 Monthly Archives
Categories
An Easier Way to Learn Chinese Vocabulary
When an English speaker studies languages like French and German, there are many vocabulary words that are immediately familiar, such as le restaurant (restaurant) in French and das Haus (house) in German. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Chinese. There are some similar words, such as kāfēi (coffee) and māma (mom), but apart from that, you mostly have to rely on memorization. However, there is an easier way than just memorizing each individual Chinese word. Chinese words are made up of one or more syllables (a syllable is equal to one character in Chinese writing). When dealing with a word that contains more than one syllable, it's important to realize that each syllable in that word also has its own, independent meaning or use. Once you start to learn the meaning of some common syllables, then it's sometimes possible to deconstruct the meaning of full words. For example, zhōng is a syllable that means middle or central in Mandarin Chinese. It is used in many, many words in Chinese, including: zhōngxué (middle school) The other syllables in these words also help indicate meaning: zhōngxué = zhōng (middle) + xué (study) = middle school *As you can see, in Chinese, China literally means middle or central country or, as it's often translated, middle kingdom. Of course, you won't be able to do this with every Chinese word you encounter (many words, like the word for China, require a little more interpretation), but by learning some helpful syllables, you'll already be much further along than you think. For tips on learning Chinese characters, click here. And for more help memorizing Chinese vocabulary (with both transliteration/pīnyīn and characters), you can pre-order our Flash Forward: Chinese Vocabulary interactive flashcard program, coming out at the end of this month. Tags: Chinese, memorization, newsletter, vocabulary
|
|||
