Language+Learning+Tips

Language Learning Tips
Here are some suggestions for learning characters: One thing I do to help remember difficult Chinese words and phrases is to write them on large sheets of paper and then hang them in my room, where I see them all the time.

I say new words aloud dozens of times, to get a good feel for pronunciation and tones. I try to repeat whole sentences rather than just single words, as well.

When I learn something new, I try to explain it and teach it to someone in my family. They're not always happy to listen to me, but i find that explaining something helps me to remember it. Reading a whole line of characters seems really difficult, so first I try to find one or two that I recognise in the sentence. This helps me guess or work out what the other words might be. I have to write a new character over and over again to learn it. While I'm doing that, I try to link the shape of the character to its meaning somehow.

I set aside a certain part of the day and use flashcard software on my PC for reading. For writing, I position my window in such a way so that I can only see the Pinyin and then write the Hanzi on something like MS Paint.