Global Chinese

How to Study Chinese ?

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:05:54 GMT

This textbook will assume that you have no prior knowledge of Chinese, but are willing to take Chinese as a serious subject of study. Each lesson contains a combination of new vocabulary and new grammar in a gradual progression, building on previous lessons.

Each lesson should be appropriate for a week’s worth of daily classes, so don’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of material per lesson. Learning to write new characters will probably be your limiting factor, so split up the memorization of a lesson’s characters over two or three days and use class time mostly for work on grammar and speaking skills.

Lesson Sections

Each lesson consists of five parts:

1. Dialogue. Here you will see a dialogue carried out by two or more people. All texts are given in 4 versions: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Hanyu Pinyin, and an English translation.

2. Grammar. This section breaks down all of the new sentence structures introduced in the dialogue and shows example sentences to reinforce them.

3. Vocabulary. New vocabulary for the lesson, with translation and pronunciation. Every newly introduced character will be linked to an image or animation showing its stroke order.

4. Examples. A page of sentences and phrases giving more examples based on the lesson material.

5. Exercises. Questions and activities to test comprehension of the material. May be used as homework or as review material for lesson exams.

Speaking and Pronunciation

1. Learn pinyin. Not only is it used throughout this book to explain proper pronunciation, it is needed to look up words in dictionaries and for typing in Chinese.

2. Pay attention to the tones. Since there are so few syllables in Chinese, there are many homonyms, making attention to tones very important. Learning to write the pinyin with correct tones at the same time as you learn the characters will improve your pronunciation and your listening comprehension.

3. Read the text aloud. Speaking (and hearing yourself speaking) will help reinforce the text in your memory. Exaggerating the tones can help you remember them.

4. Find a language partner. There may be a Chinese Language club in a nearby city or university. There are also free sites on the internet that can help set you up with a language exchange using Skype or other VoIP programs. Two examples are The Mixxer and E-Tandem.

5. Listen to Chinese media. A wide variety of multimedia options exist for exposing your ears to native Chinese speaking. Internet radio stations and newscasts can be found in Chinese, as well as an increasing number of Chinese movies and television shows. Youtube has an excellent variety of modern Chinese television , just check with a native Chinese speaker to make sure what you hear is actually the Chinese you want to learn, and not a special dialect or different language altogether!

Reading and Writing

1. Practice writing — a lot. When you study, write each character at least ten times, or more if you still have trouble remembering them. Quiz yourself periodically to test your memory and to find which characters you need more practice on. As you write, think of the sound and meaning of the character, or say it out loud. Check out the East Asian Calligraphy book for more help with Chinese writing. Learn the right stroke order initially and write carefully, looking at the printed character each time before copying. Actually writing is important to establish a ‘motor memory’ of each character, allowing your writing to flow easily once you get started.

2. Use a flashcard program. Many people use flash cards memorize information, but there’s often much time wasted reviewing what you already know well, or in relearning what you didn’t review in time to refresh your memory. The free programs Anki and Mnemosyne (Windows/Mac/Linux), can optimize your review schedule to be more efficient. It can also handle audio for pronunciation help and 3-sided cards to study reading, writing and translation separately. You can download free cardsets, export your own, or write your own for the most personal benefit and to fully customize your character selection.

3. Look for radicals. Radicals are components of Chinese characters that you will see repeated over and over again. Learning the meaning of radicals will help you to see the connections between similar categories of words. Many characters are comprised of radical-phonetic pairings, where the radical is the "root” that hints at the meaning of the word, while another part of the character hints at the sound of the word. Learning to spot radicals is also useful as they are used when looking up unfamiliar words in Chinese dictionaries.

4. Buy a dictionary. Useful for looking up new words or just browsing. Get a beginner’s dictionary so that you can have a larger font, usage examples and Pinyin pronunciation, all of which are sometimes missing in comprehensive dictionaries. Get a second dictionary later on if you can’t find every word you need. A good choice that provides many example sentences and phrases would be The Starter Oxford Chinese Dictionary (sorry, Simplified version only).

