Growler's Learning Mandarin Chinese

A comprehensive account of the journey so far. The quest to become fluent in Mandarin Chinese.

Rawle Austin presents...

This article is dedicated to Cammi Peterson and Cate Peterson from Arizona, USA who helped revitalise my creativity and to all the friends I've met so far while learning Mandarin.

I started learning Mandarin Chinese in the year 2000 and have been learning it on and off ever since. The main reason was that the previous year 1999 I went on a two week tour of China and came back inspired. I visited Beijing, The Great Wall, Shanghai and Xi'an (see photos in the links).

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy the Oxford Beginner's Chinese Dictionary

I found it all fascinating. From the history, the culture to the billboards all written in Chinese characters. Looking back I've always had a love for the culture from the food to the various gong fu movies but this visit stirred some deep exciting emotions in me.

I learned a few words on the trip but was determined that when I returned, and I was going to return, that I would be able to read those billboards and have basic conversations with the people there.

So. Back to the year 2000. I researched a few Universities who had Mandarin Chinese evening classes, one day a week (to fit around my full time work).

I came to choose London South Bank University which, I came to find out, had a great Learning Centre. My teacher was Jane Zhao from Beijing. I remember that first lesson vividly. Her enthusiasium was infectious and she spoke a little Mandarin at normal speed so we could get an idea of what it was like.

It sounded incredibly fast and the tonal nature of the language gave the impression of almost singing. I was at once awed and overawed at the same time! But it captured my imagination and from that day I was determined to master it.

We were to be taught the Beijing dialect (Bei jing hua) which is the standard pronunciation. The four main language skills are speaking, listening, reading and writing. I want to be fluent in all.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy the Collins Easy Learning Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (Collins Easy Learning Dictionaries)  

For beginners learning Mandarin it's best to learn Pin Yin first. This is a pronunciation guide (using English letters) which also features tone symbols to help you say each word correctly.

There are four tones in Mandarin Chinese known as yin ping (first tone), yang ping (second tone), shang sheng (third tone) and qu sheng (fourth tone).

Each word in the vast Chinese vocabulary can use any one of these four tones which gives it a totally different meaning. So pronunciation and context is vitally important. Listening to various Mandarin Chinese teaching tape cassettes and CDs helped a lot with this.

Next up are the vowels and the consonants. These are known as the initials and finals. It is essential that these are practiced thoroughly (preferably out loud) as they will form the backbone and foundation of your speaking and listening skills.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy The Rough Guide to Mandarin Chinese (A Dictionary Phrasebook)

I'm at a point now that if I hear someone speak in Mandarin I can write the words in correct Pin Yin. That is only down to the constant practice I put in during the early days. The hardest thing I found to pronounce at first were words beginning with 'r', e.g Ri ben (Japan).

Then comes the actual Chinese characters (Chinese words). These resemble symbols, look incredibly difficult and indeed, to the beginner, seem quite frightening to read and learn.

But there are a set of basic rules and once learnt and practised, writing Chinese characters can seem to flow off the pen. Each character is composed of separate strokes which have to written in a certain order to make up the character.

Writing the characters in the correct stroke order really makes a difference and feels natural. Many characters have similar stroke radicals (layouts of strokes) so if you come across new characters you can generally guess how to write them, if they are composed of radicals you've learnt before.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy the Chambers Chinese Phrasebook (Chambers Phrasebooks)

Again, I spent many months practicing writing out Chinese characters on squared grid paper to get the basics learnt. This has helped me to read Mandarin Chinese as I recognise certain characters that I've seen previously.

I can also recommend making memory cards. That is writing the Chinese character on one side of a small piece of card and it's Pin Yin and English translation on the other side. A good aide de memoire. This also helps to increase your vocabulary.

I stayed at South Bank University for two years then started studying by myself at home (in 2002). During this time my learning waned a bit as life kind of got in the way.

It has a habit of doing this. Developing self discipline is a daily task. Constant practice is crucial to keep in the memory all the skills learnt.

In 2003 I created this website (GrowlersWorld) and wrote an article called Growler's China which talked about my experiences to date at that time. I found out about the Great Britain China Centre which had a great library full of Chinese learning material and also hosted seminars on Chinese culture that I attended.

I also joined Chinatown Magazine (Part of the Pearl Foundation) as the film reviewer following submission of my Growler's China article. This led to many more great experiences and events.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy Colloquial Chinese: The Complete Course for Beginners (Colloquial Series)

I, of course, attended the annual Chinese New Year celebrations in Trafalgar Square and Leicester Square.

All as a way to keep up my interest and motivation in learning Mandarin Chinese.

Of course, the best way to practice is speaking with other people. When I went to Chinese restaurants in London I would sometimes practice speaking Mandarin with the staff there.

Better yet, spending time in China (or a country which speaks Mandarin Chinese like Singapore or Malaysia), preferably a month or more, is the best way to become fluent in a relatively short space of time.

Then in 2004, a breakthrough. One of my former classmates at South Bank had a friend who owned a school in a place called TangXia Town in Guangdong Province. In the South of China.

He was looking for a native English speaker. We got in contact and in August 2004 I was on my way to teach English in China.

This was an incredible experience and one that has shaped my life ever since. I met many great friends there who I still speak to now and best of all, I was able to practice speaking Mandarin Chinese daily.

