Pedro S. Silva II learned Chinese through self-study after being assigned to learn the language in the military. He found Chinese difficult at first due to large differences from English in the writing system, pronunciation, and culture. However, he was able to learn by focusing first on sounds, pronunciation, characters and culture without worrying about meanings. He would listen to tapes, read aloud, and copy characters to familiarize himself with the language. Eventually he was able to recognize words without translation. Chinese characters are composed of radicals and follow a stroke order, like puzzles, which helped him learn the over 30,000 characters.

1. Learning Chinese American
Style with
Pedro S. Silva II

2. Like most Americans my first
exposure to Chinese was in
Karate movies and Chinese food
restaurants. All I knew was that
the food was good and I wished
I had moves like Bruce Lee. So
when I went into the military I
took a few martial arts classes. I
did alright, but I’m no Jackie
Chan.

3. One day, I found out I had an opportunity to
take a language skills test. This test could tell
you how good you were at learning languages.
I decided to take it and when I got my score
back they said I could learn any language. I
asked for Hebrew or Arabic. The military gave
me Chinese.

4. For many people learning a
foreign languages can be pretty
difficult. Many say that it is
because of the difference in the
sounds and grammar patterns.
But from my experience, I think
that the major difference is the
culture or the way of thinking.
Tortoise Shell

5. China has a culture and The American Culture
 
history that goes back that we know didn’t
over 4,500 years. really begin until after
Archaeologists have the Revolutionary War
uncovered primitive in 1776. And though
characters written on the English language
the back of tortoise had been around a
shells that are 3,000 while, the culture that
years old or more. A lot effects the way we use it
can happen in that time. is still developing.

6. EVEN THOUGH THESE DAYS IT SEEMS
THAT THE TWO COUNTRIES HAVE A LOT
MORE IN COMMON

7. The first obvious difference is that the Chinese

language doesn’t use an alphabet. Originally
they used pictures that have evolved into the
characters we see today. For instance, the sun
was written as , the moon as , water was
written as , and so forth.

8. The second major difference is the sounds.

Chinese only has about 400 distinct sounds
(English has 12,000). That means that the same
sounds get repeated a lot of times, but can
mean a lot of different things. For example the
sound “xiang” could mean:
● To think
● A Countryside
● Rubber tree or even
● Elephant

9. One way to tell the
difference in what someone
is saying is to listen for the
tones. Chinese sounds
have four pitched tones and
one that is neutral. One is
high. The second is
medium. The third is low
and the fourth is a falling
tone. It can mean the
difference between words
like mother (mā) and horse
(mă).

10. Pinyin was developed in order for foreigners to

learn to pronounce Chinese sounds. So if I
wanted to say, “The teacher is going to school.”
in Chinese, I would pronounce it as:
Lǎoshī yào qù xuéxiào.
The Chinese characters for that sentence are:

老师 要 去 学校。

11. The other way to identify what someone is
saying is by listening for context. If someone is
hungry, would it make more sense to offer
them :
A B
or
shuì jiào = sleep
shuǐ jiǎo = dumplings

12. When I was learning Chinese I found that the
best way to learn it was to teach my mind to
first get familiar with:
The sounds.

The pronunciation

The characters

The culture

You’ll notice that I didn’t mention meaning. I
figured if babies could learn a language
without dictionary definitions, so could I.

13. I started my Chinese self study by:
 Listening to tapes in Chinese,
 Reading lessons in pinyin out loud
 Copying characters
I never really tried to understand. I just kept
familiarizing myself with Chinese until it no
longer felt foreign to me. Eventually I
recognized sounds and characters. This was
laying a foundation.

14. Chinese Characters are composed of smaller
characters called radicals and are written out in
a certain stroke order. Some examples are:
刀 quot;knife“

心 quot;heart“

人 quot;man“

手 quot;hand“

水 quot;water“

火 quot;firequot;


15. There are 214 radicals in all and they range from 1
stroke to 17 strokes. Like a puzzle, if you put
different combinations together you can write all
30,000 Chinese Characters.
一丨丶丿乙亅二亠人儿入八冂冖冫几凵刀力勹匕匚
匸十卜卩厂厶又口囗土士夊夊夕大女子宀寸小 尢尸
屮山巛工己巾乡广廴廾弋弓彐彡彳心戈戶手支攴文
斗斤方无日曰月木欠止歹殳毋比毛氏 气水火爪父爻
爿片牙犬玄玉瓜瓦甘生用田疋疒癶白皮目矛矢石示
禸禾穴立竹米糸缶网羊羽老而 耒耳聿肉臣自至臼舌
舛舟艮色艸虍虫血行衣襾見角言谷豆豕豸貝赤走足
身車辛辰辵邑酉釆里金長 門阜隶隹雨靑非面革韦韭
音頁凬飛食首香馬骨高髟鬥鬯鬲鬼魚鳥鹵鹿麦麻黃
黍黑黹黽鼎鼓鼠鼻齊

16. Bright
Sun + Moon =
Good
Woman + Child =

17. With these basics, you
will be able to get
started on teaching
yourself basic Chinese.
It just takes a little
discipline and an open
mind. Just remember
that an open mind is
like a door. It works
both ways. So if you
don’t keep what you
learn in, it will walk
right back out.