The ability to converse in a foreign speech has been discovered to be a significant asset.

How is learning Chinese beneficial?

In this age of globalization, it is highly recommended to learn one or more foreign language as it’s great for your business, aids you in regards to career plans and also will offer you lots of job opportunities.

1. Speaking Mandarin gives you an edge in this competitive business world as China emerging as one of the major global economies.
2. Chinese, most frequently spoken language, is the language of Nearly 1/5 of the World’s Population
3. Opens the way to different important fields such as Chinese politics, economy, history or archaeology
4. You can immerse yourself in another culture.
5. AP Chinese develops a range of specific technical skills, the ability to understand and interact with Chinese culture and the knowledge of Chinese literature and history.
6. Learning Chinese language is productive and knowing it benefits you in your occupation.

Some career options after learning Chinese Language –

• Translators/ Interpreters
• Teacher in educational institutes
• Chinese Language Analysts
• Travel and Tourism
• Public Relations/ Communications Officer
• Immigration/Customs Officer
• Journalist
• Diplomatic Services Officer
• Sales Agent
• Import/Export
• Management trainee
• International Conference organizer
• Art historian or curator

It’s a busy world with hectic schedules. So, why drag yourself to learning centers. Learn Chinese online and take Chinese lessons from your home, your office or anywhere at any times that are convenient to you. Arrange lessons that fit your schedule, life style and purpose. Learn to speak Chinese online with lessons delivered from experienced teachers and write Chinese characters through pictures and stokes.

Learning a foreign language needs dedication and motivates you in your studies and carrier. No matter what may be the reason, learning languages is a treasure that follows you everywhere.

Parents come around with some situations like -

The child refuses to speak in Chinese? The kid hates writing those Chinese character strokes? Take hours just to finish reading a short Chinese story? Many Chinese learners have been struggling for years on reading, Chinese pronunciation and failed to be able to speak Chinese language with correct pronunciation.

It’s not that terrifyingly hard to learn to speak Chinese. Here are some ideas that would guide you to get your kids interested in learning Chinese.

• Music, Movie, Educational Audios and videos – A great way to commence your children in learning the Chinese Language is by means of Chinese DVDs and videos and audio CDs that your kids are sure to enjoy.
• Chinese stories – Chinese stories on CDs can be played to expose them additionally to more Chinese vocabulary and sentence building.
• Story Books with illustrations – Fascinating pictures help create an interest in learning. It also creates good reading habits and helps learn new words.
• Flash Cards – A great way to introduce a variety of vocabulary words and phrases
• Field Trips – Field trip to a place where Chinese is spoken regularly. Encourage your kid to use their Chinese when communicating with other people.
• Summer Camps – The result complete involvement the children get to know about the traditions, culture in china  and a better grasp of the language
• Speak, Write, and Read daily – If possible daily interaction with your children is an additional benefit to increase fluency and master the language.
• Appoint Chinese tutors – Appointing Chinese tutors will  focus on a way to create interest in the subject so your kids learn Chinese.

Also another advance way is to enroll and take courses online. Learn Chinese online with lessons from experienced teachers and learn to speak Chinese and write Chinese characters through pictures and stokes.

Make it a fun learning, more interesting and exciting experience. When Children find it interesting, they will not view it as learning. They will do things that they think are fun while learning at the same time. Make learning Chinese for kids an effortless job.

]]> http://www.chinesesphere.com/2011/11/interesting-ideas-for-kids-to-learn-chinese-language-online/feed/ 0 http://www.chinesesphere.com/2011/03/some-information-about-the-chinese-language%e2%80%a6/ http://www.chinesesphere.com/2011/03/some-information-about-the-chinese-language%e2%80%a6/#comments Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:17:12 +0000 admin http://www.chinesesphere.com/?p=886 Standard Chinese is the official language of China and is based on the dialect spoken in Beijing. Mandarin from which Standard Chinese is derived is spoken by over 850 million people worldwide.

It is the common language of communication in China used in government departments, business, media, as well as in schools. There are various other language groups in the Chinese language family like Cantonese, Wu, Min and Hakka all of which share a fairly common written script.

Chinese characters and writing system
The Chinese writing system is termed as “zhongwen”; an interesting aspect about the Chinese language is that the spoken and written forms developed at a different rate in history.

The Chinese characters known as “hanzi” are written and arranged vertically in columns and read from top to bottom and right to left. The characters or morphemes are independent of changes in phonetics according to language group. The characters derive their meaning and pronunciation from semantic radicals and phonetic components.

