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The newbie's first bit of surprising information in Chinese language learning would be on the number of its variations. It is not just simply generic Chinese. There are, actually, many languages and dialects in China. Although, they have a lot in common there are still peculiarities in each, which necessitates that they be classified as distinct languages. However, there are only two main Chinese languages: Mandarin and Cantonese. The rest are mostly dialects and are close kin to the main ones.
While Mandarin is China's official language, Cantonese is still much in use by the southern and more populated part of the country, including Hong Kong. It is also the commonly used language of Chinese communities abroad particularly in Europe and North America. In Hong Kong alone, a city that has great influence of the world economy, Cantonese is more widely spoken than Mandarin is. This is why many would still prefer to study Cantonese Chinese, enabling them to converse with any Chinese anywhere in the world.
Both Cantonese and Mandarin are tonal languages but they sound very different because they have disparate syllabic sets with their own respective rules for syllable formation. They have different tones for every word to convey different meanings. However, while Mandarin only has four tones, Cantonese has six to nine tones for every particular word. This makes the latter much harder and longer to learn, especially for beginners.
Learning Cantonese may be tough for any newbie, but it is not impossible. All that he has to do is to listen to it spoken and practice it in conversing as often as possible. Because of the irregular rise and fall of tones, he may not be able to comprehend the rules just by listening it spoken, even more so by the native Chinese. What are more noticeable are the tones and no longer the words. However, in Cantonese, the tone is precisely the meaning of the word. That is why it is very important that the correct tone is heard and absorbed by the beginner.
The use of audio books as self-instruction materials definitely would solve much of the learning problem. These provide the beginner an easy and speedy manner towards learning Cantonese. These teach the learner, in a clear and crisp voice, the correct pronunciation and intonation of every word. The learner, of course, can conveniently replay it with his digital audio player anytime he wishes in order for him to get the tone accurately.
Audio books on learning the Cantonese language will certainly make it even easier for you to learn the language fast. These use the Pimsleur method, which does away with what is unnecessary in learning how to speak the language soon. Only those words and phrases and their respective tones, which are used in ordinary conversation, are taught. You can look for a site that has a variety of audio books that would surely help any novice to learn it with fun. You can try checking out The Talking Bookstore.
For those who thirst for the real thing, here is the complete list of all your favourite language learning audio courses: pimsleur language learning online
When you happen to have a particular Chinese language course in mind, try searching for it here: learn Chinese language courses
Who says English-language learning is for toddlers or grade school kids? English may be a universal language just like math is to scientists, but it does not mean that it is the most widely spoken . It's not however the reason why you can hear an English-speaking Hindu on the phone when you called Sprint to ask about your month's phone bill.
Why do a lot of people enroll themselves in an English language learning course anyway? It may not be because they are joining the US Navy or the army of nurses who now work in the US from all over. It's not even because there are a lot of McDonald chains in your country of origin. It may be because English is the most widely distributed language; it is also the most popular medium of instruction. Come to think of it, we all learn our ABCs in preschool; that is unless you belong in a country with its own cube characters for language and a totally different set of vowels to speak.
Anyone needs to learn English to survive in a lot of countries. Those who dream of an Ivy League education must cease restricting one's Chinese origin in the four corners of Chinatown. The information age demands that Chinese characters be left on a Chinese-targeting web site. As for the rest of the Internet, English means information. In fact, that may be the best reason why you should begin learning English now. With this language, you have the best access to information sources as books, journals, and what have you. Don't get it wrong however. English is more than gaining access to a wide reservoir of knowledge. Learning English is also about building relationships. It is not merely about looking for a hot date offshore. English can build business relationships. How would a Chinese American or a Jewish American go off in a joint venture without the English language? Go figure.
Communication is by far the most significant reason for learning the language. In a world where 1,500,000,000 people speak English and another 1,000,000,000 learning it, is there anyone left who doesn't know it? Maybe some remote tribe in Africa would answer that, but when we are talking about mainstream knowledge, the daily grind, the short trip to Scotland with an Englishman, a business conference in Singapore, it's English that you need. Even Colombians have their own English words for each produce they send to the US. The word mules is an example.
They say there are fewer people who know English better than the language spoken in the greatest of Hollywood flicks. They say there are lesser people who can deconstruct the English language just as Virginia Woolf did in her prose and novels; that is because they barely know its construction. Although it may not be the sole language of the academe and the literati; learning English will surely let you ride that subway in Manhattan, off to your elderly immigrant parents in New Jersey.
That is why you need to learn English in the best possible way which is through an English language learning audio book from Pimsleur. This great thing lets you learn the language on your portable device as an iPod or an MP4 anytime you want, anywhere on the earth you may be. In no time, you can learn the English language and speak it as if it's natural for you.