Why Learn Chinese?

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:51:14 GMT

There are many reasons!

First, Chinese is the language of Nearly 1/4 of the World's Population. Speakers of Chinese not only live in China, Taiwan, and Singapore, but also spread throughout Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe, where large Chinese communities congregate. Chinese people today have been playing increasingly important roles worldwide.

Second, learning Chinese is an extraordinary and agreeable experience through which you can immerse yourself in a different culture. Unlike most languages, Chinese has a unique ideographic writing system, which provides visual comprehensibility. The grammatical structure of Chinese is not only logical, but also pragmatic, related to the particular way of Chinese thinking. Knowledge of the written language opens up the culture of one of the world's oldest civilizations.

Third, traditional Chinese culture, from Confucianism and Chan Buddhism to martial arts and Chinese cuisine, has an enormous influence on East and Southeast Asian nations. Chinese culture has also greatly inspired the western world through Marco Polo, G. W. Leibniz, Max Weber, Franz Kafka, Andre Malraux, Bertolt Brecht, Ezra Pound, and Luis Borges, among others.

Forth, Travel. China is also a popular tourist destination, with many individuals frequently visiting the country and spending some time getting familiar with their tradition culture.

Fifth, Food. To taste delicious food. China's local dishes have their own typical characteristics.

Last, but not least, the People's Republic of China currently boasts the fastest growing economy in the world and is widely regarded as the potentially biggest global market in the twenty-first century. Proficient speakers of Mandarin Chinese will find jobs in various fields such as business, government, international relations, information technology, tourism, education, translation and much, much more. Of all foreign languages at American universities and colleges, Chinese shows the highest proportional increase in enrollment. Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center, on the other hand, provides Chinese class at flexible schedule for working adults at reasonable rates.

And, of course, Business Opportunities. With China emerging as a worldwide economy giant, groups all over the world are working together with the country to carry out business together, especially in this current Western world finical crisis.most non-Chinese speaking individuals prefer to study Chinese as an international language with the direct anticipation of broad career breaks and business expansion.

What is Chinese?

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:35:58 GMT

What is Chinese?

The term Chinese is applied to many different forms of communication. In a broad sense, the word refers to an entire set of dialects spoken by inhabitants of China AND the written symbolic language shared by all Chinese. In another sense, Chinese could mean specifically the written characters. Many of the dialects could well be considered languages in their own right.

Mandarin Chinese
Many people refer to Mandarin when they say "Chinese". Since the Chinese government declared Mandarin the national language, the majority of the Chinese population has learned this dialect. Because Mandarin is the official language, it is referred to by many as Putonghua 普通話 ("the common speech"). In Taiwan, it is normally referred to as 國語. (guoyu "national language"). Mandarin is spoken natively by more people than any other single language.

Cantonese Chinese
This is the second most commonly recognized dialect of Chinese. It is spoken in Canton (Guangzhou) and a large part of Southeast China. In Hong Kong, Cantonese is the primary language. The Mandarin dialect is not spoken by a majority of the people there. Cantonese is also prevalent in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, among Chinese communities throughout the world."How are you?"

Written Chinese
China is divided into dozens of ethnic communities and by scores of dialects. Every province has its own local speech. Only this century has their been a common language imposed on the nation. Yet the common written language unifies the varied people and different dialects. Although they would pronounce it differently, people from different provinces understand the same character to mean the same thing and use the same character combinations to form complex ideas. Chinese is an idea based written system. Each individual character is a separate morpheme (unit of meaning), rather than a sound. Counting older forms there are over 100,000 Chinese characters. Over 10,000 of these are in modern use. Compare that to from between 16 and 60 symbols to memorize in most phonetic alphabets. While generally each Chinese symbol has an individual meaning, most characters must be paired with other characters to form "words."

