Becoming Fluent In Chinese and Lesson Review

Chinese Lesson Sections

The Chinese lessons are divided into several sections. The first section consists of 18 Chinese lessons labeled "Resource Modules". The "regular course" starts with Chinese lesson 19, Orientation Module, which focuses more heavily on vocabulary and less on pronunciation.

Chinese Lessons 1 - 18 - Resource Module - Focus on proper pronunciation, time and date, numbers, classroom expressions.

Chinese Lessons 19 - 34 - Orientation Module - Focus on vocabulary, names, greetings, nationality, location.

Chinese Lessons 35 - 52 - Biographic Module - Where people are staying and working, members of family, arrival and departure, date and place of birth.

Currently, there are 52 Chinese lessons available in the Loquella language tool, however, there are more than 250 Chinese lessons available from DLI and we plan to add many more to the language tool soon.

Becoming Fluent in Chinese Vs. Learning Just Enough to Get By

When working with the Standard Mandarin Chinese language tool, you have two choices for how to work with the material to learn Chinese most effectively. The choice you decide to work with will be based on what your goals are when starting to learn Chinese.

1. If you only want to learn some Chinese phrases and don't intend to speak Chinese fluently we recommend starting on Chinese Lesson 1 and then skipping directly to Chinese Lesson 19. If after a couple lessons you decide you do want to focus on fluency, go back to Chinese Lesson 2 and follow the language course as suggested below. The course material in Chinese Lessons 2 through 18 focuses most heavily on pronunciation, and not as much on vocabulary, which can become tedious if your main focus is not to become fluent in Chinese. When learning a language for basic conversation and travel, the most important element is to learn vocabulary and some basic pronunciation points.

2. If you want to learn Mandarin Chinese fluently (if you plan to live there or travel extensively) we recommend that you follow the Chinese lessons as they are presented in the language tool.

Learning Chinese

If your native language is a "western one", like English, Spanish, French or any other European language, you will find that learning Chinese takes four to five times longer than learning another European language. Learning a new language is not "difficult", it just requires a long time and good motivation.

Using Loquella's Chinese language tool will give you a strong base to stand on, along the way to being able to communicate in Chinese. But in order to really communicate fluently in Chinese you should plan on spending some time in China or together with native Chinese speakers to learn it most effectively. One estimate is that learning a European language (for native European language speakers) takes about 500 hours, but learning Mandarin Chinese requires 2000 hours for native European language speakers. This is not said to discourage anyone interested in learning Chinese, it is said to prepare you for the challenges that lay ahead as you embark on the journey of learning Chinese!

Return to Learn Chinese page.

Learn Spanish • Learn Chinese • Learn French • Language Course • Sitemap