I realize that learning Chinese can be beneficial for various reasons.

It allows you to communicate with a

significant portion of the world's population, understand and appreciate ancient Chinese culture, and
potentially have better employment opportunities. While it may be considered a difficult language,
there are resources available and native speakers willing to help in your learning journey.

the first one is the Chinese phrases to express gratitude can help in establishing polite and personal
interactions. Adding the phrase "which means" after expressing gratitude makes it more heartfelt.
Additionally, I learned that the Romanization system called Pinyin is used to represent Mandarin Chinese
using the Roman alphabet, making pronunciation easier for learners. The lesson also introduced various
vowel and consonant sounds in Mandarin pronunciation, emphasizing the importance of proper
pronunciation through Pinyin.

and regarding with the tones play a crucial role in Chinese pronunciation. Each syllable is stressed with
one of the four different tones, which significantly affect the meaning of words. The first tone has a
steady high pitch, the second tone rises quickly from a middle pitch, the third tone goes down and then
rises to the middle pitch range, and the fourth tone falls sharply from a high pitch. Additionally, there is
also a neutral tone that is light and weak.

In terms of word order, both English and Chinese follow an SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) structure for basic
sentences. In English sentence "I ate an apple," we have subject (I), verb (ate), and object (an apple) in
that order. Similarly, in Chinese sentence "我吃了一个苹果" ("Wǒ chīle yíge píngguǒ"), we have subject
我 (wǒ), verb 吃了 (chīle), and object 一个苹果(yíge píngguǒ) following the same SVO structure.

Understanding these concepts helps us grasp some fundamental aspects of Mandarin pronunciation and
sentence construction.

and about placement of time phrases in Chinese sentences differs from English. In English, we typically
place the time phrase at the end of the sentence, while in Chinese, it comes after the subject. For
example, "I eat an apple every day" would be structured as "I every day eat an apple" in Chinese, with
the subject (I), time phrase (every day), verb (eat), and object (an apple) in that order.

Similarly, when adding place phrases to Chinese sentences, they are placed after the time phrase. For
instance, "I eat an apple every day at home" would be structured as "I every day at home eat an apple."
The order remains consistent: subject + time phrase + place phrase + verb + object.

Furthermore, I learned that negative sentences can be formed by using specific words or structures in
Mandarin; however, further information about constructing negative sentences was not provided.
is that Chinese characters play a crucial role in the language. Each character represents both sound and
meaning, with one or more syllables making up a word. While there are over fifty thousand characters in
Chinese, knowing around two to three thousand is considered literate.

The characters are composed of smaller components called radicals and phonetic elements. Radicals
provide hints about the meaning of a character, while phonetic elements indicate its pronunciation. By
learning these components, it becomes easier to recognize and write multiple characters at once.

Furthermore, I learned that most radicals appear on the left or bottom of a character and can give
insights into their meaning. Some commonly used radicals include "人" (person), "手" (hand), "口"
(mouth), "心" (heart), and many others. Identifying these radicals helps decode the meanings of new
characters.

It takes time and effort to memorize the pronunciations of phonetic elements but studying them will
eventually make it easier to read and understand Chinese characters.

Writing characters with incorrect stroke order can make them unreadable or difficult to understand.
Learning the correct number of strokes for each character is also important when using a radical-based
dictionary.

I also learned that Chinese characters are composed of radicals, which provide hints about their
meanings. Additionally, I gained knowledge about some common stroke patterns used when writing
characters.

Furthermore, I realized the significance of learning phrases expressing gratitude and apology in
Mandarin. These phrases are considered highly useful in daily conversations.

Lastly, I understood the importance of watching contemporary Chinese videos to improve

communication skills and learn real-life vocabulary and expressions. Different groups within Chinese
society have their own ways of speaking, including variations in vocabulary and tones based on gender
and age.