5 Tips for Mandarin Beginners

First, let’s be honest, studying a language is not just about fun, it comes with frustration too. To get through strenuous memorizing, repeated practice, and the assignments, quizzes, and exams in the future, you need good reasons that can remind you of why you started in the first place. This is why I believe finding your own passion for studying Mandarin is significant. No matter how many results come back in the search “why should I learn Mandarin”, only those speak to you can motivate you.

Create a motivation list of your reasons to learn Mandarin. It could be your personal development goal such as “I want to be able to run my own business in China”. Or, it can be as simple as “I want to be able to read the story of Mulan in Chinese”. Keep this list accessible. Bring it to Shanghai. Trust me, it can give you a push on a low day while studying. 

A real class setting can give you a basic idea of what coursework in Chinese looks like, and it can help you adapt to systematic learning. If your high school offers classes in Mandarin Chinese, lucky you! It’s time to utilize this great resource. Ask if your high school currently has a Mandarin beginner level class you can sit in. Even if you don’t sit in a class eventually, connect with the Chinese teacher at your high school. Tell them about your admission to NYU Shanghai. Tell them you’re going to learn Chinese! When you see their faces, you know you have a cheerleader in your corner.

Following the previous tip – if your high school offers Chinese classes, don’t forget that your classmates can support you, too! As seniors who have been in your shoes, they can easily understand your concerns and share with you what worked for them in the past. Moreover, by looking at how much they’ve achieved in Mandarin learning, you’ll have more confidence in yourself and what you can become.

Of course, if you can’t find anyone in your school or area, there are so many online communities about language learning for you to discover. Oh wait, aren’t you already in one of those groups? Go mingle with other newly admitted students/Mandarin learners in the Class of 2024 Facebook group! 

Now we’ve gone through the prep work, time to jump into the actual learning part. Compared to teaching yourself by a textbook, I strongly recommend using an APP. This is because, first, All an APP takes is a click on your smartphone to activate, but you may need much more work to get into the headspace of study. Also, the interactive task games, video clips, and crossword in an APP just make focusing and memorizing much easier.

It is not the first day of the invention of language learning APPS, so I’ll leave that to you. However, if you’re looking for great APPS specifically designed for Chinese learning, check out the MEET NYU article Five Best Apps for Learning Chinese to know more!

As someone who learned English as a second language, I still remember the nerves I had the first time I engaged in a conversation with a native speaker. That’s why I strongly suggest the “exposure therapy” starts sooner than later. Invite a native Mandarin speaker to be your language buddy! You can usually find them in language exchange groups online or offline, or just ask an acquaintance who speaks Mandarin Chinese. Learn authentic and trendy expressions from your language buddy. Make silly mistakes. Laugh together and just have fun with it.

So there you have it, the 5 tips that will make your Mandarin beginner actions plain sailing. 祝你好运(“Good Luck” in Chinese)!