Where to Find Free Chinese Video Lessons
Photo Credit: Kheel Center
One of the easiest ways to learn Chinese is through videos and you can find these free of cost at sites like YouTube which are flooded with free Chinese video lessons. If you want your kid to learn Chinese, these can prove to be effective tools that keep the child engaged. Adults can read books such as Practical Chinese Reader or Kuaile Hanyu and reinforce the learning through these videos. Another important aspect is mastering Pinyin Romanization before depending entirely on the videos. This will enable you to understand the phonetic and tonal translations of the Chinese letters into English.
The video advantage
You might have heard many people say that Chinese is a tonal language. This is because the language makes use of several homonyms, and Westerners often find them tough to differentiate. Homonyms are those words which have similar pronunciation but mean different. So, when you speak Chinese, you would be required to speak the same syllable or word in different tones to convey what you actually mean. If not, what you intend to say and what you end up saying can turn out to be totally different.
This is the reason that you need a video lesson if you are going to learn the language on your own. Through these videos, you can attempt to learn conversational Chinese, which can be very helpful to practice the tones. But you need to be very careful when choosing the videos if you are going to learn anything from them.
Choosing the right videos
Monologues are usually boring and you will soon get tired of them. And so will your motivation to learn the language. Choose videos that are engaging and funny. If you are choosing the videos for your kids, think from their perspective and choose a video that would keep them engaged.
Choose videos of moderate length, which have subtitles in them. A video such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxXaWhuEbJE could be right for you. If you are just going to guess what the speakers are saying, the video will not take you anywhere. Also, if you have chosen a video that is too lengthy, it may fail to keep you engaged for a long time and your mind may tend to wander.
A great idea would be to target excerpts of full-length Chinese learning videos. You could also look for the transcript of the videos. Knowing the main idea behind the videos can give you some idea as to where it is going if you have the transcript with you.
Videos can be a great foundation and reinforcement to online classes
If you are serious about learning Chinese quickly, then you should enroll yourself in an online class. The classes would provide you study material and videos to aid your learning process. You can first get a heads up on the classes through free online videos and also reinforce what you have learned in the classes through them. The time it takes you to master the language would ultimately depend on the amount of time you are willing to spend learning it through various tools at your disposal.
The video advantage
You might have heard many people say that Chinese is a tonal language. This is because the language makes use of several homonyms, and Westerners often find them tough to differentiate. Homonyms are those words which have similar pronunciation but mean different. So, when you speak Chinese, you would be required to speak the same syllable or word in different tones to convey what you actually mean. If not, what you intend to say and what you end up saying can turn out to be totally different.
This is the reason that you need a video lesson if you are going to learn the language on your own. Through these videos, you can attempt to learn conversational Chinese, which can be very helpful to practice the tones. But you need to be very careful when choosing the videos if you are going to learn anything from them.
Choosing the right videos
Monologues are usually boring and you will soon get tired of them. And so will your motivation to learn the language. Choose videos that are engaging and funny. If you are choosing the videos for your kids, think from their perspective and choose a video that would keep them engaged.
Choose videos of moderate length, which have subtitles in them. A video such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxXaWhuEbJE could be right for you. If you are just going to guess what the speakers are saying, the video will not take you anywhere. Also, if you have chosen a video that is too lengthy, it may fail to keep you engaged for a long time and your mind may tend to wander.
A great idea would be to target excerpts of full-length Chinese learning videos. You could also look for the transcript of the videos. Knowing the main idea behind the videos can give you some idea as to where it is going if you have the transcript with you.
Videos can be a great foundation and reinforcement to online classes
If you are serious about learning Chinese quickly, then you should enroll yourself in an online class. The classes would provide you study material and videos to aid your learning process. You can first get a heads up on the classes through free online videos and also reinforce what you have learned in the classes through them. The time it takes you to master the language would ultimately depend on the amount of time you are willing to spend learning it through various tools at your disposal.