Learning Mandarin
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Learning Chinese American Style with Pedro S. Silva II
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This is a basic introduction into learning Mandarin from an American POV. It was delivered to a student audience curious about the difficulties of learning a language so different from their own.
Transcript of Learning Mandarin
Learning Chinese American Style with
Pedro S. Silva II
A Little About Me
Like most Americans my first exposure to Chinese was in Karate movies and Chinese food restaurants. All I knew was that the food was good and I wished I had moves like Bruce Lee. So when I went into the military I took a few martial arts classes. I did alright, but I’m no Jackie Chan.
您会说中文吗 ?One day, I found out I had an opportunity to take a language skills test. This test could tell you how good you were at learning languages. I decided to take it and when I got my score back they said I could learn any language. I asked for Hebrew or Arabic. The military gave me Chinese.
学 外语 很 难。For many people learning a foreign languages can be pretty difficult. Many say that it is because of the difference in the sounds and grammar patterns. But from my experience, I think that the major difference is the culture or the way of thinking.
Tortoise Shell
We Speak The Way We Think.
China has a culture and history that goes back over 4,500 years. Archaeologists have uncovered primitive characters written on the back of tortoise shells that are 3,000 years old or more. A lot can happen in that time.
The American Culture that we know didn’t really begin until after the Revolutionary War in 1776. And though the English language had been around a while, the culture that effects the way we use it is still developing.
What’s the Difference?EVEN THOUGH THESE DAYS IT SEEMS
THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES HAVE A LOT MORE IN COMMON
The Writing On The Wall
The first obvious difference is that the Chinese language doesn’t use an alphabet. Originally they used pictures that have evolved into the characters we see today. For instance, the sun was written as , the moon as , water was written as , and so forth.
Ni shuo shenme?
The second major difference is the sounds. Chinese only has about 400 distinct sounds (English has 12,000). That means that the same sounds get repeated a lot of times, but can mean a lot of different things. For example the sound “xiang” could mean:
● To think●A Countryside●Rubber tree or even●Elephant
Mother or Horse?
One way to tell the difference in what someone is saying is to listen for the tones. Chinese sounds have four pitched tones and one that is neutral. One is high. The second is medium. The third is low and the fourth is a falling tone. It can mean the difference between words like mother (mā) and horse (mă).
How Do You Say 学校 ?
Pinyin was developed in order for foreigners to learn to pronounce Chinese sounds. So if I wanted to say, “The teacher is going to school.” in Chinese, I would pronounce it as:
Lǎoshī yào qù xuéxiào.
The Chinese characters for that sentence are:
老师 要 去 学校。
What makes more sense?
The other way to identify what someone is saying is by listening for context. If someone is hungry, would it make more sense to offer them :
or
shuǐ jiǎo = dumplings shuì jiào = sleep
A B
How To Teach Yourself Chinese
When I was learning Chinese I found that the best way to learn it was to teach my mind to first get familiar with:
The sounds. The pronunciation The characters The culture
You’ll notice that I didn’t mention meaning. Ifigured if babies could learn a languagewithout dictionary definitions, so could I.
How To Begin.
I started my Chinese self study by: Listening to tapes in Chinese, Reading lessons in pinyin out loud Copying characters
I never really tried to understand. I just kept familiarizing myself with Chinese until it no longer felt foreign to me. Eventually I recognized sounds and characters. This was laying a foundation.
Other Things To Know
Chinese Characters are composed of smaller characters called radicals and are written out in a certain stroke order. Some examples are:
刀 "knife“ 心 "heart“ 人 "man“ 手 "hand“ 水 "water“ 火 "fire"
Pieces Of The Puzzle
There are 214 radicals in all and they range from 1 stroke to 17 strokes. Like a puzzle, if you put different combinations together you can write all 30,000 Chinese Characters.一丨丶丿乙亅二亠人儿入八冂冖冫几凵刀力勹匕匚匸十卜卩厂厶又口囗土士夊夊夕大女子宀寸小 尢尸屮山巛工己巾乡广廴廾弋弓彐彡彳心戈戶手支攴文斗斤方无日曰月木欠止歹殳毋比毛氏 气水火爪父爻爿片牙犬玄玉瓜瓦甘生用田疋疒癶白皮目矛矢石示禸禾穴立竹米糸缶网羊羽老而 耒耳聿肉臣自至臼舌舛舟艮色艸虍虫血行衣襾見角言谷豆豕豸貝赤走足身車辛辰辵邑酉釆里金長 門阜隶隹雨靑非面革韦韭音頁凬飛食首香馬骨高髟鬥鬯鬲鬼魚鳥鹵鹿麦麻黃黍黑黹黽鼎鼓鼠鼻齊
It’s As Simple As Math
Sun +
Moon =
Bright
Woman + Child = Good
What Next?
With these basics, you will be able to get started on teaching yourself basic Chinese. It just takes a little discipline and an open mind. Just remember that an open mind is like a door. It works both ways. So if you don’t keep what you learn in, it will walk right back out.
Questions?
China Photos
Bye-Bye 再见 Zàijiàn.