Simplified and Traditional Writing
There are two forms of Chinese writing: Traditional and Simplified. Because learning Chinese requires years of study, a large percentage of the Chinese population was illiterate. After the Chinese Cultural Revolution, many of the new government leaders decided that the current writing system was too difficult. To make learning easier, they created an alternate character set by modifying traditional characters to make them easier to write. The new simplified characters have been gaining popularity, particularly in mainland China. Traditional Chinese characters are still very wide-spread, until recently both Hong Kong and Taiwan used traditional characters almost exclusively. More and more publications are using simplified characters, but there are many works available only in traditional.

17 Language Learning Tips

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:27:54 GMT

#1 Divide Your Learning Material Into Small Pieces

Which would be easier to memorize?

1. 1000 words of a story

2. Ten short stories of 100 words each

The answer is number two, as you might have been able to guess. People learn excellently by taking in little snippets of information. We then organize them internally into what we perceive to be sensible ways, then establish externally what we have understood. As we incorporate additional pieces of information the mind will link, collate and correlate this information into what has been previously learned.

#2 Combine The Natural And Methodical Learning Approaches

This is actually not a complicated task if handled efficiently, and despite what you might think, learning a language does not need to be expensive, although it can be if you have the means. The speediest way to learn a language is certainly by going to the particular country that speaks that language, but not everyone can do this. There are still many ways to improve your learning without taking a costly trip abroad.

Children have the ability to learn a number of languages. There is a common idea at the moment that if we can only learn to immerse ourselves in the same way that our children do when confronted with the daunting task of learning a language, then we will learn more efficiently. This is the natural method. It is how everyone learns language when they are young. In contrast to this is the methodical learning approach, which is how we are taught in school, in classrooms with direct instruction.

Each individual will have a different learning style that he or she prefers, so by integrating both kinds of learning, you can put yourself at an advantage. You can learn naturally, by purchasing a course that promises "immersion” or by speaking to native individuals, and methodically by enrolling in a traditional class.

#3 Always Carry A Dictionary!

This can be a bit of a hassle, and you might need to get a hold of a slightly larger bag than what you are used to, but it is certainly worth it. A pocket dictionary, or even a phrasebook/dictionary combination if you really don’t have the space, can conveniently slip into a bag or a pocket.

If you are travelling, and you come across a word or a phrase you don’t know, take out your dictionary and look up the word. Linking the place to the phrase will concrete it much more firmly into your mind. It seems like a simple thing to do, but it really works.

You can also apply this to walking around your local area. You can pick random items or places and look up how to say them in the language that you are learning. This links the object or scenario you are looking at with the word itself, and is invaluable in forcing your mind to fluently combine the word with the item. You can also carry a notebook around to record your freshly learned words.

#4 Go To The Cinema!

Watching foreign films is one of the easiest ways to immerse yourself into a culture without actually travelling to that country. It might be difficult locally for you to find films in the language that you want to learn, but there are plenty of websites where you can purchase these quite easily, such as the BFI website.

However, do not put the subtitles on, even if you are not able understand anything at all yet, because you will begin to concentrate solely on the subtitles and will not achieve anything from the experience. You will be surprised at how quickly you will pick some words up, and if you are really having difficulty, watching in a group can be a great way to learn as you will all be watching and trying to deduce the language. It can make a difficult task a little more fun.

However, subtitles can sometimes be helpful for learners who already advanced their learning and desire to learn the precise idiomatic meanings of some sayings. Being able to notice the discrepancies in language is part of what is wonderful about being able to speak fluently. This is a great tool in increasing your listening comprehension. Begin with a small part of the film. Listen very well and then repeat the scene over and over again until the time you comprehend every word. The next step is to imitate exactly how the words were spoken, and voila! You have your very own mini language course, and you didn’t have to pay more than the price of a movie for it!

#5 Read Newspapers

There are various ways to acquire literature in foreign languages, and many papers will have their own websites for you to buy from. Libraries are also a great place to find archived material of this kind.

