Learning Mandarin is very interesting 学习华文很有趣 (for beginner- Part 1)

How to Learn Mandarin

The first step in learning Mandarin, you need to have a will to learn. It doesn't matter what ages you are now, as long as you want to know, so it'll be easy for you. Of course there are many Mandarin course out there. Without following course, you also can learn it via online. Make sure you have a Chinese dictionary when you wanted to learn Mandarin. However, with commitment and daily practice, it is certainty possible for you to master Mandarin.

1. Intonation Basic 

Practice using intonation tone. Which means that, intonation is the most basic in learning Mandarin. Wrong intonation can leads to change the meaning of the word. Mandarin has 4 tones which is :

• First Tone, is the high flat tone. Your voice when you read it stays flat. "mā"
• Second Tone, is a rising tone. Your voice rises from low to middle pitch. "má"
• Third Tone, is a dipping tone. The pitch goes from middle to low to high. "mǎ"
• Fourth Tone, is lowering tone. The pitch goes rapidly from high to low, as if giving a command. "mà"

2. Learn How to Count.

After you learn about the intonation, then the next step is to learn how to count in Mandarin. As in English, counting is also the most simple and basic step that you need to learn in order to learn others vocabulary.  Once you have learned the first ten number, you will be able to count to 99. 

• Below, I'll write number 1 to 10 in Mandarin. Make sure to practice saying each number with the right intonation.

• One: written as (一) or yī, pronounced [eee]
• Two: written as (二) or èr, pronounced [err]
• Three: written as (三) or sān, pronounced [saan]
• Four: written as (四) or sì, pronounced [ssih]
• Five: written as (五) or wǔ, pronounced [wuu]
• Six: written as (六) or liù, pronounced [lee-yo]
• Seven: written as (七) or qī, pronounced [chi]
• Eight: written as (八) or bā, pronounced [baa]
• Nine: written as (九) or jiǔ, pronounced [jee-yo]
• Ten: written as (十) or shí, pronounced [sh]
• Once you have mastered counting in Mandarin from number 1 to 10, then you can continue to count until 99. I'll give you some example :
• 48 --> 四十八  or sì shí bā, which means four tens plus eight 
• 62 --> 六十二 or liù shí èr, which means six tens plus two
• Seems easy right? Of course it's easy if you learn it everyday. So how about 100 or 1000? How to read that in Mandarin? The word hundred in Mandarin is 百 baǐ, so 100 is yī baǐ （一百), 300 is sān baǐ (三百）, etc. 
• Otherwise, the word thousand in Mandarin is千 qiān. How to read? It's similar when you read 100 in mandarin. baǐ change to qiān.