Avoid 10 Beginner Mistakes While Learning Chinese
When you try something new, you are bound to make mistakes. I found that many people make the same predictable mistakes over and over again. This list will help you to better recoginze and overcome these mistakes when they eventually happen to you.
Knowing isn’t the same thing as doing.
For example, how you were learning how to ride a bike. Did you learn by reading a bunch of articles and books on how to ride a bike? Did you learn by seeing ohter people do it or watching videos? Of course you didn’t. The fastest wary for you learn how to ride a bike is by getting on a bike, and finding a unch of different ways to fall before you figure out how to stay on.
The same is true for learning a foreign language. You might be able to learn some things from reading books, and watching videos. But the best way by now is getting out there, practicing and applying that knowledge. Don’t expect to be perfect on the first try, but keep trying and get engaged.
Get Chinese friends to practice with you, look for online Chinese radio stations, rent Chinese movies.
Believing the advertisements.
The commercials for programs that claim you can “Learning Chinese in 15 days” are outright lies. Many eager students fall into these traps, wasting both time and money. Learning a new language takes hard work and dedication. Placing your expectations so high is just setting yourself up for failure.
The benefits you reap if you learn Chinese will last you a lifetime although it is absolutely one of the hardest languages to learn. Keep yourself focused on the end goal, and make daily progress to get you there. Don’t fool yourself; you will eventually get there although it is going to be hard.
Tones? WTF are these tone things?
Chinese is a tonal language, with 4 different tones. The tones are easily the most challenging part about Chinese for English speakers. There are four tones, so it could completely change the meaning of what you are trying to say if you pronounce a character with the wrong tone.
The tone problem is the reason why I believe beginners should avoid learning from books. It is impossibe for you to learn how to pronounce words correctly from books, you should listen first hand what the words sound like. The best benefit about having an in person tutor or software or learning online is that you can hear and learn the correct pronunciation.
These are just the first 3 of 10 mistakes that all Chinese beginners make which will slow them down and are very frustrating. Read on to learn how to recognize and avoid the 10 common makes people make learning Chinese.
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