Chinese Link Words

Using a special technique will enable you to learn a hundred new words a day! See some examples on this blog.

Basically it is all about linking pronunciation of words in the target language with a language you already know. Thus making the new words a lot easier to remember.

Actually almost everyone I know is doing just that when they hear a new word. "Oh! That sounds just like ..." they say. The sad thing is though, that they soon forget the word again. So how can one make new words stay in one's head, ready for uttering?

Impress the word into your brain. Have your brain work with the new word. Create pictures in your mind using that word, use your imagination.

All right! That will be the theory for now.

1) Find similarities between pronunciation of the word in Chinese with ANY word in English, or whatever language you prefer.

I think I would better tell you, that there are quite a few sounds in Mandarin Chinese that I personally would never be able to link to any sounds I know from other languages. This part will indeed test your imagination skill.

2) Construct an imaginable situation that can be described using a sentence containing the word's meaning in English, AND the words pronunciation in English. Preferably have the English meaning positioned in the beginning of the sentence.

IMPORTANT: Do your utmost to imagine the situation, that is what will make this thing work!

WARNING: This way of remembering new words does NOT quite promote correct pronunciation! You will actually have to pay extra attention to how you pronounce real Chinese words. Go to the page for the Standard Mandarin software, it will help you to improve your pronunciation.

We want to learn the word for Acid in Mandarin Chinese, the pronunciation would be written "suan1" with pinyin.

"Suan1" in pinyin sounds a bit like "swan" doesn't it?

If you are in doubt about the pronunciation of any pinyin syllable, you can always use Standard Mandarin to pronounce it for you.

Note; swan has nothing to do with suan1, yet!

Here comes the interesting part: "Imagine a lake of acid, into which a beautiful swan falls!" That is our linkword sentence.

Please do imagine this situation. When you have imagined the situation and said the sentence a few times with emphasis on the keywords (acid and swan/suan1), then you will be able to remember how to say acid in Chinese for a long time.

When you think of "acid", and you want to say it in Chinese, then you automatically start thinking of images you have had earlier in your mind related to acid. After that comes up the sentence you had linked to your imagined situation, what was it again? "Imagine a lake of acid, into which a beautiful swan falls!". So "swan", or "suan1" rather, means "acid" in Chinese.

Try it! And do follow the advice given here. You don't need to work harder, but to achieve better results you need to work smarter.

A few more examples can be found in a more casual style on my blog.