Chinese Classes with Native Chinese Tutors
Book a Course NowChinese is becoming one of the most popular foreign languages in Australia, and for a good reason, since if you master it, you’ll be able to access amazing opportunities all around the globe and meet wonderful people. On top of that, if you become bilingual, you’ll be able to discover the fascinating Chinese culture in a way that most English speakers can’t, as there are many aspects of the Chinese way of life that are not easy to understand if you don’t speak the language, so if you’re a curious person, and you’re looking for a way to expand your horizons, starting a Chinese course this year is one of the smartest things you can do.
What’s more, even if you’re not particularly interested in travelling or getting to know other cultures, you should still consider learning this amazing language for the positive impact it can have on your career, as having Chinese on your CV will make you more employable in Australia and the rest of the world. Now that you’re aware of this, you probably can’t wait to start learning. To help you to become a fluent speaker more quickly, here’s a short guide full of tips and recommendations to learn Chinese more effectively.
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1. What’s Pinyin and Why You Should Learn It
The reason why learning Chinese can be so intimidating at first is because its grammar, vocabulary, and writing system are completely different from English. Fortunately for Chinese learners, pinyin was invented, as this writing system created in the 20th century makes learning Chinese much easier for Westerners. Pinyin is a way of writing Chinese using the Roman alphabet based on its pronunciation, and if you take the time to learn it, you’ll be able to make progress much faster. To illustrate this, here are some of the most important benefits of learning pinyin.
It allows beginners to start speaking Chinese quickly, as it helps you to pronounce even the words you don’t know properly.
It will help you understand the four Chinese tones thanks to its visual reminders, such as the ones in mā, má, mǎ, and má that indicate if the vowel sound in these syllables has a high level, rising, falling rising, or falling tone.
It allows you to type Chinese into a computer, so it’s great to chat with natives or take notes in Chinese.
2. Learn Chinese Grammar
If you’re completely new to Chinese grammar, I have good news for you: it’s not as hard as it sounds. In fact, although sentence structure is completely different from English, there are many aspects of Chinese grammar that are relatively easy to learn. Don’t believe us? Let’s take a look at some of them.
Unlike most languages, there are no verb conjugations, so you won’t have to worry about irregular verbs. Even when you use different tenses, verbs don’t change, so if you want to know if someone is talking about the past, the present or the future, you simply have to check the rest of the sentence for context.
Words in Chinese don’t have plural forms, which means nouns, pronouns and adjectives don’t change according to numbers. If you want to indicate that something is plural, you just add a phrase or a character that denotes the number of the object in question.
There are no articles, so you won’t have to spend time learning how to say “the”, “a” or “an” in Chinese.
Important Rules to Understand Chinese Grammar
Now that we’ve explored the easy aspects of Chinese grammar, let’s take a look at some basic rules that will help you understand the way it works.
Just like in English, the basic sentence order is subject - verb - object, so you won’t find it difficult at all to get used to the Chinese sentence pattern. Here’s an example.
他 踢 足球。
S V O
He plays soccer.
However, this is only true for simple sentences, as once you start to write more complex ones, you’ll find patterns like Subject–Adverbials–Verb–Complement–Object, which is where Chinese grammar starts to vary from English, but if you’re just starting, focus on mastering simple sentences first.
There’s another sentence structure that it’s pretty common in Chinese, and it’s called topic - comment. Whereas in English and other European languages, we give importance to the subject of the sentence, in Chinese and other Asian languages they give importance to the topic of a sentence. Because of this, if you want to express an idea in Chinese and you want to sound natural, you should say the topic you want to talk about first, and then say what you want about it. To illustrate this, here’s an example.
咖啡我不喜欢。
Kāfēi wǒ bù xǐhuan.
I don’t like coffee.
Literally, “Coffee, I don’t like.”
Adjectives typically go before nouns, and because this is also the case in English, you won’t have a hard time remembering this. Let’s take a look at some examples.
漂亮的女孩
piàoliang de nǚhái
a pretty girl
他们吃白饭。
tāmen chī bái fàn.
They eat white rice.
3. Useful Chinese Phrases
In case you are planning to travel to China in the next few weeks, and you don’t have enough time to learn the language, here are some of the most useful phrases you can learn in just a few hours to help you get by.
English Version | Chinese Version | Pinyin Version |
---|---|---|
Hello | 你好 | Nǐhǎo |
How are you? | 你好吗? | Nǐhǎo ma? |
Good | 很好 | Hěn hǎo |
Pretty good | 还好 | Hái hǎo |
Not so good | 不太好 | Bù tài hǎo |
Good morning | 早上好 | Zǎoshang hǎo |
Good evening | 晚上好 | Wǎnshang hǎo |
Good night | 晚安 | Wǎn’ān |
What’s your name? (informal) | 你叫什么名字? | Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi? |
My name is… | 我叫... | Wǒ jiào… |
What’s your surname? (formal) | 您贵姓? | Nín guìxìng? |
My surname is… | 我姓... | Wǒ xìng… |
How old are you? | 你多大? | Nǐ duōdà? |
Where do you come from? | 你来自哪里? | Nǐ láizì nǎli? |
I’m a foreigner | 我是外国人 | Wǒ shì wàiguó rén |
Nice to meet you | 很高兴认识你 | Hěn gāoxìng rènshi nǐ |
Thank you! | 谢谢! | Xièxiè! |
You’re welcome | 不用谢 | Bù yòng xiè |
Sorry to bother you | 麻烦你了 | Mǎfan nǐ le |
No problem | 没问题 | Méi wèntí |
OK! | 好的! | Hǎo de! |
I don’t understand | (我)听不懂! | (Wǒ) tīngbudǒng |
Do you speak English? | (你)会说英文吗? | (Nǐ) huìshuō yīngwén ma? |
I don’t speak Chinese | (我)不会说中文 | (Wǒ) bù huì shuō zhōngwén |
Could you speak more slowly? | 可以说得慢一点吗? | Kěyǐ shuō de màn yīdiǎn ma? |
How do you say…? | …怎么说? | …zěnme shuō? |
I don’t know | (我)不知道 | (Wǒ) bù zhīdao |
Goodbye! | 再见! | Zàijiàn! |
See you next time! | 下次见! | Xiàcì jiàn! |
After reading this short guide, you probably have a much clearer view on what steps to follow to master the language, so what are you waiting to get started? At Language Trainers, we’ll help you find an ideal course for you that fits all of your requirements, so if you’re looking for personalised lessons at home or online, contact us today, and you won’t regret it!
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