Learning Chinese

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Learning Chinese Language

Chinese Characters

Learning Chinese Language

Learning Chinese is like learning two languages: the written character form and the spoken form, nowadays written using the English alphabet (pinyin). Learning (and remembering) Chinese characters takes considerably longer than learning spoken Chinese and its notation. For this reason the following guide concentrates on spoken Chinese.

See below for more on Chinese pronunciation.

Chinese Lessons

Chinese Pinyin

Pinyin serves the same purpose as the international phonetic symbols used in dictionaries to show how English words are pronounced.

Pinyin is a very useful tool to learn for getting around China. Chinese people view their characters as the true Chinese written language, but pinyin can be seen on many maps, road signs, and other notices.

Pinyin is much easier to learn, use and remember than characters, particularly if tones are ignored. Pinyin can be thoroughly learnt in a few hours, but a working knowledge of Chinese characters takes months, if not years of hard study.

 

Useful Chinese Phrase Book

Our Chinese Phrasebook gives some useful words and sentences that people may use on their trips.

Listen to the Chinese Phrase Book in MP3 Format

Download the Chinese Phrase Book

 

Chinese Lessons

We have prepared a collection of the most frequently used daily expressions and sentences to help you. We hope you will be able to communicate with the Chinese people you meet using some of these phrases. See our Chinese Lessons.

  • Lesson 01: Greeting
    It is helpful to know some simple Chinese words and sentences when you meet Chinese people. They will usually be happy when they find you can speak some Chinese.

Chinese Pronunciation

In general, pronunciation cannot be derived from looking at the characters, although sometimes characters with common parts have similar pronunciation. Unlike other current written languages, Chinese characters are not primarily phonetic, and certainly not alphabetic, but pictographic or ideographic (displaying combinations of pictures or symbols to convey meaning) like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Hence there has needed to be a way of representing in writing the pronunciation of each character when teaching the language. Several systems have been used, but pinyin is the current standard way of writing Chinese pronunciation.

Alternative Pronunciation Systems

Before pinyin was developed there were other systems for writing the pronunciation of Chinese words using the English alphabet. The most notable is the Wade-Giles system, settled in 1892. However, since the standardization of the Chinese language in the latter half of last century, many of the pronunciations that these old systems represent are no longer valid in China (though there are many Wade-Giles names still in common use in Taiwan). For example Peking used to be a way to pronounce China’s capital, but now in China it is pronounced Beijing. Likewise Canton used to be a way to pronounce Guangdong, a province in the southeast of China. While superseded in China, some of these old pronunciations are still in common use around the world.

An English Speakers Chinese Pronunciation System

In the table on the Pinyin Guide page is a pronunciation system that is (roughly) true to standard Chinese pronunciation (without tones), but uses the letters of the English alphabet in an intuitive way, instead of assigning new sounds to the alphabet. This system uses the alphabet to represent Chinese sounds in a way that English speakers are familiar with. The system takes no time at all to use, and could be used as a quick guide to pronunciation for those unfamiliar with Chinese. It is sometimes used to show pronunciation on the China Highlights China Guide pages

According to this system Beijing would be written Bayjing and Guangdong would be written Gwungdong. Although the pronunciation is instantly recognizable, in other cases like the Chinese word yue, written youair for ease of pronunciation recognition, the system is not as efficient as pinyin in the number of letters used. There is also the conundrum of how to represent the ow in cow, without it being mistaken for the ow in low.Pinyin is a more efficient system. It only takes a few hours to learn, and is well worth it.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

The International Phonetic Alphabet could also be used to represent Chinese pronunciation (see the Pinyin Pronunciation Table), but it requires a ready knowledge of the symbols. Though more efficient and foolproof than trying to mimic Chinese sounds with an intuitive combination of English letters, it is not as easy to write, either by hand or typing. Therefore pinyin is a better system.