No matter which language it is you have decided to learn, you will need to be committed to putting a lot of time and effort into your studies. This is even truer of Chinese as there are a lot of differences between the native language, and what is considered to be the official language of the country. Below we provide some suggestions on how to maximize the time you spend learning Chinese, making it as easy as possible for you.
1. By integrating new items with material that is more familiar to you, it will make the foundation of your learning much stronger.
2. A good idea is to create a concept map, which will then help you to analyze characters or those groups of characters which are similar. However, it is important that the groups of characters should have the same sort of meaning, and should be created in the following types of clusters.
a. Words which fit into the same sort of pattern.
b. Those characters which share the same sort of radical or same sort of phonetic (similar pronunciation) components.
c. Those characters which share any other type of component that is similar.
d. Look at placing those characters together which have a shared idea, such as colors, activities or places.
3. Create yourself a hierarchical chart that is able to break down single characters into much smaller and also more meaningful components.
4. Create yourself a mnemonic device which will then help you to remember particular parts of your character. One way of remembering it is through using a picture, which will suggest the characters particular strokes.
5. After each lesson, it is best if you review what you have been taught 15 minutes afterwards. In studies carried out, it has been shown that those students who carry out a review of what they have been taught shortly afterwards are able to retain the information much better.
6. Read out loud. Reading out loud is not only a great way for you to practice what you are learning, but will help you to discover particular words and phrases which you may have not mastered as yet. Also, when it comes time to read out loud what you have been learning in classroom environment, you will find it much easier to do.
7. Rather than studying for long periods of time, just study a little each day, especially before you are due to take a test. By doing this, you will find that it makes it much easier for you to learn the language, rather than having to spend time cramming at the end just before you are about to take the test. Certainly you are more likely to retain more information using this method.
8. Rather than carrying out the learning of any new vocabulary in one long session, you should instead break it up into several small sessions. You can do this while travelling to school or work, or even when you are waiting in line to pay for your groceries.
9. The most effective way for anyone to learn Chinese characters is through memorizing them. A great way of doing this is through writing them down. However, instead of writing the same word down over and over again, you should write each word down once or twice before you move on to the next one. Then you need to go through the list again until you have carried out the number of repetitions as required by your instructor. Doing this actually helps to put the words more firmly in to your mind and memory.
10. If you can, practice things with a study partner. You can do this by getting each of you to read a line, and then get the other person to respond (but you must not use your books or study notes). Then, in order for you to understand what has been said, you should each then provide a response in English.
11. Also, when you are reading Chinese, and in order to understand the characters better, a person should cover up the pinyin while they are reading the text. If you are unsure of what a character is, then write down some notes on a separate piece of paper which you can then refer back to later.
By developing some of the habits that we have suggested above, a person will soon find learning Chinese much easier.