The system of Chinese characters currently in prevalence is the Simplified Chinese Character system introduced by China in 1954. The traditional system is still used in some parts of the Chinese speaking world mainly in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

To gain a functional knowledge of Chinese a literate person needs to have knowledge of over 2,000 characters. Large dictionaries identify over 40,000 characters with estimates putting the overall figure at over 60,000. Most well educated people are able to comprehend about 6,000 characters.

Spoken Chinese and pronunciation

Spoken Chinese makes use of different tones to give different meaning to similar sounds. Standard Chinese uses four tones based on a rising or falling and high or low or neutral pitch.

Romanization of the Chinese language has made it easier for several students to learn Chinese as a second language. The most common standard employed in most Chinese Language Schools worldwide is Pinyin introduced in 1956 by the Chinese government.

The Chinese language is more concise than English, and has no gender and tenses. The speaker can simply add appropriate word and time period to the beginning and ending of the sentences to indicate the gender and tense.

The language is based more upon the word order and sentence structure for meaning rather than on changes in the form of the word to indicate its function in a sentence.

Here are some Chinese Pronunciation for commonly used expressions in English

1. This isn’t right – Zhe Shi Bu Dui De or Bu Dui
2. See me ASAP – Kuai Lai Kan Wo or Kuai Lai
3. Stupid Man – Sha Mao
4. Did you go to the beach – Qu Sha Tan Le Ma?
5. He is washing his car – Ta Zai Xi Che
6. How is the weather? – Tian Qi Ru He?
7. Our meeting is scheduled for next week – Hui Yi She Xia Zhou
8. Where do you go skiing? – Qu Nar Hua Xue?
9. How do you like America/India? – Mei Guo/(Yin Du) Hao Ma?
10. Great – Zhen Bang
11. I though you went on a diet – Ni Bu Shi Zao Jian Fei ma?
12. It is very dark here – Zhe Li Teng Hei De
13. I think you need a face lift – Ni Xu Yao Huan Zhang Lian
14. It is necessary – Bi Xu De
15. Happy New Year (Hope you get rich) – Gong Xi Fa Cai

The AP Chinese Exam is a great way for high school students learning Chinese as a second language as well as native speakers to get acquainted with the Chinese culture. The exam enables the student to improve in all elements of the Chinese language from speaking and listening to reading and writing.

What is the AP Chinese exam about?

The AP Chinese exam is part of the College Board’s initiative to promote multiculturalism. High school students based on their performance in the exam can earn college credit towards their foreign language requirements under the Advanced Placement Chinese program. The exam is equivalent to a fourth semester or college course in Mandarin Chinese.

The questions focus on the three major communication modes testing the student’s interpersonal, interpretive and presentation skills. Preparing for the exam requires extensive practice as often students struggle to answer the question within the stipulated time frame.

Upon successful completion of the exam the student will be able to

•    communicate in Chinese especially in daily situations
•    appreciate Chinese culture and understand the Oriental way of life
•    connect with other subject areas related to the Chinese language
•    compare the Chinese language with the languages already learnt
•    be a part of the global community emphasizing a multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment

Exam date and duration

The exam duration is of about 2 hours and 15 minutes and is usually held in the middle of the year around May. The AP Chinese exam is designed in such a manner that the student while preparing for the exam also comes to know various aspects of the Chinese culture.

The exam preparation should focus on applying the language skills learnt. Since the exam includes significant references to Chinese culture the preparation course should include material that gives them an idea how the Chinese people live and have lived in the past. Studying topics related to Chinese history as well as philosophy would help students better understand the Chinese speaking world.

Many of our students from American and Europe prefer simplified version due to its simplicity, and ease to write.  Our teacher tries to point out the related traditional characters to our student so they are aware of characters’ origin and its artistically constructed form.  On the other hand, our students from Hong Kong and Japan, prefers to learn the traditional characters since that’s most of the textbook and print media uses.  We tend not to teach simplified characters to student learning in traditional format unless requested by students.

Learning Chinese Online has so much flexibility on what to learn, from whom to learn, and when to learn, it became a lesser issue of a debate in practice of what to learn and teach, simplified or traditional.  We still would like the interested party to read the debate to understand the issue in your own mind.  Enjoy learning with us, the best online Chinese school.

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/02/chinese-language-ever-evolving/

Learning Chinese will fit in with a wider notion of ability.  Learning a secondary language, like Chinese, not only provide the learner with a concrete skill, but also introduce him to a new culture, and different way of thinking about issues and concerns of the world.