Doing Business in China

How to learn Chinese

Here are some possible ways to learn Chinese.Practice reading and writing characters at every opportunity.

Make some character cards with a single large character on the front and the character's pronunciation and meaning together with words and/or phrases featuring the character on the back. Carry these cards around with you and refer to them whenever you have a moment. Some Chinese language courses include character cards like this.

As you learn more characters, you will start to notice recurring themes and patterns. This will help you to guess the meanings of new characters. The more characters you learn, the easier it will become to learn new ones.

To avoid eyestrain when poring over Chinese or Japanese texts, dictionaries, etc, make sure your study area is well-lit and consider buying a large magnifying glass. I'm serious - when I start learning Chinese and Japanese I had perfect eyesight. After studying them for four years I needed glasses.