Skype Learn Chinese--the bridge: A New Way to Mandarin Chinese

This book is written for English-speaking students who are taking Skype Learn Chinese courses. A basic level vocabulary and understanding of Chinese grammar and culture is presented in this Skype Learn Chinese series. It is an effort to introduce the Skype Learn Chinese students to the  language by explaining its basic principles in simple steps. The purpose is to prepare the student with a foundation on which to build, with confidence, its ensuing complexities.

This book is written for English-speaking students in Skype Learn Chinese who are beginning the study of Skype Learn Chinese. It presents the HSK1 level vocabulary and a basic understanding of Chinese grammar and culture. It is not a complete preparation for HSK or for a student’s visit to China. A teacher in Skype Learn Chinese should be sought who can answer questions and provide voice guidance. This book in Skype Learn Chinese is an effort to introduce the student to the Skype Learn Chinese by explaining its basic principles in simple steps. The purpose of Skype Learn Chinese is to prepare the student with a foundation on which to build, with confidence, its ensuing complexities.

Western-style grammar in Skype Learn Chinese has been imposed on the Chinese language since the days of the early missionaries, to quote a learned source, “Words in classical Chinese are not formally marked for grammatical function. Nevertheless, in their syntactical behavior they do fall into distinct classes that correspond to such categories as nouns, verbs and adjectives in other languages.“ This “falling into distinct classes” requires significant effort, however. In the Skype Learn Chinese greeting,  “Nǐ hǎo”, “You good (or ok), hǎo an adjective, “falls” into the category of verbs, because, presumably, all sentences need verbs in Skype Learn Chinese. The result of this “falling” technique, is that hǎo, now becomes a ‘special’ case in Chinese, to be learned separately from its common uses, and Skype Learn Chinese becomes a standard practice as “falling” continues to be the way to fit Skype Learn Chinese into English grammar. This adds an enormous level of complexity to the language.

English is a language of dictionary definitions for words in Skype Learn Chinese which carry their meaning into a sentence, to give the sentence meaning, and grammar that changes the spelling of words to indicate their function. Skype Learn Chinese is a language of ideas that are put to use in sentences, which, then, specify the meanings of their ideas. The ideas of Skype Learn Chinese are not rewritten in any way to indicate their function, the sentence makes their function clear. Marker words are added to the sentence, in a similar way that English uses punctuation, to indicate specific word functions or needs of syntax (sentence structure). The written language was successful for over two thousand years before the missionaries arrived and it never needed a grammar book. So, we are using Skype Learn Chinese grammar in this book.

Pictures and memory cues are also used in Skype Learn Chinese to present Pinyin and characters to students and they tell a story for the student in Skype Learn Chinese to visualize. Skype Learn Chinese helps to memorize them, but more importantly, it gives the student a visual memory to recall. Recall is based entirely on the association of ideas in Skype Learn Chinese and making associations of symbolic characters is very difficult and requires strenuous repetition. Remembering and recalling ‘picture stories’ is the same way that we remember the events of our vacation or a movie.Skype Learn Chinese hardly takes any effort at all. But the technique in Skype Learn Chinese is new and takes some getting used to.

Then the HSK vocabulary in Skype Learn Chinese is put into sentences to read as stories in the book. Thus, the student is involved in Skype Learn Chinese everyday happenings that keep the attention, rather than lists of endless, new symbols to memorize. This involves words which are not in HSK1, but Skype Learn Chinese allows the beginner to glimpse how to put characters and compounds together in common, everyday Chinese. The percentage of these ’extra’ words is kept very low, so that the student is not wasting time in Skype Learn Chinese. The HSK examinations are treated as the highest priority for the beginner in Skype Learn Chinese.

Also, the student in Skype Learn Chinese is provided many short commentaries on topics of historical and cultural interest. This provides a background for the beginning student to develop questions and add points of interest as new ideas and material become available. These are one or two page, ten to twenty minute, items. They break the tension on students and allow the study in Skype Learn Chinese to be more enjoyable than an endless cramming session. It is hoped that Skype Learn Chinese will make Chinese an easier language for you to learn than its present reputation suggests. 

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