Studying Chinese Online With StudyHSK

This is a guest post by Michael Santangelo of StudyHSK, the most intensive and structured online course.

Acquiring a foreign language is made difficult through random concepts that cannot be explained through rules. In western languages many such random concepts exist in relation to the use of articles: in English the use of the indefinite article “a”, in German or French the use of definite articles like “der, die, das” or “le, la” respectively. In Mandarin Chinese two such major random concepts exist, namely the tonal system and Chinese character handwriting. However, if you take these random concepts out of the equation, Mandarin Chinese is not harder to learn than any other language.

The only solution to mastering these random concepts is through studying them one word at a time. Knowing which tone goes with which syllable or how to handwrite a certain character will only manifest itself through constant use – and even then, you will probably forget this information more often than not. This is normal (even Chinese native speakers face the same obstacles) and once you accept that everyone has to deal with this frustration you are already on the way to being a happier student of Mandarin.

Separation of Speech and Script

As soon as it was accepted that these random concepts are a great source of frustration for Mandarin Chinese students, a study method was developed by StudyHSK isolating the problem of character handwriting. Known as the Separation of Speech and Script theory, the method considers the handwriting of characters (calligraphy) a mechanical skill that should and can most effectively be taught separately from the other skills of Mandarin Chinese language learning, i.e. speaking, listening and reading. Please note that typing Chinese on a computer using Pinyin recognition software does not fall into the handwriting but reading/speaking category.

Separating the handwriting aspect from the rest of the disciplines takes students halfway there. However, for the tonal system there is no such straight-forward solution. It has to be studied the old-fashioned way and classes with StudyHSK put a special emphasis on getting the tones and pronunciation right. Students may even find that it is quite rewarding to master a skill that is so vital to Mandarin Chinese and obscure to most of mankind.

Generally speaking, be it handwriting or the tonal system, frustration with these random concepts is pre-programmed; virtually every single student of Mandarin Chinese will go through moments of doubt whether or not he or she will ever master them. Students are advised that at such times, they should simply accept that these concepts are impossible to ever master entirely (even for Chinese native speakers) and that improving on a day by day basis must be the real goal.

Most students’ felt progress will follow a learning curve that looks roughly like this:

In Phase 1 students feel the excitement of studying something new and that they are progressing fast. In Phase 2 frustration slowly sets in, as students realize that studying Mandarin has its own pitfalls and will take hard work to master. Most students quit here. In Phase 3 you start accepting that Mandarin Chinese is different and that you will have to put in the hard work; now you are truly on the way to master the language.

How long each phase takes is different from individual to individual; however, the vast majority of students will experience a similar learning curve. What you need to remember is, no matter what you may feel subjectively, you are always progressing given that you put in the work.

Learning attitudes

The first step to a successful learning experience is to accept that Mandarin Chinese is different. It has not developed from any other language you are likely to know and as such, whenever you find yourself thinking “But in my mother tongue we do not say it like this!” stop for a moment and think. This is not your mother tongue and just accepting that Mandarin Chinese is different will already give your confidence a boost. It is one of these “free your mind and the rest will follow” situations. So free your mind of your preconceptions about language study and accept that Mandarin Chinese is a language in its own right with its own peculiarities. If you can approach studying Mandarin Chinese with a truly open mind, you will a) find that results will come faster and b) that you will waste less time on being frustrated and use the time to study instead.

Expected progress

Progress depends on the individual student’s motivation, available extra study time and talent. However, there are several things that can be guaranteed to any student who takes classes with StudyHSK in a motivated manner:

-        10 HSK test vocabulary words will be studied and mastered per two-hour session (500 sessions to cover the whole curriculum)

-        Rigorous understanding of the basic Mandarin Chinese concepts with a special emphasis on getting the tones and pronunciation right

Students who study the HSK Focus curriculum for 120 hours will cover all 600 vocabulary words necessary to pass the HSK test at level 3 signifying a level of basic linguistic competency. They will also master most of the structured grammar of Mandarin Chinese. In addition, as soon as they are exposed to a Mandarin Chinese speaking environment they will find themselves adapting rapidly and generally with superior pronunciation and linguistic awareness than their peers.

You can check out StudyHSK's official website by clicking here.