China boasts an ancient civilization with a highly developed linguistic heritage.
Mandarin is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Learning Mandarin takes commitment, effort and daily study and review. The most effective way to learn Mandarin rapidly is to study in a Mandarin-speaking country or take an interactive live class. However, many options exist to study Mandarin online, and with self-discipline, you can reach a high level of proficiency in the language.
Instructions
1. Choose a form of transliteration that makes sense for you. Transliteration is the method of spelling out a foreign word in another alphabet. The form most commonly used as of 2010 is pinyin, though you can compare different systems on Omniglot.com. You also can find a list of online language learning programs and websites to help you learn Mandarin. Choose one that works well for your learning style.
2. Practice your Mandarin pronunciation. Mandarin has four distinct tones, meaning the "rising" and "falling" sound of a word affects the meaning of the word. Since this is a foreign concept for speakers of English, you will need to listen carefully to tones and become familiar with the distinction of the tones as they are used for each new word. Find a way to have your pronunciation assessed by a native speaker. Sign up for an online Mandarin course, where you can get an experienced teacher to help you perfect your tone pronunciation. LiveMocha is a free online interactive language teaching tool. With LiveMocha, you can record yourself speaking in Mandarin and send the recording to a native speaker for assessment. You can also do classes on Skype where you can practice Mandarin with a teacher or native speaker in real time.
3. Practice the written characters.If you would like to learn to write and read, you must regularly practice and review writing. Chinese writing poses specific challenges as the system is not an alphabet where the symbols represent sounds that make up words as with the Latin alphabet. Every character stands for a word and you must take great care when writing each character to complete them with the correct stroke order. There are two forms of Chinese characters, the traditional and the simplified. If you want to read contemporary publications from mainland China you will need to learn both systems. According to David Keenan, lecturer in Chinese language at the University of California Santa Cruz, it is much easier to transition from learning the traditional forms to the simplified forms than learning the simplified forms first.
Tags: native speaker, simplified forms, will need