Hello, everybody! It's Willilliam Jiamin.Welcome to my channel. In this channel, I'm going to share with you guys how to learn Chinese. As a native Chinese speaker, I believe I'm more than capable of teaching how to speak this language natively. I will try my best to use a fun and engaging approach to share this knowledge with you.
Okay, so I've got my program ready. I'm going to draw things on this pad, and hopefully, we can cover most of the study points in this language. Let's get started.
First and foremost, before we dive into the characters of Chinese, you have to understand that Chinese is a tone-based language. Even if you are speaking everything correctly, an incorrect tone can completely change the meaning, which can be really weird. I think it's really important to stress this before you start learning because you have to keep this in mind while learning the language.
Okay, let's jot something down. Don't worry, I will share all the notes on the 'Learn Language Free' website as well. I'll leave the link in the description below.
Chinese is a tone-based language. We call that 'Yin Diao' in Chinese. You might have heard of 'Pinyin,' which is similar to English but with a bit of difference in pronunciation. If you are an English speaker, you will get the hang of it really quickly. Once you get the hang of Pinyin, you can read any Chinese characters, even if you don't understand them. Once you can read it, then you apply the tone to Pinyin, and you will be able to speak as well as a native speaker.
So, let's get to it. The tones in Chinese, as most textbooks will tell you, include four tones, but in fact, there are five. We have four tones and an additional one where you don't actually pronounce a tone at all. Let me show you an example.
For instance, let's focus on the tones. 'Ma' is a word where even if you pronounce everything perfectly, the tone can mean very different things. Let's apply a tone here. If you talk about the first tone 'ma,' that means 'mother.' It's not too formal, but if you are an adult, you can say 'ma' instead of 'mama,' which is more like a child calling for their mom.
Now, enough about that; it's just a demonstration of how tone works. The first tone is 'ma.' But let's change it a little bit. What if I change the tone and say the second tone, 'má'? Well, that's completely different from 'ma.' It's a bit complex to explain, but 'má' is like a delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
So, you see, 'ma' and 'má' are completely different. The funny thing about Chinese is that you can change the tone, and it can mean a lot of different things. I don't want to overcomplicate things or scare you off, but learning Chinese is really fun.
For example, the third tone 'mǎ' means 'horse.' So, you see, 'mā' is mother, 'má' is a delicacy, and 'mǎ' is horse. These are different. And let's change it to the fourth tone 'mà.' If you say 'mà,' it's like an insult, so you have to be careful with the pronunciation.
But don't forget, we also have the fifth tone, which is no tone at all. Let's use 'mother' as an example again. 'Māma' with the first tone 'mā' and no tone on the second 'ma' – 'māma.' This is how you would say 'mom' in a more adult way, as opposed to 'mama' for children.
I think this covers a short introduction to the four, or in fact, five tones in Chinese. In the next video, we'll talk about Pinyin, and once you get that under your belt, you're ready to learn all the characters. Even if you can't remember all the characters quickly, knowing Pinyin helps you read all of them. I will add Pinyin to the characters as we introduce new things, and hopefully, you can pick it up really quickly.
Don't forget, I also have another channel called 'Learn Digital Art' I cover a lot of topics, so check the channels panel. I also do finance, coding, digital art, music, and more. Hopefully, you can find what you want to learn. If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comment section below, and I'm sure to answer them. I read every comment.
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