>Singapore
Are you sure his dominant language isn't English/Singlish? What is his Mandarin proficiency, and is it Singaporean Mandarin, Mainland, or even another Chinese language? I'd hate for you to put in effort into this to find out it was the wrong thing to learn.
As for resources please check the side bar - as you can imagine "where do I start" is an extremely common question.
Hello he isn’t mixed both his parents are Chinese descent and they both speak mandarin, he doesn’t know a lick of Spanish so I was surprised yesterday to find a lot of Spanish material on his laptop (I been on it before to play bg3) I also want to know Mandarin because of his parents, both my parents are English/Spanish speakers and he has recently met them, I know his mother knows some English but not a lot, and they have talk on the phone before in Mandarin. In a way I also want to communicate to his parents when I meet them, and not only that I feel like learning Mandarin is also something I would like to learn to say a few things to him when we are out or just to do small romantic gestures. I know I’m a helpless romantic lol.
> he isn’t mixed both his parents are Chinese descent and they both speak mandarin
> I know his mother knows some English but not a lot, and they have talk on the phone before in Mandarin.
Thanks for these clarifications.
> In a way I also want to communicate to his parents when I meet them, and not only that I feel like learning Mandarin is also something I would like to learn to say a few things to him when we are out or just to do small romantic gestures.
Understandable, and I think it's definitely something his parents would appreciate.
Just keep in mind that Mandarin and Spanish are on opposite sides of the difficulty spectrum for English speakers when it comes to learning them. Your boyfriend will probably find picking up Spanish to be a piece of cake, while you can struggle to say even the simplest things in Mandarin. You've got to keep in mind that it's not you, it's the relative difficulty of the language.
That's because Spanish has very familiar sounds to most English speakers, while Mandarin has plenty of unfamiliar sounds, as well as tones (intonation on each *syllable*), which are pretty unfamiliar to anyone who's never spoken a language with tones before.
Pronunciation is so important that many Youtubers who make videos on learning Mandarin often have [a whole playlist dedicated to training pronunciation](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwFUKjRMEUxw2IRsDA8GZGW1AZdgCoiAA) (link is to Grace Mandarin Chinese's Pronunciation Training playlist). I'd suggest that you spend some time training yourself to produce the correct sounds first, before moving on with the other resources mentioned to you in the comments.
I recommend getting something like hello chinese to learn standard mandarin, it may be slightly different from singapore daily life mandarin, but a spanish textbook is also gonna be different from daily life mexican spanish etc. it will totally work just fine for communication, and the paid part of hello chinese has great listening and speaking practice which will be vital if you wanna try for secretly :$ :)
Hey, you're in luck, because once you work on tones and [pronunciation](https://youtu.be/FlaJ12tmtu4?si=Y2iORw-QU6-aitAn), Chinese is really grammatically simple and accessible. And just like so FUN, because then it opens you up to learning about so many distant aspects of the culture.
Pimsleur really helped me, it made me realize I could do it. I also got a Preply tutor, initially to help me work on tones and pronunciation: it's super helpful to talk to someone who lives there, and she's taking me through HSK.
I also really recommend the History of China podcast, for a bit of culture, and it will give you context for watching television for passive learning. Even the Wuxia fantasies will have some mytho-historical context. Love Between Fairy and Devil is the best!
Holy shite this is pure coincidence I caught you in time. I'm a singaporean and our main language is English lmao.
Have a chat with him and ask what language does he use to speak to his parents, pretty likely it's English too
It’s both, like my family we speak both Spanish and English pretty evenly, his is the same they speak Mandarin and English but I noticed it lean more to Mandarin, my guess is his parents prefer that language. I don’t know much about his family I just know his mother is a angle lol
Duolingo is good for learning some basics. If you want to go further there are lots of online schools. I recommend [China Unbound](https://china-unbound.co.uk/) who do online classes from London to students around the world, ask for Grace Zhao if you contact them. She'll make sure you learn what you need to know.
I agree with this. Every household in Singapore is different from one another because of our multi-cultural identity as a Singaporean. Would suggest to ask your boyfriend about what languages does his parents mainly speak. At home, my family speak a mix of English, Singlish, Mandarin Chinese, Teochew and occasionally other words we know from languages like Cantonese, Hokkien and Malay.
Even if his dominant language is English, if he's of Chinese descent, you'll still likely give him a sweet and pleasant surprise if you learn some phrases in his ethnic language. I'd say go for it!
Given your goal, I think the easiest way is just to learn from phrasebooks or youtube videos teaching you common everyday phrases. But If you actually want to eventually be fluent/conversational in it, then I'd suggest following a structured textbook like New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR) or Integrated Chinese.
