My Early Start: Learning Chinese

Learn the Four Tones of Mandarin Chinese

Youtube video to learn how to count to 10 with Chinese hand signs

See our new lesson on counting to ten using Chinese hand signs and in Mandarin Chinese.  We hope to be posting these short lessons regularly, so check back often!  You can also find our videos on YouTube.com under MyEarlyStart.

Interesting article about the challenges in learning Mandarin Chinese

I found the following article (articlesbase.com/languages-articles/challenges-in-learning-mandarin-chinese-599440.html), written by Adrian Edlington, to be an interesting read:

Mandarin Chinese is an interesting language. Partly because of it's formidable reputation as a "hard" or nigh on "impossible" language to learn for us native Enlish speakers. What I'd like to do in this article is dispel some of the misnomers and mistruths surrounding learning to speak Chinese...

There are two main aspects of the Chinese language that scare most would be students: tones & characters.

Let's take a look at the first. Yes, Chinese has four tones. These tones affect the meaning of words. If you mess up your tones you say something completely different from what you planned. For example, ma, ma & ma, depending on the tone could mean "?", mother or horse.... or a host of other words.

Now you don't want to go calling your mother a horse or a horse your mother, though the Chinese language newbie need not fret. Tones really aren't as hard as you first think. Let me ask you a question:

Can you hum a tune? Do you sing in the shower, or sing along to the radio while driving in your car? If the answer is yes, then you can learn Chinese tones.

The reason people think they are so hard is because no-one knows how to teach them well. Native Chinese speakers learn their tones through mimicry as kids. As such, they've never had to actively "learn" tones, much in the same way as we've never had to actively learn basic English. We "do" English rather than "learn" English.

So, if you're able to hum a simple tune, you are perfectly capable of learning how to speak Chinese, provided you take the right approach.

Remember I said the second thing we native English speakers find hard about learning how to speak Chinese is Chinese characters: the written system? Well you need not fear here either. There are literally thousands of Chinese characters, all with different meanings, though only a relatively small amount are used in daily conversation.

Just as in English, the native Chinese speaker communicates wants, needs and basic thoughts in basic language, and day-to-day Chinese is more direct and basic than our mother tongue. The secret to leaning Characters easily is to take a natural approach.

Namely, don't try to run before you can walk, or walk before you can crawl. This translates into putting your emphasis on listening and speaking ahead of reading and writing. Learn the characters for words you can use in conversation. NEVER the other way around!

Trying to read and write ahead of listening and speaking is the fast way to boredom and frustration.

To wrap up; if you want to learn how to speak Chinese, then don't go about it the wrong way. Do put your emphasis on learning the natural way: listening and speaking ahead of reading and writing.

Finally, don't be scared by tones. If you can hum, you can learn how to speak Chinese.

Thanks for listening. I have lots more to add on these topics, so stay tuned!

Adrian has been frustrated with traditional Mandarin Chinese teaching methods since 1999; vowing to find a way to learn Chinese Better, Faster, while having more Fun!

www.stresslesschinese.com

More countries looking to expand their Mandarin programs

Ten years ago, friends and some of my family members were puzzled that I chose to send my children to a bilingual Mandarin-English school.  At the time, there were only a handful of schools which taught Mandarin in elementary schools.  Only a few non-Asian students attended my children's school, but times have certainly changed.

School districts across the country are trying to add Mandarin programs so that children in the United States can learn Mandarin Chinese. I have recently come across articles, which describe that other countries also recognize the fact that their children should learn Mandarin.

Here's an interesting article from the United Kingdom:   Children Must Learn Chinese

And a report from Australia: More Australian Children Should Learn Chinese

As more schools are adding Mandarin programs, parents are helping to prepare their preschool children with Mandarin DVDs, cassettes and television programs.   Our Early Start Mandarin DVD series has continued to sell well in the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Australia.  As the interest in Mandarin continues to grow, we have seen our sales expand to countries such as the Philipines, Singapore, Holland and France.

Fabulous New Chinese Dragon Tshirt!

We have added a fourth design to our popular t-shirt collection.  Our
colorful dragon looks great on our vibrant orange
tee.  All of our shirts are made from 100% cotton.

All of our designs (pig "zhu," cat "mao," dog "go," and dragon "long,") are
in Chinese and English with great graphics.

Buy one today for yourself on our website MyEarlyStart.com   Our
t-shirts come in many sizes for both children
and adults.

Let us know which design is your favorite!

Learning Chinese with your Kindle

My business partner and I just purchased Kindles so that we can keep up with the news, our favorite blogs, and, of course, to catch up on all the reading we've wanted to do since college.  We're hoping that the Kindle will become a great tool for learning Mandarin and other languages, too.  So far, I have only found one publication (Beginners Guide for Learning Chinese) for learning Mandarin.  Let me know if you've purchased this.  There aren't any reviews on Amazon for it, so I'd love to hear from you if you are familiar with it.