Chinese Culture
Eternity -- An Introduction
Useful Information
This page will provide information that will make learning Chinese a little easier and a lot less confusing. These bits of information should be constantly kept in your mind; They are quite helpful. Useful Tips:
- First and foremost, do not compare Chinese with English or any other Western Language. There are no equivalents to "A" "B" or "C" in Chinese. The Chinese language uses a pictograph system as opposed to the phonetic system of Western languages. Since no parallels whatsoever exist between the Chinese language and Western languages, in order to learn Chinese, you must forget about all Western Languages systems entirely.
- The Chinese language contains almost no grammar at all. For instance, tenses do not cause verbs to change form in the Chinese language. Since grammar is a large part in learning a language, let this fact inspire even more to learn Chinese.
- Chinese is quite simple; the characters are not as complicated as one would think. Once you get the basic words and concepts down, it's not too difficult. Because Chinese is a pictographic language, many characters are written visualizations of the objects. Make sure to use this fact as a tool to help you learn, understand, and memorize characters.
- When attempting to pronounce Chinese words, do not compare the sounds to English or any other Western language because many of the sounds do not exist in these languages. Simply attempt to imitate the sound you hear. In Mandarin as well as many other dialects, the tongue is used in very special ways. Try to make some of the sounds by experimenting with new methods of moving your tongue.
- If at first you don't succeed, try try again!!! Learning a language, especially Chinese, for the first time is quite frustrating and painstaking, but with diligence, you can get the basics down. Once you have mastered the basics, it is clear sailing from there.
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