Speaking Mandarin is a skill that many would do well to cultivate! However, mastering this skill is not an easy endeavor. For this reason, unfortunately, many have given up before they ever truly had the chance to succeed in speaking Mandarin!
Identifying the Problem
Everyone wants to succeed in speaking Mandarin fluently, but few ever make it past a few phrases that are barely decipherable to native ears. The question, though, is whether this is a testament to the difficulty of the language, the entirely foreign way of thinking about and learning a language, or our complete inability to follow through to achieve our goals.
May I suggest that it is a combination of the three, but that the greatest hindrances can be ranked in order from greatest to least in this way:
Our inability to persevere in order to reach our goals
Opposing methods for teaching and learning a pictorial language
Complexity of the language itself
Honestly, it's not the complexity of the language that is our greatest hindrance! Anything complex can be broken down and explained, given a good teacher and a cooperative student. But somehow, we still manage to feel overwhelmed and wrongly assert that the language cannot be learned because we do not have the stamina needed to take the language and make it our own.
Understanding the Struggle
On a note regarding human nature, the definition of "good" and "cooperative" are highly variable. To the dedicated Chinese teacher, most students do not seem to be cooperative. To most willing students, the Chinese teacher does not seem to be "good" because they cannot break components down into their smallest pieces and explain why a certain structure behaves in a certain way. Please, do not let these cultural perceptions of what is "good" and "cooperative" stand in the way of you attaining your goal!
The real challenge in learning a language and for our lives is the fact that we see everything in the world through our own lens. We believe ourselves to be right based on a "set" standard that we learned as we were growing up. The reality is that everyone has their own "set" standard and must spend a great portion of their lives opening their minds to the values that others have. How else will we be able to interact with humankind?
So, to embark on the journey of learning another language is to open yourself to the conflict that occurs when your reality comes into touch with the reality of another. This is the true obstacle that must be overcome, and if your determination is strong enough, learning Mandarin Chinese only then becomes an achievable goal!
Opening Yourself to Success
A few tips for learning to speak Mandarin fluently are these:
Know WHY you want to learn this language. Make it powerful enough to overcome the greatest difficulty.
Understand that there are new rules to the game of learning-not just new rules, but new concepts, and new philosophies that govern why certain rules are deemed important.
Make a plan for success! Be thoughtful in your road map and diligent along the way.
Planning for Success
Are you looking for success in learning this language? Do you want to be able to see the results of your efforts and know unequivocally that it IS possible to learn Mandarin?! May I suggest that you FIRST sit down and understand which fundamentals you must master before attaining success?
Here's what I mean: We all want to be able to see immediate results as we begin a new endeavor. But, if we ONLY focus on the results, then we will not learn the fundamentals that will carry us through and help us to truly learn the language as fast as possible!
Think of it this way. Suppose there is a little one who really wants to be able to crawl. The adult who is watching desperately wants to help and so reaches down and helps the baby get on all fours, and even make the first few movements. But, what happens when the adult lets go?
Now, what if the little one learns over and over again by repetitive motion that certain muscles need to be exercised in order to crawl? As the baby practices these muscles, they are then soon able to amply and quickly move across the floor!
I know you want results--a first few basic steps. But, you will not be able to move along on your own until you have two skills firmly in place--tones and PinYin. As difficult as they may be to practice, and as strange as it may seem to be doing it, they really are the key that can allow you to soon fly across the floor at lightning speed!
And of course, I concede that until the new learner sees what those repetitive motions can do for them, it's really hard to go through the exercises! We need the vision to see where those exercises can take us! That's why we need to learn just a few beginning phrases and feel comfortable repeating them-it's only natural!
Mastering the Fundamentals
But, please don't deny the importance of these two elements--tones and PinYin! Once you accept them and embrace them, you really will be off to the races! Not only that, but you will feel the wind in your hair and the invigorating thrill of exercising your own skills to a degree you never thought possible!
Mandarin doesn't have to be hard unless you let it! Time has shown again and again that the principles of mastering Chinese tones and PinYin are the road to success. Don't think that you can veer off the path and still make the same type of progress. Realize that you have a limited time to learn this language, and that the shortest distance between two points is a single line. Be exposed to, understand, practice, apply, and MASTER the fine art of tones and the PinYin system of phonetics--you'll be so glad you did!
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