Need to know about learning Chinese

matiaszaris
 November 21, 2013 at 10:34 AM posted in General Discussion

Memorize simple vocabulary. No matter what language you're learning, the more words you have at your disposal, the sooner you will become fluent. Therefore, the next thing to do is to memorize some useful Chinese vocabulary.

  • Some good vocabulary lists to start off
  • Although having a wide vocabulary is good, remember that in Mandarin, accuracy is more important. It's no good learning a word if you can't pronounce it properly, using the correct tone, as different pronunciations could have entirely different meanings. 

Learn some basic conversational phrases. Once you have a basic grasp of vocabulary and and pronunciation, you can move on to learning basic conversational phrases which are used in everyday Chinese speech.

  • Hello = nǐhǎo, pronounced [nee how]
  • What's your name? = nín guì xìng, pronounced [neen gway shing]
  • Yes = shì, pronounced [sher]
  • No = bú shì, pronounced [boo sher]
  • Thank you = xiè xiè, pronounced [sheh sheh]
  • You're welcome = bú yòng xiè, pronounced [boo yong sheh]
  • Excuse me = duì bu qǐ, pronounced [dway boo chee]
  • I don't understand = wǒ tīng bù dǒng, pronounced [wore ting boo dong]
  • Goodbye = zài jiàn, pronounced [zi gee’en]

Study basic grammar. There is a common misconception that grammar does not exist in the Chinese language, but this is not true. Unlike these languages, Chinese is very analytic language which is both good news and bad news for language learners.

  • For instance, in Chinese there are no complicated rules with regard to conjugations, agreement, gender, plural nouns or tense.
  • However, Chinese has its own set of grammar rules which do not have an equivalent in English, or other European languages.
  • However, despite the differences, Chinese does use the same word order as English, i.e. subject - verb - object, making it easier to translate word for word.

Sources and Citations

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podster
 November 21, 2013 at 01:26 PM

SPAM!  (The fourth link is for . . . wait for it . . . cigarettes for sale).  CPod, please delete this drivel.

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tingyun
 November 21, 2013 at 03:39 PM

Why not appoint one or two user moderators, with the power to delete posts and put a block on users? Rightwingnut seems to be waging a private war on these ads, so he might be a natural choice, but really any frequent user would work.

If cpod were worried about delegating this power, they could instead make the power only to temporarily hide posts (awaiting cpod approval for deletion)...but really, as long as the job description is clearly marked as deleting spam and blocking spammers (and has no role involved in moderating the conduct or nature of dioscourse, ie even a profanity laden rant is outside their designated authority), there is no real danger of abuse.

Given the infrequent cpod presence on the board, and the fact their time is better spent answering user questions, this seems the only viable solution - I'm sure someone would volunteer.

Traveling internationally, so won't see any replies for awhile - I apologize in advance if my suggestions turns out, on further analysis, to be ill-concieved.

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adam_p_lax
 November 21, 2013 at 02:11 PM

they really need to do more to prevent this spamming. its become epidemic these past few months.