Introduction to Chinese Mandarin Studying

[Explore Chinese]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to this forum. I'm currently studying HSK5 and been studying Chinese for a while now. I'm part of various discords, forums and sub-reddits etc around the topic of learning Chinese.

 

I started a blog recently, where I wrote an article in an attempt to try to cover an introduction into learning Chinese, as it seems to be a super common question that I see all the time. I wrote an article trying to give a reasonable, but not too in depth, introduction to Chinese Mandarin and came up with an infographic to try help people. The intent was beginner friendly and not make it seem too intimidating.

 

Looking for some feedback and / or tips that you might recommend to someone starting to learn Chinese that I might not have covered. The main article is here if anyone wants to check it out. As I am a learner and not specifically a language teacher, there might be some key parts that I have missed.

 

[suMMit]

Hi, I'm about the same level as you. Personally I'd advise new learners to begin characters later, otherwise it's too overwhelming.

[Explore Chinese]

Ah interesting point. I took the usual route and focused on Pinyin in the beginning, and kind of wish I had started characters earlier so it wasn't such a shock. I read in an article recently that a lot of students stop around HSK3 once characters are introduced, I hadn't considered it might put people off in the early stages.

 

Thanks for the useful comment.

[Moshen]

Sorry to toss cold water on your idea, but I don't believe you're ever going to be able to define a single path that is the right advice for everyone. 

 

The path you described is most definitely not what I followed when I first studied Chinese for three months intensively before going to work in China for a year. 

 

- I never reviewed tonal pairings.

- I did not learn any characters whatsoever for the first 6 months.

- I never studied vocabulary specifically, just absorbed it as I went along.  Never used spaced repetition or any sort of memorization.

- Did not listen to/watch Chinese films, music, etc. for more than 10 years.

- Never studied HSK 1, 2 or 3.

 

You see, the path someone needs to take to learn Chinese depends on their goals, their circumstances and their native abilities.

 

My goal was to be able to speak enough of the language to shop, order food, take taxis/trains, etc. when I had no interpreter with me.  And I'm good at learning by ear.

 

Someone else might have a goal to be able to pass a reading Chinese test and be a better visual learner.

 

And someone else...

 

[Singe]

On 9/19/2023 at 4:16 AM, Moshen said:

You see, the path someone needs to take to learn Chinese depends on their goals, their circumstances and their native abilities.

 

I definitely agree with this, even though my initial approach was very different to Moshen's. I started learning the characters right from the start and I don't regret it even though I've learnt that this may have held me back in other ways. I haven't regretted the time I spent learning to write the characters as I think it helped me better understand the radicals and I find myself visualising a character and it's stroke order all the time I come across a new character.

 

To the OP, I think your site looks very good for starters and you've put quite a bit of effort in. I've bookmarked it and I'll be keen to see how you progress and develop it.

[Explore Chinese]

Thank you @Singe that really means a lot. I've got a lot of ideas for new articles aimed less at beginners, so stay tuned!

 

And thanks for the feedback @Moshen & @suMMit. Totally agree that it's personal and maybe some of the parts may be overwhelming for beginner. The aim was to provide someone with absolutely no knowledge of Chinese a starting point, but I'll check back and refine it with your feedback.

[Lu]

I have nitpicks and things I partly disagree with, but I'll only mention this one: The romanisation system is called Hanyu Pinyin, 'spelling 拼 the sounds 音 of Chinese 汉语'. It's usually shortened to just pinyin, but in a blog like yours I think you need to mention and explain the full name at least once.

 

I also wonder what your goal is with this blog. There are already quite a lot of blogs, websites, apps, Youtube channels and no doubt podcasts explaining to beginners how to start learning Chinese. What does your blog add to all this? Or are you mostly writing for yourself, to digest everything you've learned about learning Chinese so far?

[Explore Chinese]

Hi Lu, that's a good question. It's a little of both. It's definitely on the hobby side of things for me.

 

Hopefully I can share some things I've learned along the way to help people on their way too. There are aspects of it that are obvious to me now, but for a total beginner may not know where to look. Its still early days and the first step was to develop a baseline, that I can refer back to in future articles.

 

Good call on the explanation of Pinyin, appreciate the feedback!

 

 

[nicklinjm]

I have to say I am v surprised at Moshen's comment about not watching / listening to Chinese films or music for the first 10 years. For me this (music / movies) was the key to improving my pronunciation and vocabulary in the early days of learning Mandarin, and has stood me in good stead now that I live and work in China.

 

Guess it just goes to show, different strokes for different folks!

[Explore Chinese]

Hi Nick,

 

Agreed but I also did the same thing haha. One of my biggest mistakes was waiting until "my Chinese is good" before trying to speak or consume content. I now realise my ability to do these things, will only improve through doing these things.

 

Maybe its not the same for everyone, but that's my personal reflection at least.