Mandarin Chinese is the main language in Mainland China and is used on a day to day basis by more than 50% of the population. While there are a number of dialects spoken throughout Chinese provinces, the number of users of Mandarin Chinese is constantly growing, along with the growing status that now recognizes Mandarin as China’s official national language.

People right across the world learn spoken mandarin for a variety of reasons including to improve their chances of employment, to help them negotiate internal business agreements or to enhance their travel experiences. While in the past, you may have been concerned about which Chinese language to learn and master, take heart that Mandarin is the second language of over 40 million people of Chinese descent throughout the world and so it is the natural choice when it comes to deciding to learn Chinese.

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Each province, each city and even each village speaks their own dialect. There are hundreds of Chinese dialects in China so much so that each dialect speaker is not likely to understand another dialect speaker from another village or city. Fortunately, Mandarin, the official dialect, is understood by all dialect speakers. Let’s learn a few useful basic and common Mandarin words and phrases that will help you break barriers with your Chinese friends.

How are You? -Ni Hao Ma

Also commonly shorten to Ni Hao.

This is likely to be the first Mandarin phrase that you will ever learn. Useful as a greeting or a ice-breaker. Suitable for use with all ages and professions.

Thank You -Xie Xie.

Another polite term that is easy to remember and use.

Very Good -Hen Hao.

This is useful when giving praise for a job or task well done. Also useful as a reply to anyone who says “Ni Hao Ma?’ to you.

Ni Hao Ma? (How are you?)

Hen Hao (Very Good)

No Good -Bu Hao.

This is useful when there is a need to comment on a shoddy or incomplete job or task. Can also be used as a reply to Ni Hao Ma? but may not be such a good reply.

Ni Hao Ma? (How are you?)

Bu Hao (No Good)

Chinese is a truly fascinating language to study and it is relatively simple to learn to speak Chinese at the fundamental level. Chinese is based on a simple structure language and character structure, and it uses varying tones to give different meanings to a word. As soon as you start to learn Chinese, you will realize though, that it is so much more than just a language though.

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