How to improve my Chinese language skills?

China is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. Chinese Mandarin is a language based on central Mandarin; however, according to the most recent Ethnologue census, the total number of languages spoken in China is 302. This is also the official language of the nation. 71 per cent of Chinese speak a dialect of Mandarin known as “Putonghua.” The Nanjing Mandarin standard was eventually replaced in the imperial court during the last 50 years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century by Beijing Mandarin. In the absence of a common mainstream type of Mandarin, non-Mandarin speakers in southern China continued to speak their ethnic dialects for all aspects of their lives, whilst the general population continued to speak variants of Mandarin. As a result, the new Beijing Mandarin court level remained relatively restricted.

1. Read in Chinese every day.  It doesn’t matter what – just get reading! The most important thing is to read on a topic that interests you. If you’re into cooking – read a Chinese food blog. If you like reading women’s magazines, why not read the online Chinese versions of magazines like Marie Claire and Vogue? Is current events your thing? Check out Chinese newspapers to stay informed. For literature lovers, read a book you’ve enjoyed in English, in Chinese. Remember to write down any vocabulary you don’t know so you can look them up later.
2. Labels items in your home or office.  Write down the Chinese name of objects in your home or office on a post-it note, then stick the note to the object. Every time you look at the item, say the Chinese name aloud. 
3. Listen to Chinese radio. Chinese sounds vastly different from how it is written, so an essential part of your home study must include listening to Chinese. Thank heavens for the internet, where you can listen to Chinese radio without problems. You can also listen to a variety of programs in Chinese from theatre and music.
4. Talk to yourself in Chinese. Admit it: sometimes you mutter to yourself. We all say things like: “Where are my keys?” or “What should I make for dinner tonight?” or even “Let’s go.” Think about what phrases you say the most – try to come up with at least 5 of them– and translate them into Chinese. And from now on say them in Chinese. When you can, practice saying them in the mirror so you can observe the way your mouth moves as you speak.
5. Keep a Chinese diary. You can write whatever you like in this diary: Write about the weather. Make a grocery list. What you plan to do that day. What you already did that day. A description of a colleague at work. Until you’re comfortable with one topic, we recommend focusing on practising the same until you finally start understanding it..
6. Get a Chinese chat partner. There’s no escape – to truly learn Chinese you must speak it. Thanks to communication programs like Hello Talk, Italki, Skype and Google Talk, you can do language exchange with a native Chinese speaker. You’d speak in Chinese for 30 minutes, then your partner would speak in English for 30 minutes, with each of you correcting the other. Check out websites such as Conversation Exchange and How Do You Do for more details.

7. Create colour-coded flashcards for vocabulary and nouns. That way, when you review your vocabulary list, you’ll begin to associate the word and its article with a particular colour.
8. Pay attention to honorifics, pitch and tone to aim to speak like a native. The relationship between the speaker/writer and subject referent is reflected in honorifics, whereas that between speaker/writer and audience is reflected in speech level. Check out the female prefix added to the default lexicon, including terms for titles and occupations. Another crucial difference between genders of men and women is the tone and pitch of their voices and how that affects the perception of politeness.
9. Learn your grammar well. The Chinese language is traditionally considered to have nine parts of speech. The basic form of a Chinese sentence is subject-object–verb, but the verb is the only required and immovable element and word order is highly flexible, as in many other agglutinative languages like Chinese.
10. Create a weekly “Chinese movie night.” Watching movies or Chinese programs can be a great way to help absorb spoken Chinese – if it’s done right. If you’re new to Chinese, it’s probably best to watch a Chinese TV series or even cartoons rather than a full-length feature film. (The voices on children’s programs usually speak clearly and don’t use much slang, making it much easier to understand.) If you’re ready for a feature film, avoid watching it with English subtitles, as you’ll be doing more reading than listening to Chinese. Instead, try to get a Chinese film that offers Chinese subtitles for the hearing impaired. The Chinese words will help you understand oral Chinese better as well as improve your reading.
11. Listen to Chinese music. Nothing can pull you deep inside a language better than a Chinese song. Find your favourite Chinese tune on YouTube and learn the song by heart. Pay close attention to pronunciation.
12. Play pretend. Lookup a Chinese restaurant on the internet and study the menu. Pretend you’re in China and are going to order something. Practice saying what you would order and the phrases you’d need to order it.
13. Repeat a word or phrase for 24 hours: Repetition is the best way to remember words and phrases, so choose a word or a phrase that you will repeat for the whole day. Say this word or phrase as often as possible, and set reminders for yourself.  You can put a note next to your clock to remind you to say the phrase whenever you glance at it.  You can also put the phrase on your phone or screen saver, so each time you look at your cell or computer, you’ll remember to say the phrase.
14. Change your technology settings.  Why not make the language on your cell phone, tablet, or computer, Chinese?  It’s an easy way to expose yourself to the language – plus it’ll remind you to practice!

Nanjing Mandarin became dominant at least during the officially Manchu-speaking Qing Empire, despite a lot of officials and commoners speaking various Chinese dialects.  The Empire also set up Orthoepy Academies to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. It was finally during the last 50 years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century that the Nanjing Mandarin standard was finally replaced in the imperial court with Beijing Mandarin after a multitude of efforts. The new Beijing Mandarin court standard also remained fairly limited. This situation however, changed in modern times, with the creation of an elementary school education system, that committed itself to teaching Mandarin as a Standard Chinese language.

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