Do you want to learn Chinese but are not sure how to do it? Are you worried that it will be difficult and tedious? I understand you: it is a very common myth. Learning a foreign language is not easy for us French people. And yet, we are no dumber than the others. I'm going to show you how to make learning Chinese quick and easy.
Let's look at the basics of learning a language well and then I'll tell you exactly how you can learn Chinese easily and quickly.
A - The essential basics for learning a language easily and quickly
- What you need first and foremost: motivation, self-confidence, organization and patience
- Be consistent in very practical learning
- Use a varied and effective method
- Learn in an encouraging learning environment
B - What more can you do to learn Chinese easily and quickly
- Discover the specificities of the Chinese language
- Choose the method best suited to these specificities
- the one that teaches you essential characters and basic vocabulary
- the one that focuses on speaking and pronouncing the 5 Chinese tones
- the one that teaches you how to build more and more complex sentences
- Choose the method that optimizes your working time
- Choose the method that encourages you, values you and networks you
- Choose the method that quickly produces tangible results
C - A concrete way to get there: the MandarinMaster method
Why do you want to learn this language? Is it simply to travel, to work, for the pleasure of learning another language, out of interest in culture, to pass your Bac as an option LV1, 2 or 3, to enrich your CV with a diploma level, etc. All these motivations are valid. What is yours today? Learning a language is still a job, even when it's fun. To persevere in your learning, this motivation will be essential for you.
You learned languages at school without much success or very easily. It doesn't matter after all. The important thing is that you become aware of your real abilities both intellectually and in terms of your memory. And how do you make sure of that without starting out the right way?? To tell you about myself, I was not good at English at school, let alone German. And yet, I learned Chinese easily. Don't think you're not capable. Get to work and you'll see!
“When you want you can” goes the saying. No it is not enough to want. You also have to give yourself the means to actually achieve what you want. Do you want to learn Chinese? Great idea! How do you plan to organize yourself? How much time are you ready to invest every day? Where do you plan to work? What method do you plan to follow? Hopefully by the end of this article you will have a bit clearer ideas.
That's harder for us French people (!!). You want to learn Chinese “fast.” Let's see how to make your learning as fast as possible. But don't put too much pressure on yourself. If you work a little bit every day you will see your progress, until the day when you really “take off”. The important thing is not to go fast but to make a little progress every day, by working well. The results will come naturally, without putting too much pressure on you.
Yes, dare we say it, if you “kindly” impose a certain daily discipline on yourself to read, speak, write and listen to the language you are learning, you will make rapid progress. If you stop your apprenticeship for a yes or no, it is as if you were stopping a construction site in progress: it will be much more difficult for you to start again afterwards... and you will have the feeling of dragging on. On the contrary, your regularity will pay off and you will get a taste for it.
To speak a language is to speak it first, right? Therefore, you must first and foremost put the emphasis on your speech. Practice speaking as much as possible. We French people have a problem at this level: we wait to be perfect in the language before opening our mouth. It is just the opposite that must be done. And so much for the big mistakes at the beginning. Talk, talk, talk!
Whatever type of learning you choose, online, face-to-face or on a book, always favor real practice with a native who perfectly masters the subtleties of his language and wants to try to understand you without judging you too much. You can choose a paid tutor but you can also practice at a restaurant, in a store, etc. All opportunities are good to get started, without fear of being ridiculous.
Familiarize yourself with a variety of written, audio and video materials to get your eyes and ears used to the different tones and expressions of the language: books, newspapers, podcasts, YouTube channels, movies in VO, etc.Even if you don't understand everything, or even very little at first!
The pedagogical structure of a language course requires a lot of care. The method you choose should be gradual with competent teachers and pedagogues and native tutors.
A good language method should mix different types of content: grammar, vocabulary, oral and written comprehension, oral and written expression, conversation. It must also vary the teaching methods in the various exercises proposed: you write, you listen, you read aloud, you translate, you repeat, you pronounce yourself, you build, you build, you exchange, you recognize yourself, etc.
The right language method, and even more so today, must leave room for play by using original and fun teaching practices, lively and ergonomic platforms, flashcards, etc. This will make your learning much easier. You'll want to go to the next lesson.
