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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[–] 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