When I tell people that I can write and speak fluent Chinese, they usually respond, “That’s impossible. Isn’t Chinese the hardest language in the world?” I tell them that one thing makes Mandarin Chinese easy to learn: there are so many people to practice with!

In Internet usage,China maybe has already surpassed the US. One estimation says that around 200 million people in China are on the ‘net (that’s more surfers than the US, but still only 1/6 of the Chinese population). Many of these Chinese Internet surfers are curious about the outside world and they are eager to make friends with foreigners. All you need is a place to meet online.

Once you find Chinese friends, Learning Chinese is a breeze. the first barrier to communication is gone because English is a required class through High School in China.

Chinese writing is one of the hardest barriers to crack when learning Chinese language. but because it is the Internet age,don’t worry about learning brush strokes. Pinyin is essentially the English alphabet,and most people use it to input Chinese characters on their computer on a normal keyboard. It’s just a matter of remembering how to spell the words, and Pinyin is much simpler than English spelling! Most computers already installed this input method as an option.

Recognizing characters is even easier, especially when you see them used in conversation. There are lots of dictionary websites where you can copy and paste Chinese characters, and see the meaning and pronunciation.  And if you have any questions on the meaning of a character, ask someone online. Finally, if you don’t feel like learning any characters, just chat in Pinyin (writing Chinese with the English alphabet) and you can concentrate on conversation skills, vocabulary, and cultural exchange.You’ll find that learning Chinese writing isn’t so difficult after all.

Tags: Learning chinese, learning chinese online, speaking chinese