Learning Chinese

When someone hears Chinese for the first time is quite normal to think that it is a language that will never understand. It is such a different language that for people accustomed to Western languages, it might seem from another world. But learning Chinese is not as difficult as you think.

If we compare it to other languages such as Spanish or English, learning Chinese from scratch can seem like a big task. But don’t worry, it’s just a change of mentality. Take your time and sign up for a good introductory course to get you started.

Chinese writing

Some never learn Chinese for the simple fact of having such a different handwriting. They think they will never understand it, but all you have to do is have a good introduction and understand it.

By the time you make this little change of mentality and you start to understand it, you will have no problem reading it as easily as English.

One of the most extensive ways to start is to read it with Western characters. Called “pin yin,” it is a phonetic system adapted to make it easier to read.

Be patient about it, it’s not a matter of difficulty, only adaptation. If you are consistent and trust a good Chinese teacher who will give you tips and tricks, you will overcome it in the best way possible.

Intonation in Chinese

This is one of the most important things about Chinese and many people are not aware of it.

But it’s not that different from other languages, a word changes a lot depending on where the accent is. The only thing is that in Chinese, there are many more different accents and you will have to learn them, but it is something that can even be fun.

Chinese has very few syllables, so the tone in which you pronounce it is used to distinguish them. There are four different tones and a neutral tone that is little used and depends on how you use it, you can, for example, mean “mother” and end up saying “horse.”

Chinese grammar

If you think That Chinese is a difficult language, it’s because you don’t know how its grammar works. Finally something easy in this language that makes your learning a little more bearable. Chinese grammar does not have everything that makes other grammars difficult:

Chinese has no conjugation: there is only one verbal form and all verbs are regular.

Chinese has no verbal time: there are supplements to know whether the action develops in the past, in the future or if it is in progress.

Chinese words have no gender: there is no feminine, no masculine, no neutral.

In Chinese, there are no articles: there are no articles of any kind.

Chinese words have no plural: context says it all.

Regular construction: all sentences are constructed in the same way, the order of the subject, the verb and the complements cannot be reversed.

Chinese vocabulary

This is without a doubt the most fun part for those who have never studied Chinese. Chinese is based on a series of basic words and from these words they combine with each other and new words are born.