It’s way easier than you would think
Steve Smythe, v1.0.5 - Aug 13, 2017
This document describes the methods and techniques I use to learn Mandarin Chinese:
- I start off by learning Pinyin (romanization of Chinese syllables)
- Then I use the methods below to learn Chinese from any textbook, article, or Chinese reader
- Watch movies with Chinese dialog (and subtitles)
My approach to learning Mandarin Chinese is based around listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
It's a little slow at first, but the payoff is that you'll accelerate your learning the more words and characters you know.
Before you know it, you'll be writing complete sentences in Chinese characters, and easily be able to read and speak them!
Also, when you're watching Chinese movies, you'll start picking up on phrases of dialog and read characters! It's fun!
You must first learn the Chinese syllables and how they are represented, sound, and written.
- Yoyo Chinese Pinyin Course go through this course first (preferably under stereo headphones to maximize audio focus). It's fast, fun, and really easy to understand.
Tip: grab a stack of note cards and write out the syllables and sound tips for review as you go through the material.
Once you've finished the above Pinyin course, memorize the following rules for tone mark placement and Pinyin conventions (from Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar 2E Textbook). You'll be glad you did.
If a final includes three vowels, or two vowels and a final constant, the tone mark is written over the second vowel:
| kuài | huán | biān | qióng |
If a final includes two vowels and no final consonant, the tone mark is placed over the first vowel, unless the first vowel is i or u:
| āi | áo | ěi | òu |
| iā | ié | iǔ | |
| uà | ué | uǐ | uò |
- 'u' after the initials j, q, and x is pronounced ü but is written as u.
- when 'i' and 'ü' begin as a syllable, the are written as yi and yu.
- When 'u' begins a syllable, it is written as wu.
- In two-syllable words, when the boundaries between syllables is not clear from the Pinyin spelling and more than one interpretation of the boundary is possible, an apostrophe is used to separate the syllables. For example, if the second syllable begins with a vowel, an apostrophe is used: Xī'ān 西安 vs. xiān 先.
Please refer to Typing Mandarin on how to type Pinyin and Mandarin on various platforms.
- Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Textbook SC
- Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Workbook SC
- Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Character Workbook SC and TC
The basic phases are:
- Listen to the Dialog (3 to 10 minutes)
- Writing the Characters (1.5 to 3 hours)
- Deep Study the Vocabulary (2 to 10 hours)
- Translate the Dialog (5 to 30 minutes)
- Deep Study the Grammar (2 to 6 hours)
- Go through the Workbook (2 to 10 hours)
- A single dialog section can take anywhere from an estimated 7 to 30 hours.
- A whole lesson (two dialog sections) can take anywhere from an estimated 14 to 60 hours.
- The whole level one series of books (10 lessons) can take anywhere from 140 to 600 hours.
- Plan on one level series of books per year.
You are likely going to be faster than me. If you are, great job! If not, no worries. Join the slow and steady club.
Each lesson is broken into two dialog sections, each with their own vocabulary and grammar sections.
Go through the following steps for each dialog section in each lesson...
- Listen to the MP3 audio file for the dialog several times (preferably under stereo headphones to maximize audio focus).
- Just listen to the general flow and rhythm of the conversation.
- See if you can pick out each word and syllable. If not, no worries. Just hear the sounds as best you can.
- After a while, speak along with the dialog as best you can, pausing the audio where necessary.
Tip: Listen to the dialog audio (and/or watch the video if you have them) every day to let the dialog sink in.
- Open up the Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Workbook SC
- Look up each word (could be composed of multiple characters) in the Pleco Chinese Dictionary
- Listen to the pronunciation (several times if necessary)
- Watch the stroke order animation
- Write each character in the correct stroke order (just the simplified characters)
- Say the Pinyin and English definition as you're writing each word/character (as appropriate)
For each word in the vocabulary list:
- Look up each word (could be composed of multiple characters) in the Pleco Chinese Dictionary
- Listen to the pronunciation (several times if necessary)
- Watch the stroke order animation
- Write each character in the correct stroke order (just the simplified characters)
- Write and say the Pinyin, part of speech, and English definition
- Dig into each character understanding and writing down:
- Character composition (Sound, Semantic, etc)
- Radicals
- Form and meaning
- Both the Pleco Chinese Dictionary and Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary are great for these
For each line of dialog:
- Copy each line of Chinese characters (referring to the Pleco Chinese Dictionary as needed)
- Put the pinyin below the characters (paying attention to tone markers and spelling)
- Put the English translation below the pinyin
Tip: Translate the dialog often so you get familiar with full sentences and their construction.
- Copy each grammar note in full (English sentences and Chinese characters)
- Pay attention to example sentences and usage
- Add any variant sentences you want along with the example sentences to play around with the concept
The grammar exercises can be tough sometimes, especially since there are no answers in the textbook.
This is where the website comes in (when it comes out, very soon, I hope). It's a subscription, but the interactive exercises give you immediate feedback, so you know you've got it write.
Even if you don't have the website subscription, do the best you can. You can come back later after you've studied more and correct yourself!
- Copy each exercise statements
- Write out each answer
- Refer back to the grammar sections, vocabulary, and dialog as necessary (maybe even from previous sections)
Each workbook dialog section is around 7 to 10 pages. They can be dense with lots of details.
Go through them carefully, referring back to any reference materials you have to.
Take your time. Enjoy it. You've learned a lot, and the workbook dialog section is your way to prove it!