A good language method should facilitate your memorization of vocabulary and grammar by contextualizing each word learned in a common sentence and by making maximum use of your three memories: your auditory memory, your visual memory and your kinesthetic memory.
When you work on a language without visualizing the real progress you're making, it's a bit disheartening. You have the impression of wasting your time and can easily say to yourself: “What is the point of continuing”? To do this, you must choose a method that continuously evaluates your work, values your strengths and indicates your weaknesses.
Learning a language has never been easy. It is an exercise that requires a certain flexibility and very quickly puts us face to face with our limits. It is important that you can identify your bottlenecks so that you can review them later with a tutor or your teacher. That is how you will progress more quickly.
Get closer to your compatriots who are doing the same exercise as you. You will have the impression of being less stupid because they too have difficulties. Register on a Forum where you can freely exchange with them.
First, understand that Chinese is a language that cannot be learned like the others. To learn Chinese well, both easily and quickly, you need to understand what makes it a unique language. Then I will give you the essential steps to do it.
Chinese is not an alphabetic language and never will be. The Chinese language cannot be learned with our 26 letters of the alphabet but with a few thousand different characters. The Chinese language cannot be deciphered as an Indo-European language. It is learned by memorizing these few thousand characters which are graphic representations of meaning. But rest assured: if you only know 1000, you will already be able to understand 90% of a simple text in Chinese. By 2000, you will understand nearly 98% of the current texts in Chinese. Writing these characters, which must be done in a precise sense and order, is an essential step in order to remember them well.
Do you want to learn Chinese? Get familiar with new sounds. Each Chinese character is pronounced in one or more ways depending on the context. The syllables used in Chinese are mostly sounds unknown to us French people. So you need to know phonetics to help you pronounce them correctly. This phonetics is called pinyin: it has been the official phonetics in China since 1958. It is also the most common in the world. Do not learn the matrix of this phonetics by heart, it is completely useless. Consult it every time you learn a new character.
If you like a little bit of music, you're going to love learning Chinese. In French, when you hear “house” you understand house, no matter how tonally you pronounce that word. In Chinese, you should put a particular tone on your pronunciation because a sound can be attached to several different characters and therefore to different meanings. I even advise you to exaggerate your pronunciation at the beginning of your learning. To speak Chinese well you have to accept being “ridiculous”. At the beginning you will probably have some difficulty setting the right tone because you are not used to it. But don't worry: Chinese people have a lot of humor and are very lenient with those who make the effort to learn their language.
Most Chinese words are 2 characters long. As you learn characters, your Chinese vocabulary will naturally increase. You can even guess the meaning of the word. Example: (diàn) means “electricity”/(năo) means “brain”. What does (diàn naho) mean? “Computer”. You see, it's simple!
Very good news for you who want to learn Chinese: Chinese grammar is very simple. The Chinese cannot say the same about our French grammar. The Chinese language does not use conjugation, gender, singular, or plural. Once we understand that Chinese is a language of characters, it is easier to understand that a character does not conjugate or agree in gender and number. If the French will say “I would have liked you to have been able to come and have dinner at my house tonight”, the Chinese will say more simply “I want you to come and have dinner at my house tonight”. Chinese verbs stay in the infinitive. All you need is one particular character to mean the future () or the past () and one character to indicate the plural ().
Without a method that is completely adapted to all these specificities of Chinese, learning this language will be difficult and long for you. To start without fear and persevere in your learning, you need a systematic and effective method that guarantees you'll make rapid progress so as not to get discouraged. This method must take into account the specificities of the Chinese language, optimize your working time, support you and encourage you on a daily basis to get you concrete results.
You need a method that teaches you characters and not just Pinyin phonetics. Learning Chinese with only Pinyin can temporarily help someone who is preparing for a 2-day mission in China but will not be suitable for the person who wants to master Chinese in a sustainable way.
By learning the 2000 most common characters you will be able to understand 95% of common texts in Chinese. That is more than enough. You should focus your efforts on the most important ones and approach them gradually (to avoid indigestion) starting with the most common ones (according to the international HSK ranking).
If you learn your characters regularly, your vocabulary will naturally be enriched. The method you choose should help you discover the most common new words as you go.
