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Four Reasons Why Chinese is Easy to Learn
From my past experiences with my students, I believe It’s really the reading and writing that makes Chinese hard to learn. When it comes to spoken Chinese, contrary to common belief, it ‘s actually not that difficult to learn.
Here’s why:
(1) Chinese grammar is relatively easy and straightforward. The word order of a simple Chinese sentence is exactly the same as it is in English.
For example, "I or me" in Chinese is wo3(我), "you" in Chinese is ni3(你). "To love" in Chinese is ai4(爱). To say "I love you", you say wo3(我) ai4(爱) ni3(你). To say “You love me”, you say ni3(你) ai4(爱) wo3(我). You can simply translate all the simple English sentences word by word to Chinese and you’ll get the right Chinese sentences. When it comes to long sentences, you just need to remember a few rules as to where to put time and location, and then you are set. I will tell you those rules in my future lessons.
(2) Unlike many other European languages, Chinese people don’t conjugate verbs, which means that Chinese verbs don't change form based on subject or when the action is taking place. For example, when you say “she likes, he likes, you like, I like or we like”. The Chinese word for “Like” doesn’t change and stays the same for all of them. Also, ONE Chinese verb can mean “is, am, are, was, were” and so on. In addition, unlike many other languages, such as French and German, there is no gender in Chinese. Isn’t that great?!
(3) The more you learn, the easier it gets. What do I mean by that?
Well, Chinese words are very transparent and logical. The way a Chinese word is formed tells you a lot about its meanings. For example, in Chinese, movie is dian4(电) ying3(影), which literally means “electronic shadow”. The old black and white silent films appeared like cast shadows on a screen and that’s where the word is from. Telephone in Chinese is 电(dian4) 话(hua4), which literally means electronic speech, computer is 电(dian4) 脑(nao3) which literally means electronic brain. So when you see the Chinese words for “movies, telephone and computer”, you know they are all related to electricity and that will help you memorize the words.
One more example here, a cell phone is shou3(手) ji1(机), which means hand machine. An airplane is fei1(飞) ji1(机), which means flying machine. And a helicopter is zhi2(直) sheng1(升) ji1(机), which literally means straight ascending machine.
So that’s what I mean by “the more Chinese you learn, the easier it gets,” because the more Chinese you learn, the more building blocks or language components in a word you will acquire, and then you can just put together the old pieces and make up new ones.
(4) Just to further convince you that Chinese is NOT that difficult to learn, let me give you one more reason. Now, say refrigerator… re-fri-ge-ra-tor…wow, five syllables. To memorize this word, I need to memorize five sounds, but In Chinese, refrigerator is bing1(冰) xiang1(箱), two syllables, which literally mean ice box… if you know how to say ice and how to say box, you know how to say refrigerator.
Well, you are probably thinking “Com’on, refrigerator is just an exception. There are many English words that have one or two syllables.” Well, that’s true, but the thing is that the MAJORITY of Chinese words only have one or two syllables, so it really makes your memorization a lot easier. And let’s not forget that your memorization can well be based on the things you’ve already learned, the building blocks you have already acquired. However, like learning any other languages, you need to put in at least some effort, some time and some dedication, but I am going to try my best to make your learning process as easy and fun for you as possible.
Go back to FAQ
From my past experiences with my students, I believe It’s really the reading and writing that makes Chinese hard to learn. When it comes to spoken Chinese, contrary to common belief, it ‘s actually not that difficult to learn.
Here’s why:
(1) Chinese grammar is relatively easy and straightforward. The word order of a simple Chinese sentence is exactly the same as it is in English.
For example, "I or me" in Chinese is wo3(我), "you" in Chinese is ni3(你). "To love" in Chinese is ai4(爱). To say "I love you", you say wo3(我) ai4(爱) ni3(你). To say “You love me”, you say ni3(你) ai4(爱) wo3(我). You can simply translate all the simple English sentences word by word to Chinese and you’ll get the right Chinese sentences. When it comes to long sentences, you just need to remember a few rules as to where to put time and location, and then you are set. I will tell you those rules in my future lessons.
(2) Unlike many other European languages, Chinese people don’t conjugate verbs, which means that Chinese verbs don't change form based on subject or when the action is taking place. For example, when you say “she likes, he likes, you like, I like or we like”. The Chinese word for “Like” doesn’t change and stays the same for all of them. Also, ONE Chinese verb can mean “is, am, are, was, were” and so on. In addition, unlike many other languages, such as French and German, there is no gender in Chinese. Isn’t that great?!
(3) The more you learn, the easier it gets. What do I mean by that?
Well, Chinese words are very transparent and logical. The way a Chinese word is formed tells you a lot about its meanings. For example, in Chinese, movie is dian4(电) ying3(影), which literally means “electronic shadow”. The old black and white silent films appeared like cast shadows on a screen and that’s where the word is from. Telephone in Chinese is 电(dian4) 话(hua4), which literally means electronic speech, computer is 电(dian4) 脑(nao3) which literally means electronic brain. So when you see the Chinese words for “movies, telephone and computer”, you know they are all related to electricity and that will help you memorize the words.
One more example here, a cell phone is shou3(手) ji1(机), which means hand machine. An airplane is fei1(飞) ji1(机), which means flying machine. And a helicopter is zhi2(直) sheng1(升) ji1(机), which literally means straight ascending machine.
So that’s what I mean by “the more Chinese you learn, the easier it gets,” because the more Chinese you learn, the more building blocks or language components in a word you will acquire, and then you can just put together the old pieces and make up new ones.
(4) Just to further convince you that Chinese is NOT that difficult to learn, let me give you one more reason. Now, say refrigerator… re-fri-ge-ra-tor…wow, five syllables. To memorize this word, I need to memorize five sounds, but In Chinese, refrigerator is bing1(冰) xiang1(箱), two syllables, which literally mean ice box… if you know how to say ice and how to say box, you know how to say refrigerator.
Well, you are probably thinking “Com’on, refrigerator is just an exception. There are many English words that have one or two syllables.” Well, that’s true, but the thing is that the MAJORITY of Chinese words only have one or two syllables, so it really makes your memorization a lot easier. And let’s not forget that your memorization can well be based on the things you’ve already learned, the building blocks you have already acquired. However, like learning any other languages, you need to put in at least some effort, some time and some dedication, but I am going to try my best to make your learning process as easy and fun for you as possible.
Go back to FAQ