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Over the years the Chinese language earns a notorious status as being one of the hardest languages to learn for both English and non-English speakers. While the misconceived reputation is true to some extent, you will shortly be able to penetrate through when you take a holistic approach to learn it. Whether you are learning it to pursue your academic career or for professional reasons, do not fall for exaggerated stuff or misconceptions. With its straightforward grammar pattern and usage of simple tense, you can learn it quickly, here’s how:
Vibrant Environment: Environment plays a key role to keep the learning vibe throughout your language speaking journey. Like most other foreign languages, the basics of learning Chinese are no different. Most learners try to immerse themselves into a world that speaks the same tongue that you’re intended to speak. To learn Chinese, placing yourself in a culturally vibrant environment is important to grow a knack for the language more. Get a native tutor who doesn’t only know the language well but can enlighten you about the traditional Chinese culture.
Make a Habit of Listening: Chinese characters are not written in Latin or Roman script. For English speakers, even a non-English speaker, the language thus seems to be an alien one both in terms of appearance and how it sounds. Apart from your daily routine of studying the language, also make a habit of listening to the dialogues or conversations even if they make little sense to you. Also, not to forget the tonal nature of the language which can only be understood through listening to the language more often. Watch Chinese movies with both Chinese and English subtitles, listen to the podcasts, talk to your tutors more often to break the initial barrier.
Use the Resources: Gone are those days when China was merely a third-world country and learning its language was nothing but a fascination to linguists. Now, with the booming Chinese economy, learning its language has become professionally more lucrative to the world population. On the internet, thousands of resources are there to have your daily dose of Chinese. You can check them out with a few mouse clicks as both paid and free methodical learning contents are available. You can also take free demo classes offered by reputed language learning institutions globally before signing up for a course. Listen to the free Google, Spotify podcasts, watch YouTube video content to brush up your skills regularly.
Recognize Patterns: Like many other languages, Chinese has its own pattern to express stuff. The key to learning the language quickly is to follow its pattern instead of strict rules. Unlike English, Chinese grammar is pretty straightforward and easy to grasp. No need to focus on its grammatical complications solely while you can follow a pattern to comprehend how it works seamlessly. Also, the use of tense in the language is very simple, hence can be figured out with ease.
Try to Explain Things: Another useful tip straight from the wisdom of quick learners is to put effort to express things in Chinese. Try to explain simple things in your mind like describing a situation, having an imaginary Q&A session, explaining a movie plot to yourself to someone who understands Chinese. These habits will help you to learn Chinese more effectively. Understandably, you will get stuck more often while explaining something, have a quick look in the dictionary to know the word and keep going. This way you will only improve your skill with time.
Get a Native Tutor: Who else can introduce you to the immersive world of Chinese than a native person. A native tutor doesn’t only help you learn the language well but also gives you an insight into the Chinese cultural values and traditions. A native teacher would also know more about the diverse dialects and accents found in the Chinese diaspora across the world. In short, you can make the best out of a native tutor about his/her mother tongue for an insightful learning experience. If you’re in Dubai, you may try to find a Chinese international school in Dubai that offers native tutors.
Speak Without Fear: Lastly, the only way to improve your Chinese communication is to talk your heart out with people. It’s alright if you don’t have any Chinese people around. You can also use the legit video chatting platforms to meet new people who are interested in communicating with you in Chinese. Don’t worry about the mistakes, simply keep talking to achieve better fluency.
Learning a standard form of Chinese languages like Mandarin, Cantonese, or Fujianese is certainly not a cakewalk, but it’s not terribly difficult either. Like learning any other global language, the key has always been to practice. To speak Chinese, you have to think in Chinese. If you dedicatedly work on it, you’ll soon be able to master your fear of speaking in it.
