How to Learn Mandarin Chinese

I have been learning Mandarin Chinese for over 5 years now and I believe I am in a position to give tips on how to learn Chinese.

Someone deciding to embark on their lifetime journey of Mandarin Chinese learning I believe should start with the very basic foundation of the Chinese language. These are the basic phonetics of the language. I believe the best way how to learn Mandarin Chinese is to first master all 60 or so of these sounds. I recommend perhaps spending a few weeks or even a couple of months getting all these sounds down pat as perfectly as you, even before you start learning how to say "hello" or anything else for that matter. This may be monotonous and boring at first, but you will thank yourself years later for doing so.

I personally have been fortunate enough to have attained a very high level of Mandarin Chinese pronunciation. I believe this is partly due to the fact that I spent a great deal of time polishing my pronunciation in the early stages. I can't stress this enough, because once you develop a bad habit in pronunciation it is VERY hard to get rid of, and that is not how you want to learn Chinese.

I recommend getting a recording, or CD, or something of a native speaker (with perfect "standard" pronunciation) and listening to those sounds in your sleep. I can't attest to whether or not this is a contributing factor to my accurate pronunciation, but it IS something I did early on. At this point I don't think it is necessary to learn the 4 tones, as learning new phonetics AND learning to add tones to those words is just too much for the brain to bear all at once. Focus on one thing at a time so as not to be overwhelmed.

When practicing the "bo po mo fo de te ne le ge ke" etc be sure to always say everything in the same tone. Most of these recordings the speaker is saying them using the first tone. This is a high level tone that doesn't go up or down. Almost like singing a high note. Every word should be practiced using the exact same tone. This will get you ready for the other 3 tones later as tones are very important in Mandarin Chinese. However, don't let the tones scare you or put you off. If you are not musically inclined or are completely tone deaf and you are confident you will never be able to master these tones take comfort in the fact that if you have good enough pronunciation the tones won't matter as you will be understood even with the wrong tones. It's like having an accent. When a foreigner speaks English you know right away they aren't native English by the way they talk and Mandarin Chinese is no exception. I am very pleased with the fact that when I speak with Mandarin Chinese people on the phone they don't no I am foreign. I have met other foreigners who have also attained this standard and these people also were good singers, so that may be a factor in their natural talent.

I would also recommend not even thinking about learning how to read or write Mandarin Chinese characters at this point. I think the best way how to learn Mandarin Chinese is to just focus on the speaking and listening. Reading and writing can come later and are the most difficult aspects of this language. For the beginning you can just learn the romanized version of the language known as "PinYin", which is the Mandarin Chinese word meaning "Spell Sound/Pronounce".

The speaking is surprisingly easy despite the "difficult" reputation Mandarin Chinese has. I was very surprised after I began to learn how to speak Mandarin Chinese as to how easy it is.

So in my opinion if you want to know how to learn Mandarin Chinese, start with the basic 60 or so phonetics, also known as the "initials/consonants" and "finals/vowels". Don't try to learn any actual words until you have those mastered, because once you have mastered those phonetics there is nothing else to learn for the rest of your life when it comes to pronunciation. Unlike English where even us native speakers need to learn proper pronunciation of new words as we don't have hard and fast rules ie "through" and "tough", both end in "ough" but the pronunciation is different and the only way to know is to remember. Mandarin Chinese is not like this, so that's great for us!

The Author started learning Mandarin Chinese over 5 years ago, and was amazed at how easy this language was despite what he had heard. He now lives in China in order to perfect his language ability in hopes of becoming a professional freelance translator/interpreter one day. In his spare time he enjoys tinkering with a few websites eg Feiyan Tea and Wulong Tea.