Learn Chinese Quick

Learn Chinese quick


I really do not mean to scare you off from learning Chinese. But I have just got five pages of my Thai to Chinese translation back from a Singapore translation agent. The whole project has to be retranslated from Chinese to Chinese. Confuse, you would better be. The paper was supposed to be translated for a Hong Kong client but somehow was mistakenly translated in Chinese for China.

Back in the year 1972 while I was still courting my wife or girlfriend then, my in laws used to make complaints about why would the two of us speak in English while both are Chinese. But I think he knew why. It is true that I could speak Chinese fluently in all the three dialects of Taechew, Cantonese and Mandarin, but I can not speak the Chinese they do and vice versa.

So, when you start thinking of learning Chinese, you should consider which Chinese you want to learn in writing and which one you want to learn to speak.

In writing, you have a choice of the traditional, or what the China mainland likes to refer it as complicated Chinese, and the simplified Chinese. Tradition Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, and majority of the Southeast Asian Chinese less Singapore. Simplified Chinese is used in China.

Chinese Speaking is probably easier to take choice. Mandarin is widely spoken throughout Chinese speaking countries and ethnic groups. But you may still run into problem in such places like Hong Kong, Thailand, some parts in China and most American Chinese, especially when you speak to the senior citizens in all of these places.

Once you have made your Chinese writing and speaking choices, you must do some solid thinking as to your need to pick up Chinese. Do you really want to learn Chinese and most important is if there is a need to. This is a critical pre-requirement. Throughout my years in teaching Chinese to foreigners, my experience tells that necessity makes learning quicker than those talented.

Now you are all ready to learn Chinese, how should one start.

Step one.

Go to the book shop or library or somewhere you can get some learning Chinese materials. Get some basic materials in CD, VCD, to listen and learn the writing strokes.