Chinese: Lesson 3 - Why Is Chinese Hard?

Chinese people love talking about how their language is the hardest in the world, and believe that it is impossible for foreigners to learn the language. However, I think that Chinese simply requires a different approach to learning it.



Some people like to use a special calligraphy paper to practice. I want to make it clear that this is not required or even used for most people to write Chinese characters. It is similar to the paper we used as children, which has dotted lines on it to help guide us until we become comfortable writing it on our own. It is, however, an option, and while I typically use notebook paper, it can't hurt to try it out and figure out what works best for you.





Chinese people are quick to throw complicated looking words at you like 想 or even within the first few days of learning the language, and then criticize you for not being able to write it correctly. Either you space things apart too much, or you are writing it incorrectly. In my opinion, it just shows how bad these people are at being a Chinese teacher, and makes me feel that they don't want foreigners to learn their language. They enjoy intimidating people with their language, but the truth is, it's easy if you learn the basics first.

So, let's start with the basics of writing in Chinese. First, we'll go over the numbers, which are typically very easy.

• 一 (Yī)
• 二 (Èr)
• 三 (Sān)

This is 1, 2, and 3 in Chinese, respectively. One is probably one of the simplest characters: it's a line, similar to an elongated hyphen (-). Two is two lines, similar to an equals sign (= - top then bottom), and three is three lines, working your way from top to bottom, with the one in the middle being the shortest. These are probably the easiest characters to write.

The biggest thing most Chinese get on foreigners about when they're learning to write is the stroke order. Chinese people believe that everyone should write every character the same.With that being said, different regions have their own way of writing the same character. For example, people from Hong Kong and Mainland China will write the same word in a different order. However, they typically follow the same rules when writing.

Typically speaking, when you are writing a character, you start from the top left and work your way down to the bottom right. The important thing is to find the stroke order that feels comfortable for you, and making sure that your characters are what you want them to be.

For example, the number four 四 (Sì) is typically written like this:
















However, I usually write it like this.
















In the end, it doesn't matter too much, as long as it looks correct. The main reason a stroke order exists is improve one's penmanship, and give people a basic pattern to follow.

So, you understand how to write 一， 二， 三， and 四 (yī, èr, sān, sì) The rest of the numbers are fairly easy as well.

• 五 (Wu - Five) - Start with the top, then draw a line straight down, make a half-square (similar to step 2 with the number four 四), and then draw the bottom.
• 六 (Liu - Six) - Draw the top middle dot, the line under it, then the left and right legs.
• 七 (Qi - Seven) - Draw a capital L with a soft corner, and cross it like a lowercase t.
• 八 (Ba - Eight) - Draw something akin to the two legs from six, left then right.
• 九 (Jiu - Nine) - Draw a line that tilts left. Next, cross it, bring your pen down, and flick it up as you leave the paper.
• 十  (Shi - Ten) - Draw a plus.

There are a few other characters that are important to practice, as they are used frequently. Remember to go from top left to bottom right, and see if you can write them correctly. I'm asking you to do this on your own because there will not always be a guide to writing these characters.

• 日 （Rì - almost like you're sounding out the letter R）, which literally means sun, but is also used in a large number of words, as well as in conjunction with other Chinese characters to mean words like today and Japan.
• 月 (Yuè - Sounds kinda like you-a), which means moon, and is also very common.
• 目 (Mù - Moo, like a cow), which means eye.
• 木 (Mù - Moo), meaning wood.
• 心 (Xīn - Shin), which means heart.
• 中 (Zhōng - Similar to the word Jong), which means middle, and is also the first character used for the word China.
• 人 (Rén - Rent without the T), which means person.
  
• 小 (Xiǎo - Shao, like Shaolin), which means small
• 不 (Bù - Boo, like a ghost), which means not. One thing I want to mention: as an interjection, it can mean no. It is also used.

In my opinion, these are some of the most common characters you'll see. Once you learn to write them, writing a lot of words becomes dramatically easier.

Now, if you DID just practice writing these, here are a few words I want you to try to write. Don't expect to get it perfectly the first time around, but give it a shot.

• 大 (Dà) - This character is 人 with 一 going through it. It means big. A good way to remember is to imagine the line is the clouds, and a person's head is above the clouds.
• 天 (Tiān) - This is 人 combined with 二. It means heaven. I remember by thinking about how heaven (or space) is beyond the clouds.
• 明 (Míng) - This 日 and 月 side by side. It means next. Keep in mind that when you're writing this character, you need to make sure that they are very close. A lot of beginners will put characters like this too far apart, and end up writing 日月 instead of 明.
• 想 (Xiǎng) - This is the character from the beginning of this lesson. It might look complicated, but it should be a lot easier to write now. It is simply 木 and 目 over 心. The way I always remember it is a bit philosophical, and Chinese always thought I was crazy for it. You are looking at a tree (wood) with your heart - which is to say, you want something from the tree. 想 means want.

We'll stop here. It's important to go ahead and practice what you've already learned to write. Finding what feels most comfortable for you, just like with chopsticks, is what is most important.

