The Chinese language remains the most spoken globally with over a billion speakers. This statistic is set to rise with infrastructural developments from the Chinese government extending beyond China. Therefore, regardless of your native language, you need to learn the Chinese language not only for social but also professional purposes. Mandarin Chinese, which has approximately 800 million speakers, is the national language of China and is used for official and national purposes. This language extends to countries like Indonesia, Singapore and Taiwan. While many people can read and write Chinese, they are not fluent speakers. This, therefore, is a disadvantage as they also experience a language barrier, albeit partially. Mandarin is relatively simpler with only 3,500 of 50,000 Chinese characters in active use. In order to speak better Chinese, this article provides two tips to guide you towards perfection. Ensure you put in enough effort daily for a good mastery of the language within the shortest time.
Master Chinese basics
Just like any other language, you can only make progress if you have the basics nailed down. Thus, start by grasping Chinese alphabets and numbers. Secondly, know language basics such as greetings, time and common day-to-day expressions. You should be in a position to articulate these easily to advance to the next step.
Commit more to learning the language
You will soon realise that speaking Chinese is no walk in the park. Things that will better your Chinese include interaction with Chinese speaking friends, reading books and listening to Chinese songs.
Where possible, start by rounding up your friends who are native Chinese speakers or those able to speak Chinese well. Tell them you are learning Chinese and attempt to converse with them in Chinese, or at least slip in some phrases while hanging out. While this may not be easy due to unfamiliar phrases, it will expose you to the nuances of the language by those that speak it. This, combined with your daily private language practice, will make a big difference. In addition, this interaction will teach you to join phrases into coherent sentences. Your Chinese will definitely increase with realistic and practical use.
Secondly, listen to Chinese and read Chinese books. Tune into a Chinese radio station or download podcasts and listen to them. Through listening, you will start to hear and pick up common Chinese phrases from these sources and hence improve your Chinese. If you are a good reader, try purchasing some Chinese books, whether inspirational self-improvement books or novels and commit yourself to reading each word. When you do not understand a phrase, a learning opportunity is presenting itself. Research on the new phrase and add it to your Chinese arsenal.
The number of people speaking Chinese will only increase. Hence, to flourish in the business sector, being able to fluently speak the Chinese language will be an added advantage. Therefore, just like you learned your mother tongue and national language commit yourself and remain committed towards learning Chinese. Alternatively, enrol for Mandarin lessons in Singapore and practice the above tips to catch up faster.
