{"id":6187,"date":"2015-11-10T08:17:49","date_gmt":"2015-11-10T08:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/?p=6187"},"modified":"2015-11-10T08:17:49","modified_gmt":"2015-11-10T08:17:49","slug":"the-4-best-ways-to-learn-mandarin-faster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.digmandarin.com\/the-4-best-ways-to-learn-mandarin-faster.html","title":{"rendered":"The 4 Best Ways to Learn Mandarin Faster"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a fellow Mandarin-as-a-second-language student, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to learn Chinese, especially if it\u2019s your first language other than English. Fluency can frequently seem like it\u2019s ages away, and when all the characters start blending together after hours of studying, it can seem downright impossible.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t give up, though! Though it will take time, success at Mandarin CAN by attained, and is well worth the effort. And, if you study the right way, it really isn\u2019t too painful either. As someone who moved to China only a couple months ago (and is still hard at work on my own \u666e\u901a\u8bdd), I just wanted to share a couple techniques that have helped me learn this practical, logical (when it isn\u2019t crazy!), and rewarding language.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#1: Set Clear, Quantifiable Goals<\/h2>\n

Why are you learning Mandarin? What are you hoping to gain from learning Mandarin? Do you need to know how to write every character, or are you just hoping to read, speak, and understand them? Are you aiming for classical fluency, or simply being able to have a conversation? Asking yourself these questions before starting your learning will help guide the direction of your study, as well as keep you motivated when (inevitably) learning gets frustrating.<\/p>\n

It is also important to set the right<\/strong> goals. Good goals are quantifiable (e.g. are clearly able to measure). Instead of simply \u201ctrying to get good at Mandarin\u201d \u2013 which is impossible to quantify or truly accomplish \u2013 how about aiming to learn 5 new characters a day? You\u2019ll never know if you got the first goal done, but if you do the second goal consistently, you\u2019ll have learned over 1,800 words in a year! A good mix of short and long term goals can help you remind you of your progress, and keep you on track.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

#2: Study Mandarin Every Day<\/h2>\n

\u201cAn apple a day keeps the doctor away\u201d might not be the first thing you think of when you think of learning Mandarin, but it applies more aptly to language learning than you might imagine. In order for your brain to wrap its head around all the new sounds and ideas you\u2019re throwing at it, it needs to be exposed to it frequently \u2013 even if it\u2019s not for a very long amount of time.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s been proven that studying 20 minutes a day of a language leads to much better results than studying it once or twice a week for 2-3 hours. Set a routine and stick to it. It\u2019s a lot easier to set aside 20-30 minutes a day than it is to try to squeeze in a couple hours randomly, anyway.\u00a0\u00a0 Establishing a routine will encourage you to focus!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#3: Speak (Out Loud)!<\/h2>\n

While every Mandarin learner has a different learning style, Mandarin is a tonal language, which makes the meaning of each word change depending on the inflection with which it is spoken. Mandarin has four main tones, and to put it simply, if you don\u2019t know a word\u2019s tone, you don\u2019t know the word! For example, \u201cm\u01cei\u201d means \u201cto buy,\u201d while \u201cm\u00e0i\u201d means \u201cto sell\u201d \u2013 mixing those up could make your Chinese very confusing to a listener.<\/p>\n

Because tones are sound, they are much more easily remembered when one hears them out loud by speaking them, rather than simply reading them off a page. Doing this, along with practicing with a native speaker or audio tapes, will help you learn and be able to use the tones much more quickly than simply trying to memorize them off a page. If you\u2019re a really kinesthetic learner, you might even find it useful to \u201cdraw\u201d the tones with your finger in the air while you speak them aloud \u2013 whatever helps you remember!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

#4: Use Digital Flashcards (with a timer)<\/h2>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>If your goals include the ability to read Chinese characters (something I\u2019d highly recommend), then there\u2019s no way around it: you\u2019re going to be using a lot of flashcards to keep track of the thousands of words you\u2019ll want to learn. For my first couple months of learning Mandarin, I hand-made paper flashcards, which worked, but was very time-consuming, and I didn\u2019t really feel like I needed to be able to write the characters by hand. Furthermore, it was frustrating to occasionally find myself with 5-10 minutes to spare, and want to practice, but not have my flashcards nearby.<\/p>\n

Due to these reasons, I\u2019d highly suggest making digital flashcards. Making each card takes much less time, and many websites let you sync the flashcards to your phone, enabling you to study whenever and wherever you\u2019d like. There are a number of both free and paid applications for doing this (Google \u201cflashcard online,\u201d or search on your phone\u2019s App store), all of whom have different specialties. My favorite has been Repetitions<\/a> ($6 and iOS compatible), which lets me create, study, and sync words across all my devices. It also keeps track of which words I\u2019m consistently not getting right, and shows me those words more frequently.<\/p>\n

Regardless of whether you go with paper or digital flashcards, when studying Mandarin, I\u2019d certainly recommend that you force yourself to move quickly and not spend too much time on each card. Staring at a card for two minutes is much more likely to cause your focus to drift than it is to suddenly cause you to remember what that word means.\u00a0\u00a0 To keep myself focused, I use a repeating countdown timer set to beep every 8 seconds, and force myself to answer the card before each beep. If I get the card wrong, it goes to the back of the deck, and I keep moving until I\u2019ve cleared every card. You can obviously choose what length of time you\u2019re comfortable with, but I\u2019d highly recommend doing this to learn as efficiently as possible. A great free online countdown timer can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Above all else, just keep studying, and your Mandarin will<\/strong> improve. Don\u2019t get frustrated by the enormity of the task of learning a new language. Break it down into smaller, quantifiable pieces, and accomplish one or two of those pieces every day. Speak your words out loud, and keep track of all the words you\u2019re learning digitally. Soon, you\u2019ll be a master Mandarin speaker!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a fellow Mandarin-as-a-second-language student, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to learn Chinese, especially if it\u2019s your first language other than English. Fluency can frequently seem like it\u2019s ages away, and when all the characters start blending together after hours of studying, it can seem downright impossible.   Don\u2019t give up, though!…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6188,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77,89],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-6187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn-mandarin-online","tag-beginner","tag-tips-and-suggestions","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"\nThe 4 Best Ways to Learn Mandarin Faster<\/title>\n <meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=index-1371.html \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The 4 Best Ways to Learn Mandarin Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a fellow Mandarin-as-a-second-language student, I know first-hand how challenging it can be to learn Chinese, especially if it\u2019s your first language other than English. 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