Chinese (Mandarin) Learning Thread - Gain Social Credit Points by learning the hardest language in the world.

[Alex Hogendorp]

Note: This thread is for Mandarin Chinese. There are other forms of Chinese but to avoid confusing the others (Wu, Cantonese, etc). I recommend making a separate thread for it.

Chinese has a reputation for being the hardest language in the world. But becomes a necessity for maintaining your Social Credit Score. So if your Social Credit Score is too low and you want to boost up your social credit score. You come to the right place.

You can get started by learning these symbols.

Easy, Right?

For those who are too poor to buy books. I'll share some resources and everyone else is allowed to collaborate and share their own.
https://hanzibase.net/home - A database of all Chinese Characters
https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar/ - A Wiki Based around Chinese Grammar

 

[Robert Cummings]

Ching Chong ping pong

 

[TenMilesWide]

Mandarin classes back in middle school taught me to count to ten and proclaim facts about my person. I have thankfully forgotten all of it in the years since.

 

[Kiwisee]

I want to learn Mandarin so I can keep up with Chinese Lolcows

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Some e-learning platforms can offer diplomas/certificates for learning Mandarin Chinese.

These are the two popular ones that I can find:

Alison
Diploma in HSK Level Conversational Chinese (Levels 1-4)

https://alison.com/course/diploma-in-hsk-level-1-conversational-chinese

https://alison.com/course/diploma-in-hsk-level-2-conversational-chinese

https://alison.com/course/diploma-in-hsk-level-3-conversational-chinese

https://alison.com/course/diploma-in-hsk-level-4-conversational-chinese

Mandarin for Beginners

https://alison.com/course/mandarin-for-beginners

Coursera
Learn Mandarin Chinese

https://www.coursera.org/specializations/learn-mandarin

Chinese for Beginners

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learn-chinese

Mandarin Chinese 1: Chinese for Beginners

https://www.coursera.org/learn/mandarin-chinese-1

 

[King Of The Kiwis]

whats the difference between mandarin and traditional

 

[Suburban Bastard]

Herro!
Prease!

 

[crippling laziness]

Here are some useful web extensions I'm currently using to learn Chinese:

Zhongwen Chinese Popup Dictionary: Self explanatory. When you mouse over Chinese characters a dictionary translation will pop up. Very convenient.

- You can go to the Chinese wikipedia https://baike.baidu.com/ and read articles on topics you are interested in.
- Youtube has full length Chinese TV shows if you search using Chinese words. For example, search 電視劇 for drama series, or 喜劇 for comedies. If you filter for subtitles/cc, the extension will also work on the subtitles.


Language Reactor: I use this for watching netflix shows. It pairs Chinese subtitles with English translations together, and it also allows you to quickly rewind/jump through lines. I recommend watching Scissor Seven, that show is peak.


But what if the Chinese characters are inside of an image and you can't use Zhongwen to translate it? That's when you use
Copyfish: This extension is able to detect Chinese characters in screengrabs, much like how smartphone cameras work. You can then use Google translate to get the translation. Here are the instructions on how to use it: Link.

I mainly use this extension for reading manhua. Here's a good site: https://www.colamanga.com/. There are also sites for adult manhua like this one: https://www.freexcomic.com/ (NSFW obviously). Now you can goon and learn Chinese at the same time, which is somewhat more productive than just gooning. I'm ashamed to admit that this is what initially got me to start learning Chinese, but I have since branched out to other media.

I feel like this method of learning Chinese (viewing Chinese media) is way more effective and sustainable than the traditional method of rote memorization.

whats the difference between mandarin and traditional

You mean simplified and traditional.

Spoiler: Explanation

You are exaggerating

Maoist Simplified and Traditional Full-Form Chinese characters are still extremely similar. Most of the changes are consistent and learnable in hours if you already know one set. The fast majority of characters are made up of a few hundred radicals put together to give the sound and a meaning hint, there's no reinventing the wheel

For example many food related terms have 飠as a part , and this was simplified to 饣
飯/饭 (Rice/food)
餓/饿( Hungry)
餃/饺(Dumplings)
餅/饼 (Biscuit)

However it isn't 100% consistent, 餵 feed animals was simplified to 喂. Other characters were changed more drastically like 龍/龙 (dragon) but this is a rare exception.

