Doing Business in China

Learn to speak chinese mandarin for beginners

Mandarin is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with the wrong tone or inflection, you can be misunderstood. Mandarin's writing system consists of written symbols. There are two systems for writing Mandarin: traditional and simplified. Simplified characters are used mainly in China and Singapore, while Taiwan uses traditional writing.

Beginners, however, usually start with lessons in Pinyin, which is Chinese written phonetically in the Latin alphabet.

Mandarin Pronunciation
You will need to learn the tones of Mandarin to truly speak the language. Do not get discouraged if you can't hear tones at first - tonal changes get easier to listinguish the more you study.

Tones
Mandarin has four distinct tones. In Pinyin, tones are noted with numbers or tone marks, so pay attention to the marks as you read new words. Play the sound clips on this page to hear different tonal pronunciations. Repeat the tones as you hear them.

Pronunciation
This pronunciation guide is another great reference as you study Mandarin. Listen to the different sounds by clicking on each sound clip. Repeat the sounds as you hear them.

Mandarin Basic Phrases
You can easily learn a few basic phrases in Mandarin, like "Hello" and "Good-bye."

Standard Mandarin has a short page of common phrases.
Simply click on the arrow next to each phrase to hear it pronounced. Practice saying a phrase each time you hear it!

If you're going on a trip, you might also get a phrasebook or electronic translator to carry with you. That way you can look up phrases whenever you're in an unplanned-for situation.

Wikitravel has online phrasebooks for both traditional and simplified Mandarin. McGraw-Hill's iSpeak lets you download 1,500 Chinese phrases for your iPod.