Language is fundamental in our lives because with the language we can understand each other’s context when we socialize or communicate with other people. We of course already know that in this world there are millions of languages that are actively used, starting from the national language of each country, regional languages, indigenous languages, ethnic languages, and many more. Even language development also affects the addition of new vocabulary due to the influence of cultural developments.
Talking further about international coverage, mastering a foreign language is also a very good skill and must be mastered. It is commonly known that the current international language is English, but people are increasingly aware of the importance of mastering multiple languages, and one of the most studied languages is Chinese.
As a country, China is the country with the largest population in the world and speaking ethnically, Chinese are also the dominant ethnicity so almost every country in the world has people of Chinese descent. So it is natural that this has an effect on the massive use of Chinese throughout the world.
Steps to Learn Chinese
One of the goals of learning Chinese is to expand opportunities in the world of work, this adds to the list of reasons why people need to learn Chinese for their development. There are already many Chinese language courses available, even near your home. However, for those of you who don’t want to spend money on it, here are some ways to learn Chinese on your own.
1. Understand Pinyin first
If taken literally, Pinyin means the spelling of sounds or forms of writing with Roman letters for the way of pronouncing or reading Chinese characters.
2. Understand the tones in Mandarin
This is unique to Mandarin, where tone greatly influences meaning. The same word with a different tone of pronunciation will have a different meaning. It is generally known that there are 4 pronunciation tones in Mandarin, namely rising tones, curved tones, flat tones, and descending tones.
Not everyone can understand this difference in tone because it is quite difficult, even people who are proficient in Mandarin can also use the wrong tone it should.
3. Learn simple vocabulary
This is one of the tips that actually apply to the process of learning other foreign languages. You can start learning simple vocabulary that is widely used in your daily life, for example, the words house, eat, run, walk, rice, and many others.
So that you can remember more maturely, you can also make notes about the Chinese vocabulary that you have learned before. As long as you record vocabulary, without you realizing it you are already doing a repetition of vocabulary whose rhythm is the same as memorizing. If you forget the easy vocabulary you can also use these notes to help you refresh your vocabulary memory.
4. Memorize numbers and count
For those of you who are learning Mandarin with the aim of studying or traveling, it is mandatory for you to learn numbers and how to count. This is because later you will need it to streamline the transaction process when you use public transportation or when buying goods and needs. For example at airports, bus terminals, public transportation, markets, supermarkets, and so on.
Memorizing numbers in Mandarin is easier than other vocabulary words. For starters, you can learn from the numbers 1 to 10, and for the next number pronunciation, it will be easier because it uses a lot of repetition and only changes the back part.
5. Understand the structure of Chinese sentences
This is also the same for any foreign language learning process. Studying sentence structure will greatly help in understanding the intended context. But this is the most difficult stage when learning Mandarin. But when you have mastered it well, your learning process will be much easier in the future. Sentence structure is generally in the form of a subject, predicate, object, and placement of information according to needs.
6. Looking for things related to Mandarin
Then after you have learned the basics, then you can sharpen your skills with things related to Mandarin. For example, films or shows then mobile applications or books for learning Mandarin.
Those are some ways to learn Mandarin independently; I hope they are useful and helpful.