I taught at the main school and was also outsourced to various primary schools and factories in nearby towns as a sort of mobile teacher for the school.

This again was a great experience and was a fantastic way to get immersed in the culture. I wrote a diary for the first two weeks there which I will unveil here soon.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy Basic Chinese: A Grammar and Workbook (Grammar Workbooks)

The main thing I learned about the language here was that the spoken Mandarin used was pu tong hua (literally meaning the common tongue) as opposed to Bei jing hua. The difference being that many words in Bei jing hua have the 'r' pronounced heavily.

For example 'a little' would be yi dianr (silent 'n') in Bei jing hua but it is yi dian (the 'n' is pronunouced) in pu tong hua. This teaching stint lasted three glorious months and I have photos here, here, here and here. One of my students, Liang Yan gave me my Chinese name Yang Chen. It means ‘Do exercise every morning.’ LOL

During this time I also visited the stunning Three Gorges (SanXia) at Yi Chang in Hubei Province. An unforgettable boat trip. The best thing about the teaching experience was meeting people who were keen to learn and making new friends.

I learnt common words and phrases that I had not yet encountered in any book and I found my listening skills increased rapidly as did my spoken skills. The earlier practice I had put in while at South Bank University came in handy when I was able to write in basic Chinese in the classroom.

This was much appreciated by the students and greatly aided teaching. My pride and joy at the time was the fact that I was able to hold a very short, basic conversation in Mandarin Chinese!

Coming back home in November 2004 I kept in touch with many friends there by phone and email. This helped my spoken language skills a lot but as many friends spoke with good English we often spoke only in English.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy A Practical Chinese Grammar (Mandarin)

My learning continued on and off. Then I returned to China, staying in Shenzhen and TangXia Town, in 2007 for three months to see friends and to travel. This was another great opportunity to hone my language skills. I made many dear friends there and we’re in contact regularly.

The places where I stayed had virtually no one who could speak English. It was not a tourist area. So therefore I had to learn and learn fast on the spot. My listening and speaking skills went up tenfold because I had no choice but to learn and communicate.

And that really is one of the best ways to progress. To surround and immerse yourself with the language. To speak and hear it every day.

I returned to China again in 2008 for a month and found I was able to communicate more in Mandarin Chinese by text and QQ (a kind of Chinese version of Yahoo Messenger). There's actually a program in Windows for PC's that can enable you to write in Chinese.

Basically you type in the PinYin words and choose the characters you need from the produced list. In 2009 I embarked on a language exchange with a friend in London who was learning English. She taught me Mandarin Chinese and it was also a sort of cultural exchange too.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy Practical Chinese Reader: v. 1

This was another great method for learning and I heartily recommend learning Chinese over a kitchen table!

Another friend, based in China, sent me emails regularly. She couldn't speak English well so I had to use a software program to translate and then reply, using her grammar structure and vocabulary.

This was particularly good as I was using a form of everyday Chinese as opposed to formal text book sentences. This also helped to increase my vocabulary which is part of my ongoing mission.

I’ve always admired people who can speak more than one language. I once saw a newsreader switch effortlessly from English into Mandarin Chinese and was amazed.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy New Practical Chinese Reader: Textbook v. 1  

Watching Chinese TV programmes and movies are a good way to learn the language too as they often have Mandarin subtitles and are a great way to tune the ear.

Karaoke is another fun method of learning. Provided the lyrics are written in PinYin I’m good to go. Talking about music, during my 2004 stay in China, a song called Cheng Dong de cheng fa by Dao Lang was very popular. I loved it the moment I heard it on the radio.

I asked a friend there to translate the words from Chinese characters to PinYin. I was then able to sing the song and performed it once at an open air karaoke in TangXia Town. Good fun.

Here’s a video of the song performed by Dao Lang;

I've joined and started to attend Chinese language meetup groups. These are forums where people meet in person to practice their Mandarin and English in a kind of language exchange.

They're a good way of meeting people who share your passion for learning the language.

As of July 2009 I study at home with a wealth of Mandarin Chinese textbooks accumulated over eight years. I focus on learning and practicing sentences and constantly trying to refresh my past knowledge.

This is a lifelong journey and my end goal is to be fluent.

I’d like to take an exam, either the UK based GCSE or the HSK. The added pressure needed for this would force me to learn faster. I’d also like to be able to read a Chinese newspaper at some point in time.

How would I describe my fluency now? Lower intermediate in all the main skills including speaking and writing. I definitely have room for improvement. The foundation is still being set.

What still surprises me sometimes is after I’ve spoken to friends in China by phone, I realise I’ve just had an entire short conversation in Mandarin!

So, to sum up. I’ve being learning Mandarin Chinese on and off since 2000. I now have mp3 Chinese lessons on my phone that I can listen to on the go. I can instantly recognise the language when I hear it spoken anywhere and I created a China page on this site.

More Mandarin Chinese learning experiences await in the future, and I welcome them with open arms.

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy the Edexcel GCSE Chinese Student Book  

Learn Mandarin Chinese. Click here to buy the Edexcel GCSE Chinese Teacher's Guide

Mandarin Chinese Learning Links

DigChinese.com

HSK - The Chinese Proficiency Test

The Chinese Staffroom

Chinese Zone - Learn Mandarin Chinese

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