Getting Started

What is the best way to begin studying Chinese?

Start with either a short introductory class if you can find one locally, or else with recorded audio lessons (e.g. Pimsleur, Chinesepod). The most important hurdle to overcome initially is gaining familiarity with the sounds of the language and how they are expressed in pinyin. Learning proper grammar and focusing on building your vocabulary should be left until later, and the reading and writing of characters until much later.

I tried starting with a book, and this was a mistake. The problem with initially relying on a book is that it is difficult to effectively remember words if you don’t know how to pronounce them. Heavy audio input is needed to gain this understanding. Although pinyin is somewhat similar to English, it has a number of distinct differences. And, Chinese also contains sounds that do not exist in English.

Regarding tones – it is good to casually attempt to recognize and speak the tones early on, but don’t let them bog you down. The other basics of the language present more than enough challenge to take on initially.

John Pasden offers a good summary of the stages of learning Chinese, excerpted here:

1. "Ching-chong-ching" Stage (No Study)*. It just sounds like noises.


2. "OK, it's a Language" Stage (Beginner). In this stage the learner recognizes a number of common phrases and vocabulary words, and can usually make himself understood in the most basic communication scenarios. His pronunciation, however, is still quite horrible. Tones are a complete mess, and he has not yet started to get a handle on the Chinese 'r' or 'y', or on the distinctions between Mandarin's 'x/sh', 'q/ch', and 'j/zh' pairs.


3. "I'm speaking Chinese!" Stage (Intermediate). In this stage, not only has the pronunciation of pinyin's consonants (r, y, q, j, etc.) been acquired, but tones have been brought under control as well.


4. "I'm just speaking Chinese" Stage (Advanced).


5. "Pretty Much Chinese" Stage (Native-like).

*Note: it probably is wise to avoid publicly referring to the Chinese language using the Stage 1 description. Rosie O’Donnell (TV celebrity) recently created a major ruckus by imitating the language in this manner.