Today,
the most standard form of Chinese that is spoken is known as
Standard Mandarin or Mandarin Chinese, which is based on a dialect
spoken in Beijing. It is also the official language now used by the
people of China.
Now
lets look closely at how to learn Mandarin Chinese either online or
somewhere else. Most of the dialects now spoken by the Chinese people
will often consist of words spoken by their ancestors, back when China
was made up of various different ethnic groups. It was only after these
groups had come together under the Chinese empire, did they start to
unite the languages that they spoke. However, as the Chinese use a
standard formal written language, no matter what dialect they speak,
often people will regard these dialects as being equal. But in fact,
they are like any other country, their own individuals; they just use a
standardized form of writing.
It was during the latter part of
the 19th Century that Beijing Mandarin became the more standard form of
Chinese language to be use. But it was at this time many Chinese did
speak variations of Mandarin, though they were very limited.
However,
things changed when the education system in China was based on Standard
Mandarin, and was to be used as the language for carrying out
instructions. Today, nearly every person in mainland China speaks
Mandarin.
It is important to note that the various different
dialects of spoken Chinese use tones. Some areas of China (in the
North) will only use as many as 3 tones, while in Southern China, they
can use between 6 or 10 tones as they speak.
When it comes to
learning Chinese, the first thing anyone should do is learn Chinese
Pinyin. It is this which contains the Chinese phonetic alphabets that
are used to pronounce the Chinese characters. Also, learning Pinyin
will help you to distinguish the 4 different tones that are used in the
Chinese language.
You will need to spend time listening, as well
as practicing, both simple Chinese sentences, as well as vocabulary, so
that you can memorize it.
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Below
are some tips which should help you to achieve your goals :
a.
If you are able to, take a local community Chinese class as well as
carrying out practice drills with a study partner. The more you are
able to speak the language, then the easier it will get.
b.
Get yourself a good dictionary, and ensure it is one which has the
right phonetic spellings of each word.
c.
If you can, find someone whose native language is Chinese, and spend
time with them conversing in their own language. There are a lot of
Chinese students now coming to the US on exchange programs that
would
like to spend time with Americans learning English, and will in return
provide Americans with chances to learn and speak Chinese.
d.
Get
hold of some tapes where you have to listen to, and then repeat out
loud, what they have said. Also, try and get hold of some Chinese
newspapers and magazines so that you can read what is
contained within out loud.
e.
Sing some Chinese songs. Go to your local library, or purchase online
some tapes, and then listen to them frequently until such time as you
are able to speak the words and the sentences on your own.
f.
It is
important that you review all the other words you have learned
previously on a regular basis so that they become fresh in your memory
again.
Today, more and more people are looking to learn Mandarin
online or at a Chinese language school in the Western hemisphere of the
world. Up until about 10 years ago, it was proving to be extremely
difficult to find someone who could teach others this language.
dstevens
Increasing
Foreigners Show Desire to Learn Chinese
Growing numbers
of foreigners are showing a desire to
learn the Chinese language, latest statistics from the Ministry of
Education have shown. By the end of last year, nearly 30 million people
from 85 countries and regions were learning standard Chinese -- putonghua.
China is also witnessing a growth in the number of foreign students who
come to study Chinese and related courses, according to Friday's China
Daily. This English-language newspaper says an estimated 410,000
foreign students have signed up for Chinese courses over the past 10
years.
It is estimated that the number coming
to China to learn
the language has maintained an average annual growth rate of 35 percent
over the past few years.
China's continuous economic growth and
the strengthening of its trade and business ties with the rest of the
world have been cited as the major factors behind the interest in
learning Chinese.
These kinds of business engagements
have in
turn sparked a huge demand for professional employees in foreign
countries with a good command of Chinese. And the trend is more evident
among some of China's largest trading partners, particularly Japan, the
United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and some nations in
Southeast Asia.
"I think a good knowledge of Chinese
can help me
secure a good job back in my country as there is a growing number of
companies setting up operations in China," said a 24-year-old female
student of Peking University who comes from ROK.
She added that a
certificate of the Chinese Proficiency Test, or Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi
(HSK), is important when seeking a job in a large company in ROK.
The
KSK test, which began in Beijing in 1988, is national standardized test
designed to assess foreign students' command of Chinese.
To date,
the Office of the State Commission for the Chinese Proficiency Test has
set up 44 testing centers in 27 Chinese cities, including Hong Kong and
Macao special administrative regions, and 55 centers in 24 other
countries in Asia, Europe the Americas and Oceania.
Since 1991, a
total of 380,000 people from 120 countries have taken the test in those
centers, according to statistics from the Ministry of Education.
(February 22,
2005)
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