Hanbridge Mandarin Chinese Online Learning

Chinese Alphabet, known as ‘Pīnyīn’ in Chinese, is the very essential step to start Chinese learning. Although it’s as same as English letters in writing, the pronunciation between them are quite different. This article lists the tips to help you learn it! When we start to learn a language, we usually begin with an alphabet. However, given that Chinese is written in characters, which are pictographs and not individual letters that make up words, pinyin is the system that transposes characters into words. One of the main differences between Chinese and English, for example, is that Chinese is a tonal language, with “initials,” “finals” and “tones” that form words. In the word ”pīnyīn,” for example, pīn begin with the initial “p,” and the final “in” and uses the level tone “-.” There are 23 initials, 24 finals and 5 tones in Chinese. An initial followed by a final can make up a complete syllable – spoken with a tone . For most Mandarin learners, the challenge is learning the diffe...

Students just beginning their Chinese study may think the characters are too difficult to remember. Therefore, you need a tool to read and write down Chinese. That tool is called pinyin. First, what is pinyin? Pinyin is a kind of auxiliary tool for us to learn Chinese. It is a Romanized representation of the phonetic sounds of Chinese. Chinese Pinyin is also the international standard stipulated by the United Nations for spelling Chinese special terms and names of persons and places. The Chinese syllable consists of three parts: initials, finals, and tones. For example, the character “ 妈 ”,pinyin is “ mā ”， “mā” is made up of the initial “m” , the final “a” , and the level tone “-”. In Chinese, we have 21 initials: b , p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s. And there are 36 finals: a, an, ang, ai, ao, o, ou, ong, e, en, eng, ei, er, i, ia, iao, ie, iou(iu), ian, in, iang, ing, iong, u, ua, uo, uai, uei(ui), uan, uen(un), uang, ueng, ü, üe, üan, ün. At la...

Pinyin is an essential part of Chinese learning, for the beginners, maybe they don't need to learn Chinese characters , but they do need to learn Chinese pinyin . However, not all the Chinese learning materials have pinyin listed, for example, all Chinese movies have Chinese and English subtitles but without pinyin on it. Therefore, you need a program/software to help you convert Chinese character to pinyin. If you search on the web, you’ll find there are many tools can achieve it, but as a non-Chinese or Chinese beginner , you may be unable to find out which one is the best. In this guide, we’ll introduce three best online tools to translate Chinese character into pinyin for you. 1. Chinese To Pinyin Converter This tool offers Hanzi to pinyin conversation with numbers, accents and no ton options which meets the different needs of pinyin format. Further, it can identify common used polyphone and the conversion is very accurate. For the seldom-used polyphone phrases, it will d...

It seems as though people gravitate toward one of two extremes when discussing the difficulty and time required to master Chinese. Either it really easy or horribly hard. It requires just weeks or decades of time to gain fluency. Which is true? The answer is probably found somewhere in the middle. An important distinction is to clearly define what is meant by “fluent”. Here are some milestones to mark your fluency: 1 year to lie on your resume and hope no Chinese speaker interviews you for a job. 2-3 years for basic fluency, but with difficulty found in vocabulary. 3-5 years to feel comfortable in the language. From my own teaching experience, learners with business purposes in China regard a one-year’s intensive study as a challenge; while others with higher and more specific demand in academic research or more professional field find it possible to become a fluent Chinese speaker within 2-3 years. This is all very good news! But let’s get back to you. In th...

Compared to pronunciation and character writing , Chinese grammar might be the easiest part for beginners. For example, the verbs are not conjugated, and there are no masculine and feminine words (as in Latin-based languages, for example), and no plurals. On top of that, Chinese has only three tenses---past, present and future. Yet, people usually just use present tense, so you don’t need to worry about that. Further, there’s rarely any need to distinguish between the polite and familiar forms of saying things (as in some languages, where, for example, there is a polite form for “you” when addressing someone older or with more status). So, to save you a lot of time, I will share the grammar patterns you must know. 1. Subject + Verb+ Object This is the most basic Chinese language pattern, which also follows the same sentence order as in English. So, for example: I = Wǒ 我 Go = qù 去 Shenzhen = Shēnzhèn深圳 Add it all together to make “Wǒ qù Shēnzhèn” 我去深圳– I go to Shenzhen. ...

Chinese is believed as the most difficult language to learn in the world, no matter its phonetics, characters or grammars . However, with the widespread of Chinese culture, thousands of people are learning Mandarin and looking for some easy ways to handle it. Do you also regard Mandarin as a hard nut to crack? Never mind, provided that you learn it with a proper attitude, you could gain the harvest beyond your expectations. Then let’s see some basic steps for to learn Mandarin, which are actually suitable for any kinds of language learning. Step one: To build a strong mindset. There will be nothing impossible if you put your heart into something, which is the same with learning Chinese. Even though you may have been told that learning Mandarin is difficult, just please put it out of your mind. In fact that the Intelligence is usually not the decisive factor for learning. With persistently effort and persistence, you could do even better than those who seemed cleverer. ...

What's the difference between Mandarin and Chinese? I'm trying to organise lessons on the net, but there are courses in both. Which one would allow me to converse all over the country. You know what? Chinese is a general term that refers to the common language spoken in China. Mandarin is just one of seven major groups of dialects in China! Traditionally, besides Mandarin, the other six are Wu, Gan and Xiang in central China, and Min, Hakka and Yue on the southeast coast. All these dialects derived from Old Chinese. Here are three factors that making Mandarin as the official language in China, that its historical reasons, political influence, and geographical environment. In short, Mandarin is a dialect based on northern dialect while Chinese consists of seven different dialects. Generally speaking, Han people are native speakers of a dialect of Mandarin. During the history, the North China Plain provided few barriers to migration, leading to relative linguistic homogenei...

