How I Learned the Basics of Chinese During the Lockdown
Getting started with Chinese lessons at home for beginners.
It has been a crazy year given the global pandemic and its impact all over the world. But we all can agree that most of us have used it as an opportunity to follow our hearts and learn something we always wanted to but never had enough time for. The lockdown led many of us to learn some skills or get some much-needed sleep or even make that e-commerce business work, the possibilities are endless. I followed my dream of learning Chinese, at home. The amount of free courses available online is simply a blessing for a free learner like me. With the help of the internet, we can kick start the learning process for whatever level that we are at. I will mention my methods of learning Chinese characters, resources for absolute beginners, apps that are better than the greatest language-learning app “Duolingo” etc. And many other resources to get started with speaking and listening practice.
Why did I start to learn Chinese?
Chinese is one of those languages that has always fascinated me. I remember watching ‘American Dragon Jake Long’ back when I was a kid, Lao shi was one of my favorite characters, he would start speaking in Chinese whenever he was angry or anxious. I always enjoyed his reactions and wanted to do the same, I would mimic his speaking style and would get it wrong, yeah the childhood bliss. Not to mention my love for Stephen Chow movies, I loved his movies growing up and was attracted to the brilliantly shot weird action scenes from his movies like ‘Shaolin Soccer’, and ‘Kung Fu Hustle’. I loved the humor and singing parts that were bizarre, especially when you watch the dubbed version and then go back to watch the subbed version. You can’t help but notice that these don’t make any sense. This motivated me to watch Chow’s movies all over again without any subtitles.
Well, these aren’t just the only reasons, I have also enjoyed looking at the beautiful Chinese characters without even being able to understand what all those characters mean. I saw this amazing Ted talk where I first got introduced to how easy it is to learn Chinese characters, that’s when I decided that I want to learn Chinese properly with a system. Chinese has always fascinated me with its characters and a peculiar way of speaking. It all began because of a beloved childhood Tv series, and an actor whose movies I enjoyed but now that I am learning it almost every day, I am introduced to tons of different things. It is like being introduced to a whole new world and I love every single minute of it.
How can you start studying?
Chinese is without a doubt one of the most difficult languages to learn let alone learning it on your own, but I gave myself the confidence to just start. During May, Coursera made the Chinese Beginners course available online. It has amazing courses for someone who wants to learn the characters as well as the grammar of the Chinese language along with different levels of Chinese, pick the one that you like the best as per your needs. You might be someone who just wants to add a new language to the polyglot list, business purposes, or want to prepare for the HSK proficiency test. I am interested in learning about the culture, literature along with the movies, I may or may not prepare for the HSK test. For now, I just want to get a basic level of understanding Chinese and its writing system. I am still learning and improving my language skill. Thus, ask yourself why, how, and where to begin.
You don’t have to start spending big money when you get started. Just understand why and how would you like to begin including from where would you like to begin. I started by searching ‘How to learn Chinese for absolute beginner’ on Google I found many different resources but some of those were difficult for me to begin with. So began with ‘Beginner Chinese lessons’ on Coursera. I finished the first course and I realized that I was able to form some regular sentences and I was using only Pinyin at that time. For a deeper understanding, I switched to YouTube. YouTube has been a better tutor ever since. I learned about the characters, grammar, speech, and also found some amazing shows to practice listening.
Learning Chinese is one of the best things I did this year. Well, there was nothing else to do due to the pandemic but we can appreciate the fact that this year allowed us to re-think many things about ourselves and re-start again. Learning Chinese introduced me to whole a new world and culture for sure. I learned about some pieces of artwork, literature, folk songs, and much more. Yes, I struggle with the writing system but it is fun once you get going at it. The writing system is complex not only for the beginners but also for the native speakers. Chinese is one of the most difficult languages I have picked up to learn but it did help me with learning Japanese Kanji. Chinese characters are scary in the beginning but so is everything else, once you have a grasp on the basics, the road ahead is easier.
An Introduction to Chinese Characters.
