献给老外的中文学习攻略(内附给英语学习者的建议)

LEARNING STRATEGY FOR ENGLISH SPEAKING FOREIGNERS WHO WANT TO LEARN CHINESE

献给老外的中文学习攻略(内附给英语学习者的建议)

I wonder what the foreigners speaking English may do if they want to learn Chinese?  I have been talking to foreigners on an international chatting platform, and their answers are no more than watching videos on YouTube and taking Chinese lessons in college. And there are more things available to improve foreigners' level in Chinese besides videos and classes. And I would like to share it with foreigners learning Chinese, if there is any on Jianshu platform.

5 Learning tips for English speaking Chinese learners (For beginners)

1 Start with PINYIN and know how a Chinese character is pronounced

2 Get a useful dictionary available to look up corresponding meaning in English and Chinese

3 Watch how foreign teachers teach English to Chinese students via YOUTUBE or any other app

4 Get a sentence list for the frequently applicable conversation in daily life, knowing how it is pronounced and how it is written

5 Download an FM app for Chinese radio program and subscribe the channels with slow speaking speed and bilingual interpretations.

5 Learning tips for English speaking Chinese learners (For practician)

1 Follow FM channel for Chinese daily news and any other program as Chinese people do

2 Read English Chinese bilingual materials posted on WeChat official accounts

3 Try to look for Chinese character via paper dictionary based on Pinyin or radicals

4 Post something in Chinese in moments of WeChat or any other platform

5 Practice shadowing Chinese, reading after narrator,  by listening to Chinese audio or video materials

If you think this is the end of the article, and I am just teaching foreigners to learn Chinese and there is nothing to do with English learners in China, you just get part of the story. If you take a look at the strategy above,  you may have a better understanding that it is the listening, speaking, reading and writing that makes a language complete. Failing any part of the language won't make you a qualified master of it. Back to English learners, how many of us keep learning it for a long time and then find that we are English deaf or English dummy? Maybe we have been taking mere reading or writing as everything about learning English for such a long time.

The basic rule for learning any kind of language is to know the connection between pronunciation, meaning and written form and get it right, so you won't miss any part of the language, no matter it is about listening, speaking, reading or writing. Sometimes we fail to understand what we have heard in English since the pronunciation hasn't aroused our memory of certain meaning for the certain vocabulary.

For example, you may not understand this sentence when it is spoken by an Indonesian.

Never apply your own picture as your icon on the platform.

This may be caused by one of the following reasons. First, we haven't come across the vocabulary icon before, which means the image of your profile, so we fail to understand the sentence based on empty knowledge of the vocabulary. Second, we know what icon means, but we haven't get the pronunciation right when we learn it, so the correct pronunciation escapes us when it is given, making it hard to establish any connection between the meaning which we know and the right pronunciation, since we have connected it with some wrong pronunciation. Third, we fail to understand the phrase own picture since it doesn't sound in a native way but something unclear with strong Indonesian accent. So the pronunciation with accent could not find its link to the meaning, that's why we fail to understand the sentence. But it will be different if we hear Indonesian style English a lot and know why they pronounce this way based on their habitual way to pronounce, influenced by their own language. Then we may connect that very sound to the meaning of own picture. So it will be helpful to understand what the other party is saying when she is not speaking correct standard English if you know their limitation on pronunciation and you do know they pronounce not so perfect but they are talking about the certain meaning.

See how important it is to connect pronunciation and meaning to make what you are listening to understandable to you? And we need to make the connection between written form and meaning match with each other if we want to be skillful in reading and writing.

So it will help you to master a language if you pay attention to the connection between meaning and pronunciation, pronunciation and written form, written form and meaning, and enhance it consciously, when you are practicing listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Listen and interpret what you have heard, you are connecting English pronunciation with Chinese meaning.

Listen and shadow the sentence you hear, you can build connection between English pronunciation and the English meaning.

Speak to yourself in English, you are connecting Chinese meaning to English pronunciation.

Do some reading in English original version and understand what you read, you need to build connection between English written form and Chinese meaning.

Keep an English diary, you are connecting Chinese meaning to English written form.

Try your own way to practice the connection between three elements of two kinds of language respectively, and you can master every new language you wish to learn.