I'd say in general the Chinese writing system is ten times more complex than English's and that explains how even the most backward and poor parts of China still have a 98% literacy rate.


Hangul was one of the first phonetic alphabets based on human anatomy, a pretty nifty achievement for the 15th century and a big step in establishing an identity apart from China. The language in general is pretty retarded, but they should be rightfully proud of their alphabet.

 

[you22]

whats the difference between mandarin and traditional

The difference between modern English and old English

 

[Jex]

calvin bros…

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I really gotta say, Tones take time and precision to get it right. Mandarin has the more straightforward ones and even those are difficult to get used to.

 

[Toothpaste Chocolates]

Mandarin is my mother tongue and I'll be happy to help however I can.

Hanyu Pinyin was one of the first things I learned in school. It's a great guide to learn how to pronounce the words and differentiate between words like si, shi, and xi. Would highly recommend memorising this first. In terms of clear pronunciation, I actually think that Taiwanese media is a good place to start. Tv shows, movies, even YouTube videos.

Note: Taiwan uses another system instead of hanyu pinyin for pronunciation, which I'm not very familiar with. They also prefer traditional Chinese over simplified Chinese.

For the characters, unfortunately you'll have to keep practicing your reading and writing to get a hang of the symbols. Same goes with sentence structure and grammar. There's no shame in reading elementary school material or story books. Some of them even have hanyu pinyin to help the reader, so I think that's very useful.

I just want to emphasise that mandarin comes from a pictorial language. Most characters can tell you what it is, even if you've never seen it before but you're familiar with mandarin. This is even more obvious with Traditional Chinese, like 飯 having the character 食, meaning food, at the side, indicates that this character is related to food.

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

Mandarin is my mother tongue and I'll be happy to help however I can.

Hanyu Pinyin was one of the first things I learned in school. It's a great guide to learn how to pronounce the words and differentiate between words like si, shi, and xi. Would highly recommend memorising this first. In terms of clear pronunciation, I actually think that Taiwanese media is a good place to start. Tv shows, movies, even YouTube videos.

Note: Taiwan uses another system instead of hanyu pinyin for pronunciation, which I'm not very familiar with. They also prefer traditional Chinese over simplified Chinese.

For the characters, unfortunately you'll have to keep practicing your reading and writing to get a hang of the symbols. Same goes with sentence structure and grammar. There's no shame in reading elementary school material or story books. Some of them even have hanyu pinyin to help the reader, so I think that's very useful.

I just want to emphasise that mandarin comes from a pictorial language. Most characters can tell you what it is, even if you've never seen it before but you're familiar with mandarin. This is even more obvious with Traditional Chinese, like 飯 having the character 食, meaning food, at the side, indicates that this character is related to food.

Eventually (and it's the same with Japanese). I learn the characters enough to recognize them fairly well. Even if they look a bit different. I bought myself a dictionary of Chinese Characters as well and reading pinyin adjacent to these characters makes it much easier to remember which English word it pairs to (similar to how some Japanese literature uses kana on top of the kanji). I'd appreciate learning more.

 

[Spob]

I'm a heritage speaker/reader of Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified). My mom forced me to learn it when I was growing up, and some of the textbooks I had to use were borderline or even outright CPC propaganda. I can comprehend and use it informally, less so formally.

But even "informally", by that I mean "enough to talk with family or watch TV, but not to take a university course taught in it". I'm not nearly autistic enough to be picking up Chinese social media slang or keeping track of Chinese lolcows.

It does help with learning Japanese though. But why not start with Japanese if you were spared the privilege of having Chinese force-fed by your mom and dad?

 

[Alex Hogendorp]

I'm a heritage speaker/reader of Chinese (Mandarin, Simplified). My mom forced me to learn it when I was growing up, and some of the textbooks I had to use were borderline or even outright CPC propaganda. I can comprehend and use it informally, less so formally.

But even "informally", by that I mean "enough to talk with family or watch TV, but not to take a university course taught in it". I'm not nearly autistic enough to be picking up Chinese social media slang or keeping track of Chinese lolcows.

It does help with learning Japanese though. But why not start with Japanese if you were spared the privilege of having Chinese force-fed by your mom and dad?

I actually started with Japanese as I find it the easiest of all east Asian languages. When it comes to Mandarin. It's not even that hard either. Though it would take me 3 - 6 years to be fluent though.

Though I don't hate the CCP, I have very little trust in them much like every other government.