1. It’s a VERY popular language
It’s no secret that Mandarin Chinese, also known as Standard Chinese, is a pretty big deal, not just in Asia, but around the world. Accounting for 70% of Chinese speakers, Mandarin is more widely spoken than any other form of Chinese – with some 955 million native speakers across the world. That’s 14% of the world’s total population. There are more native Mandarin speakers globally than speakers of any other language.
2. Mandarin is one of several Chinese dialects
Mandarin is just one of several Chinese dialect groups, which can be confusing. In places like Taiwan and People’s Republic of China, it’s the official language. Mandarin dialects are spoken throughout most of northern and southwestern China. Despite their similarities, some Mandarin dialects are not “mutually intelligible”. Other varieties of Chinese include Wu, Xiang, Yue, Min, Hakka and Gan.
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3. Mandarin started developing 1,000 years ago
While written Chinese began to take shape around 4000 years ago, Mandarin started to develop in the 10th and 11th centuries in northern China. This “Old Mandarin” came from local dialects in the North China Plain. The new dialect actually spurred a new genre of common literature.
4. Chinese uses 50,000 different characters
Compared to the 26-letter English alphabet, Chinese sounds downright impossible to learn. Instead of an alphabet, Chinese uses characters that symbolize a syllable of spoken Chinese. Each character could include parts that represent abstract notions, physical objects, or a pronunciation. Although there are several thousand characters in the complete language, everyday Mandarin typically uses a set of some 2,500 characters.
5. Mandarin didn’t always read left-to-right
Written Chinese has a fascinating history, dating back to the Shang Dynasty in 1200–1050 BC. Up until 1955, the language was written in vertical columns, going from right to left. Since then, the People’s Republic of China has Westernized the written language so that it is written left to right, horizontally.
6. Mandarin uses four different tones
Another added challenge to learning Chinese is that tone affects the meaning of different words. That’s because Chinese is a tonal language. Mandarin has four unique tones including flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling. Other Chinese dialects use as many as nine distinct tones.
7. Mandarin is becoming even more popular
As the world becomes increasingly globalized and integrated, Mandarin has become a top language to study around the world at every level. Starting as early as Kindergarten, schools in the West are teaching students Mandarin. Gearing up for increased business relations with China, it’s never too early to start learning such a widespread, beautiful, and interesting language and using our internships to experience the culture and language first-hand.
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