8 Things You Must Know Before You Start Business Chinese Course Singapore

Do you want to learn business Chinese?

Or you have already taken admission in business Chinese course Singapore?

Well, Chinese is the second most spoken language in the world, and learning it will benefit you in many ways. From giving an edge over other job applicants in Singapore to providing you an opportunity to learn about the most ancient and fascinating culture in the world, learning Chinese has many benefits and one should learn Chinese especially if you are living in Singapore. Because not only Chinese is one of the official languages of Singapore, about 70% of the Singapore population is of Chinese descent. So, learning Chinese will certainly help you settle in Singapore.

However, Chinese is not like other widely spoken languages in the world and there are some things that you must know before starting your learning journey at the best mandarin classes Singapore.

1. Character Instead Of Letters

The first thing you should know about the Chinese language is it has characters instead of alphabets or letters. These characters are called Hanzi and each character has a unique structure and method of construction. An interesting fact is there are 50,000 characters in Mandarin.

But don’t worry!! You don’t have to learn all of them. If you learn about 2000 to 3000 characters, you will be able to read a Chinese newspaper.

2. Chinese Is A Tonal Language

Yes, Chinese is a tonal language and you will have to pay special attention to Chinese tones while learning Chinese. If you are looking forward to learning Mandarin or business Chinese, it had 4 tones. Each tone has different pronunciation and different meanings. So, you will have to learn and practice these tones accurately to communicate efficiently with Chinese people.

And the best way of doing that is to listen carefully to your Chinese friends and practice with them. Practice will certainly help you master these tones.

3. It Will Take Longer Than Usual

Do you know Chinese is the most difficult language to learn?

Well, that’s true. Unlike English, German, and other widely spoken languages, learning Chinese and reaching to level will take you around 50 weeks. And an average person will take about 4 years to become fluent in Chinese.

So, be realistic and set your goals. Patience and persistence is the key to learning the Chinese language.

4. Mandarin Or Cantonese?

Mandarin and Cantonese are the two most widely used dialects of the Chinese language. While Mandarin is the second most spoken language around the world and the national language of China and Singapore, Cantonese is only spoken in Hong Kong, Macau, and Guangdong.

Moreover, Cantonese is more difficult to learn than Mandarin. It has more tones and written Cantonese is also more complex than Mandarin.

5. Pinyin Is The Way To Go

The pinyin is a great way to learn Chinese language pronunciation and characters. It is officially a system of writing Chinese characters using the English alphabet. However, you will need to learn to pinyin as the transcription provided using pinyin is not exactly how you will pronounce the word. For example, if you read ‘shi’ in pinyin, it is not pronounced as ‘she’ instead it is pronounced as ’sure’. So, for learning the right pronunciation you will first have to learn pinyin. The good news is you can find plenty of online resources to learn pinyin.

6. Chinese Grammar Is Easy

With all the difficulties there is one thing that is easy to learn in the Chinese language and that is grammar. Chinese grammar is very similar to English grammar. In fact, it also follows the subject-verb or subject-verb-object pattern. So, if you are an English speaker, you will find Chinese grammar pretty easy to learn.

7. Practice, Practice, And Practice

You might have heard the phrase practice makes a man perfect. It fits perfectly with learning Chinese. You will have to incorporate Chinese in your everyday life to learn it accurately. Be friends with a native Chinese speaker and practice conversation at least half an hour daily. You should also start watching Chinese TV shows and movies and listen to Chinese radio to improve your tones and pronunciation.

In short, apart from enrolling in the best mandarin classes Singapore, you should practice speaking Chinese as much as you can.

8. Choose The Right Institute

Lastly, you should choose the right language institute to learn Chinese. A good and reputed will provide good resources and better learning opportunities. Kunkwan is one of the best Chinese language institutes in Singapore where you can learn Chinese from qualified and experienced tutors. Not only this but you will also be provided study materials that will help you effectively learn Chinese. Feel free to contact us for more information. We are here to answer all your queries.