A little introduction on the Chinese characters (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; pinyin: Hànzì) or Hànzì are logographs developed for the writing of Chinese characters. I started with Pinyin. Pinyin is a system for representing standard Mandarin in the Latin alphabet, it consists of 26 letters, 21 initials, 39 finals, 4 tones, and other spelling rules. Pinyin is recommended for the beginners to start with, for pronunciation practice and reading. But remember pinyin is not used as an official system of writing. The formal way of writing is Hànzì.
The Chinese characters can be divided into four parts mainly, The Pictograph Characters (Xiang Xing Zi) which make up to 600 characters. Self -Explanatory Characters (Zhi Shi Zi), these are Ideograms. Associate Compounds (Hui Yi Zi) combination of two or more characters to make a new word. Pictophonetic characters (Xing Sheng Zi) meaning and phonetic parts are combined and it is essential to learn as more than 80% of Chinese characters belong to this character. We are not going the learn the entire 80,000 plus character chart but only about 1000 characters that are the most commonly used Chinese characters. There are about 1000 characters to learn but start with the basic ones. Have the courage to learn Hànzì, it is not as hard you might think it is. I don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that you won’t face a hard time with it, I am saying that it is going to be a little easier if you start with 3 characters every day and in a month you’ll reach to about 90 characters. I am currently on 320 characters yes it could’ve been more but I take breaks when I need to.
Hànzì writing was extremely fantastic when I started I had trouble with the structure, stroke order, different tones, and writing them clearly in my notebook. But I practiced writing every day using this channel as a guide. I practiced around 2–4 sentences every day. I started with around 3 characters and as I improved I switched to using complete Hànzì paired with Pinyin. Learn the radicals as you start with Hànzì. The radicals will help you to derive the meaning of the character even when you can’t read them. Practice writing as much as you can and try to read it with the help of Pinyin. This will help you with the writing, reading as well as pronunciation.
Essentials For Speech And Reading Practice.
We learn a language as a tool for communication and that goal is achieved when we speak the language with ourselves for a little confidence and with a native speaker to learn about the mistakes and how can we improve it. For speaking practice, I shadowed whatever I was listening to on the shows that I was watching. Shadowing is a great technique for learning a new language as we are copying a native speaker to get the right tone. The speaking part is one of the most difficult parts for absolute beginners but to learn a language we must speak it. I started with shadowing and also learning how to pronounce each character with the help of videos I found on YouTube. I used to record my sentences and compare them with the ones I had referred to. I also use social media to connect with the native speakers, one can also use apps to communicate with the locals.
I have recently started to read a few Chinese children’s books to practice my reading. It is still quite difficult for me to read and to be able to understand the material but yes it is a start and believe me most of these are available to download as pdf files online for free. I also use a website to communicate with the native speakers, there are many options available for beginners to start with just use google to find which one is the best for you.
Resources:
Resources are important when you start to learn a new language especially for reading, learning grammar patterns, and writing. We must have resources that fulfill our requirements. Thus, get the resources right from the start. Create a study plan, have the resources placed together in a folder or a notebook.
YouTube Channels: (These are some of the best ones for absolute beginners)
Yes, the one we should talk about now are Books no resource can ever replace a good book for reference, here are the books that will be helpful to you, you can easily find books online or download the pdf online(downloadable free pdf are available):
Books:
- Get talking Chinese — Elinor Greenwood
- Chineasy — Shaolan Hsueh
- Basic Spoken Chinese — Cornelius C.Kubler and Yang Wang
- Chinese For Beginners and Advanced Beginners — Ellie Mao Mok
The apps that are actually useful and are also helpful for the beginners, available on Android well I can only speak for Android because I am an Android user:
APPs:
- Learn Chinese — HelloChinese
- Pleco(Dictionary)
- Chineasy
If you’re in the mood for movies, and shows, in Chinese these are the ones I would Highly Recommend:
Shows : (These shows are really entertaining)
Movies :
- In the mood for love.
- Any of the Stephen Chow movies.
Conclusion:
I picked up the basics of Chinese in just a couple of months but I have a long long way to go with my studies. I am comfortable with reading children’s books and I am proud of it. Self-studying any language is difficult but we have tons of resources and helpful apps to get started with. Enjoy learning and keep at it. Hope it will be a great experience for you too. Whatever you’re reason might be to study the language keep that in mind because you will be faced with a lot of difficulties. All the best, Learner.