When you want to focus on just grammar, and/or reinforce your textbook learning, go through the Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar 2E Textbook, page by page, copying down the rules and trying exercises where you can.
When you want to reinforce learning in a particular section, the Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar 2E Workbook is great.
When you need a break from your textbook work, have fun with graded readers!
- Step by Step Graded Readers Level A
- Step by Step Graded Readers Level B
- Step by Step Graded Readers Level C
- Follow the same method steps for the textbook lesson dialog section listed above (ignoring what doesn't apply)
- Strive to be able to read aloud each book all the way through without stopping to figure something out!
Watching movies with Chinese dialog, especially those with Chinese character subtitles (if you can find them), can be an fun way to listen and read Chinese!
At first, you may want to turn on English subtitles just to get the meaning of the movie. After that, flip on Chinese subtitles. If there are Chinese and English audio tracks, try watching it once with one, and then again with the other. Have fun with it.
Some Chinese movies I like:
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000 (Chinese audio, English subtitles)
- Let the Bullet's Fly, 2011 (Chinese audio, English subtitles)
- The Butcher, the Chef and the Swordsman, 2011 (Chinese audio, TC subtitles)
- Little Big Soldier, 2010 (Chinese audio)
- Journey to the West, 2014 (Chinese audio, English subtitles)
- Pushing Hands, 1992 (Chinese audio, English subtitles)
The best training I’ve found anywhere is Yangyang Cheng’s “Yoyo Chinese Pinyin Course: Learn to Pronounce Mandarin Chinese” on YouTube.
It’s a 27 lesson course that takes you from knowing nothing about tones and syllable pronunciation to full on mastery. The total run time is 2h32m. There’s a lot packed in this course, and I recommend going through it fairly quickly the first time around, and then revisit specific lessons every month or so to firm up those weak spots until you’re very comfortable with it.
Once you’ve gone through this material, you can skip any intro Pinyin material in textbooks.
Yoyo Chinese Video Pinyin Chart
If you ever want a refresher on a specific syllable, the Yoyo Chinese Video Pinyin Chart is a great tool. Yangyang Cheng goes through the details to sound it correctly with a video for each syllable as well as tone audio files to really nail it.
This is the number one resources I use on a daily basis. Aside from being an insanely awesome dictionary (with pinyin, Chinese character via keyboard, handwriting, and voice, as well as English lookups), it has a stroke animation option for every character to help you learn exactly how to write a character. It’s awesome. Be sure to watch both the brush font and book font animations. This way, you'll be able to recognize both fonts. The differences can be subtle or very large. Learn both.
Also, be sure to turn on:
- Settings > Dictionary Definition > Definition Screen > Stroke > Background = 2x2 + Diag
...this puts the nice grid behind the stroke order animations and really helps you correctly write each stroke in the right relationship to the others.
I also really enjoy the voices used for pronouncing words and example sentences. So handy to hear words spoken in context. Another cool feature I use every now and then is the OCR (optical character recognition) where you can hold your phone over arbitrary Chinese characters, and it will pick out the characters and allow you to look them up. It also has some really cool flashcard features too.
The in-app purchases can add up, but are worth every penny spent. I love it!
This Mi Zi Ge grid is awesome for full page writing. Very clean.
Mandaring Chinese School Sheet5
The “sheet5.doc” has lines above the Mi Zi Ge frames for you to write pinyin and/or English. Very handy.
- Textbook (SC): Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Textbook SC
- Workbook (SC): Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Workbook SC
- Character Workbook (SC and TC): Integrated Chinese 4th Edition Level 1 Character Workbook SC and TC
Note: SC means Simplified Chinese Characters, TC means Traditional Chinese Characters
Integrated Chinese (IC4E1) textbooks are used in schools and colleges everywhere. It is hands down the most consistent series I’ve found (in method, font and multimedia usage). A companion website is due out soon that allows for interactive learning too.
Each chapter is broken up two dialog and vocabulary sections. I recommend going through the materials in this order:
Character workbook for the dialog section. Go through writing each word and/or characters eight to ten times just to familiarize yourself with each word and character, its components, pinyin, and definition, and get the feel for it. This helps you recognize it in the dialog and vocabulary.
Next, go through the textbook dialog section. Write everything down in a notebook and say it out loud (checking pronunciation with the audio files you download from the website, and/or in Pleco). This hand-eye muscle memory greatly increases your word and character retention.
Finally, go through the workbook dialog section. This will cement your understanding of the vocabulary and grammar points for the section.
- Textbook: Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar 2E Textbook
- Workbook: Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar 2E Workbook
Modern Mandaring Chinese Grammar (MMCG2E) is the most comprehensive grammar resources I’ve found. It has the best Pinyin tone rules section I’ve found, as well as the material divided into two sections: Part A: Structures, and part B: Situations and functions. This way, you can go directly to the section you’re looking for, or go through it page by page. Excellent resource.
A word of caution. If you’re a beginner and going through it page by page, you are likely to run into exercises that assume you have a higher level
Chinese Characters A Genealogy and Dictionary
This reference is great at helping understand the composition and meanings of words and individual characters. I use it to look up new words and characters and to see if there are any additional meanings that aren't in the Pleco app.
- Level A (SC): Step by Step Graded Readers Level A
- Level B (SC): Step by Step Graded Readers Level B
- Level C (SC): Step by Step Graded Readers Level C
These graded readers are excellent at given you easy to digest material to build your confidence at reading Chinese words and characters.
Excellent MP3 audio files are available on the website.