everyday！If you can only practice 10 minutes, then do it 10minutes. Let’s try to set up a learning program for you. Here comes an example, 7 days as circle：
Day1 a video (with captions) or a blog
Day2 a news
Day3 a story
Day4 paragraphs form a test-book
Day5 a literature
Day6 a subscription from a speech
Day7 review day1-6 Remember, be patient, improve your reading ability is a long journey
Remember, be patient, improve your reading ability is a long journey