If you find newspapers to be a little difficult, try a magazine. If you find a magazine to be a little difficult, try a comic book. Comic books are excellent since they are very conversational, and aimed at a younger audience. Still, once you feel you have mastered comic books, progress your way up to newspapers, and always keep your dictionary on hand.

#6 Write Letters

If you lack the confidence to write to an actual person, writing letters is still a great way to practice a more relaxed tone of voice. You will need to know new words and to think about how best to say things in the language. As soon as you begin writing the everyday things that happen as you would do in a diary, you will able to look back on how you are progressing. Your writing will enhance if you stick with it, and it will be fun to look back on how much you have progressed when you have become fluent.

#7 Think In The Language

Try to think as much as you can in the chosen second language. It sounds like a pretty difficult task, but bear with it. This is greatly important as one of the greatest issues when studying to speak a foreign language is the habit to actively translate from your language to another, instead of thinking automatically in the other language. This will ready you to become more confident and comfortable when faced with the chance to actually speak in the other language. If you will practice it regularly, it will gradually become much more natural to you.

#8 Flashcards

These are very effective in studying another language. A mere ten seconds of your spare time is enough for a quick exam; pick a card and memorize the word for a term. Return to it at intervals and see how long you can remember it for.

There are many ways to prepare flashcards, from pictorial to just the words in your native language that you will then have to translate. You can buy flashcards, but the act of making them yourself is also beneficial to learning.

Don’t tell yourself that you cannot make time for this because it’s just so easy to do! Keep in mind that the next moment you go online, at the grocery store, bank, doctor’s office or anywhere, you can make sure of the words that you have learned. Even if you don’t have time for a class or to learn at home, you can certainly do this.

#9 Read read read!

While magazines and newspapers are constructed to be grammatically correct, books can often focus more on speech between characters, colloquialisms and practical knowledge about a culture. Read everything, from websites to signs to poetry to books, and you will soon find that the skills you are picking up in the lessons are being transferred to your reading ability. However, you should be interested in the content. It’s much easier to focus on something that you enjoy, than something you feel is boring.

#10 Audio

If you have a language course that does not contain an audio component, then you should acquire one. That sounds a little prescriptive, but people respond very well to listening to a language. Listening to the language is a critical aspect of studying if you plan to actually speak it. This is also one of the easiest ways to become comfortable with a language; even if you can’t understand what is being spoken, you will still be picking up pronunciation and inflection.

#11 Online Radio

When you follow the mentioned tips, give yourself some time to absorb the latest language you learned. Radio will provide you the chance to be exposed to the latest vocabulary and new content on a regular basis. Do not overdo it with your single audio CD, but combine your present audio with other kinds of sources like radio. Not only will you start to pick up the language a little easier, but you can get involved with the culture via non-verbal ways, such as discovering what music is popular at the moment.

#12 Regular Contact

This is potentially the most important rule when studying different languages, and in a sense what most of these tips are about. You must be able to expose yourself to the chosen language daily if you have time. Learning for 10 minutes daily is better compared when you cram for 1 hour, once or twice a week. Frequent reviews of your learning, even for just a few minutes at a time are some of the most helpful things you can do for yourself.

#13 Pen pals

There are many pen pal services for foreign language speakers that you can join up to these days, as well as the immense social tool of the internet for engaging with speakers of other languages, so you can easy practice your writing skills AND make sure that you are comprehensible to a native speaker. They can assist you, and in return you can help them to learn a little of your language, if they would like. There are various free websites and forums that are accessible for you to discover other individuals that will be glad to help you.

#14 Study with Other Individuals

Practice with other peers so you can get their feedback and interactivity. You will not be able to get this personal interaction when reading only books and listening to audio software. Most people find that a slight element of competition, combined with the actual ability to speak out loud to another person in a language, can really help your learning. You can do this with local classes, or even using online tools such as Skype. Dating sites that offer friends only options can also be a great way to meet other people studying the same way you are.

