In our very first lesson, we'll get you started speaking useful Mandarin right away. You'll learn how to say whether or not you can speak Chinese, and we'll start building a good foundation for your accent, copying exactly what you hear.

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When you're listening to the sounds of Chinese or any other language, pay close attention to the intonation. This is the first thing that infants copy in their native language, and it should be the first thing you copy when learning Mandarin.

Give yourself permission to sound a little silly or weird to yourself -- you may even feel like you're doing a caricature of the other language, but you're really not. Faithfully mimicking what you hear actually shows that you respect the language, and that you're trying to speak it on its own terms. Native speakers will appreciate the effort, and have a much easier time understanding you.

Of course, this is true about any language, but it's doubly true for Chinese, where a different intonation can radically change the meaning of what you're saying. If it helps, you can think of it like learning to sing a song, rather than learning to "say" something.

In this episode, we hear a dialogue between two people talking about what languages they speak. With enough repetitions and practice, you'll be speaking right along with them.

A note about pronunciation: The vocabulary list below includes the Chinese characters and the pinyin romanization system. The advantage of pinyin for English speakers is that it uses the familiar symbols of the Latin alphabet. The disadvantage is that English speakers are easily deceived into thinking these familiar symbols represent the same sounds they do in English. They don't. That said, pinyin can be a useful system to learn, but you must rely on your ears first, eyes second. 

Don't expect to be able to pronounce anything just by reading the pinyin; the romanization is just a reference to jog your memory. the language exists primarily in its sounds, which is why daily listening and imitation practice is so important. 

Episode vocabulary:

• 你 :: nǐ :: you
• 我 :: wǒ :: I/me
• 好 :: hǎo :: good/OK
• 聽 :: tīng :: to listen, to hear
• 說 :: shuō :: to say, to speak
• 會 :: huì :: to be able to
• 不 :: bù :: not
• 中文 :: zhōngwén :: Mandarin / Chinese language
• 嗎 :: ma :: [indicates a question]
• 一點 :: yīdiǎn :: a little
• 對 :: duì :: correct/right
• 吧 :: ba :: [indicates a suggestion]
• 英文 :: yīngwén :: English language
• 加油 :: jiāyóu :: Good luck! / You got this!

About learning Chinese characters
Teaching Chinese characters is outside the scope of this podcast, but if you are learning Chinese characters through another course or method, you can use the transcript below to follow along.

Learning characters can be a fulfilling project, and can help you to remember and differentiate similar-sounding words. And, of course, it opens up more avenues for practicing your Mandarin, such as reading (books, children's books, comic books) and corresponding with Chinese speakers via email and other messaging apps. I highly encourage you to give it a try!

However, if the thought of memorizing all those characters now gives you a headache, rest assured: you can start speaking Mandarin without being able to read or write. Millions of preliterate children speak Mandarin fluently, and so can you! If and when you are ready to start learning the characters, already speaking some Mandarin will make it that much easier.

The bottom line is this: Don't let anything stop you or discourage you. The best method is the method you actually use, and any method you choose is better than no method at all! Find a way to move forward. You can always make adjustments later.

Dialogue transcript

• M：你好
• L：你好！
• M：你聽我說
• L：好
• M：你會說中文嗎？
• L：呃...
• M：你不會？
• L：我不會
• M：你會吧！你會說一點中文，對吧！
• L：對... 我會說一點點
• M：對吧！
• L：那，你會說英文嗎？
• M：不會
• L：喔... 
• M：加油！！！

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