Over one-fifth of the world's population, over one billion people, speak Chinese. Of those, an estimated 850 million speak Mandarin. So, if you don't already speak Chinese, you are in the minority. After 2 decades of strong economic growth, China is emerging as a strong economic and political world power. Don't be fooled into thinking that the world will continue to value English as the most important language. But before we help you find the best language software to speak and learn Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese , let's explore the Chinese language further.
Standard Mandarin is the official language of the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. Standard Mandarin—is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Standard Cantonese remains one of the official languages of Hong Kong (together with English) and of Macau (together with Portuguese). So, whether you choose Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese language learning software depends largely on where you will visit or who you will be communicating with.
There are over 47,000 Chinese characters contained in the Kangxi dictionary but many of these are rarely used variants accumulated throughout history. It is commonly held that full literacy in Chinese requires a knowledge of between 3000 to 5000 characters.
Chinese characters evolved over time from earliest forms of hieroglyphs and each Chinese character, known as a sinograph, corresponds to a single spoken syllable. Many Chinese words are poly-syllabic and so require two or more characters to write.
The Chinese written language has developed with fewer variations than the spoken Chinese language. Consequently, it may be easier to learn the written Chinese language than to learn to speak. On the other hand, since the Chinese language characters are so different than the English alphabet, it is a major undertaking. However, most Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese language learning software will help you to learn both.
Highlight of Chinese language learning software:
- Some employ pictures and visual aids to help you learn to form the characters.
- Some may be accompanied by workbooks that demonstrate character configuration and stroke order along with other tips to help you with the drawing.
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Audio, and sometimes interactive pronunciation tutors, will assist you in learning spoken Chinese.
- Many Chinese language software selections will instruct you in the different Chinese dialects so that you may learn either Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese.
Whether you choose Mandarin or Cantonese Chinese language learning software, you will enter an entirely different ancient culture and language that thrives today.
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