#15 Have Fun While Learning

This might seem like a little bit of a vague point, but that’s because it really does depend on the individual. Even if you yourself have chosen to learn a language, forcing yourself to study alone for an hour a day, just repeating the same phrases over and over, won’t do anything to help you appreciate the language. Putting language learning aside for a moment, ask yourself what you find enjoyable. Is it music? Try listening to songs in the language you are learning. Is it being active? Try going for a run with the audio playing on your mp3 player. Do you enjoy puzzles? Look for websites with free language games. You have to ensure that you are enjoying the time when you are studying another language. Be sure that you are having fun while learning!

#16 Mistakes Are Good!

Don’t be stressed out if you can’t recall, or misspell, some of the phrases or words that you think you have learned. Mistakes are a positive part of learning, and are absolutely necessary in order to advance. In fact, sometimes learning from a mistake instead of learning the word the first time, will make that word stick a little easier in your head because you have spent more time on it. Gradually, everything will fall into place!

#17 Take your Time

Assign enough time to study another language. Set the number of hours that you will use during the week for studying, and stick to them! If you are still in school, or you are working in an office, you just don’t the pressure on yourself. Take the time to learn slowly and steadily, and this new language will be something positive you can keep for the rest of your life.

10 Reasons to Learn a Second Language !

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:07:47 GMT

An increasing number of software applications, websites and electronic equipments are now manufactured in order to teach foreign languages. It’s becoming a booming industry, with more people than ever buying packs that promise to teach you a new language.

So what’s this excitement all about? Is there a need to learn another language? What can you get out of it? Let’s take a look at some of the positive aspects of learning a second language.

#1 Job Advantages

You will certainly have an edge if you know more than one language. A lot of companies and governments make it a necessity for their employees to speak a second language, and even more businesses require at least one person who is able to communicate to countries such as China, Japan, or Saudi Arabia. In officially bilingual countries such as Canada, if you can speak English and French, you will certainly have opportunities to advance within your field that might not be available to someone with only the one language.

Communication is becoming one of the most important assets to a business, in this increasingly global economy. Even if you do not end up becoming fluent in your chosen language of study, the understanding of a culture that often comes with immersing yourself into a subject can also give you an edge in the work place. Being able to breach cultural differences is a vital part of maintaining international relations, not only in business but in government, teaching and the charity sector.

So having the skill of knowing a second language can not only increase your odds on getting a job, but could advance your career in the process. Depending on your level of fluency, learning a second language might even open some career doors to you that you may not have considered before, such as working directly in translation, or becoming a language professor yourself. There is a lot more freedom to choose your own career path when you have a desired skill set such as this.

#2 Travelling

To Other Countries Visiting a foreign country can be exciting, but can also be frustrating. You want to dive into the culture, but you’re not quite sure what you’re doing, what the rules of politeness are, or even how to ask for something. It’s an unfortunate fact that most of us will do little more than buy a phrasebook at the airport, become irritated when we can’t get the pronunciation, and abandon the endeavor. Learning a language, even just a few key phrases correctly, is immeasurable in increasing the enjoyment of travelling abroad.

Not only is there a sense of accomplishment from successfully interacting with another person in a strange land, but local people will see you at least attempting to communicate with them and respect their country enough to try to speak the language, and most likely warm to you as a result. Even though there are plenty of people that will speak English in the larger cities around the world, don’t let this be an excuse for laziness on your part!

#3 World Relations

While this can have very much to do with finding work, as was mentioned previously, the fact remains that if you have your own business, building global relationships is probably one of the most vital aspects you can engage in.

The world at present is a medley of languages and cultures, with many countries struggling to maintain their own national identity under the weight of English being spoken nearly everywhere, and many countries adopting a Western method of dress and work ethic. By speaking the language of a country, you can not only help to bridge the gap between cultures, but help to show your respect for their heritage simultaneously.

