You may have seen the terms “Mandarin”, “Chinese” and “Pinyin” on your son’s report and wondered “What is the difference between Mandarin and Chinese?” “What is Pinyin?”

The Chinese language is an interesting language. It can be divided into Chinese spoken languages and Chinese written languages. Different areas/regions have different dialects. While Mandarin Chinese is considered an official spoken language in many countries and areas, some of us may pick up Cantonese, the second most spoken Chinese language, without realising it. For example, you have probably learnt to greet people with “Gong Hei Fat Choy” from various media during the Lunar New Year period; you have been to “Yum Cha”; or you have eaten the green veggie called “Bok Choy”.

The Chinese written language has two forms: traditional and simplified. At school we learn to write in simplified Chinese mainly because they have less strokes, however, students have the opportunity to appreciate the aesthetic value of traditional characters and learn about origin of the Chinese characters (aka Hanzi). Traditional characters are like “living linguistic fossils” as these characters have been used for many thousand of years.

Year 2 student, Lachlan, prepared a brilliant illustration to summarise the elements involved in the written Chinese language.

There is no doubt that the Chinese language is very different from languages based on the Roman alphabet. Some boys may find it a bit daunting and feel anxious about learning Chinese. As I always say to the boys, you are not just learning a new language, you are also learning how to be resilient; to have courage to deal with unfamiliar situations; to build your problem-solving skills by observing and maybe finding a pattern or two; to be kind and empathetic towards people and, most importantly, to learn not to give up before you give it a good go!

Top 10 languages in Australia 2016

Extra resource you can use during school holiday: Hello! Huayu Volume 1