If you want to learn characters well (and especially remember them), you will not be able to avoid writing them. A good method should show you graphically how to write each new character learned: in what sense and in what order of the traits. By doing your lines of writing daily (count 10 minutes max.) you will develop your visual and kinesthetic memory.
Some Chinese characters look the same. To learn to read in Chinese, you need to practice identifying a character in the middle of its peers. Example: distinguish,, and. You should do the same for vocabulary words. Example: Distinguish between e-, and.
How you pronounce Chinese will make all the difference. Again, don't be afraid of the ridiculous. Exaggerate the tones at the beginning of your learning. For each new Chinese character and word, the right method should provide you with an audio pattern to repeat. If the method objectively validates your pronunciation it's Top!
I imagine that if you want to learn Chinese it is also to write it and make correct sentences. A good Chinese method should teach you how to gradually build increasingly complex sentences while respecting the few syntax rules of the Chinese language.
The specificities of the Chinese language require you to be very concentrated and regular in your learning. However, it is scientifically proven that the concentration is optimal for a maximum of 25 minutes (the Pomodoro theory). You must therefore do everything you can to reduce your Chinese language work to 25 minutes per day, or even to two times 25 minutes if and when necessary. Finally, what is 25 minutes a day?
Many tools exist today to facilitate memorization. Flashcards will be a great way to work on these characters and words in your spare time. The more accessible and fun these flashcards are, the more you will enjoy consulting them on a regular basis... and the sooner you will make progress.
The right method to teach you Chinese easily and quickly is the one that accompanies you every day with a predefined and structured course program. It must offer you native tutors to make you speak Chinese in real conditions. Ideally, the right method should help you prepare for these regular sessions with your tutor to save time.
If you are able to measure how far you have come every day, you will want to continue and progress. The right method for you is one that assesses you continuously, tells you how many Chinese characters and words you know, which ones you need to review, what are your strengths and what points you need to improve in each of the 8 points specific to learning Chinese: writing, phonetics, pronunciation, pronunciation, reading and speaking comprehension, written and oral expression, and conversation.
Choose a method that has opened a Forum for its students. It is a great way to practice and to persevere. It is also a great source of mutual encouragement.
You are aiming for a level of qualification, an official diploma, in short, a unique asset to add to your resume. The right method for you is one that prepares you in a systematic and scientific way for the various Chinese tests and exams that exist today:
- HSK: an international standard of Chinese origin that ranges from HSK1 (beginner) to HSK6 (very common)
- official European diplomas: from A1 (beginner) to C2 (very common)
This Chinese language method should gradually prepare you for these different stages and offer you courses according to your entry level.
Do you want to learn Chinese easily and quickly? If your objective is clear and you are ready to get organized, MandarinMaster is the method you should test right now because it corresponds in an original and innovative way to all the specificities of the Chinese language. It was developed in a systematic and scientific manner by a Franco-Chinese team of experienced and passionate trainers. All of his pedagogy is based on a simple objective: to make Chinese accessible to as many people as possible... and therefore to you too!
- It optimizes your working time with only 25 minutes of concentration per day.
- She teaches you every day, from Monday to Friday, 2 to 3 Chinese characters and about 10 vocabulary words. These Chinese characters and words are presented to you every day on video by a real person. You are invited to write them down and we show you how to do it.
- At each lesson, it allows you to validate online your pronunciation of each character and each word or phrase when learning them.
- In each lesson, she teaches you how to build Chinese sentences in a fun way, in the form of a puzzle.
- It evaluates your progress in real time and values your progress daily (through an XP bonus system).
- To reinforce and maintain your achievements, it offers you simple and attractive flashcards and a program of weekly and monthly revisions.
- She accompanies you personally throughout your career with native tutors who follow your progress and know your difficulties.
- It follows a progressive and structured program that prepares you effectively and calmly to present the tests or diplomas you are aiming for. You can follow a course of 6 months (HSK2 level/A1 level) to 3 years (HSK5/C1 level) and start the method at a more advanced stage if you pass the level tests.
- Finally, by teaching you Chinese in an easy and fast way, the MandarinMaster method introduces you to a fascinating culture that you will enjoy discovering more as you progress.
Ready to find out how to learn Chinese easily and quickly? Try MandarinMaster free for 2 weeks. They are completely free (you don't even need to fill in your bank details).
