Learning Mandarin – Difficulties and Opportunities

Mandarin language studies are problematic. Mostly because Mandarin is unique from other languages that people on west have tried to get to grips with before shopping learn to speak chinese Chinese, not because learning Mandarin is much more troublesome. Mandarin is strange associated with ways. The writing system is obviously completely different. Presently there no alphabet once the one that Germanic and Latin derivates have. Instead an image defines every word; or rather a series of what referred to as strokes. For example, three stokes that together make a square means mouth, one combination of strokes that kind of depicts a woman holding a kid means mother and as a consequence on. But the differences don’t end there. The grammar is largely made up in the is called airborne debris. For example; adding a syllable pronounced ma after a sentence turns it suitable question, adding guo after a sentence means that that it happens in in the marketplace. Combining these basic examples; you go shanghai guo mummy? Communicates the question: have you gone to Shanghai? The differences are however much more explicit that this. Even the sounds of spoken Chinese are completely different from western counterparts.

Chinese spoken words are not only defined by syllables as western words are. Genuine 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 various ways. Each of 2 syllables, ma and ma, can be pronounced with 5 different tones, creating a total matrix of 5 times 5 possibilities, and only one means mother. The tones are called tones but these not tones regarding A minor or G, they are pitch modulation. Most important tone is a somewhat steady high toss. The second is a rising pitch. The third tone goes down and then -up. The fourth is a clear decline in pitch from high to low. The fifth is called the neutral tone will not not actually have a modulation form.

All that sounds bloody difficult, go for walks . is, at least at first. Exactly how do you best go about visiting grips with this? Because of course it’s very possible. In fact I know one lovely French girl called Julie, her Chinese is much better than her English. In addition know a very talented German videographer that has lived in China combined with the three years; he often searches for your English word to explain something and ends up saying it Chinese. Basically, I would argue, that Chinese is not so much bloody difficult as salvaging bloody different.