this post was submitted on 28 Jun 2025
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Chinese language 中文 漢語

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Discussions and resources for studying or learning about Chinese languages (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, Classical Chinese, etc.).

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Introduction - Beginner help? (piefed.social)
submitted 2 weeks ago by perishthethought@piefed.social to c/chinese@lemmy.world
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Hey hey, I just returned from two weeks on vacation in China and I'm returning seriously embarrassed about how bad my Mandarin is. I live in the US and have very little experience learning Mandarin so far and my pronunciation is horrible. I want to work to improve my vocabulary and pronunciation. The 4 tones are very hard for me, as my hearing is not great to start.

Any ideas for a complete beginner would be greatly appreciated. For instance, will I learn faster with a teacher / in person lessons, or is online learning good enough these days?

I have experience learning other languages, FYI, including Spanish and French and a little Dutch. Cheers for keeping this community alive!

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[–] 0x01@lemmy.ml 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Nothing will help more than practice, while you're studying consider anything you pronounce with the wrong tone completely incorrect.

I personally try to use spacial memory techniques to group words with the same tone together, anything first tone I remember above me, third tone below, second tone left, fourth tone right, neutral right in the middle.

The final advice I have is to pay special attention to how native speakers pronounce tones together, for example two third tones in a row become 2,3. Most won't even be about to tell you the specifics so you'll have to learn on your own.

Good luck out there, it gets much easier with time

[–] perishthethought@piefed.social 2 points 2 weeks ago

Great tips, thanks! I am goingb to need to listen for the tones a lot! That "spacial" idea should help.

I found this video, talking about the tones - I hope this is correct, ha. She says, for instance, that tone 1 is not really as high as the carts usually shows, which is very helpful for me.

https://youtu.be/eIP8yVcDZRI