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Why learn Chinese?
Chinese is spoken by nearly
a quarter of the world's population, more than 1.3 billion
people. With China gradually opening up its borders, there
is more and more opportunity now to visit that mysterious
and fascinating country, either on holiday or on business.
If you feel like walking along
the Great Wall of China, cruising down the Yangtze River,
following the Silk Road, discovering the Forbidden City or
hiking in the Chinese mountains, there is nothing to stop
you! (For facts and inspiration, check out travelchinaguide.com.)
Perhaps you have recently started
trading with China (are you a member of the China-Britain
Business Council?), or perhaps you are interested to have
a look at Beijing before or during the Olympic
Games in 2008.
Whatever your connection with
China, you will find your visits, holidays and business meetings
vastly enhanced by being able to speak the language. It is
really not as difficult as you might imagine. It takes a while
to learn to write Chinese, to become familiar with the form
and meaning of the characters, but there are a lot of excellent
resources available to help you. Also, you don't actually
have to write in Chinese characters until you feel ready -
although it is useful to recognise some and be able to read
a bit - because many Chinese nowadays are accustomed to Pinyin,
a romanised alphabet for Chinese writing. You can read more
about this on Wikipedia.
The grammar, however, is fairly
straightforward and logical. Chinese sentence structure is
similar to that of English (subject-verb-object), there are
no irregular verbs, the verbs don't change according to tense
as they do in most languages and there are no noun plurals
to learn.
To get an idea of what the language
sounds like, you can explore the Real
Chinese section of the BBC website.
Inspired to learn Chinese?
If you live in or near Manchester,
you could start a one-to-one
Chinese course with us tomorrow (or whenever it suits
you).
There is a large Chinese-speaking
community in Manchester and you should have no trouble finding
people to talk to in Chinese, to practise what you've learnt
in your lessons.
Recommended Reading
If you are interested in learning
Chinese, you might like to have a look at the Chinese
language books we recommend to accompany any course you
take or for maintaining/improving your Chinese by yourself.
If you are planning a trip to
China, check out the guide
books available.
If you are interested in the
life and culture of China, have a look at our recommendations
for books about or set in
China. These books are in English, a range of fiction
and non-fiction that we have enjoyed and hope you will too.
Some Quick Facts About China
Official
name:
The People's Republic of China
Languages:
Mandarin Chinese (major language)
Cantonese
Other minority languages and dialects
Capital
city:
Beijing
Regions:
China is divided into 23 provinces:
Anhui
Fujian
Gansu
Guangdong
Guizhou
Hainan
Hebei
Heilongjiang
Henan
Hubei
Hunan
Jiangsu
Jiangxi
Jilin
Liaoning
Qinghai
Shaanxi
Shandong
Shanxi
Sichuan
Yunnan
Zhejiang
The government considers Taiwan to be the 23rd province of
China.
5 autonomous regions:
Guangxi
Nei Mongol
Ningxia
Xinjiang
Tibet (Xizang)
4 municipalities:
Beijing
Chongqing
Shanghai
Tianjin
2 special administrative regions:
Hong Kong
Macau
Area:
9,596,960 sq km (This is slightly smaller than the USA.)
Population:
1,313,973,713 (July 2006 est.)
Currency:
Renminbi Yuan
Religion:
Officially atheist
Buddhist, Taoist
Government:
Communist republic. Unicameral parliamentary system.
Internet domain:
.cn
Country
calling code:
+86
If you are interested in learning more about China, you might
also like to look at the following websites:
China
Today
About
China
China
Knowledge
Ancient
China to Modern Times
Chinese
New Year
Learn Chinese at our school in Manchester:
- Tailor-made, one-to-one courses
- Intensive or longer-term courses
- Convenient Manchester location
Click here
to read more about our Chinese courses.
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