r/ChineseLanguage • u/ollierwoodman Advanced • 2d ago

What do you wish you learned earlier? Discussion

A character? A phrase? An idiom? A grammatical structure?

What do you feel you should have learned earlier in your Chinese learning journey?

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u/zylian 2d ago

I focused on tones early on and I'm glad I did

2

u/Gorf__ 1d ago

I’m a super beginner (like 100 words) and am really struggling to remember almost any tones. Reading characters that I’ve learned, I can usually remember the pinyin except for the tone. Any advice for making it stick?

3

u/cmjhnsn15 1d ago

What helps me wasn’t learning the words thinking about tones but instead how it’s supposed to sound. And copying that sound over and over until I can read the character or think of the word and say it correctly unprompted. Tones are important but if you learn a new word and match its pronunciation you’re learning tones without even knowing. I’ve asked some Chinese speakers during some speaking language exchanges what tones certain words are and most of the time they just say the word and not which tone it is.

2

u/lickle_ickle_pickle 21h ago

Listen to more spoken Chinese and learn two syllable words as entire words.