Why You Must Learn the Mandarin Language Now

Many people confronted with the problem of how to learn Mandarin go into a complete panic. The symbols look so strange to English speakers, and the words sound nothing like your home tongue. But there are easier ways to learning Chinese that will have even the most panic-stricken learner speaking this unique language in no time.

You can accomplish the first issue - those funny but beautiful symbols by separating the act of speaking Mandarin from the act of reading it. Admittedly Mandarin doesn't use the Roman alphabet, or technically, any alphabet at all. Those symbols are called characters, and there are a lot of them. But fortunately, many Foreign speakers learn to speak beginner Mandarin without mastering Chinese characters, because Mandarin can be written in a Western alphabet called Pinyin. This greatly helps foreigners struggling with how to learn Chinese!

The second problem - the sound of Mandarin words themselves can be explained by realizing that Mandarin is very dependent on pitch and tone. For example, the sound "ma" said in a high-pitched tone could mean "mother" in a different tone, it could mean "horse." Thus, it's very important that students concerned with how to learn Chinese approach this mysterious language in a way that allows them to hear the spoken words authentically pronounced. Rocket Mandarin is a excellent language learning program for this reason; it will help you learn the Mandarin language in the fastest and most effective way and you could learn to speak basic Mandarin within 8-weeks.

When deciding how to study Chinese, you must know what kind of Chinese you need to study. There are quite a few variations of the Chinese language; whether these are dialects of a single language, or related but separate languages like Thai and Korean, for instance, is difficult to say. Two of the most commonly used variants of Chinese are Mandarin , spoken by 1.075 billion people, and Cantonese (more commonly spoken in Hong Kong). But each language variant is completely unique from the others, and a Cantonese-speaking person cannot be understood by a someone who speaks only Mandarin.

In addition to practicing with a good audio language learning program such as Rocket Chinese, it helps greatly to befriend a native speaker to practice with. This is true when learning any new language, but it's an especially important factor in how to learn Mandarin. Have you ever heard someone pronounce an unfamiliar name on the mobile phone, and failed to understand what they were saying? This is because you can't see the movements of their mouth as they produce the sounds. With so many Chinese words dependent upon tone and the slightest variation of pronunciation, it helps so much to have a native Chinese speaker to watch as well as hear.

You say you don't know any native Chinese speakers? I'll bet you do! Is there a Chinese restaurant nearby? If employees speak the variant of Chinese you want to learn, make them your new best friends, because they'll definitely have input on how to learn Chinese! Is there a Chinese market in your area? In all likelihood, there will be Chinese people there. Look on the Internet for forums and meet-ups featuring Chinese language and culture. And as a last plan, you can learn a great deal from viewing Chinese movies.

My last advice is, practice at least 30 minutes a day! You'll never sound like a native Chinese speaker, but before you know it, you'll be able speak and understand Chinese. And your friends will never know that only a couple of weeks ago, you had no idea how to learn Chinese!

Gerrit du Plessis runs the popular foreign language learning site http://www.listenhear.info

Do YOU want more ways to learn Chinese fast? Visit his Rocket Chinese review page for more info and grab your FREE 6 day Mandarin language program.