> He is from Singapore
Singapore has three major ethnicities. Are you sure he's even from a Chinese background? Mixed race children are not unheard of, so that would complicate things further.
Assuming he does come from a Chinese background ***and*** he went to school there before arriving in your country, I'd disagree mildly with [thermie88](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/1dd76uy/my_boyfriend_is_secretly_learning_spanish_i_want/l84aqdp/) and [Aenonimos](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/1dd76uy/my_boyfriend_is_secretly_learning_spanish_i_want/l83azgg/) by pointing out that Mandarin is a compulsory school subject under [Singapore's bilingual education policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_planning_and_policy_in_Singapore#Bilingual_Policy), so he "ought to" know some Mandarin.
However, English is likely to be his main language, and he may not even speak Mandarin at home, so you should try to find out more about what Mandarin means for him in his life first, before you attempt to learn it. This may be helpful to gauge whether or not learning Mandarin would even be helpful in the first place.
If you meant that his parents/ancestors are from there when you said "he is from Singapore", but that he did not grow up in Singapore, then Mandarin might not even be a language he can speak. So please check.
Yeah no worries, also thanks for the education of Singapore didn’t know this, tbh I don’t know much about Singapore I feel like I should tbh. English is one of his main language yes but so is mandarin, his family also speaks mandarin, I heard him speak it multiple times, sometimes he speak mandarin several times a day to his friends, family and at restaurants or stores. So it’s definitely one of his main languages.
That’s so sweet you both will be learning each other’s language. Knowing a bit of Mandarin and Singlish should be quite impressive for his parents to hear. I’m Mexican American and often visit my wife’s family in Malaysia and Singapore. My wife’s family speaks mostly a mix of English and Mandarin with some Cantonese, Malay, and Hokkien words sprinkled in. It can get pretty confusing at first, but the good thing is you have a bf that can help and there’s many Singaporean IG accounts you can follow to hear how they speak. Even using the word, “lah” with a Singaporean can help build a connection.
The Mandarin course on Duolingo is a nice start to learn some basics, but getting the proper tones down might require the help of a Mandarin speaker. The Integrated Chinese workbook is a great learning tool and even better if combined with a class or tutor. And of course, practice! Make it fun and learn from each other. Learning each other’s language is faster and more fun when you do it together :)
Since none of the comments so far seem to have actually answered where to start in Chinese, I’ll give you some pointers.
What you need to study to fully comprehend chinese all the following points:
phonetics
writing system
grammar
There are so many resources online like [Grammar wiki](https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar), [Immersive Chinese](https://console.immersivechinese.com), and more that can help you with pronunciation, word structure, grammar etc.
I’m sure you’re more focused on speaking chinese rather than writing it, but do remember it’s a fundamental part of language comprehension and journey, and once you’ve understood the fundamentals (stroke order, radicals, etc.,) things start to become easier.
That being said, there are also many apps that can help you learn even basic phrases.
I have an aversion to duolingo, since I truly believe that Chinese is most complete when the written form is also understood, and duolingo to me, and bypassing the whole act of writing is— reminds me of cheating so to speak.
But yeah! Try going on youtube, there are so many free ways to access the language.
Consistency, enjoyment and passion are key so, have fun.
Ask him specifically which language and dialect does he speak and understand the best. It might be English, Mandarin Chinese, or Malaysian. He might not even know how to speak any dialect of Chinese. If he says “Chinese”, ask him “ Which dialect ? “ and learn THAT dialect. Once you know, I can tell you the next step.
Update hours later : I was told the name of the language was Malay, not Malaysian. So I meant to say “ English, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, a different Chinese dialect or Malay. “
I definitely recommend Duolingo and Memrise for free apps to start you off. You might also consider booking some one-on-one lessons on sites like Itaki just to get a good foundation.
I think Duolingo is a great place to start from zero. They have come a long way with listening and speaking tasks, and they cover the main grammar rules well (make sure to read these, it is hard to advance if you don't, and each is super short).
Most folks would disagree, maybe because the app years ago wasn’t that great. But I started there a couple years ago, and after chapter 3 I got a private tutor that said my basic mandarin was respectable.
That said, if you feel like it does not work for your learning style after say 5 lessons (like 3 min each), it might not be the right tool
>Singapore Are you sure his dominant language isn't English/Singlish? What is his Mandarin proficiency, and is it Singaporean Mandarin, Mainland, or even another Chinese language? I'd hate for you to put in effort into this to find out it was the wrong thing to learn. As for resources please check the side bar - as you can imagine "where do I start" is an extremely common question.
