Mandarin Chinese, with over 873 million native speakers may be the most spoken language in the world! No surprises there, since China has the world’s largest population. As well as China and Taiwan, Chinese is also spoken in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and Mongolia. The truth is, no matter which section of the world you live in, you’re sure to find at least several speakers of Chinese. Chinese people live all over the world!
The Chinese culture is probably the oldest and richest cultures and learning Chinese will certainly be a rewarding experience. China is emerging as a global super power and this implies that in the future Chinese will undoubtedly be must-know language in the business world. In fact, Chinese is already an important language to know, given the volume of business transactions done in the business world with Chinese people. With its rapid economic growth, China has become an attractive economic hot-spot, with many businesses all over the world wanting to set up operations in China. This would mean that a great deal of employment opportunities will be created in China. The data of Chinese may put you ahead of the rest in securing the opportunity to work in China.
Leaving the economic perspective, learning Chinese has its advantages in a socio-cultural sense too. In america, the Asian community is one of the most rapidly growing communities, thus building friendships using them will be that much easier if you knew Chinese.
While it makes sense to learn Chinese, learning Chinese is obviously not easy! Chinese is probably one of many hardest languages to learn. This is mainly due to the truth that in Chinese, a word spelt the exact same way could be pronounced in four different ways, giving four completely different meanings! If that wasn’t difficult enough, simply take a look at some Chinese text. The letters sure are beautiful, but it would be a laborious task if you want to write them all on your own! But don’t be disheartened by any means. Despite being difficult, don’t forget that more people around the world know Chinese than any language. So it’s certainly easy for one to learn it too. You merely need the correct course material and the proper guidance to get you on the way.
When choosing a language course, remember to select a language course that’s audio-based. This is absolutely vital when learning Chinese, since as stated earlier, the same word could have up to four very different pronunciations! You wouldn’t grasp the pronunciation if you were to read a text-book with all the current Chinese grammar and vocabulary, can you? Therefore get a language course that will show you on the different ways words are pronounced and how words are spoken with the true Chinese accent. When speaking of audio-based courses, the most obvious reference is to online courses rather than to the traditional classroom based lessons. Traditional classroom language lessons seems to have fallen out of favor, since online courses are cost effective, time-saving, interactive, convenient and overall just effective. As many language tutors themselves would accept, it becomes difficult to pay individual focus on each student in a class-room environment. Online courses also come at a much less price, simply because much less overheads go in to the production of these courses compared to the traditional language lesson. Each one of these factors have contributed to the popularity of online courses, nevertheless, you need to be careful when choosing a course since there are just too many scam courses on the market. Always look out for reviews and testimonials of previous users before you make a commitment to purchasing any course.
When learning Chinese, there are a few basic techniques you could use to increase your learning. These are techniques that are applicable to any language you intend to learn, so do use them for your advantage. One method is to surround yourself with just as much Chinese as possible, so that learning becomes inevitable. This might mean watching Chinese movies, Television shows, listening to Chinese radio, reading simple Chinese stories and hearing Chinese music. Labeling learn Chinese in 5 minutes making use of their respective Chinese meanings is another smart way to learn new vocabulary. You could even use flash cards to memorize new words. Simply write words that are difficult to memorize onto flash cards and take them wherever you go. You could go through these cards once you have a few momemts to spare such as when waiting in line at the bank, at the bus stop, while looking forward to your dentist etc. Understand that to learn new vocabulary, you have to constantly feed those words into your memory until they stick and become permanently engrained into your memory. These techniques will surely help you with memorizing new words.
You could also find a Chinese friend with whom you can practice speaking Chinese with. After all, there really is no substitute for true to life practice. Speaking a language is the fastest way of mastering any language. In the event that you live in a residential area where there are Chinese speaking people, then you’re in luck! Go ahead and try to chat them up. You would learn so much of the native Chinese accent. If there aren’t any Chinese in your community, avoid being disheartened. There are many websites that you could use to get chat buddies you could practice your Chinese with.
These are the many different ways you could complement your learning of Chinese. Nonetheless it becomes vital that you choose a language course which will set the bottom to your learning. Ideally, it must be audio-based, interactive and taught by a native speaker. For an excellent Chinese course that’s interactive, audio-based, taught by way of a native speaker, fun and interesting, browse the link below. Best of luck in learning Chinese!
Visit BLT Languages.com [http://www.bltlanguages.com/learn-chinese.html] to get the best Chinese language course that is audio-based and centered on improving your pronunciation! This program will ensure that your learning is simple, fast and most importantly effective! The course consists of audio programs, interactive sessions and also games! Your convenience is assured because you can learn anytime, anywhere. Simply take the audio course with you on your i-pod or mp3 player.