My experience learning Mandarin Chinese in Hong Kong

I arrived in Hong Kong intending to master Mandarin Chinese after several fruitless attempts at online learning. There are many options available to suit all budgets and learning styles. I enrolled in a local language school, which offered daily weekday classes starting at beginner level and cost around 120 GBP per week. There's the option of private in-person tuition at your home, office, or school at a higher cost. I topped up my lessons with iTalki, a language app, which is a bit like an Amazon shop for language tutors, complete with a photo gallery and customer reviews. iTalki is a very cheap and flexible option. You can book a lesson at the last minute and try out tutors for half an hour for between 3 and 5 GBP.

PinYin

I recommend learning Pinyin before starting any classes. Pinyin is a phonetic system used to spell out Chinese in letters of the alphabet. If you know Pinyin, you can also type it into your phone or computer keyboard (once you've downloaded a Chinese keyboard), and the keyboard will translate it instantly into Chinese characters, which is very handy. There are countless resources online to help you learn Pinyin, and there's no need to pay. Coursera, Udemy, YouTube, Spotify, the list is endless. You'll be off to a great start if you can pronounce the full pinyin chart.

 Tones

I find tones difficult. I have a pretty deep voice and a regional accent which makes the high tones a challenge. In Mandarin, there are four tones. Cantonese has nine! I find that my throat gets tired when I speak Chinese, I guess from moving different muscles to make the right sounds.

You can dramatically change the meaning of the word by using the wrong tone. For example, the word for mother can become the word for cannabis pretty easily! Try not to worry too much about perfect pronunciation. Even if you get the tone wrong, the context of the sentence will usually be enough for people listening to understand you.

 The best thing to do initially is to get used to listening and recognising tones. Nailing the pronunciation can come later. Even if you don't understand what people are saying, listen to audiotapes of people speaking Chinese. Listen when you're getting ready, walking around, exercising, cooking. Anyone I've met who learned Chinese quickly around non-Mandarin speakers did this. The Chineasy app also tests you on your recognition of tones which is a great tool.

 Characters

I love the characters. They're like small abstract pictures. If you have an active imagination, you can attach stories to them to help you remember what they mean. For example, to me, the character Da 大, meaning big, looks like a tall person spreading out their arms and legs. It's pretty obvious, but the Chinese writing system is not based on the alphabet. Think of Chinese characters as an indication of pronunciation and meaning. Again Chineasy is a great resource to help you link meaning to characters.

 Most people advise not to touch characters until you are confident. I don't see it this way, I'm a visual learner, and they help my memory. While bewildering at first, there is logic. You'll start noticing patterns that can help you infer meaning without actually knowing what the character means.

 If you're a bit whimsical, like me, you'll also enjoy learning the literal meaning of some very poetic Chinese words.

爱 Ai means love, and it contains the character 友, which means to bring a friend into your house.

眼神 Yan shen, while there is no direct translation, it roughly means the emotion in your eyes or the feeling behind one's gaze.

银河 Yinhe Milky Way literally translates as the silver river.

明 Mingbai means to understand, and it comprises of characters for the sun and moon. The moon is only visible when the sun reflects on it to bring it to light.

永远 Yong means forever, and the modern interpretation of this character is a stream flowing endlessly

 Chinese Vocabulary

 There are basically no commonalities with western languages but the good news is that it's actually quite simple.

•  There are virtually no plurals
• There's no gender
• You just learn the nouns and what they mean, nothing else
• No change to the verb to indicate past tense

 Numbers

 The English system of numbering is irregular. China has a logical counting system. For example, eleven is ten one, and twenty-three is two ten three, and so on. Interestingly this allows Chinese children to count much faster. The average Chinese four year old can count up to forty, whereas in the UK, it's more like fifteen. Malcolm Gladwell writes about this in Outliers when he analyses why Asian students are better at maths. Dates are also refreshingly logical; October is shi yue or ten-month.

 Tips

•  Tackle the characters as early as possible. Start early and keep going daily.
• Look for patterns, not rules.
• Listen to people speaking Chinese as often as you can.
• Try to do at least thirty minutes a day. You quickly forget what you learn otherwise.
• Put lots of effort into listening. Chinese has a rhythm, and when you speak, you won't make sense without rhythm. Intonation and rhythm only come from listening to a native speaker, and it's not something you can learn in books.
• It's daunting but speak early and often. English speakers need to practice through imitation. You'll make many mistakes when you try to talk, but it's the only way to improve.

Learning Chinese is a long-term project! I try to remind myself that speaking Chinese brings me in touch with about 20% of the world's population!