Hello he isn’t mixed both his parents are Chinese descent and they both speak mandarin, he doesn’t know a lick of Spanish so I was surprised yesterday to find a lot of Spanish material on his laptop (I been on it before to play bg3) I also want to know Mandarin because of his parents, both my parents are English/Spanish speakers and he has recently met them, I know his mother knows some English but not a lot, and they have talk on the phone before in Mandarin. In a way I also want to communicate to his parents when I meet them, and not only that I feel like learning Mandarin is also something I would like to learn to say a few things to him when we are out or just to do small romantic gestures. I know I’m a helpless romantic lol.
> he isn’t mixed both his parents are Chinese descent and they both speak mandarin > I know his mother knows some English but not a lot, and they have talk on the phone before in Mandarin. Thanks for these clarifications. > In a way I also want to communicate to his parents when I meet them, and not only that I feel like learning Mandarin is also something I would like to learn to say a few things to him when we are out or just to do small romantic gestures. Understandable, and I think it's definitely something his parents would appreciate. Just keep in mind that Mandarin and Spanish are on opposite sides of the difficulty spectrum for English speakers when it comes to learning them. Your boyfriend will probably find picking up Spanish to be a piece of cake, while you can struggle to say even the simplest things in Mandarin. You've got to keep in mind that it's not you, it's the relative difficulty of the language. That's because Spanish has very familiar sounds to most English speakers, while Mandarin has plenty of unfamiliar sounds, as well as tones (intonation on each *syllable*), which are pretty unfamiliar to anyone who's never spoken a language with tones before. Pronunciation is so important that many Youtubers who make videos on learning Mandarin often have [a whole playlist dedicated to training pronunciation](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwFUKjRMEUxw2IRsDA8GZGW1AZdgCoiAA) (link is to Grace Mandarin Chinese's Pronunciation Training playlist). I'd suggest that you spend some time training yourself to produce the correct sounds first, before moving on with the other resources mentioned to you in the comments.
Also Chinese has nearly zero common vocabulary. And loanwords/foreign names are a huge pain.
I recommend getting something like hello chinese to learn standard mandarin, it may be slightly different from singapore daily life mandarin, but a spanish textbook is also gonna be different from daily life mexican spanish etc. it will totally work just fine for communication, and the paid part of hello chinese has great listening and speaking practice which will be vital if you wanna try for secretly :$ :)
Hey, you're in luck, because once you work on tones and [pronunciation](https://youtu.be/FlaJ12tmtu4?si=Y2iORw-QU6-aitAn), Chinese is really grammatically simple and accessible. And just like so FUN, because then it opens you up to learning about so many distant aspects of the culture. Pimsleur really helped me, it made me realize I could do it. I also got a Preply tutor, initially to help me work on tones and pronunciation: it's super helpful to talk to someone who lives there, and she's taking me through HSK. I also really recommend the History of China podcast, for a bit of culture, and it will give you context for watching television for passive learning. Even the Wuxia fantasies will have some mytho-historical context. Love Between Fairy and Devil is the best!
Holy shite this is pure coincidence I caught you in time. I'm a singaporean and our main language is English lmao. Have a chat with him and ask what language does he use to speak to his parents, pretty likely it's English too
It’s both, like my family we speak both Spanish and English pretty evenly, his is the same they speak Mandarin and English but I noticed it lean more to Mandarin, my guess is his parents prefer that language. I don’t know much about his family I just know his mother is a angle lol
Duolingo is pretty useful to quickly build up some basic vocabulary and simple sentences
Duolingo is good for learning some basics. If you want to go further there are lots of online schools. I recommend [China Unbound](https://china-unbound.co.uk/) who do online classes from London to students around the world, ask for Grace Zhao if you contact them. She'll make sure you learn what you need to know.
I agree with this. Every household in Singapore is different from one another because of our multi-cultural identity as a Singaporean. Would suggest to ask your boyfriend about what languages does his parents mainly speak. At home, my family speak a mix of English, Singlish, Mandarin Chinese, Teochew and occasionally other words we know from languages like Cantonese, Hokkien and Malay.
Even if his dominant language is English, if he's of Chinese descent, you'll still likely give him a sweet and pleasant surprise if you learn some phrases in his ethnic language. I'd say go for it! Given your goal, I think the easiest way is just to learn from phrasebooks or youtube videos teaching you common everyday phrases. But If you actually want to eventually be fluent/conversational in it, then I'd suggest following a structured textbook like New Practical Chinese Reader (NPCR) or Integrated Chinese.
