Question

To start learning, what should I do? I know nothing of Chinese

Answer 1

maybe you can learn Chinese by studying Pinyin first.It can help a lot.

Answer 2

Our Mandarin Phonetic Symbols is like your ABC..., while it might be difficult to learn.(in Taiwan, we use this way to teach foreigner.)
Pinyin is a easy way to learn how to speak, while it will be a lot of obstacle if you try to tell the characters or want to learn more about Mandarin.
^^

Answer 3

I agree with everyone who answered above me, for non-native speakers who want to learn Mandarin, pinyin is a good place to start. It's generally used to teach people that have already established their first language (usually a Romance language: English, French, Spanish, German, etc) because the romance lettering is easier to learn( but the pronunciations of certain letters are different) Pinyin has an alphabet (Or rather, two) one for the first sound, and one for the last.

You might want to first decide which type of Chinese you want to learn, Traditional or Modern (Putong) Mandarin.
Traditional is more complicated, and is used by Taiwan (I believe)
Modern is what you would see used in non-Mandarin speaking countries, like the US, Britain, and other countries.

Answer 4

The different between simplified and traditional Chinese is characters.
Since China raises, a lot of foreigner who want to learn Chinese will choose simplified one(so do their school).
On the other hand, Taiwan reserves the traditional form of Chinese characters that hand over for thousands of years, so they are more complicated.

Depend on your teacher or the tools you use to learn, the accent, the manner of speaking will be different (between Chinese and Taiwanese).

Answer 5

Something important is that grammar between Mandarin and English is opposite.

Answer 6

^ I wouldn't say that grammar is opposite, it just isn't quite the same.
For example, you could say "A red car" and it would be 一个红车.
一 is one, or a.
个 is an collective article, like how we have "A flock of " or "A crowd of" or "A head of" (cabbage) in English, but is used for singular nouns as well.
红 is red, which comes BEFORE the noun it describes, 车, or car, JUST LIKE in English.
Also, when you say a sentence like "I learn at school" in Mandarin, you're really saying "At school, I learn", which is NOT grammatically incorrect in English.
In short, Mandarin grammar is different, but NOT so much that it's the opposite.

Answer 7

Try going through some of the vocabulary on www.livemocha.com. That's how I got started.

Answer 8

ccaicoya: There's lots of options, but seeing as you say you speak no Chinese, then you might want to start at the start, building some basic vocabulary. There's a lot of really useful websites you can find by googling things like "learn chinese online" or "chinese for kids."

There are also some fun and useful apps for android and iOS so you can take your Chinese practice with you. As far as textbooks go, you could take a look at the "Ni Hao" series or "Integrated Chinese." There are the very popular Pimsleur audio drills (for ANY language), or the equally popular but very different Rosetta Stone software.

If you've got the time and money, you could always take a class in a college or private training center. Even better yet, there are affordable intensive classes IN China and a quick Googling can put you on that path in a few minutes!

Above all else, the most important thing is practice, so you need someone to speak Chinese with. Download QQ (instant messenger imqq.com) today and make friends with people studying English. You'll learn a lot about how Chinese people think and how they live, what they like and don't like, and they're excited to learn from you too. Find a friend to study with, or go to Chinatown and make some new pals, or find a job in China and learn as you go (like I did!).

Good luck and 加油！

ScottWu: Pinyin is not a system designed for teaching Chinese to foreigners. It's for Chinese by Chinese. Pinyin tends to confuse foreigners because a Chinese word in pinyin doesn't sound the same as it would in English. For example, "pin" sounds like "peen" in Chinese. Also, Chinese grammar is in no way the opposite of English. In fact a speaker of a western European language would find Chinese grammar familiar and much simpler than their own native language.

Cathyangs: traditional and simplified are not different languages. it's just the written style of the characters. it's exactly how it sounds. the traditional way of writing came first. later, it was decided that many of these characters should be made easier to read and write. Making them less complicated means that Chinese children can become literate in less time. The simplified system is used in most parts of China. Taiwan uses the traditional system, as the simplified system was developed by the RMD (communists) after the KMT had fled to Taiwan. Traditional Characters are still used in art in mainland china, and for communication in Hong Kong and Guangdong/Guangxi provinces, but these areas speak a different form of Chinese, which is Cantonese.

Also, putong does not mean modern, it means standard, common, or normal. When we talk about putonghua, it's Mandarin Chinese, also known as "standard Chinese."

Finally, a head of cabbage IS a single noun, and English has many.

Answer 9

[01]: to start from" Your NOTHING , [02]: choose IPA as your 1st step , [03]: undestand vowels and consonants of Chinese, [04]: learn the single syllable of ONE single word=character of Chinese ,[05]: structure of syllable = { [ Consonant+ Vowel + Closing ] + 4 tones }; 2 closing : "ng" and "n" . [ 06]: by [01]-to [05], you fully understand pinyin via IPA. by structure of syllable, you understand one Chinese character's pronounciation = one single syllable in English. these steps are the 1st stage to guide you into the long-term life time to learn character / word of Chinese; no matter it's simplified/traditional Chinese writing script. no dialect Chinese, no writing/script character. the beginning stage always the most tough one. [07]: any further question, pls fell FREE to contact with me: Maxsenior : >60 yrs old Taiwanese.

Answer 10

Hello! We offer world class Chinese (Mandarin) language instructions online. You could visit us at http://online-chinese-courses.com/ - Loknath

Answer 11

chinesepod.com

Answer 12

study pinyin

Answer 13

work for it...duh!