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WHERE IS MANDARIN SPOKEN?
Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more than 1 billion people, making it the most widely spoken language in the world. It is not only the official language of Mainland China and Taiwan, but also one of the official languages of Singapore and the United Nations.
In addition, Mandarin is also spoken in many Chinese communities throughout the world. For example, in Indonesia and Malaysia, although Mandarin Chinese is not the official language there, it is still widely spoken by the Chinese descendants.
WHAT IS A CHARACTER?
WHAT IS A CHARACTER?
Chinese Characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in existence, and they have been adapted for use in several other Asian languages over the years, such as Japanese and Korean.
There are 6 types of Chinese characters. Here are the major 4 types of them: Pictographs makes up about 5% of the Chinese characters. They express the shapes and the meanings of the words and they are usually more concrete, such as 山 (shan, mountain)、心 (xin, heart) or 木 (mu, wood). Ideographs show you the meaning of more abstract concept, such as 上(shang, up)、下(xia, down) or 中(zhong, middle). Compound Ideographs takes two or more pictographs or ideographs to make a new character that expresses a different meaning. For example, 休 (xiu, meaning taking a break) has a character for "person"(人) and another character for "wood"(木). 劣(lie, meaning inferior) has a character for "less" (少) and another character for "strength" (力). Phonetic-Semantic Compounds have one component represents the meaning and the other gives you the clue of its pronunciation. For example, 吃(chi, to eat) and 唱 (chang, to sing) both has 口 (kou, mouth) as the radical because you eat and sing with your mouth; while 乞(pronouncing "qi") and 昌(pronouncing "chang") gives you the clue of how they sound. Phonetic-semantic compounds make up about 80% of all characters in Mandarin Chinese. Knowing how they are composed and studying them with strategies will help you tremendously with your character recognition and your ability to read.
WHAT IS PINYIN?
WHAT IS PINYIN?
Chinese Pinyin (also called Hanyu Pinyin) is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China. It was developed in the 1950s and adopted by the International Organization of Standardization in 1982. It is now the most commonly used phonetic system for writing Mandarin using the Latin alphabet.
Our students start to learn pinyin in third grade. Once they are familiar with the pinyin system, they will learn to type the characters using pinyin.
Listen to the sounds and the tones here.
HOW MANY CHARACTERS SHOULD I LEARN?
HOW MANY CHARACTERS SHOULD I LEARN?
A native Mandarin-speaking student in China will learn about 3500 characters before they leave the school system, but you certainly don't need to learn that many characters to be able to speak and write the language! With 100 most common characters, you will be able to read 40% of the characters that appear in your common daily interactions. With 1000 high frequency characters, you will be able to read about 90%, and with 2000 characters you will reach 97%.
CPSD Approved Resource
CPSD Approved Resource
Cambridge Public Schools has approved the use of Duolingo app with guardian release. Use your cpsd student account to practice your Mandarin skills!
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