Chinese: Lesson 2 - Basic Sentences

If you haven't read the first entry or need to review, please go out here.

One thing that a lot of Chinese people actually have problems with is saying western people's names. Choosing a shorter version of your name is typically a good idea. In my case, I went with my middle name. The name Anthony is too difficult for people to say, and Tony is a common name that teachers give their students in China. My middle name, Randolph, is too long as well, but Randy works just fine. Typically, choosing a 1-2 syllable name is a good idea.

The sentence structure in Chinese is very similar to that of English in many cases. For example,

• Wǒde míngzì shì Randy。
• My name is Randy.

This sentence is very simple, and shows how translating Chinese to English in most cases only really requires English speakers to understand the vocabulary and grammar, rather than having to also learn the sentence structure like with some other languages.

• 'Wǒ' means I, and 'wǒde' is my.
• 'míngzì' means name. ('Míng' like Ming dynasty, and 'Zì' like the sound a bee makes)
• 'shì' means is.
• Randy is Randy, which is my name. Many Chinese will say 'lándí,' but learning to say your name with a Chinese accent isn't really important, especially not for a beginner.

Try to say this sentence using your own name, and do your best to get the tones right. It shouldn't be too difficult. Remember: we're all still beginners, so don't be too hard on yourself if you're not perfect.

Next, I'm going to give you a sentence. Now, some of these words you might not know yet, but I want you to guess what the sentence probably means. Part of learning a language is being able to understand what someone says without understanding every single word used in a sentence. While this might sound crazy, getting comfortable with this idea helps you learn more words naturally and gives you more confidence in situations where people use vocabulary that you haven't learned yet. For example, 'Wǒ jiào Randy' also means "my name is Randy," but the literal translation is, "I'm called Randy." So imagine how many different ways you can say the same sentence in English, and you'll understand why this is important.

• Zhè shì wǒde gēgē。

So, which words do we know? What does 'wǒde' mean? How about 'gēgē'? And shì? So, what do you think Zhè means? You might say it means "this" or "that," both of which are good answers. Now, if you were introducing someone to your brother, which one would you use?

'Zhè' means this. That, just like in English, is a different word - 'nà.'

'Zhè' is pronounced Ger, like the beginning of German.
'Nà' is pronounced similarly to the end of the word Banana.

I'll give you another sentence. See if you can do this one as well.

• Wǒde mā shì sìshíqī suì.

Again, pick out which words you know. 'Wǒde' and 'shì' are in the previous sentence. If you look at the tone in 'mā,' then you can tell which one it is. Also, consider the context of the sentence. "My _______ is _________." Which word makes sense?

The last thing we have learned is 'sìshíqī.' This is actually 3 words put together. Any guesses on what this means? It means forty-seven. Literally, it means 'four tens (and) seven.'

So, what does it say? My mother is forty-seven _______. Only one word really makes sense here, and that's years old. So, the full sentence is, "My mother is forty-seven years old."

'Suì' is pronounced like sway.

Now, can you tell me your age in Chinese? How about your mothers? Fathers? Brothers or sisters? It's not that difficult, is it? You might even be willing to say that Chinese seems easy!

If you want some extra practice, which you'll want if you're serious about learning Chinese, I recommend looking into programs like Anki, or using My Chinese Coach for the DS to practice Chinese on a daily basis.

Anki is a free flashcard program and offers more than just Chinese. It uses SRS to teach you and help you review. You can find a variety of decks here. I highly recommend trying to use this, because a lot of these decks come with audio files which allow you to practice your listening and gives you something to compare your pronunciation to.

My Chinese Coach is a program I used a lot while I was in China. It is for the original DS, and was invaluable when I didn't have access to a computer. While it might not be something everyone wants to invest in, it is worth mentioning.

Probably the best thing about it is that it teaches you to write Chinese characters, and offers a variety of games designed to help you improve your Chinese. My biggest gripe with it is how slowly it gives you new games, and how a large number of the later games aren't very useful or interesting by the time you get them.



In the next lesson, I will show you how I taught myself to write Chinese, and why Chinese appears more intimidating than it really is.

Chinese: Lesson 1 - Learning New Languages

Learning languages is something that a lot of people consider to be a difficult task. Yet, nearly everyone at one point in their life takes classes and attempts to learn a second language. The success rate of these people depends not only on their dedication, but also their personal motivation and accessibility to others who they can use the language with.

If, for example, you learn a language but never use it to communicate with others, the way you speak may end up sounding a bit odd, not to mention the fact that your progress will be a lot slower than if you spend time learning the language with other people. That is part of why immersion works so well, and the reason why I can understand more Chinese than people might expect. In fact, even in China, people occasionally seemed surprised when I could understand what they were saying, though that was typically because people would say something in Chinese, hoping that I wouldn't be able to understand it. Reasons aside, it was fun.

My goal in this blog is to go over a handful of things to help you understand at least a little bit about the Chinese language. Feel free to give me feedback in the comments if you have anything to say. I'll try to keep everything fairly basic. The main reason for doing this is so that I can try to keep up on my Chinese, and explaining it also helps me work through the process of learning it.

