There's no doubt learning any foreign language requires effort, time and commitment. This holds true even more, especially when there's a big difference between one's native tongue and learning a new language.On other side, knowing tips and techniques of learning a new language can make all difference on how effective and successful you can achieve.
Based on personal learning experiences, along with others(either online or offline), here are some of learning Chinese language tips and techniques on becoming successful in mastering Chinese language.
By using one, or a combination of these tips and techniques, will maximize your effectiveness, minimize your time, and at same time, make your learning fun and enjoyable.
Step I - Where to start?
Start from learning Chinese pronunciation.
Learning Chinese Pinyin should be first step of learning Chinese language. Pinyin contains all Chinese phonetic alphabets where they are used in pronunciation of Chinese characters. To distinguish different tones, pay close attention to four types by reading Pinyin letters, initials, finals, and all possible combinations.
The objective of this phase is for you to be able to read any Chinese character with marked in Pinyin and also write a given pronunciation in Pinyin format. Be warned: learn correct pronunciation from start, do not build bad habits!
Step II - Listen, practice and memorize simple Chinese vocabulary and sentences
Tips:
Take a local community Chinese class, do practice drills with your study partner. The more you speak, easier it will be for you to learn.
Get a good dictionary and make sure it has phonetic spellings of words.
Find a native Chinese speaker to converse with, many Chinese students would like to practice their English as an exchange to teach you Chinese.
Visit a Chinese restaurant or Chinese community center where Chinese is spoken natively.
Read out loud, listen to and repeat after tape or online radio, watch Chinese movies and TV programs. Listen carefully to new sounds. Repeat them as accurately as possible, try to forget sounds of your native language.
Sing Chinese songs.
Borrow cassette tapes from local library, review and listen to tapes frequently until you're able to speak words and sentences all by yourself.
Review older vocabulary every so often to refresh your memory. Step III - Write Chinese Understand Chinese writing strokes and rules
Read our Writing Chinese section ( http://www.learn-chinese-language-online.com/writing-chinese.html ) to understand Chinese writing strokes and rules. This will provide a good solid foundation on how Chinese characters are formed.