Various helpful tips for Studying Chinese - extracted collectively from IC, Wikibooks and more.

1. Learn pinyin. Not only is it used throughout the textbook to explain proper pronunciation, it is needed to look up words in dictionaries and to type in Chinese.

2. Pay attention to the tones. Since there are so few syllables in Chinese, there are many homonyms, making attention to tones very important. Learning to write the pinyin with correct tones at the same time as you learn the characters will improve your pronunciation and your listening comprehension.

3.Read the text aloud. Speaking (and hearing yourself speak) will help reinforce the text in your memory. Exaggerating the tones and acting out can help you remember them.

4.Create language speaking opportunities. There may be a Chinese language club/ weekend Chinese school/church organization/Chinese association in a nearby city or university. Plan special visit to Chinese restaurant, shops, and/or Chinatown (and you will get extra credit for the Chinese class).

5.Listen to Integrated Chinese lesson CD. In other words, listen to the intonation and the flow of the language from native speakers and practice along with it.

6.Extras - consume Chinese media. Immersing yourself in Chinese after learning the basics will make learning easier. To learn pronunciation, make the voices of native speakers your constant companions, and to bring it to the next level, continue to immerse yourself. A wide variety of multimedia options exist for exposing your ears to native Chinese speakers. Two of the sites for easy listening materials are Popup Chinese and ChineseClass101.com. Download as much audio as you want from these sites to your MP3 player and start listening. You can listen to Chinese whenever you're in the car, commuting, or standing in line somewhere.

7. Practice writing—a lot. Go through lessons and master all the characters and vocabularies in those lessons. When you study, write a character at least ten times, and more if you have trouble remembering it. Make them your new friends. Remember to quiz yourself periodically to test your memory and to find which characters you need to practice more. As you write, think of the sound and meaning of the character, and say it out loud. Learn the correct stroke order initially and write carefully. Writing is important to establish a 'motor memory' of each character, which will allow your writing to flow more easily (such as practicing a piano piece).

8. Use flashcard. Many people use flash cards memorize information.

9. Look for radicals. Radicals are components of Chinese characters that you will see repeated over and over again(see Integrated Chinese 1 textbook, pages 13-14). Learning the meaning of radicals will help you to see the connections between similar categories of words. Many characters are comprised of radical-phonetic pairings, where the radical is the "root" that hints at the meaning of the word, while another part of the character hints at the sound of the word. Learning to spot radicals is also useful since they can be used when looking up words when you don't know the pinyin in Chinese dictionaries.

10. Buy a dictionary. They're useful for looking up new words or just browsing. Beginner's dictionaries have larger fonts, usage examples, and Pinyin pronunciation, all of which are sometimes missing in comprehensive dictionaries. KTdict C-E is an thorough, searchable Chinese dictionary that is available in the Apple App Store for free. A good online dictionary would be nciku. It is searchable by pinyin, characters, and sketches, via a drawing panel. It not only contains definitions, also shows the stroke order of a character, and gives examples of its use. Go through grammar rules and language practices in IC textbook before going over the exercises in workbooks.

Happy Chinese learning!!