So, first of all, I want to mention something: I learned Chinese in a much more natural way than most people did. I did take a Chinese language class, but that was mostly an attempt to help me with my Kanji while I was taking Japanese. The end result was not what I had hoped for, but I did manage to pick up a handful of words, though none that are ever really used on tests. That being said, the only thing I remember from that class related to the Chinese language is that there are 4 major tones in Chinese, and 1 somewhat overlooked tone (the neutral tone) - though that wasn't exactly how the teacher put it.

The five tones are typically explained using words that are phonetically the same, but the tones are different. I'll show you some examples of what I mean.

• Mā - Mother (a flat, monotone-sounding tone)

• Má - Hemp (A rising tone, similar to a singe-word question, like "Yes?")

• Mǎ - Horse (a falling and rising tone. It's similar to when we're in disbelief and say "Really?" It's better to over-emphasize than under-emphasize this tone.)

• Mà - Curse / Condemn (A falling tone, similar to when you're frustrated or upset.)

• Ma - Interrogative Particle (a spoken question-mark [?]. This has a very short tone. Some Chinese don't even acknowledge that this tone exists.) 

This video will help you hear the differences in the tones. I have color-coded them in a fashion similar to how most people seem to. I used 2 different voice samples, since people will speak slightly differently depending on where they're from, much like how people in New York and Texas speak with different dialects.

 
The last one, Ma (sometime written Ma5), is used at the end of sentences as a question mark. This is because tones are used to differentiate words rather than to infer meanings. For example, the sentences 'I like blue.' and 'I like blue?' have two very different meanings, one being a statement and the other being a question.

One thing that I do want to mention at this point is, in my personal opinion, when you're learning a language, you should focus on speaking first, and then learn to read and write it. It is a much more natural way to learn a language, and far less stressful. That isn't to say that reading and writing in other languages isn't important, but we learn to speak our native language before we learn to read it or write it, right? Doing the same with a foreign language, from my experience, makes it dramatically easier to learn the language. I believe this is called the Pimsleur approach to learning a language.

Understanding the way that tones are used in Chinese is very important. It is the very first thing you need to understand about the language. That being said, it is something you tend to pick up over time; the more you use the language, the easier it becomes. And using the language to communicate with native speakers is very important, as people will usually attempt to mimic their pronunciation.

Next, think about the first few words you learn as a child. Family members and very simple sentences, right? These tend to be the most commonly used words among children, and as such, tend to be the easiest words to learn in a language. So we should learn these first. Be aware that there are different ways to say each of these words, much like mother, mom, and ma are different ways to say the same word in English. The words that I choose to start with tend to be the ones that are most commonly used.

• Mom - Māmā
• Dad - Bà
• Older brother - Gēgē
• Older sister - Jiejie
• Aunt - Āyí
• Uncle - Shūshu

There are a handful of other words that people might use to refer to you, and those are important to learn as well.

• Younger brother - Dìdì
• Younger sister - Mèimei
• Son - Érzi
• Daughter -  Nǚ'ér

A few things to be aware of if you do continue moving forward with Chinese:

1. While it has a steep learning curve, once you master the basics, it is possibly the easiest language to learn.

2. Grammatically, it is very similar to English.

3. People who know both Chinese and English are typically able to speak to around 98% of the worlds population, making the combination invaluable for people in the business world.

Lastly, I'll go over a handful of words and phrases, as well as numbers, and teach you to make some very basic sentences.

• I - Wǒ
• You - Nǐ
• He/She/It - Tā (the tone/pronunciation is the same, but the Chinese character used when reading/writing is different)

• Is/Are - Shì
• Good / Well - Hǎo
• Not - Bù
• No - Méiyǒu

• Ni hao - Hello
• Ni hao ma - How are you?

Now, numbers are very important in Chinese - possibly more important than any other word in the entire Chinese language. With numbers, not only can you learn to count, but they are used in conjunction with other characters to say the days of the week, months, years, time, etc, as well as having a meaning all on their own.

• 1- Yī （Almost exactly like the letter E)
• 2 - Èr (Similar to are, or the beginning of the name Earl)
• 3 - Sān (Sand without the D, or the San from Santa)
• 4 - Sì (Sit without the t)
• 5 - Wǔ (Like the Wu Tang Clan)
• 6- Liù (Sounds like the name Leo)
• 7- Qī (Chi, as in the energy associated with martial arts)
• 8- Bā (Ba ba black sheep, have you any wool...)
• 9- Jiǔ (Geo)
• 10- Shí (Sounds similar to the word Sure)

There are also hand signs associated with each number, which are featured in the video blow. From my experience, many Chinese use this on a daily basis, especially with foreigners. I experienced this a lot when I took a taxi or ate street food, and the driver/vender wasn't familiar with me or aware that I could speak Chinese.

We'll stop here, and start making sentences next time. Again, if you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please leave a comment below. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.