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Chinese Learning Tips
How to learn Chinese, Learning tips, learning suggestions, study adviser suggestions, questions and answers, how to start to learn mandarin, faq |
Do I need to learn Chinese characters or writing Chinese? |
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By Study Adviser: Carter |
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| Name: Carter Gu |
| Degree: Master of Teaching Chinese as a
second language |
| Graduated From: East China Normal University |
| Research Scopes: Chinese as a second language |
| Experience of Teaching: 5 Years |
| Position: Study Adviser |
| Location: Beijing |
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| .Some students of ours always explain a requirement
to us. ‘I only want to learn how to speak. I do not want to spend
more time on reading and writing. I think Pinyin is enough for me
to communicate.’ They think Chinese characters are difficult to
learn and they maybe do not need to write and read. Now I have to
explain more about relationship among listening, speaking, reading
and writing. |
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1, Pinyin
is easy for a foreign student to learn, but Pinyin is not enough
to communicate with Chinese people.
a)
Not every Chinese person can use Pinyin. Pinyin was taught in Chinese
primary schools just after 1980s. So Chinese people over 40 years
old cannot use Pinyin.
b) Except
Beijing People, most of Chinese people cannot speak very standard
mandarin. So most of Chinese people cannot use Pinyin always correctly.
As you know, Voice Recognition for English is already used widely.
But Voice Recognition for Mandarin is still in the laboratory of
IBM because there are too many dialects in China and people outside
Beijing always speak dialects, not standard mandarin. For an example:
Say hello - 你好 – ni3 hao3 (Standard Mandarin Pinyin) |
| Pronunciation |
Beijing |
Shanghai |
Guangdong / Cantonese |
Tianjin |
Wu han |
| Pinyin |
ni3 hao3 |
Nong2 hu2 |
Lei2 hou2 |
Ni4 hao2 |
Ni4 hou1 |
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| (Notes: The Pinyin of non-standard mandarin is not
confirmed.) |
In China, out of Beijing, people of every place pronounce
differently. Pinyin of mandarin also cannot be used to communicate
with them. Non-Beijing People maybe type incorrect Pinyin to you
and make you confused.
c) Different
from English, a Pinyin word generally has 4 tones. A Pinyin with
one tone always can represent more than one Chinese character. Especially
some students just type Pinyin without tone. It is very difficult
for Chinese people to understand. Generally we need to spend a long
time on guessing. For an example:
wo
yao xue zhong wen -> 我要学中文
我 -> wo3
If you just type ‘Wo’, at first, I have to guess what you want to
say between wo1 wo2 wo3 wo4
In Chinese, pronunciation of many words are the same. One Pinyin
can represent many words. |
Wo1: 窝(nest) 倭(an old name for Japan) 喔(moo of Cock)
涡(turbo) 蜗 挝 莴etc
Wo3: 我 etc
Wo4: 卧 沃 握 龌 etc
要 -> yao4
yao1: 妖 邀 腰 么 夭 吆 etc
yao2: 姚 瑶 窑 遥 etc
yao3: 咬 杳 舀 etc
yao4: 要 药 耀 鹞 etc
学 -> xue2
xue1: 薛 靴 削 etc
xue2: 学 穴 etc
xue3: 血 雪 鳕 etc
xue4: 血 穴 etc
If you use Pinyin to type a whole sentence without tones or characters,
I have to use permutation and combination or matrix method of Math
to calculate or guess your meaning. |
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2, If
your purpose is communication in Chinese and practical Chinese,
not for exam, I think, whatever level you want to achieve, you at
least need to learn besides Pinyin,
a)
Pronunciation: pronounce what you want to say correctly
b)
Speaking: Express correctly by sentences
c)
Listening: Understand correctly
d)
Reading: Able to read Chinese characters and sentences.
(Note: In China, you cannot find Pinyin in the street. If you cannot
read characters when you get to China, you even are not able to
understand information board, direction board, Name of Bus Station,
etc)
e) Writing: Able to use Pinyin
to type on computer at least. You can chat with your teachers and
classmates or write emails to your friends in China at least. |
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(Notes: Pinyin is only a kind of phonetic symbol,
similar to phonetic symbol of English, for an example: Chinese
--> 
. It can help you to remember pronunciation, but it cannot be used
to communicate. ) |
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How to Learn Chinese
