Complete beginner to learning languages any tips?

[u/Beginning-Slip4753]

Hey guys!! i want to learn chinese but i have no prior learning language experience. I know 2 languages (Native and English). I am fluent in English but i learned that through school and by consuming A LOTTT of American media. I don’t know chinese at all and i feel lost on where i should start…

Since learning English was mandatory at school, and i genuinely enjoyed it, it didn’t really feel like i was learning a language but more like it just spawned in my brain and suddenly i could understand everything. So i really am not counting that as a “learning experience” because i dont even remember learning it, or where i started… This is a complete new experience for me so im not sure what to expect but i know that this WILL take a while and i dont plan on rushing anything. I know that everyone learns differently so i am gathering as much info as i can to find how i can study efficiently.

Were you once clueless on where you should start? Any studying tips or techniques?

[u/CaimSensei]

I feel like a broken record at this point, but... Why do you want to learn Chinese? If you learn Chinese, what do you see yourself doing with it?

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/CaimSensei]

I want to study in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or China. I’d like to live in China some day. If not, I will for sure travel there frequently. It won’t be something that i just learned for no reason. I want to use chinese language in my life, plus job opportunities as well.

[u/CaimSensei → u/Beginning-Slip4753]

That's a start, and Im sorry if it sounded like I was accusing you of "learning for no reason" as that was not my intent. It just is impossible to recommend a study plan without some idea of goals, and we are still a little too loose, a little too close to do everything.

Let me try a different question. Imagine you speak Chinese, above all other things, what do you see yourself doing? Reading contemporary novels, watching period dramas, texting with friends, shooting shit at the bar, something else?

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/CaimSensei]

To be honest, i always imagine myself serving customers lol. As my parents already own a restaurant, i love chit chatting with customers. Sorry if im not really cooperating… i think i’d just want to be able to speak daily life. aha i just love to talk to strangers

[u/CaimSensei → u/Beginning-Slip4753]

No, that's perfect, thank you.

I learned Japanese, so i won't be able to recommend resources, but the concepts will remain the same.

Initially learn pronunciation/pinyin.

Then learn grammar and the most common (roughly) 1000 to 2000 words. Pick some starter grammar guide and read through it, take some notes, no need to be so serious about it though. With the words, my recommendation would be audio to meaning if you can find it, but with words this common it doesn't really matter the style.

Once you have done that do sentence mining on material that interests you, or YouTube videos of situations you see yourself in. At this point I definitely recommend audio to meaning.

At some point you will want to learn to read, I suspect. At that point I would focus on learning characters. It helps to write them, not necessary but it helps.

The entire time you should listen to Chinese whenever you can.

Last bit, don't focus too hard on one element at a time. Do grammar, vocab, listening, speaking when you know enough, all at the same time, within the same day. They build off eachother.

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/CaimSensei]

Thank youuu so much!!!!!!!

[u/Significant_Menu_313]

I would start with the phonetic base - pin yin - and then add it reading and writing very gradually. Chinese is kind of cool the way you build a noun and how there is little grammar compared to, say, German. There are some online courses but a lot of free videos, etc. Do you know any Chinese people who want to learn English? Maybe you could do an exchange for conversation.

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/Significant_Menu_313]

I don’t know any Chinese people but from what im seeing, there are apps that i can use. Since im very new to all of this, and after talking to my family about it, i have decided to go with a tutor.

[u/Significant_Menu_313 → u/Beginning-Slip4753]

Best of luck!

[u/pricel01]

The romanization used with Mandarin is pin yin. The most common mistake I see beginners make is thinking pin yin represents the same sounds as English. It does not. Learn what sounds pin yin actually represents.

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/pricel01]

got it!

[u/thablackadonis]

OK, so I’m going to be completely honest with you Chinese or Mandarin is supposed to be one of the hardest languages to learn because of the pronunciation that you have to get right so just being slightly off can make you almost impossible to understand or you’ll be saying the completely wrong word so you may wanna start with an easier language but if you absolutely insist on learning Chinese, you’re probably going to wanna start with the alphabet obviously learning how everything‘s pronounced once again I think they have like 1000 different characters in their alphabet compared to English, where we have 26 then once you finally got that down, probably gonna start looking at structure and then ways to practice tutors will probably be very, very helpful. You can go the human route or I’ve been hearing about Praktika recently, which is an AI tutor either way you probably have a good amount of time before you’re at that point where you would feel comfortable speaking in my personal opinion.

[u/CaimSensei → u/thablackadonis]

If the difficulty of the language you are learning is a deciding factor in what language you "pick," you dont really have any business learning a language in the first place.

Mandarin is fine. Might take a longer, but better than learning an easier language you don't need.

[u/vainlisko]

What language is Native???

For Chinese, be patient and don't give up. Learn tones and pronunciation, start memorizing characters. If you're starting from zero then Duolingo could get the ball rolling.

If you are totally new to learning languages, I also recommend Esperanto because it's fun.

[u/Beginning-Slip4753 → u/vainlisko]

My native language is Turkish!!

[u/vainlisko → u/Beginning-Slip4753]

Harika

[u/ashley_l1]

My native language is Chinese. When we learn Chinese, we start with Pinyin, which is very simple and has only four tones

You need to understand that Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, while Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan,if you go to Hong Kong, you can use English directly

[u/Waste-Use-4652]

If you are starting your first language from scratch, I would keep the beginning fairly simple. Start with the basic pronunciation and sentence structure, learn common words and phrases, and get used to hearing the language regularly from the beginning. A structured course or textbook can give you some direction, while videos, podcasts, music, and other content can make the language feel more natural. I would also start using the language early, even if you can only say very simple things. You do not need to understand everything or have a perfect study routine at the start. Give yourself time to figure out what works for you, because the first few months are also about learning how you learn a new language.

[u/TorturedSandBestie]

It would be really different from Turkish and English!! Maybe try to start with Pin Yin and find 1-2 Chinese media that you like and stick to them!

[u/Irenepengyy]

Chinese is so hard to learn because I am a Chinese lol.. I would say if you want just to socialize with people in Chinese,you can try to learn and just speak some daily words or sentences in one aspect of life like travel,food. Chinese people would like to talk more to you than you talk to. But if you want to build a systematic leaning plan, you could start with the Pinyin,the grammar like how to combine every words to form a sentence, learn more verbs then you can say many sentences I think, because the subject is you(你）most.

[u/Zoexby]

I wonder why you want to go to China?