Why Learn Mandarin Chinese?
I am often asked why one should spend the time and energy needed to learn Mandarin Chinese. My answer is simple: because most don’t. Learning Mandarin Chinese can literally change your life, allowing you to have real conversations with the people you meet in Taiwan, while opening new opportunities in your social, professional and romantic life. There is no better place to learn Mandarin Chinese than where it is spoken by native speakers; don't waste this chance.
Read MoreMandarin Chinese and Her Sister Languages in Taiwan
Mandarin is the most widely spoken “dialect” of Chinese and the the most widely spoken native tongue in the world. Most linguists—me included—would argue that Mandarin and the other “dialects” of Chinese discussed below are in fact distinct languages. Why? Because most of the alleged dialects of Chinese are mutually unintelligible, meaning that a native speaker of one would not be able to communicate with that of another without the help of written Chinese characters or longterm exposure. But if one insists on calling Mandarin, Cantonese, and Taiwanese “dialects of Chinese,” then they should concede that Spanish and Italian are dialects of Latin…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Romanized Mandarin Chinese
There have been many attempts to render Mandarin and other Chinese languages into the Latin alphabet. Some have stuck like well-cooked spaghetti, while others have fallen to the linguistic floor. At best, all of these systems are poor stopgaps for learning the Chinese characters they represent. But in your early days of study, and even later when presented with rare characters, Romanization can be a big help.
Read MoreTips for Improving Your Mandarin Chinese Listening Skills
Mandarin Chinese will have some new sounds for you, and you actually won’t be able to hear them until you have studied for a while. Moreover, you will not be able to pronounce words well until you can hear them correctly. So don’t let anyone kid you into believing that running your dialogues in your group Chinese class with some guy from Holland is going to help you pronounce Chinese better... In the beginning, your primary task should be listening. Listen to the same short conversations again and again and again.
Read MoreTips For Learning to Read and Write Chinese
Language is not genetic. Taiwanese children have all of the same difficulties you do in learning to read Chinese. When I was teaching at an elementary school, I used to sit down next to my students in study hall, and practice writing my Chinese characters exactly as they did. To learn the pronunciation of the characters, the children read Bo Po Mo Fo, the same as me. One day, one of my second grade students teased me, “Teacher, your book is baby Chinese.” “Really?” I said, “I bet you can’t read it.” It was a dialogue about going to the bank and exchanging traveler’s checks and currencies. Of course, three words in, the boy was already pointing at the Chinese characters asking, “Teacher, what is this word?” “That’s 銀行, it means bank in English.” “Teacher, what’s this word?” “押金, it means cash deposit in English.” When you are struggling with the language—and everyone struggles—just remember that native speakers had trouble learning it, too. The upside is that the native speaker was seven when they were reading at the level you read after only two or three years of intensive study!
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