THE MANDARIN LANGUAGE

Chinese language is the one of the world’s oldest language. About 95 percent of the
people of China speak Chinese. Approximately 75 percent of the people of Singapore speak
Chinese and almost all of the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan speak it. Chinese is written the
same way throughout China. However, the language consists of hundreds of dialects that vary
from one area of the country to another. These dialects differ so greatly that a person who lives
in one area may not be able to converse with someone from another area. Although different
dialects differ immensely in pronunciation, they share the same written form.

It was to facilitate communication that the Chinese decided to establish a standard

language for themselves. The dialect they choose as the standard language is called Mandarin.
The Chinese call it putonghua (common speech/common language). Mandarin is taught
throughout the Peoples’ Republic of China, as well as in Taiwan where it is
called guoyu (national language). It is also described as the Modern Standard Chinese. There
are many spoken Chinese dialects and are separated into five main dialectical groups, of
which Mandarin is only one. Yue which includes Cantonese, Min, Wu and Hakka make up the
other four, covering more than 200 individual dialects. Westerners historically call Mandarin to
be the language variant in Chinese spoken by the officials and now the word Mandarin refers to
the official standard dialect of Chinese.

Benefits of learning the Mandarin Language

There are many benefits of being fluent in more than one language, no matter what that
language is. Chinese Mandarin is one of those powerful languages being one of the most
spoken languages, even if it is one of the most difficult to learn.

China – a Rising World Economic Power

According to an article published on New York Times, China has surpassed Japan in the
second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States. The
rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower in the very near future.

Chinese Mandarin is The World’s Most Widely Spoken Language

Although the numbers reported may be slightly off in some website or reports, ethnologue
and Wiki puts the number of native Mandarin speakers close to 1.2 billion speakers. Globally we
are talking about an astonishing 20% of the world’s population speaks some form of a Chinese
language. of which 873,000 million speak Mandarin, Chinese language is the most widely
spoken and fastest growing language in the world.

Countries that speak Mandarin

Mandarin is spoken in countries such as Malaysia, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand,
Brunei, Philippines and Mongolia so if you do business in these countries then it would be
beneficial to converse in their language.
Learn about history and culture of China
Chinese history and culture is one the richest and certainly the oldest in the world. China
is renowned for producing beautiful novels, short stories, poetry and more recently excellence
in film. Reading great Chinese biographies and watching short films about the history of China
provides a greater understanding of the language. In order to fully understand Chinese culture
and history you need to learn Chinese. Once you get to grips with even the basics of written
Chinese you will begin to make connections and comprehend more about the Chinese society
and mentality. You will understand another culture’s point of view.

Chinese is quickly becoming the language of business and tourism

There are more and more businesses not only having their products made in Chinese
factories but also marketing towards the Chinese Market. There is a mass of foreigners looking
to import and sometimes export products to and from China, and it’s a lucrative business.
Chinese are travelling abroad more often, especially to Australia, USA, Japan and Thailand. If
you work in tourism, it’s definitely worth speaking a little Chinese.

It is a good exercise for the Brain

We know we need to keep our brains well-oiled and studies have shown that Mandarin
speakers use both sides of their brains! This will certainly keep brains motoring. Studies suggest
that learning Chinese utilizes areas of the brain that learning other languages does not. As
there are many differences between learning Chinese compared with English such as tones and
characters it is said that learning Chinese takes more brain power! Whereas English speakers
only use the left temporal lobe, speakers of Mandarin use both. If you choose to learn Written
Chinese, learning to write characters can help with motor skills and visual recognition will keep
the mind sharp. Bilingual people, in general, are also said to be better at prioritizing and
multitasking than monolingual people.

More Job Opportunities

It’s fair to say that more and more foreigners are arriving in China looking to find work as
a teacher or to start their own businesses. Whilst learning Chinese is not essential for teaching,
it would probably benefit your relationships with colleagues and the parents of your students (if
you keep their kid happy, the parents will love you forever, or at least until you leave for
another job anyway!) If you’re serious about learning Chinese and take an HSK exam this will
definitely something you can put on your resume for the future. As Chinese businesses such as
electronic goods, textiles and petrochemicals expand more into the West, China aims to turn
around the term ‘Made in China’ into a more positive ideal and working alongside the Chinese to
achieve these goals will be imperative in almost every industry.