For those who thirst for the real thing, here is the complete list of all your favorite language learning audio courses: foreign language learning
When you happen to have a particular language course in mind, try searching for it here: second language learning
The Japanese language is a unique and beautiful language. There are approximately 120 million people living in Japan, with more than 99% of the population speaking the language. However, the language is rarely spoken outside the countries, only probably in some parts of the world such as Hawaii, Japanese born in America, some Chinese and Korean who happens to live under Japanese occupation earlier this century.
It is believed that the Japanese language was linked to the Altaic languages such as Turkish and Mongolian. It has been widely acknowledge that its syntactic is somehow or rather similar to the Korean language. Some also believed that the language shows similarities to the Malayo-Polynesian languages to the south.
Not only does the Japanese language consist of an abundance of native words, but also a large number of words originally from the Chinese. The Japanese language that you listen or learn is based on the speech of Tokyo. This has been spreading slowly to the other region in Japan through media such as radio, television and movies.
The Japanese writing is made up of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.
Japanese write in both Chinese origin (Kanji) and native Japanese words.
Japanese Kanji consist of several thousands of Chinese characters or words, are implemented in the Japanese writing system. They are actually ideograms with each character symbolizes a thing or an idea. The written characters may have the same meaning, yet they are pronounced completely different. The Chinese characters were introduced sometime between the fifth or sixth century. There are roughly about 48,000 Kanji characters but only about 5,000 to 10,000 are commonly used.
The Japanese writing was also supplemented by two phonetic scripts. These scripts were also transformed from the Chinese characters. A special software or keyboard is required to type out these scripts.
The Hiragana and Katakana are two of the phonetics or Kana scripts as mention earlier. Both these scripts consist of 48 characters. The Hiragana was used mainly by women in the olden days. It is basically use to write the native Japanese words such as verb endings and Chinese loanwords, whereby the characters need to be officially approved before it can be release for general use.
The katakana on the other hand, is used mainly to write loanwords from western languages such as English, French and German. For example Hotel is pronounced as Hoteru, beer as biru, coffee as kohi, Christmas as kurisumasu, bus as basu, television as terebi etc.
It is not unusual to find Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana usage in the same sentence. Go to a book store and browse through Japanese language books and you will know exactly what I mean. Both the Kana scripts are easier to write than the Chinese characters. It is something like learning the English alphabet. All you need to do is to memorize all the 48 Kana words, for example a, i, u, e, o, ka, ki, ku, ke, ko etc, just like how you learn the English alphabet as a child.
The basic Japanese grammar is relatively simple. In a basic sentence construction, the subject comes first, then the object followed by the verb. For example, Watashi-wa (I) hon-o (book) yomu (read) which is "I read a book". Another example, Anata-wa (you) tokei-o (watch) kau (buy) which is "You buy a watch".
All verbs in dictionary form ends in the vowel u. Thus, nomu (drink), taberu (eat), yomu (read), akeru (open), kiku (listen), miru (see). Action verb include nomu - to drink, nominai - will not drink, nomitai -want to drink, nomita - drank, nomi-nakatta past tense of not drinking.
Japanese's pronounciation is also less complicated. It has short vowels such as a, i, u, e, o which is similar to the Spanish and Italian vowels. The long vowels aa, ii, uu, ei, oo are pronounced by doubling the length of the short vowels. It is important to pronoun the short and long vowels correctly as this can change the meaning of the words.
The Japanese language has pitch accent, or musical accent, which is quite different from the stress accent of the English, French, German and other European languages as well as some Asian languages. The pitch accent can be classified as high and low. The accentuated syllabus is usually pronounced with regularity and at the same pitch throughout.
There are many ways to learn the Japanese language. Firstly, you must have an interest in the country, the people, language and culture. There are Japanese language schools which you can enroll in your local area. The easiest and quickest way is to do an online home study course, whereby, you can learn the language at your own terms and time. Look for the one which deliver the course in multimedia format. This method allows you to listen and learn to speak like the native speaker. A course, which teaches you some basic grammar lesson can be helpful too. There are also language packages with games and flash cards. Look for a language package which comes with interactive audio, software learning games, fully illustrated and easy to follow grammar lessons and lastly plenty of support and also learner's forum.
The one I recommended allows you to try the Japanese language for free for 6 days. The free course includes interactive audio, grammar, learning games and forum. At the end of the 6 days period, if you decide the language is not for you, then there is not a need to purchase anything at all. For more information, please visit my website and go to learn a language.
Larisa is the web owner of http://www.clixaholiday.com . Feel free to surf my web while you are there. Compare hotels worldwide before booking and also bid cheap holiday for family. I have extensive travel experiences to Asia, US, United Kingdom, Canada and Europe. To get the same program (Build a Niche Store) I use to set up my store, scroll down to the bottom of my home page. To learn a new language, sign up for a 6 days free lessons on the language of your choice
