How to Learn Chinese 3: Why Learn Chinese? (by Steve Bennett)

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.