Pitfalls To Watch Out For As A Beginner Chinese Learner
When you first start learning Chinese, it may be hard to know where to start.
After all, the hardest foreign language you’ll ever learn is your first one.
Once you know how to learn a language, it becomes a lot easier to make consistent progress.
If your goal is to learn Chinese and quickly and efficiently as possible, these tips will help you avoid some of the most common mistakes that many new language learners make:
1. Don’t Ignore Chinese Tones
Tones are probably the most important aspect of learning Chinese.
As a beginner, it’s easy to gloss over tones and not give them the attention they deserve. But if you do, you’ll struggle to understand people and be understood. Without them, the Chinese language becomes meaningless.
To illustrate this point, let’s look at the syllable ‘ma’.
Spoken with the first tone this word means ‘mother’, whereas when spoken with the third tone it means ‘horse’:
妈 (mā)
马 (mǎ)
As a result, mixing these two tones up can have drastic results when you are speaking, as a sentence about your mother can suddenly sound like a sentence about your horse!
Now there’s a mistake that could land you in hot water fast!
2. Don’t Memorize Random Chinese Vocabulary Lists
This is a common pitfall that I always emphasize to those trying to learn a foreign language.
It’s a waste of time to aimlessly memorize vocab lists, especially as they tend to be lists of obscure words that are often not relevant to you.
Instead, focus on identifying the topics you want to be able to talk about and learning the most important vocabulary you need to do so. This way you will learn useful words and speak in a more natural way.
3. Don’t Forget To Practice A Little Every Day
With Chinese, as with any other skill, you have to be committed to your end goal and be diligent every day in your practice.
It may not seem like it sometimes, but every effort (no matter how small) adds up in the long run.
To illustrate this, let’s say you start by sitting down for thirty minutes each day to learn new characters. By the end of the week, you’ll have spent three and a half hours studying Chinese – quite an accomplishment if you are working or studying full-time!
By practising for even just a few minutes each day, you’ll see faster results than if you’re haphazard in your learning.
You can make studying Chinese a daily habit through goal setting and by tracking your daily progress. You can also talk about your goals and plans with a study partner or friend who can keep you on the right track.
4. Don’t Neglect The Power Of Repetition
This is a common mistake for learners and it’s completely understandable. It’s much more exciting to move onto something new than repeat things you’ve already studied.
But repetition is an important part of learning any language. Without it, you may move on to the advanced material faster, but it’s like building a house on sand. Without the strong foundation you build by repeating and mastering the basics, you won’t be able to get very far with more difficult material.
The extra time you spend repeating vocabulary is what will help it really stick in your memory so you don’t end up tongue-tied when it’s time to speak.
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