Loads of People Speak It!
- Chinese is the most used language on the internet and has the most native speakers in the world
- China is the fastest growing world economy destined to outgrow the USA by 2027
Extraordinary Culture
- An extraordinarily rich and deep and long-lived culture
- A culture with very different points of reference to western culture
The Language Itself
- From a spoken point of view very simple
- no subject/verb agreement
- no plurals
- no conjugations
- no tenses
- simple numbering system which is applied to dates and time expressions
- simple conditional sentences
- simple prepositions
- However……
- No alphabet
- Basic unit is the character/syllable
- Syllable characterized by initial: final: tone
- The concept of a “word” in Chinese is not straightforward (there are no spaces in Chinese text)
Difficulties of Chinese
- Cognitive overload
- Difficulty of maintaining a notebook
- Difficulty finding relevant text at your level
Rewards of learning Chinese
- Massive sense of achievement when you can hold conversations in Chinese
- Immersion in a totally different culture
For example1: 成语chéngyŭ
杀鸡儆猴 杀1鸡2敬3猴4
1.杀 shā to kill / to murder / to slaughter
2.鸡 jī chicken / fowl
3.敬 jìng to respect / to venerate / to salute / to offer
4.猴 hóu monkey
For example2: Radicals
贝(貝):贵,赚
竹:建筑, 笔
For example3: Chinese Cuisine
Extract from “Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper”(a book) by Fuchsia Dunlop
Useful web addresses
- www.inputking.com (free Chinese editor)
- www.chinese-tools.com (lots of free tools)
- http://www.nciku.com/ (On-line Dictionary hand-written characters recognition)
- http://cctv.cntv.cn/lm/kuailehanyu/(Chinese TV show)
Final Plug
www.meetup.com London Mandarin Learners
This text is from the PPT presentation by Steve Bennett on London Mandarin Learner meet up.
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