Classification

The Chinese language belongs to the Sino-Tibetan language family. Other languages that are members of the Sino-Tibetan family include Tibetan, Burmese, and many other languages of China and Southeast Asia. However, the non-Chinese languages of the Sino-Tibetan family are only very distantly related to Chinese.

Dialects

The Chinese language is technically a family of related languages rather than one single language. This is because some of the so-called "dialects" of Chinese are actually so different from standard Chinese that they should, from a linguistic point of view, be considered as related, but distinct languages (just like Spanish, French, and Italian). The reason they are considered to be dialects instead of languages is mostly sociopolitical: since the Chinese people consider themselves to be one unified ethnic group, they also consider the different languages that make up Chinese to be dialects of one unified language.

Many people outside of China have heard of the distinction between the Mandarin and Cantonese dialects/languages. However, the diversity of Chinese dialects/languages is actually much greater than just the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese. There are more than ten dialects/languages of Chinese that are distinct enough from each other that it is hard for speakers of the different varieties to understand each other. In addition, many of these dialects/languages can be further subdivided into dialects. For example, within Mandarin Chinese there are various local dialects, with various differences in pronunciation and vocabulary (analogous to the difference between British and American English).

Tones

The Chinese language has tones. A language is considered to have tones if words can be distinguished from each other based on their pitch. Although tones might seem "exotic" to many speakers of European languages, they are actually found in many languages in many different parts of the world. For example, tones are found in most languages of Southeast Asia and most languages of West Africa.

Writing system

One aspect of Chinese that many non-Chinese people find extremely difficult to learn is its logographic writing system. A writing system is considered logographic if symbols in it represent entire words instead of individual sounds. Since all languages have thousands (or even tens of thousands) of words in them, learning a logographic writing system requires memorizing the shapes and meanings of thousands of symbols. In addition to being quite difficult, the Chinese writing system also stands out as being very ancient (its origins can be traced back more than 3,000 years ago).

It is also possible to write Chinese in an alphabetic writing system (pinyin) that is based on the Roman alphabet. However, this system is very recent and its uses in China are mostly limited to teaching reading and writing to elementary school students, as well as representing Chinese words, names, and place names for speakers of other languages.

Difficulty of learning

There are at two aspects of the Chinese language that are generally difficult for many foreigners to learn: tones and the logographic writing system. Because of this, many non-Chinese people wrongly assume that the Chinese language is generally a difficult language. However, not everything about the Chinese language is difficult. For example, one thing that is actually easy in Chinese (compared to many other languages) is that there are almost no prefixes and suffixes. Thus, unlike English, where the same word can occur in multiple forms (e.g. take, takes, taking, taken, took), Chinese words generally occur in only one form.

雁鸣 "yàn míng" - the sound of geese

初中 "chū zhōng" - middle school

高中 "gāo zhōng" - high school

中考 "zhōng kǎo" - public high school entrance examination

高考 "gāo kǎo" - public university entrance examination

早自习 "zǎo zì xí" - morning self-monitored study session

食堂 "shí táng" - cafeteria

怎么说 "zěn me shuō" - how to say...

三三零 "sān sān líng" - three three zero (after-school curriculum starts at 3:30pm)

应试教育 "yīng shì jiāo yù" - test-centered education

素质很差 "sù zhì hěn chà" - have bad manners

就是 "jiù shì" - like...

我是中国人 "wǒ shì zhōng guó rén" - I am Chinese.

奥利给 "ao li gei" - Let's go! (a recently popularized internet word)

就这 "jiù zhè" - That's it.

五个一政策 "wǔ gè yī zhèng cè" - Five Ones Policy (a Chinese policy implemented during the pandemic to restrict international flights going to China)

在美华人回国专线 "zài měi huá rén huí guó zhuān xiàn" - Hotline for Chinese in the US Who Want to Go Back

OPT (Optional Practice Training): one-year extension of student visa that international students can get after graduation

Weibo: a Chinese social media site that specializes in microblog

WeChat: a Chinese social app for messaging and calling