Description:
Teach Yourself Chinese by Henry Raymond Williamson. It is one of the world’s most commonly used languages, second only to English. Studies of Chinese culture and language can help you make your communication more effective and open many opportunities in a globalized world.
Introduce Yourself:
The simplest way to introduce yourself in Chinese is to say
- 你好 (nǐ hǎo) meaning “hello”
- 我叫 (wǒ jiào) meaning “my name is.”
Interesting Fact:
Chinese language is a great source of entertainment for its speakers. Learning the language can be as simple as playing a game of words, or an enlightening exercise of mind. The combination of its musical tonal patterns and artistic writing system makes possible a myriad of puns, quips, and jokes.
Importance:
International businesses prefer to hire people who speak more than one language. China has become a huge market, and business leaders are looking for people who can speak Chinese and operate successfully in a Chinese cultural context.
Note:
- Chinese is one of the most ancient languages still in use today.
- Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.
- Chinese is a major language in numerous Southeast Asian countries.
- The Chinese language doesn’t have an alphabet.
- There are over 50,000 distinct Chinese characters.
- You don’t need to learn all 50,000 characters!
- Chinese has no articles, verb inflections, or plurals.
- Chinese is an official UN language.
- Chinese is a tonal language.
- Challenging but not hard to learn.
- Chinese follows different calligraphy styles.
- Chinese has borrowed words from English.
- The world’s most famous people are learning Chinese as a second language!
- The Chinese language has number symbols.
- Learning Chinese makes you smart!
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