what's the best way to learn mandarin chinese?

Question

I work in a chinese restaurant and they speak cantonese, how can i learn the basics?

Answer 1

First of all, Mandarin and Cantonese are very different in terms of their pronunciation systems. 10 years ago, Cantonese was the world-wide spoken language among the Chinese population, even though Mandarin was the official language of China. Since the rise of China took place in recent years, Mandarin is the language to learn nowadays. The government is trying to put everything in its "official" format, and so more people are learning Mandarin instead of Cantonese.

The best way to learn Mandarin is to speak it with friends with the cultural/language background, while routinely hanging out with them so there is more subject to talk about. If you have Chinese American friends who've grown up in the U.S., that would be perfect. Most of them do not speak it in public, but almost more than 90% of them do know it and speak it at home. All you have to do is ask. You'd be surprised how eagerly they are willing to help.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Learning Mandarin may be very profitable these days that's why it is so wellknown and why many folks are taking Mandarin publications. The motive is, China is emerging to the highest quick and will likely be doing industry with the US for decades and now have ties with the US. I am additionally studying Mandarin correct now in view that of that very motive. Knowing a further language asides from English may be very valuable and can aid you whilst you're watching for jobs. Many employers love it whilst staff are bilingual, trilingual, and so on.

Answer 4

If you realy wanted to learn the cantonese language I would sugest taking a trip to chinia where they speak cantonese and stay for a while so you get familiar with the language. If you are unable to do that ask your co worker if you can spend a couple the nights with them to better understand thier language.

Answer 5

I live and work in China (Canton, AKA Guangzhou).

Mandarin and Cantonese are two different languages. Let me explain.

The national language of China is Mandarin Chinese. Every one of its separate provinces has its own dialect (that is often incomprehensible to people from other provinces), even regions have different dialects.

One of the provinces in Guangdong, and its capital, Guangzhou (gwangjoe), where the dialect is Cantonese. Many, many Chinese who come from other parts of Guangdong or from other provinces complain that Cantonese is so different from Mandarin or so different from the Chinese spoken in their own provinces that they find it impossible to learn.

Let me repeat that: Chinese who speak Chinese (Mandarin and their own provincial dialect) find Cantonese (spoken in Guangzhou but not in all parts of Guangdong) to be very difficult to learn. People from different parts of Guangdong have told me that it takes them about 6 months to learn to understand Cantonese and a couple of years to become fairly proficient...

Now, how long do you think someone whose native language is English is going to take to learn Cantonese? Years, at least.

The best way would be to move to China, study Chinese formally, and try to learn Cantonese from Cantonese people. There are numerous foreigners living here. Africans whose native language is Swahili find Cantonese easy to learn, but I know Americans who've been here ten years or more and are married to Chinese and know at best 50 words, not enough for even a low-level conversation.

Answer 6

You asked for the BEST way to learn mandarin Chinese. That would be to enlist in the military with a guarantee that you would be put in a linguist program. You get extensive and intensive language training for severeal months.

Answer 7

as stated above, immersion is the best way to familarize with a language. Chinese is so vastly different from alphabet languages that people found it almost impossible to learn. But thats also the charm of learning it, I'm blessed/cursed with speaking it as a first language. Good Luck!

Answer 8

confused.

You want to learn cantonese or mandarin ?

Do you know chinese ? Do you know how to read in chinese ?

If so, just watch more tv with chinese subtitles.

Answer 9

go talk with your cantonese friends
ask them to teach you some basic words
buy a dictionary for helpin you

Answer 10

Take an intro to Manadarin class at the local school board or rec center.