Many people have said that Chinese is the most difficult language in the world. But it is also a very interesting language! Most foreign language learners feel puzzled about the gap between their own language and Chinese, especially when it comes to grammar and the four tones in Mandarin. These are the main reason for most mistakes during the process of study. Today let’s summarize what kind of mistakes are often made by Chinese language learners and see how these can be avoided. 1. Four tones (Mispronounce) Chinese is a tonal language, different from most other languages in the world. So the concept of tones is difficult for most people to grasp, even for those who have a talent for learning a language. Although there are only four tones, trying to use them correctly can make people feel crazy! Solution: Practice a lot, listen to Chinese audio, watch Chinese TV, and talk a lot with Chinese people and ask them to help you correct your pronunciation. 2. Chinese characters (...

As we know, the Chinese sentence structure is: Subject-Predicate-Object. Subject and object normally are nouns. And predicate are mostly verbs. So in addition to master a large number of nouns, it also will be very helpful if you can have more verbs in learning Chinese . Chinese verbs can be classified into different categories according to their different semantic characteristics. To help you better understand this, we have divided up the most common and useful into the list and categories below. Types of verb NO. Verbs Example sentence Negation (present/past) Action verb 1. chī，hē，yào，mǎi，qù， 吃, 喝, 要, 买, 去, (to eat,drink,want,buy,go, kàn, tīnɡ, shuō 看, 听, 说 .... Look,listen,speak...) Wǒ yào yìbēi kāfēi。 我 要 一杯 咖啡。 （I want a couple of coffee.） 不 [bù]/没 [méi] Existential Verbs 2. zài,fāshēnɡ,chūxiàn... 在, 发生, 出现 ... (to be at /in/on ..., happen,appear..) Láobǎn zài ɡōnɡsī。 老板 在 公司。(Boss is in the company.) 不 [bù]/没 [méi] Existential Verbs 3. Yǒu 有（h...

When you first start to learn Chinese, adopting a Chinese name will be necessary. The easiest way to come up with a Chinese Name would be simply a transliteration of your given name in English. But, what if you want to find a local Chinese name that makes sense. A good name is expected to pave the way to a successful and prosperous life. Here are some Chinese sayings about how important a good name is in Chinese. (cì zǐ qiānjīn, bù rú jiāo zǐ yí yì, jiāo zǐ yí yì ， bù rú cì zǐ hǎo mínɡ ) 赐子千金，不如教子一艺；教子一艺，不如赐子好名 Instead of giving your child gold, teach him a skill; instead of teaching him a skill, give him a good name. bú pà shēnɡ cuò mìnɡ, jiù pà qǐ cuò mínɡ 不怕生错命，就怕起错名 People would rather be getting a tough life than getting a wrong name General Rules about Chinese Names Most Chinese names are made up of three characters. All Chinese names start with the family name, or surname, and then following the given name. Given names are usually 1 or 2 character(s). Most family n...

Unlike English or other alphabetic languages, Chinese words and phrases sometimes cannot be translated as their literal meaning indicates because many Chinese characters carry more than one meaning. So I believe this is somehow frustrating when you first learn Chinese. But no worries! There is only a small number of them! And today, I will show you the five most interesting ones with no English equivalent. 1. 老外 lǎo wài When you arrived in China, this word might have been the most common Chinese word that Chinese people said when they saw you. The literal meaning of “lǎowài” is “old outside.” This word was first believed to carry a negative meaning when describing foreigners. But as time goes by, it has turned out to be a more and more positive and common word, even a cute nickname for foreigners. So next time, when Chinese people call you lǎowài, don’t get mad! 2. 吃醋 chīcù If you have a Chinese girlfriend or boyfriend, then this word might be very useful! The literal m...

The 2016 US Presidential Election has drawn worldwide attention, which arises lots of debates in China too. I believe you have already been asked who you support or whom you think will win the election. So today, let’s learn some Chinese phrases about 2016 United States Presidential Election to get you prepared in case you need to introduce it to your Chinese friend or are asked by Chinese people ‘So do you think Trump will win?’ First, let’s check out the names of the two candidates (候选人hòuxuǎnrén) of the 2016 United States Presidential Elections (美国总统大选 měiguó zǒngtǒng dàxuǎn) : Hillary Clinton 希拉里·克林顿 Xīlālǐ Kèlíndùn Donald Trump 唐纳德·特朗普 Tángnàdé Tèlǎngpǔ / Tángnàdé Chuānpǔ Usually, Chinese people will call them Xīlālǐ and Chuānpǔ for short. As always, the fight is between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, each having their own candidates. To present these two candidates of their own parties, we can use these sentences: 1. 希拉里·克林顿是 民主党 的总统候选人。 Xīlālǐ Kèlínd...

There are 387 Confucius Institutes and about 500 Confucius classrooms around the world. Besides the Chinese teachers, there are quite a lot of foreign teachers who are teaching Chinese together with their Chinese colleagues, and the local foreign teachers will be the main force of teaching staff in the future. As this demand exists, more and more foreigners are studying Chinese and looking for a job as Chinese teachers in their own country. So this article will recommend three teaching materials that can help you prepare for Chinese lessons . 1. A Practical Chinese Grammar for Foreigners (Revised edition, Beijing Language and Culture University Press) Grammar is an inescapable part of learning a language. Foreigners learning modern Chinese must have a good understanding of the characteristics of its grammar in addition to the command of pronunciation, Chinese characters (the written symbols of Chinese) and vocabulary before they can acquire a mastery of the rules of sentence struct...