Is Mandarin hard?

So what’s involved if you want to learn Mandarin … and is it hard?!

• Although Mandarin can seem a bit daunting, it does have its easy sides!
• Chinese vocabulary is based on quite simple, monosyllabic elements; words are therefore very short and fairly easy to learn.
• Chinese grammar is in many ways very straightforward – words can be put together with much more flexibility than in many other languages.
• There are no endings to put onto words, no problems with masculine and feminine words. There aren’t even any tenses!
• Chinese pronunciation is quite difficult, largely because there are four tones (so that words with the same sounds can have different meanings depending on whether your voice goes up or down or stays at the same level). However, if you don’t get the tones quite right, you will still be understood.
• Chinese writing is based on some thousands of characters, which it obviously takes quite a long time to learn. However, it is possible to use our Latin alphabet to transcribe Chinese words, and this is what we do in most of our courses. Learning to recognise a few, very common characters is not that hard.

Under Euroasia style, we have more information about our approach to teaching. If you’re ready to enrol, our Mandarin timetable has details of the next Mandarin classes with Euroasia! Otherwise, see course options to find out about the types of Mandarin courses which we offer. Course outlines might also be useful.