#4 Personal Gratification

So you’ve travelled, become successful within your career, or perhaps started a family. Perhaps this is the right time to attempt a fresh challenge. Often, with age, wisdom or experience, when people feel that they have accomplished all that they set out to achieve, they can become stagnant in their own lives. Learning a language is certainly an impressive intellectual achievement, and one with a clear goal to work towards.

If you are looking for something satisfying and challenging, studying another language is among the greatest intellectual achievements that a person can have on a personal level. It is like solving a complicated puzzle, only at the end of learning you don’t just have a completed puzzle, you have a skill that will last you a lifetime.

The speed at which you take your learning is entirely up to you. From night classes to courses you can buy to study at home, the learning procedure While it certainly is a difficult road, often anything worth doing is something that will test your cognitive, physical or intellectual measure. The satisfaction gained from being able to speak to someone in their own language is incalculable.

#5 Understanding Your Own Language

Learning a new language also helps to keep your mind sharp, as you will obviously have to focus on learning an entirely new set of words, but you also have to rediscover your first language.

It’s an aspect of learning another language that most people do not think much about, but studying another language does provide you with a much enhanced understanding of English. Familiarity with English grammar, verb tenses, vocabulary and sentence creation is often much improved when you start to engage with another language.

#6 Finding The Root Of Your Language

This is perhaps a positive point aimed for more scholarly people, but when you begin to learn a language you will start to see that there are similarities between it and your own. This is the case for the majority of languages. Historical factors such as invasion, war, and the marriages of royalty have brought two cultures together, and the languages that they each used have been altered by the other.

English, for example, is greatly composed of Old German, Old French, Greek and Latin as well as, albeit to a lesser degree, many other cultures. By engaging with another language, you can perhaps start to examine the origins of your own words. Learning a second language can be a fascinating history lesson.

#7 Artistic Understanding

Art works, such as novels, poetry or plays, frequently cannot be admired, or even understood to their full extent, when translated from their original language. This is particularly apparent when reading translations of poetry. Poems are so heavily constructed within their native language, that it is inevitable that some, perhaps all of the meaning is lost in the translation.

For example, in a play or book, if one wishes to announce that they are hungry, it is most likely that the character is hungry. There may be subtle nuances of meaning involved, but due to the nature of the work, it is unlikely to signify much more than that. Within poetry, however, due to the restrictions of space and therefore language, every word is chosen deliberately and carefully in order to create a complete idea.

Even the form of the poem is distorted when it is translated, because most languages cannot translate directly. Other words and phrases must be substituted, which can dramatically alter the art work. It’s like watching a film with subtitles; you know that you’re not getting the whole message of the piece, because the words are cut down to their simplest meaning. Being able to understand the original language along with its delicate subtleties and tones will allow the reader a higher appreciation of the creator of the work.

#8 To Refresh Your Intellect

Adults can take advantage from the brain motivation generated by language training. Language learning can help an individual to become more resourceful and creative when encountering complicated problem solving.

Studying another language to fluency necessitates memorizing and comprehending many thousands of fresh words and ideas, which presents your intellect with a great training for future instances where memorizing is highly needed. After learning a foreign language, you can apply those learning skills to other situations such as information absorption for taking examinations.

Through studying a second language, the brain is stimulated not only within the spectrum of the language itself, but in many other parts of the brain. Seniors who deal with foreign language demonstrate enhanced brain function for many years after a complex cognitive process such as learning another language. Likewise, students who study foreign languages in their childhood years are not only equipped with the language skills for the rest of the lives, but can develop in creative and organizational ways as well.

#9 A Different Perspective

There is some fascinating divergence in the way that different languages approach certain subjects. For example, English is among the few languages that mentions "creating” money. In a majority of the languages, the verb applied is "to take” or "to gain” or "to get”. These influence the approaches that people can take in regards to money, and give you a little more insight into cultural understanding.

In Spanish, you do not say that you are thirsty, cold or afraid, for example. "I am afraid” becomes literally "I have fear” or in the Spanish "yo tengo miedo”. The way that an individual understands emotions and relates to them internally can be a vital part of understanding not only the individual themselves but their entire culture. This can be so important in figuring out how to approach a person or business, not only in your personal life but in business as well.

