Teaching the Chinese Language - Essay Example

This is too apparent that the United States is trying to incorporate teaching the Chinese language into their school curriculum. This has transformed into a language of the future and a valuable asset.

            Growing up, a child of Chinese background is expected to gain mastery of basic mathematical skills. This starts from the initiative of their parents and is strengthened as he goes to school. In multiplication, 45 easy-to-memorize phrases are taught to children (Rao, Chi, & Cheng, 2009). The Chinese have a highly developed language that extends to mathematics which makes it easier for children to gain knowledge of the subject. Unlike in other countries where children first have to learn English symbols and translate math concepts before they are able to comprehend arithmetic problems, they have their own counterpart to basic mathematical language that a child easily adapts it starting at their home. This subject, considered to be a problem area by many students, is something simple to the Chinese. This may actually also translate to why they are considered good businessmen.

            China has a longstanding history and culture that has allowed for the cultivation of its language into many forms in different regional variations. The structure of the Chinese language is very different from that of English. The most obvious of these differences is the writing style between the two languages. In English, one of the most basic learning activities is the mastery of the alphabet as this is the fundamental element in knowing how to pronounce and write words. While in Chinese, words are written in characters that represent each word. Although this has developed to have syllabic combinations in word production, writing is in essence an art that presupposes a great amount of knowledge to attain proficiency. This is because pictographs and ideographs are the most elementary in Chinese writing much like Nihongo of Japan.

Another quality of the language is that there are no particular verb tenses that develop which is a core characteristic of other languages. Phonology is an important parcel of its language. One of the most common types, Mandarin has four common tones which are rising, falling then rising, falling, and flat. There are also other dialects that have as many as nine varied tones (Carolyn, 2009). Subject-verb agreement is not necessary as the verb does not change accordingly. There is also no concept of singular and plural in the language. It is very tone-dependent as the pitch is a determinant of the proper conveyance. Because of the limited changes in morphology, the order of the sentence is ardently followed.