Best Chinese Language Learning Software

Where are the best Chinese language learning software programs on the market? This question is being asked more and more frequently everyday. Today’s world has grown much smaller. People want to learn Chinese for fun, travel or the help in finding a new job. At no time before has Chinese language learning been so sought after. The most important question is what program or website teaches you the easiest and fastest?

Realize that you already know a language, so you understand how language works. What is needed is to learn substitute words in Chinese.

Consider when you learned English as a child and how you learned it. At first you made many mistakes. You did not hear the words or sounds accurately as they were spoken so you did not pronounce them correctly. This you will find will be the same in learning the Chinese language. You will confuse sounds and similar words and they will have different meanings than you intend to speak.

Another aspect in finding the best Chinese language teaching method is to learn to read and write Chinese. English speakers who want to learn Spanish will not find it difficult to learn because the differences of the Spanish and English alphabet are not very different. To learn Mandarin Chinese on the other hand is a much larger challenge. You have to learn over 2000 characters of Chinese letters. It is not really necessary though. The easiest way to deal with the writing problem is phonetic spelling. Learn Chinese words by spelling them in English. You already understand the rules of English alphabet and the sounds the letters make so this will make learning Chinese much easier.

The Chinese language learning programs have to teach you about tones. European languages don’t use tones. Asian languages use tones in their words. There are words that sound the same to the untrained ear. In fact the words can have totally different meanings.

People know that the word for hello in Chinese is “nee how.” Did you know to say it correctly you say “nee” with a tone that wavers. It falls then rises and you do it again for “how.” Another example of tones is in the Thai language. The same word “Mah” with a rising tone like asking a question means “dog.” The word “mah” with no change or a constant tone means “come.” Asian languages like Thai or Mandarin Chinese have tones that rise and fall in the same syllable. You have to train your ears to hear the sounds correctly just as when you learned English as a child. It is not difficult, but it is very different.

The language learning software has to have a way to teach you grammar. So many English speakers worry about grammar. You can speak “house my” or “my house” and either way you will be understood. Grammar is not that important to speak any foreign language. You could be surprised to learn how simply Chinese and many other languages speak. Redundant words like “the” or “a” are not usually used.