I am progressing through the HelloChinese app picking up more Mandarin.  I dip into it a few times a day – doing a lesson or two which each take about five to ten minutes.

The hardest part to learn by far is the Chinese script. I do not think I can yet recall any of the characters that I have so far covered in my lessons. Although I am starting to build a mental model of the stroke ordering to expect for any given character. An unconscious cognition as cognitive scientists might call it.

Pinyin – the romanization of Chinese script – helps a lot, although remembering the tonality to apply adds a layer of complexity.  My favourite word so far is mianbao (excuse the lack of tone marks) which mean bread – and is just nice to say.

But don’t let the complexity of Chinese script put you off learning Mandarin. Learning by listening and talking along with pinyin simplify the challenge a lot.  Also the lack of conjugation more than makes up for the complexity of script.

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Talking to you / Izzy Bizu