#10 Improved Understanding Through A Language

Through learning a second (or third or fourth!) language, you attain not just the ability to converse and communicate in that language, but you will be possessed with the capability to comprehend other things more efficiently. For example, the German term "zeitgeist”, which is the prospective and taste of a generation or period, is a great word to use for this specific situation, and is also in relatively common use around the world. By learning a new language, you can open your mind up to a new way of thinking and understanding.

What is Language ?

GlobalChinese — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:33:13 GMT

Language is simply two entities utilizing their range of expressive behavior to communicate with each other. Normally, these entities are people, but in a restricted sense, an individual can apply language in order to be in touch with their computer or pet, for example. However, person-to-person language is exceptional that it is imaginatively diverse, with an endless number of methods that can convey an infinite number of ideas. Language is fascinating, and the study of a language even more so.

For example, one person is talking and the other is paying attention. The speaker has several concepts in his mind that he desires to express to the other individual. He subconsciously translates this thought to a message that he believes will be comprehended by his peer. In linguistics, you call this process "encoding”. He forwards this message to his peer, who acquires it and is hopefully able to translate it back into the concept that his peer wants to express, a procedure known as "decoding”. Encoding happens during writing and speaking, while decoding happens during reading and hearing.

The message from the speaker to the hearer is in fact made up of three portions, the three main constituents of language. These are the sound system, grammar and dictionary. The dictionary, also termed as lexicon when in reference to an individual’s vocabulary, is the storehouse of words (lexemes) that an individual has in their brain. In fact, it is more than just a list of simple words as a lexicon contains meanings, grammatical functions, cultural applications and a lot more. The term "encyclopedia” could be used synonymously as well.

Grammar pertains to the arrangement that the words arrive in (syntax), the origins of the components of the word, suffixes (morphology) and prefixes, and also the method that the paragraphs and sentences are combined to structure longer passages (dialogue analysis). The sound system (phonology) in a language consists of the physical symbolization and visibility of terms and sentences that journey from the lips of the speaker towards the ear of the listener. In reading and writing, the sound system is frequently symbolized by some type of alphabet.

Two individuals who speak the same language have, fundamentally, the same dictionary, sound system and grammar in their brains, allowing a fair and even encoding and decoding. This is to the point that these constituents vary, for instance, an English speaker coming from South East portion of the US and an English speaker all the way from New Zealand. Their communication process will be more complicated and will necessitate some effort on the part of both the speaker and listener. At times the listener may need to request for clarification and sometimes the speaker will need to modify their speech to be able to become more comprehensible.

This goes for the speakers of two different languages, as well. If they speak languages which are associated with each other (as in the same language group) such as Spanish and French, then they deal with some common characteristics in their mental sound systems, grammars and dictionaries. However, this is insufficient for them to totally communicate with one another. But, due to the commonality between these languages, one can study a language that is association to his mother tongue much quicker and conveniently than a person who will learn a completely foreign language with no historical involvement with their own. For instance, Arabic and Korean share nearly nothing in their words of the dictionary and almost nothing in regards to grammar, and they have greatly dissimilar sound systems. So for a Korean who attempts to learn Arabic, it is more difficult.

The entire prospect of learning a completely foreign language is not lost, but due to the entire languages having great similarities, these things are what the linguists describe as language universals. Linguists argue whether these language universals are things that are natural to human intellect (you might be familiar with Noam Chomsky’s argument for this) or whether these are an outcome of our similar existences and familiarities in the world. Any person who has studied a first language during his childhood has the ability to understand a second language whether you are a child or an adult, although aging seems to reduce a person’s capability for total fluency in another language.

This setting starts to clarify what it means to study another language. To study the sound system, grammar and dictionary of a language, and to be able to appropriately encode and decode points, are of infinite import in becoming truly fluent in a language, whether that language is your first or tenth.