• Mandarin is a tonal language.  Words must be spoken at the right pitch to convey the correct meaning or be understood.
• Many Mandarin sounds are different than those of Western languages.
• The Chinese writing system is extremely difficult.

• Middle is written before sides
• From top to bottom.
• From left to right
  
• Horizontally strokes before vertically.
• Finish what inside the box before you close it.

• From outside to inside.

• Top left corner first.

• Boxes are written before strokes that cut through.
  

• If more than two vertical strokes two is written and then the cutting stroke and finally the last vertical stroke.

• Top left dot first, bottom right dot last.

• Top right dot is written last

A Few Tips On Learning Mandarin

• Use the language as much as possible.  Even when you can't speak but a few phrases, use those phrases.  Textbooks and websites are excellent sources of gaining new understanding and vocabulary, but finding a native speaker to practice with is essential for developing any real fluency.
• Think in the language.  This takes a long time to achieve, but it is the only true fluency.  As phrases and sentence patterns become natural to you, your mind will be capable of using that vocabulary and grammar in thinking.  If you want to increase your fluency you must force your mind to think in the language rather than your native tongue when studying.
• Consider putting off studying Chinese characters.  If your goal is oral fluency, you may wish to hold off on learning characters.  Chinese characters are a large investment in time.  If you only have a few months of study before you need to use your Chinese, you may want to budget all your time for learning how to speak and understand.  Characters will aid you in learning, but the time it takes to learn a sufficient amount of characters may be too high of a cost.  On the other hand, if you can wait for fluency, studying the characters parallel to your regular study is probably the most effective method.
• Constantly study and review.  Carry flashcards everywhere.  You can spend 5 minutes waiting in line doing nothing, or you can spend 5 minutes in line learning something you want to know.
• Concentrate when someone is talking to you in Chinese.It's easy to tune someone out and just pretend you are understanding once you get lost in a conversation.  Stick with it, it will increase your retentive ability.  If you do get lost, try to listen for words you know or ask them to repeat (if possible).
• When you get a headache, take a break.  When you feel unwell your ability to learn is decreased.  In fact, if you are studying hard you should take frequent breaks to keep your mind fresh.
• In Chinese, accuracy is better than large vocabulary.  If you know a lot of words but you say them wrong, it doesn't help much.  Practice the sounds and tones constantly.  Ask for correction.  Chinese people would rather not point out your mistakes and tend to emphasize how good you are doing.
• Correct yourself whenever you notice yourself make a mistake.  Repeat a new word or phrase until you get it right.  If you make a mistake while talking to someone else, stop yourself and say it right.  You may even wish to ask them to model the phrase for you if you feel that would be appropriate.
• Don't be shy.  Try to say what you can in the language, and if you get it wrong, explain until someone understands what you mean.  Then ask them how they'd say it.  Try to give the explanation in the language even if the person you speak to knows good English.
• Write new vocabulary down.Use the romanization as well as characters (if you are learning characters).  This will help you to listen and will give you good practice with the romanization system.  After you write it down, ask someone what the meaning is and give them the context you heard it in.  Then, review that new vocabulary when waiting around.
• Buy a good dictionary and a good language text.While using a language is the only way to get fluent, good literature can add lots of new vocabulary to practice.
• Spend at least 30 consecutive minutes a day studying the language, more if you're on a roll.

For any Westerns who want aserious studyof Mandarin, learning a romanization system is very important. Pinyinis the romanization of the Chinese "write sound." Romanization approximates Mandarin pronunciation with Western spellings and includes a tone mark to signify at what pitch to say a word.  This provides a phonetic alphabet for Chinese, which otherwise would not have one.  Without this, a non-native would have an extremely difficult time learning the language.

The key to using romanization is to use the letters as a reminder of what the authentic sound is like.  (That may sound a little obvious, but trying to sound it out from the spelling alone doesn't make for accurate Chinese.)  If followed as intended, the letter combinations are very close to the Chinese sound and can help in learning proper pronunciation.

However, pinyin does not follow English letters exactly. While the symbols are generally close to how they are used in English, they represent Chinese sounds.  Be sure and listen closely to each Chinese sound, it takes practice to pronounce accurately.

When using diacritics, the tone is marked above the main vowel sound, but in writing it generally covers the entire final.  The first tone is marked with a flat line (ā), the second tone is marked with a rising accent mark or upwards slash (á), the third tone is marked with a dipping symbol (ă), the fourth tone is marked with a falling accent mark or downward slash (ŕ), and the neutral tone (when marked) is shown with a dot above the vowel (ĺ)

• Middle is written before sides
• From top to bottom.
• From left to right
  
• Horizontally strokes before vertically.
• Finish what inside the box before you close it.

• From outside to inside.

• Top left corner first.

• Boxes are written before strokes that cut through.
  

• If more than two vertical strokes two is written and then the cutting stroke and finally the last vertical stroke.

• Top left dot first, bottom right dot last.

• Top right dot is written last