Whether an online or in-person Chinese class, finishing and completing your Chinese lessons in Singapore can give such a rewarding feeling. It is one of the most fulfilling languages to study. It also provides students benefits, such as career opportunities, competitive advantage, improved brain function, and others. However, it can be a challenging language to learn.

If you want to learn Mandarin online, here are some obstacles you must know to prepare yourself for what you will go through.

1. THE WRITING SYSTEM IS COMPLICATED.

When you take Chinese lessons in Singapore, one of the struggles is there are no easy workarounds. You will need to memorise two or three dozen letters. You will also need to learn 50,000 characters of Chinese, which takes more than a year to process. The process isn’t as quick as studying English, but when you learn Mandarin online, you’ll know every obstacle is worth it.

2. IT IS A TONAL LANGUAGE.

When you enrol in Chinese lessons in Singapore, you will also encounter the difficulty of its tones. Chinese has a tonal language, which means every word, vowel, and consonant has different intonation patterns.

3. THE WRITING SYSTEM IS NOT PHONETIC.

Lastly, another obstacle to encounter when you learn Mandarin online or in person is its writing system. In Chinese, they follow specific rules and patterns that can help differentiate a word from another. Some learners use a dictionary to help better understand how they should write words.

Taking Chinese is honestly a demanding language to learn. Whether Chinese, English, or Thai class in Singapore, studying a new language is really challenging. However, it can be a doable task if you have enough determination, will, and motivation.

Ready to take a step towards learning Chinese lessons in Singapore? Stanford Language Centre offers Skillsfuture in Chinese and Skillsfuture language courses. Learn more about their programmes on their site!