Learning Chinese can be a great opportunity both for personal growth and from a professional point of view. Knowing Chinese means opening up to new job opportunities since China is one of the world's largest and most populated countries, as well as being at the forefront in several sectors today.
Chinese is a tonal language, i.e., a language in which the different intonation of syllables determines the meaning of words. For example, the pronunciation of the words "mom" and "horse" is identical in Chinese, but the two words have a different intonation which allows the two meanings to be distinguished.
Also, while the writing of the Chinese language is more or less the same in Chinese-speaking places, the pronunciation varies significantly due to the presence of many dialects or language varieties in China and other Chinese-speaking countries. Higher Chinese language course increases your fluency in Chinese.
The Chinese studied in schools is usually the standard, also called Mandarin Chinese, inspired by the dialect spoken in the Beijing area. Another popular variety of Chinese is Cantonese, spoken mainly in southern China and Hong Kong.
As for writing, Higher Chinese Tuition uses symbols, called characters, which have their meaning. Chinese writing has more than three thousand years of history and is one of the oldest written languages .
The character system is divided into two types: simplified and traditional. Traditional characters are still used in countries like Taiwan and Hong Kong. In contrast, mainland China uses a simplified character system, introduced during the communist period, which is what Chinese students are taught. Studying Chinese can be a long and tiring journey, requiring memorizing thousands of characters, but in any case, it has several advantages.
It has relatively simple grammarThe Chinese language, compared to other European or Asian languages, has a fairly simple grammatical structure. The verbs are all in the infinitive. There are no articles or feminine and masculine genders. The advantage of Chinese grammar is that words always remain the same, i.e., they do not change shape based on gender, number, grammatical function, etc.
China is a world economic power. China is increasingly establishing itself as a global economic power, competing with the United States. Although the preferred language in business relations is still English, knowing the Chinese language can give you an edge when negotiating with your Chinese counterpart.
The Chinese greatly appreciate Westerners with a rudimentary knowledge of the Chinese language and culture. In the labour market, therefore, knowing the Chinese language can be an essential skill for better managing relationships (guanxi in Chinese) with Chinese customers.
Studying Chinese trains the brain
Studying Chinese also has benefits for your mind. It is necessary to memorize each new word in the Chinese language by associating each written symbol (character) with a particular pronunciation and intonation (in Chinese, there are four types of intonation plus a neutral fifth).
This way, memory and the ability to associate sounds with words written in a complex method for Westerners are exercised. If you want to achieve your goals in Chinese, you can contact Chinese Tutor Singapore.