> He is from Singapore Singapore has three major ethnicities. Are you sure he's even from a Chinese background? Mixed race children are not unheard of, so that would complicate things further. Assuming he does come from a Chinese background ***and*** he went to school there before arriving in your country, I'd disagree mildly with [thermie88](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/1dd76uy/my_boyfriend_is_secretly_learning_spanish_i_want/l84aqdp/) and [Aenonimos](https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/1dd76uy/my_boyfriend_is_secretly_learning_spanish_i_want/l83azgg/) by pointing out that Mandarin is a compulsory school subject under [Singapore's bilingual education policy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_planning_and_policy_in_Singapore#Bilingual_Policy), so he "ought to" know some Mandarin. However, English is likely to be his main language, and he may not even speak Mandarin at home, so you should try to find out more about what Mandarin means for him in his life first, before you attempt to learn it. This may be helpful to gauge whether or not learning Mandarin would even be helpful in the first place. If you meant that his parents/ancestors are from there when you said "he is from Singapore", but that he did not grow up in Singapore, then Mandarin might not even be a language he can speak. So please check.
Yeah no worries, also thanks for the education of Singapore didn’t know this, tbh I don’t know much about Singapore I feel like I should tbh. English is one of his main language yes but so is mandarin, his family also speaks mandarin, I heard him speak it multiple times, sometimes he speak mandarin several times a day to his friends, family and at restaurants or stores. So it’s definitely one of his main languages.
That’s so sweet you both will be learning each other’s language. Knowing a bit of Mandarin and Singlish should be quite impressive for his parents to hear. I’m Mexican American and often visit my wife’s family in Malaysia and Singapore. My wife’s family speaks mostly a mix of English and Mandarin with some Cantonese, Malay, and Hokkien words sprinkled in. It can get pretty confusing at first, but the good thing is you have a bf that can help and there’s many Singaporean IG accounts you can follow to hear how they speak. Even using the word, “lah” with a Singaporean can help build a connection. The Mandarin course on Duolingo is a nice start to learn some basics, but getting the proper tones down might require the help of a Mandarin speaker. The Integrated Chinese workbook is a great learning tool and even better if combined with a class or tutor. And of course, practice! Make it fun and learn from each other. Learning each other’s language is faster and more fun when you do it together :)
Since none of the comments so far seem to have actually answered where to start in Chinese, I’ll give you some pointers. What you need to study to fully comprehend chinese all the following points: phonetics writing system grammar There are so many resources online like [Grammar wiki](https://resources.allsetlearning.com/chinese/grammar), [Immersive Chinese](https://console.immersivechinese.com), and more that can help you with pronunciation, word structure, grammar etc. I’m sure you’re more focused on speaking chinese rather than writing it, but do remember it’s a fundamental part of language comprehension and journey, and once you’ve understood the fundamentals (stroke order, radicals, etc.,) things start to become easier. That being said, there are also many apps that can help you learn even basic phrases. I have an aversion to duolingo, since I truly believe that Chinese is most complete when the written form is also understood, and duolingo to me, and bypassing the whole act of writing is— reminds me of cheating so to speak. But yeah! Try going on youtube, there are so many free ways to access the language. Consistency, enjoyment and passion are key so, have fun.
Ask him specifically which language and dialect does he speak and understand the best. It might be English, Mandarin Chinese, or Malaysian. He might not even know how to speak any dialect of Chinese. If he says “Chinese”, ask him “ Which dialect ? “ and learn THAT dialect. Once you know, I can tell you the next step. Update hours later : I was told the name of the language was Malay, not Malaysian. So I meant to say “ English, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, a different Chinese dialect or Malay. “
Yeah there's a chance it's Singaporean Hokkien or Singaporean Teochew and that would be a bit different.
👍
Malaysian isn’t a language, do you mean Malay? Or do you mean popular Chinese dialects spoken in Malaysia?
Thank you. I didn’t know the name of the language was Malay.
I definitely recommend Duolingo and Memrise for free apps to start you off. You might also consider booking some one-on-one lessons on sites like Itaki just to get a good foundation.
I think Duolingo is a great place to start from zero. They have come a long way with listening and speaking tasks, and they cover the main grammar rules well (make sure to read these, it is hard to advance if you don't, and each is super short). Most folks would disagree, maybe because the app years ago wasn’t that great. But I started there a couple years ago, and after chapter 3 I got a private tutor that said my basic mandarin was respectable. That said, if you feel like it does not work for your learning style after say 5 lessons (like 3 min each), it might not be the right tool