Weather Talk

天气 (Tiānqì) - Weather

The weather in Spring is fairly good.

春天的天气比较好。
Chūntiān de tiānqì bǐjiào hǎo.

It is very hot in summer.
夏天很热。
Xiàtiān hěn rè.

It is very comfortable in fall. It is neither cold nor hot.
秋天很舒服，不冷也不热。
Qiūtiān hěn shūfu, bù lěng yě bú rè.

Although it does not snow often in winter, it is very cold.
冬天虽然不常下雪，可是很冷。
Dōngtiān suīrán bù cháng xià xuě, kěshì hén lěng.

The weather here is very nice.
这里天气很好。
Zhèlǐ tiānqì hén hǎo.

The Fall is the best season in Beijing.
在北京，秋天是最好的季节。
Zài běijīng, qiūtiān shì zuì hǎo de jìjié.

The weather in Spring is very comfortable.
春天天气很舒服。
Chūntiān tiānqì hěn shūfu.

Learning the Tones - this is the first thing you should do!

Tones

Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone. The reason for having these tones is probably that the Chinese language has very few possible syllables -- approximately 400 -- while English has about 12,000. For this reason, there may be more homophonic words , words with the same sound expressing different meanings, in Chinese than in most other languages. Apparently tones help the relatively small number of syllables to multiply and thereby alleviate but not completely solve the problem. Learning Chinese in context, therefore, is very important.

For example, the Chinese use only one syllable "da" and yet can tell the difference between "to hang over something" ( da1 ), "to answer" (da2), "to hit" (da3), and "big" (da4). The answer in the tones.

The numbers after each of the syllables indicates the tone. In normal text this is indicated as . In the diagram below you can see the tones.

Tone	Mark	Description
1st		High and level.
2nd		Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top.
3rd		Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top.
4th		Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom.
Neutral		Flat, with no emphasis.

This diagram helps visualize the pitches of the four tones:

The tone of a syllable may change in some situations. For example, these are the characters for "mother" . As separate characters each is pronounced as "ma," but when put together, the second "ma" becomes toneless: . Rules like this are, however, very few and very easy to remember.

Learning Chinese Grammar

Tips for effectively learning basic Chinese grammar:

Learn basic grammar, but try not to worry and be constrained by the rules. After all, languages are spoken as a way to express meaning.

The basic grammar elements are almost identical with different languages; however, the sequence may be different. Pay particular attention to the differences and practice on them.

The most important points on learning new foreign languages:

• Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Being self-conscious can be an obstacle in learning a language. Remember, most people are willing to helping you rather than laughing at you.
• Don't be discouraged by the difficulties at first attempt. Practice, practice, and practice! you will be amazed by your own progress!
• Be persistent. Allocate a set time on studying and follow the schedule. Studying a little every day is more effective than studying for a long period at once.

Tips on how to quickly learn Chinese characters

Note: As a general prerequisite, study and familiarize yourself with Chinese writing strokes and rules. There's no shortcut to this. This will provide you with a good solid foundation on how Chinese characters are formed.

Tips on how to quickly learn Chinese characters:

1. Only way to learn Chinese characters is to memorize them, practice writing a character on paper until you remember it. Start from easy ones, which also include all the strokes, for example, 一(one), 十(ten), 中(middle),山(mountain), 上(above), 火(fire), 河(river), 入(enter).
2. Rather than writing one word many times before doing the next one, write each word once or twice then go through the whole list again until you've done the required number of repetitions. This will reinforce the new words more firmly in your memory.
3. Read Chinese newspapers, booklets and books found at your local library or Chinese market
4. Watch movies or TV programs with Chinese subtitles, it is a great way to learn Chinese speaking and writing at the same time in a simulated real-life scenario.
5. Use post-it notepaper to write down the characters and stick them on the objects you are about to learn.
6. Write vocabulary words using index or flash cards on one side with the definition on the other side.
7. Use your imagination by linking the shape of the new word by first glancing to something you are familiar with.
8. Play vocabulary by creating a 3-column vocabulary sheet with characters, pinyin, and English definitions. Fold the paper with only one or two columns showing and then take practice written tests.
9. After a while, you will notice that many characters have elements in common, either related to meaning or pronunciation. Note the common elements and use them to help you remember new characters.
10. Take advantage of free learning Chinese resources online.

If you can memorize about 1,000 - 2,000 characters, you will feel comfortable with reading and writing modern Chinese.