Introduction - 你好! (Nǐ hǎo!) (ZH)

Before you ask - ZH is the ISO-something for the language, not for the country. China is CN. ZH is Zhōngwén (中文), which basically means Chinese language. And it refers to Mandarin, the most commonly used language in China. The problem is that 'Mandarin' does not always mean the same Mandarin. 

What is nice about Chinese is that when you once learn the Hànzì (汉字) - chinese characters - you will understand the whole China. You will also be able to read some Japanese - Japanese kanji is based on Chinese hànzì. Here's an example of a word that means 'Japan': 

日本 - Rìběn (Chineses)

日本 - Nippon (Japanese)
日本 - Ilbon (Korean. Hangul for 日本 is 일본, it obviously reads the same way)

So these have another pronunciation, but the same meaning.

There are two types of chinese characters - simplified and traditional. Traditional ones are still used on Taiwan. I can teach you both of these, but if you aren't planning to visit Taiwan, then you won't really need them. But it's always good to at least recognize them.

Okay, so - some ignorant people say that Chinese is the hardest language on Earth. Well, it is DEFINITELY NOT! What's more - it is almost as easy as English, or at least that's what I think... I would classify it's difficulty as 2/5 (and English in my opinion is 1/5). I wanted to give it 1/5 as well, but it would be too shocking for ignorants...


'Mila's Chinese issues list':

(not too long, in fact!)

1. Pronunciation. Chinese is a tonal language, which means that you can say one syllable 5 ways, for example: mā, mǎ, má, mà and ma - and each of these would mean something different. I will explain this later.

Well, you need to spend some time to deal with this matter - it might take a few weeks, but it's not something unobtainable. However if you try to speak without the tones or with the wrong ones - for example 'Zhongwen' istead of 'Zhōngwén' - then it might happen that you will not be understood.

2. Hànzì, the Chinese writing system. You probably imagine that is't really complicated - and it is a little bit, but it's also much fun to learn it! You have to know about 4500-6000 characters to understand Chinese in everyday life, which isn't much when you think of them as of words, not the alphabet. Most people really like to write hànzì, because it's like drawing!

And that's it! 


What's good about Chinese is that it's grammar is nice and even less complicated than the English one.

'If you speak Chinese, you will find friends all over the world!' - it's the most commonly used languaged on Earth! And if you don't speak Chinese, you definitely won't have ANY Chinese friends - even if they claim to know English, it's some other kind of English than the English one xD For example: some people say "pandar" instead of "panda" (btw. panda is 熊猫 - Xióngmāo).

Conclusion: Chinese is really worth learning and not hard at all!

Here's an example of Englishmen speaking Zhōngwén ;) (The band is from Taiwan, that's why hànzì in subtitles are traditional).