Chinese is a beautiful language, but it is also sufficiently complex. Many beginners get overawed by its complexity, so much so that they stop enjoying the beauty, uniqueness, and nitty-gritty of the language.
That’s the biggest mistake anyone can make while learning a new thing. If you’re not enjoying something, there’s no way you would spend a lot of time practicing it. And without practice, you can’t learn anything, least of all Chinese.
So learn Chinese only if you enjoy learning it. In addition, keep in minds the following tips. They help you stay focused and progress faster.
Organize everything you learn
If you want to learn Chinese in Singapore, you can’t afford to avoid this tip. You’ve got to organize what you learn. You’ll be learning many new things every day, and on top of that, you must ensure you don’t forget what you’ve already learned. That is why it is necessary for you to organize everything you learn.
Avoid Perfectionism
Learning Chinese is not a journey of a few miles but of a thousand miles. When you start this journey, the most important thing is to continue moving ahead and not to ensure each step is perfect. You shouldn’t aim to achieve 100 percent; in most cases, 90 percent is good enough. With that said, nothing less than 100 percent right from the start would do for pronunciation.
It’s not that striving for perfectionism is bad or wrong. The thing is that in the beginning, you’ll have to spend a lot of time and energy to gain the last few percentages. Instead of focusing on this, you should focus on learning new things, widening your horizon, and revising what you’ve learned. Once you reach a certain level of comfort in Mandarin, you can strive for perfection.
Make friends who share the same goal
Being around people who’re striving for the same thing as you will help you progress faster. You can revise your syllabus and learn new things together with your language buddies. Finding language buddies will not be hard if you are taking regular Mandarin classes Singapore.
However, at some point in time, you might also want to interact with native speakers who are willing to give you constructive feedback. There are many natives who would love to improve their English. You can form a mutually-beneficial arrangement with someone who’s Chinese is good and who is a reliable person. You can help improve his English and he can help with your Chinese.
Embrace and enjoy the uniqueness of Mandarin
Chinese is a unique language in more ways than one. You must not only recognize this fact but also embrace it. The attitude with which you learn Chinese is extremely important. In case you think it is a weird or stupid language, in all probability you’ll soon start disliking it and quit learning it before long. Even if you don’t quit, your learning is not likely to be effective.
Ask any foreigner who has learned Chinese and he will tell you it is quite a difficult language to learn in adulthood. Don’t make things worse by having the wrong attitude towards it; instead, embrace its uniqueness with open arms.
Analyze your goals as well as motivations to learn Mandarin
What makes you want to learn Mandarin? Do you know how you’ll use Mandarin in future? You must know the answers to these two important questions. Your answers will govern, more than anything else, your learning strategy. Moreover, you can check if your current strategy is working or not only when you know clearly what you want in the first place.