Learning Mandarin is easier than you think

You do not have to worry about verbs! there are no verbs, no plurals, no tenses, no
subject-verb agreement, and no conjugations. There are over 80,000 Chinese characters but
generally only 3,500 are used in conversation. In fact, it could be regarded as a more logical
language.
Improve your artistic skills
Chinese symbols and characters require a steady hand.
The written words are actually iconographic characters
rather than letters. These symbols and characters are
created using ‘strokes’ rather like painting.
Travel to beautiful countries knowing you can
communicate
If you can speak Mandarin “the world is your oyster” as you travel across Southeast Asia
you will have the confidence to speak with the locals in Chinese, you might even be invited into
their homes for home cooked food experiencing real Chinese life. Travelling around the world is
always more enriching when you make friends with local people.
PINYIN SYSTEM (THE SOUNDS OF CHINESE)

The Chinese language does not have an alphabet. Each word is

represented by a Character, which may be composed of just one stroke (line)
or as many as several dozen. To represent Chinese sounds, for those who do
not read characters, various systems of Romanization have been devised. You
will learn pinyin, the standard system used in China and the one most
commonly used in the United States and other countries.

Chinese is a phonetic language, yet the written characters do not bear

any resemblance to actual pronunciation. Nor is there any alphabet, so a
system of transcribing Chinese was devised to assist people learning to read
words in Chinese. Pinyin was adopted as an official system in the People’s
Republic of China in 1958, and has since become a standard form used by
news agencies as well as educational institutions.

The original Chinese language is based on the character. The phonetic

unit of modern Chinese is a syllable; with each syllable usually represented by
one character, made up of an initial, a final and a tone in pinyin.

Each syllable in Chinese has an initial consonant sound and a final

vowel sound. There are twenty one initial sounds (consonants) and thirty six
final sounds (vowels or combinations of vowels and consonants).The initial is a
consonant that begins the syllable and the final covers the rest of the syllable.
The tone is a variation of pitch which is rising, falling or continuing. For
example ming (bright) in which m is the initial, ing is the final and / is the 2nd
tone mark place over the main vowel. Here is how each sound is written in
pinyin, with its approximate English equivalent.
INITIALS
All consonant used as initials occur at the beginning of a syllable. The
following is the list of 21 initial consonants followed by a brief pronunciation
guide, with reference to English words.

b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
z c s
zh ch sh r

B, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, s are pronounced in similar way to those in English. B, d,

g are unaspirated, while p, t, k are aspirated.

Note: b sounds like p

d sounds like t
g sounds like k
j (zh) like jee in jeep
q (ch) like chee cheese
x (sh) like shee in sheep (with the corners of the lips
drawn back)
z (ds) like ds in cards
c (ts) like ts in cats
zh (j) like j in jelly
ch (ch) like ch in march (tongue curled back, aspirated)
r like r in road (with tongue loosely rolled in the middle
of the mouth)

FINALS
A final is a simple or compound vowel or a vowel plus a nasal
consonant. A few syllables may have no initial consonant (e.g. ai: love) but
everyone has to have a vowel. The following table is a complete list of the 36
final vowels or compound vowels with a brief pronunciation guide with
reference to English words.

i u Ü
a ia ua
o uo Üe
e ie
er
 ai uai
ei uei (ui)
ao iao
ou iou (iu)
an ian uan Üan
en In uen Ün
(un)
ang iang uang
eng ing ueng
ang iong

Pronunciation Guide

a like a in father
o like aw in saw
e like e in her
i like ee in see

Note: i in zi, ci,ci,zhi,chi,shi,ri is pronounced like a buzz sound not a long i (ee)

ü like oe in shoe
like eu in pneumonia

ia like yah
ie like ye in yes
er like er in sister
ai like y in sky
ei like ay in day
ou like owe
an like an in man
ing a nasalized sound like the ng in English

Note: Uei, uen and iou when preceded by an initial, are written as
ui, un and iu respectively

Note: The e sounds like the schwa /ə/ sound in English