10 tips on how to learn Chinese for beginners. Based on our and our student's experience. Some of them might seem radical and hard to put into practice to people

who haven't tried yet. It is up to everyone to decide if they want to follow them of course, but nobody ever said that learning Chinese wasn't hard and radical. It is - and that's why it is fun.

<strong>1. Tones from the beginning</strong>

If your aim is to speak fluent Mandarin, learn the tones from the beginning and do not leave them until later. Once you get used to using tones wrong or even worse not at all, changing that behavior is a lot more time consuming than learning them right in the first place. It might slow you down at the beginning with your speaking, but it is worth it in the long run. Taking a short-cut with tones at the beginning will come back to haunt you later.

<strong><a href="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC00461.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-6217" alt="Learn Mandarin" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC00461-300x225.jpg" width="300" height="225" /></a>2. Move your head</strong>

If you struggle with saying tones at the beginning (pretty much everyone does), move your head with the tone for each syllable. It might look stupid, but it does make you say the tone more accurately.
<em><strong>Tip</strong>: Works best with the fourth tone. A decisive up to down movement of your head while saying a syllable makes you automatically lower the tone while saying it.</em>

<strong>3. Speak Slowly</strong>

At the beginning, speak slowly and clearly. Very slowly and clearly. Do no try to imitate accents, but speak the way your teacher tells you to. Do not listen to people who might tell you that "the Chinese use the tones wrong or leave them away all the time themselves" and that way justify not paying attention to tones themselves. Say every word and tone properly. Do not leave endings away and do not try to hide a tone by speaking quickly. You might have to speak very slowly, which might sound a bit stupid at the beginning, it will however, teach you proper pronunciation. Once you mastered that, then you can start to speed-up, learn accents and maybe in some cases you will even master the art of knowing when you can leave a tone away and when not, but this will come at a much more advanced stage.

<strong>4. Do not speak English</strong>

When a Chinese person speaks English with you, however bad your Chinese is, reply in Mandarin. It will slow you down, it will be annoying, but it will get you ahead. You think you saved time by buying a train ticket with an English speaking travel agent in 5 minutes instead of doing it with a dictionary and loads of work yourself in an twenty minutes? No you didn't - you lost 20 minutes of very valuable practice time - and the warm and fuzzy feeling that you did it all alone in Chinese once you got the ticket. In case you did not manage to get the ticket, go back to class, ask your teacher the words, practice them and try the next day again. You will get it - the harder the fight, the more you learn while doing it.

<a href="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSCN6358.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-6126" alt="Luke from the UK arm wrestling with his LTL host faster" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSCN6358-300x225.jpg" width="300" height="225" /></a>

<strong>5.Do not allow other people to use you for English practice</strong>

Stay away from Chinese people who want to practice their English with you - or speak with them in Mandarin until they give up. Reply in Mandarin, however much better that other person's English might be. They might tell you that they learn English and really want to practice that. They might very well do, however you didn't come to China to help other people to practice their English, but to improve your Mandarin. Tell them that在中国说中文  (Zài zhōngguó shuō zhōngwén - in China speak Chinese) and that's it. It is often a battle of minds you will have to win. If you ever meet a Chinese person learning your language in your home country, return the favor by speaking to them in your language then. Require them to do the same to you when you are in China. You are not an English language practice dummy!

<strong>6. Understand characters.</strong>

Do not just memorize characters - understand them.   To do that, start with learning the radicals. There are 214 Chinese radicals and all characters are combinations of those. Once you know these, characters are not random drawings, but combinations of pieces that you already know.

Tip: A lot of radicals are also Chinese characters alone you will learn anyways and you only need the most commonly used ones. So learning them will be a lot easier than you might think. We find Zhang Peng's book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Most-Common-Chinese-Radicals-Edition/dp/7800525767">the most common Chinese radicals</a> very useful.

[caption id="attachment_6187" align="alignright" width="225"]<a href="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/201203232491.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-6187" alt="Mandarin homework" src="http://ltl-chinois.fr/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/201203232491-225x300.jpg" width="225" height="300" /></a> Sebastian from Switzerland[/caption]

<strong>7. Trick your brain</strong>

Make up stories to remember characters - we humans remember stories better than drawings. You can either use the radicals to make up a story or just make up any that makes sense to you. Often the more stupid, the better, because you will remember them.

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Example: For me丽 (lì - beautiful) are "the crying eyes with the hat on". This is not at all how this character was created originally, however to me it makes sense and I remember it. Use whatever story works for you - it is often better to use your own than those of other people, because we all associate different things with different pictures.

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<strong>8. Look up characters</strong>

Look up characters when you see them. Whenever you see a character, it is a chance to learn one. China is full of characters, most of which you will not know. Use your dictionary to look them up.

<strong>9. Travel time is study time.</strong>

Whenever you are stuck in traffic, waiting for someone or on a train, get your homework, vocabulary list or Pleco flashcards out and start reviewing. Learning Chinese vocabulary requires a lot of repetition. Use the time you wouldn't be doing anything else to do it and save the rest of your day for more fun activities.

<strong>10.Post-it Notes</strong>

Put post-it notes on your furniture and other objects at home with the Chinese character and pinyin, so you learn while living. Whenever you look at the table, think of the table or use the table, there will be a big yellow sign with the pinyin and Chinese character on it.

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A good place to put post-it notes with vocabulary where most people spend a lot of time without having too much to do is your toilet.

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<strong>And finally: do not give up</strong>. Never, ever! Learning Chinese can be quite a test of character. When you hit a low and feel like you are not progressing or nobody understand anything you say - that is the real test. Do you give up or not? Always keep in mind that frustrations and the feeling "I will never be able to learn this" are a part of learning Chinese. Most people who are fluent today will have plenty of stories to tell you when they thought they were never ever going to learn this. They did. So can you.