Learning Chinese As an English Speaker

If your first language is a Western language such as English, jumping into Chinese may cause frustration due to huge differences in the languages themselves.

Knowing what those differences are will help in the early process of learning Chinese.

Key differences between English and Chinese:

1) Phonetic alphabet vs. Graphic words ("characters" as we call them)

English is a dominantly phonetic language. Meaning that the alphabet and word formation are written for the reader to decipher through sound, the way it is pronounced. If someone learning English understands basic rules on how to pronounce the combination of consonants and vowels, they can figure out written English easily through sounding out spelling.

However, Chinese does not have a phonetic alphabet. Each word is composed of visual character/symbol that represents a word and meaning. This requires rote memorizing of at least 2,000 commonly used characters in order to read the newspaper in Chinese. Chinese words and terms may be composed of mostly one character or two characters placed next to each other.

2) Inflection vs. Tones

English is largely a tone-less language. The different registries that we can pronounce "cat" will not affect the meaning of the word nor of the listener's comprehension of the word. Verbal inflections may be added to provide nuanced communication about the speaker's mood and attitude as they speak, but the base meaning of what they are saying remains unchanged.

Understanding and being understood in spoken Chinese requires a mastery of distinguishing 4 different tones. Meaning and the word perceived by the listener fully depends on what tone you use.

Take "ma" for example. Depending on the tone one uses to pronounce "ma", "ma" could either mean "mother", "horse", or an indication that the speaker has asked a question (in which case, "ma" is the last sound emitted at the end of a sentence).

For English speakers, it is important to practice listening and pronouncing simple words like "ma" in the 4 tones before moving on to anything else. Distinguishing the 4 tones can be described as the biggest hurdle English speakers have in learning Chinese. Everything else - vocabulary and grammar - is straightforward and simple. Good news is that Chinese grammar does not have male/female distinctions and very little grammatical rules and exceptions as there are in English language.

With effort and perseverance, learning Chinese as an English speaker is very possible.