Chinese Language Tools (中文工具)

To do well in anything, it is important to have the right tools. Recently, I purchased a Creative Zen V Plus MP3 player with 2GB storage. With this player, I could carry with me ton of audio books and songs so that I could listen to self-improvement books and study Mandarin wherever I go.

Repetition is the mother of learning. I am confidence to say that I could now sing the song (one of the best way of learning languages) 老 鼠 爱 大 米 well with understanding.

Nowadays, there are so many websites. Thus, we just need to go to some websites and learn almost anything. Younger generation this day don't face problem like those days where knowledge is scarce. One just need to spend time, put in effort and know how to be more selective. However, only when we apply the acquire knowledge, we will then benefit from it.

Below are some tools and websites that I used to study Mandarin:

• ZDT (Zhongwen Development Tool) - an opensource (free)
  - allow you to create your own word lists
  - learn words using three different flashcard modes.
  - a dictionary for word searching
• Wenlin - a full blown software for learning Chinese
  
• On-line Chinese Tools - with lots of useful tools to assist you in learning mandarin
  

What about you? Do you know of any good tools or sites to learn Mandarin?

Hello (你好)

Let us learn from the following video


Below are some common phrases used when conversing in Mandarin:

你好
Hello; Hi
你好吗
How are you?
谢谢
Thanks

The word Thank in Chinese can be written either as

谢 in Simplified Chinese or
謝 in Traditional Chinese

吗 in Traditional Chinese is written as 嗎

Do you still remember the above words when you watch the above video? Watch the video again if you want to refresh your memory.

New Words for today:

好 - good
谢 - thank
吗 - interrogative particle (like a question tag)

I love you (我爱你)

Let us learn one of the most beautiful phrases today:

我爱你
I Love You

Anyway, don't use this phrase with anybody unless you mean what you say. You can try and say this to your spouse or love ones and let them find out what it mean if they are not Chinese educated.

There are two standard sets of printed Chinese Characters:

1. Traditional Chinese - use in Taiwan, Hongkong and Macau
   
2. Simplified Chinese - use in mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia
   

The word Love in Chinese can be written either as

爱 in Simplified Chinese or
愛 in Traditional Chinese

New Words for today:

我 - I; me
爱 - Love
你 - You

Go and find this phrase in the previous post from the song titled

老 鼠 爱 大 米
Mouse love rice

Below is the Karaoke version of the song if you would like to try to identify some of the Chinese Characters (in Traditional Chinese). I strongly believe with enough repetition, we could recognize all the words without referring to the pinyin - right?

Let's begin (我们来开始)

Children could learn languages very fast because they mimics whatever they can see and hear. They won't bother much about the meaning of all the words.

Let us start off by listening to one of the popular Mandarin song with English meaning (Click here for the Original version).




The goal is to familiarize with the music first. Click any of the following versions if you prefer a different language:

• English version
• Japanese version
• Korean version
• Vietnamese version
• Cantonese version
• Dance Remix

A group singing in mandarin


Then try and hum or sing along with the pinyin lyrics:

The Chinese lyrics are available below. Pause your mouse pointer over each line of the lyrics for pinyin.

老鼠爱大米

1:
我听见你的声音
有种特别的感觉
让我不断想
不敢再忘记你
我记得有一个人
永远留在我心中
那怕只能够这样的想你
如果真的有一天
爱情理想会实现
我会加倍努力好好对你
永远不改变
不管路有多么远
一定会让它实现
我会轻轻在你耳边
对你说 (对你说)

2:
我爱你 爱着你
就像老鼠爱大米
不管有多少风雨
我都会依然陪着你
我想你 想着你
不管有多么的苦
只要能让你开心
我什么都愿意
这样爱你

Repeat 1-2
Repeat 2
Repeat 2

Welcome (欢迎)

Welcome to Self Study Mandarin.

I am using this blog to record down my attempt to learn Mandarin. Frankly speaking, I had been trying to learn Chinese since young but did not manage to reach the level of competency that I desired. Anyway, this time I will definitely succeed.

I believe the following are reasons why I failed in the past:

• I did not believe that I could speak Mandarin
• I thought I could only learn Cantonese instead of Mandarin because I speak Cantonese
  
• I don't have strong enough reasons to study Mandarin
• I did not practice what I had learned
  
• I lacked focus and confidence
• I lacked good resources
  

I strongly believe I will be able to speak fluently and read Mandarin within a year from now.

Here are my reasons why I can do it this time:

• I told many and are telling more people that I am learning Mandarin.
• I have many reasons why I want to learn Mandarin which I am going to share later.
  
• I am going to use Accelerated Learning method.
• I am using Paul McKenna's hypnosis and NLP to boost up my confidence.
• I am planning to achieve this by following Anthony Robbins Rapid Planning (RPM) method.

Well, when time permit, I will share what I had learned about NLP, RPM, etc. in my Acquire Wisdom and Live with Passion blog.

Please assist or correct me if you find any errors in this blog. Those who have this same desire to learn Mandarin can join me.

Thank you.
Sam Chan