MISTAKE 1 NOT FOCUSING ENOUGH ON THE ‘TONES' One of the key features of Mandarin Chinese is that any given sound can be pronounced in four different ways (there are four different tones). Many beginner learners find the tones difficult, so they don’t focus on them or even try to ignore them completely. If you don’t use the tones correctly, you might still be understood, but you’ll be effectively speaking Chinese ‘like a foreigner ’, and will make it much harder for the other person to understand. It’s a bad habit that is really difficult to correct later. What you can do to avoid this Recognise that the ‘four tones’ are an essential part of Chinese, and focus on practising them and trying to get them right whenever you learn or say anything in Chinese. Even if this means things are a lot more difficult at the beginning, or you end up speaking slower, the effort it takes to get things right and get into a good habit is really worth it. MISTAKE 2 NOT PICKING UP ON THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PINYIN AND ENGLISH Luckily for beginners, there’s a system used to write the sounds of Mandarin using the Roman alphabet, called Pinyin. This makes things a LOT easier for Western learners. Unfortunately, though, not all the sounds in Pinyin are pronounced like you would expect if you were reading them as an English ‘word’. For example ‘beng’ actually sounds more like ‘bung’, ‘in’ sounds more like ‘een’ and so on. What you can do to avoid this Listen carefully to the sounds of the language and compare the spelling in the pronunciation guide with the sound that you’re really hearing. Don’t think of Pinyin as writing the sounds of Chinese in ‘English’. Think of it as a separate system of representing the sounds that you have to learn. That way, you won’t get misled by it so easily! MISTAKE 3 GETTING HELD BACK BY THINKING YOU HAVE TO GET THE CHARACTERS PERFECT The Chinese writing system is a challenge, there’s no doubt about it, but reading and recognising the characters is much easier than being able to write them. Many beginners want to learn the writing at the same time (which is fine), but if you force yourself to learn to write all the characters for phrases and sentences before you can move on, then it’s easy to get held back. Practise writing characters by all means, but remember that you can learn to write them over a much longer period, and come back to characters later. Focus on recognising them and learning how they’re pronounced at the beginning. That’s the most important thing. You can take the writing slowly. What you can do to avoid this • • Expect to forget how to write the characters a lot and think of it as ‘normal’ Learn to type in Chinese using the Pinyin pronunciation of the characters so you can learn to ‘write’ much quicker MISTAKE 4 NOT LEARNING THE RADICALS AND COMPONENTS OF CHARACTERS Most Chinese characters can be broken down into a fairly small number of blocks, and you’ll see these blocks all the time. Therefore, if you learn what the ‘radicals’ are (the section of characters that indicates the area of meaning) and what the different components mean, then you can make things a lot easier for yourself. For example 烧 (to roast) has the radical for ‘fire’ on the left hand side. There are plenty of lists online of the ‘radicals,’ so it’s worth familiarising yourself with them early on. What you can do to avoid this • • Learn the ‘radicals’ (meaning components) of characters first Use websites like Hanzicraft or Characterpop to break characters down as you learn them MISTAKE 5 LEARNING LISTS OF WORDS OR CHARACTERS With so many lists of words or characters available, it’s tempting to think that you can improve your level of Chinese much quicker by learning lists of words. The reality, though, is that if there’s no context to what you’re learning, you’ll likely forget the words as quickly as you’re learning them, and feel like you’ve wasted your time. What you can do to avoid this • • • Always learn words in the context of phrases or sentences Look up words as and when you need to learn them, rather than learning lists of words about a particular topic, or in an order that doesn’t make sense. Use flashcards to help yourself remember the words you think are most useful MISTAKE 6 TRYING TO PUT SENTENCES TOGETHER IN CHINESE JUST LIKE IN ENGLISH For the most simple sentences, the word order in Chinese is generally the same as in English. But it’s a mistake to get into the habit of thinking that you can put Chinese sentences together word by word in the same way as English, because often that doesn’t work, and you won’t be speaking correct Chinese. The other person might not even be able to understand. What you can do to avoid this • • Pay special attention to the order of the words in sentences when you come across phrases and dialogues in Chinese. Try to learn Chinese in whole sentences and adapt them, rather than learning individual words, and trying to put them together. MISTAKE 7 NOT TAKING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES INTO ACCOUNT WHEN SPEAKING CHINESE Learning Chinese isn’t just about learning a language. You also have to understand some things about the culture to be able to communicate effectively. There are some things in English that you just wouldn’t say in Chinese, or you would say them in a different way. For example, you normally add somebody’s job title to their name when you address them in a formal situation. In Chinese the word ‘please’ 请 is also used differently to English, and it’s not used so much. What you can do to avoid this • • Learn phrases that are more authentically Chinese, rather than thinking that you have to put something from English directly into Chinese. Read cultural notes and ask about Chinese culture, to avoid making cultural errors. MISTAKE 8 NOT STARTING TO TALK TO NATIVE SPEAKERS Many beginners spend a lot of time learning or in a class, but don’t look for opportunities to practise what they’re learning. If you practise with a native speaker, even if you can only say basic things, you’ll improve much quicker, and you’ll be able to get critical feedback to help you correct your mistakes. What you can do to avoid this • • • Practise speaking with a Chinese friend or teacher as soon as you can, don’t want until you think you’re ‘ready’. Use sites like italki.com or apps like Hellotalk to find native speakers to message or talk to online. Get into the habit of practising your Chinese with a native speaker at least once or twice a week. MISTAKE 9 NOT ASKING NATIVE SPEAKERS TO CORRECT YOUR MISTAKES Native Chinese speakers are generally really encouraging when foreigners try to speak their language. You may receive a lot of smiles and compliments, which is great for your motivation, but Chinese people are often less inclined to correct learners’ mistakes, either out of politeness or not wanting to cause you embarrassment. Even some teachers can be more keen to encourage you than give you constructive feedback, because they are worried about putting you off. However, feedback can help you to improve much more quickly. What you can do to avoid this • • Actively ask your Chinese friends or teachers for feedback (after you finish talking) about what you got wrong and what you can improve Ask native speakers which sounds or tones you are not pronouncing right, and use this advice to improve your pronunciation. MISTAKE 10 NOT HAVING CONCRETE GOALS AND NOT MAKING CHINESE A HABIT The reason why most learners end up giving up Chinese is because their goals for learning the language were too vague, or they never got into the habit of learning Chinese. It’s important to have a strong motivation for learning the language, and realistic step by step goals to push you forward. You’ll also need to set yourself a routine for learning the language and stick to it. For example, studying for 30 minutes twice a week. What you can do to avoid this • • • Think about a goal that you want to achieve (such as being able to have a 2 minute conversation) and the time scale you need to achieve it. Divide your big goals down into smaller goals, so you have more focus as you’re learning. Decide when you are going to do your study and for how long, and be disciplined about sticking to your routine, especially for the crucial first 2-3 weeks. More information and tips at:
