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A Quick Way to Learn Madarin Chinese

What level of proficiency do you want to attain?

How many characters do you wish to master?

Do you want to ace the HSK?

If you want to know how to learn Mandarin Chinese fast, these tips will help you.

Make the Commitment to Learn Mandarin Chinese

If you are reading this article, I’m assuming your mother language is English. Mandarin Chinese is one of the furthest languages away from English in the linguistic tree, therefore there aren’t many similarities. Chinese is a tonal language consisting of a high note first tone, a rising second tone, a dipping third tone, a descending forth tone, and a neutral tone. Characters are learnt through rote memorization where the meaning or pronunciation can only be guessed 50% of the time. It takes months of study to become familiar with basic Chinese and years to attain a solid level of fluency. A friend once said, “when you learn Mandarin Chinese its a lifetime commitment.”

Set Study Goals

Those that possess an outline of their study habits and goals have a greater sense of direction for their long term language investment. It’s typical to see a recently arrived foreigner bunker down for the first couple weeks and absorb every character they can. After this excitement wears off they become frustrated at the slow pace of progression. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and you can’t learn Mandarin Chinese overnight. With our Mandarin Immersion program we require everyone to have a study plan laid out for their enrollment with China Immersion. Whether you are studying in your home country, at a Chinese university, or another language school its recommended you do so as well.

Check Off Your Chinese Accomplishments

Your list of goals should be broken down into time fragments of two to four weeks. Each time segment should include how many Chinese characters you want to memorize, how many articles you want to read, how many podcasts you want to listen to, and how many minutes you want to spend reciting. Once your goals are written down the next step is to monitor your progress. Everyday write down how many minutes or how many study tasks you completed for which areas of focus. This way you can clearly monitor your progress of learning Mandarin Chinese. When your time segment of two to four weeks has approached you can compare your results to the goals you set.

At the end of each period I bet you will feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that not only did you stick with your study plan, but you also discovered with a plan in hand you are more likely to stick to your daily study routine.

Chinese in China