Mandarin Chinese is the first non Latin-based language I have seriously tried to learn and it is very fun trying to unlearn everything I know about language. It has been about two months and I am now able to have very simple conversations with people.
All credit for my improvement goes to my Chinese friends who tolerate my limited speaking ability and indulge my desire to learn Mandarin. Not that it's boring to hang out-- communication is much, much more than just verbal exchanges so we spend a lot of time guessing what we're saying by drawing, writing, acting and-- I suspect, because I do it--just assuming what the other is saying (I can't recommend this approach but sometimes there is no choice).
Anyway, three interesting characteristics of Mandarin:
No verb conjugation
Tense is indicated by other words-- such as tomorrow or yesterday-- or by adding "le" after the verb to indicate it has been completed. Similarly, the verb remains unchanged regardless of the pronoun: I go; You go; He go; We go; They go.
There is no plural
Context or other words provide clues as to the intended meaning. For example, using the word "henduo [many]" is a dead giveaway to plurality.
Numbers are tremendously important
But unlike in English there are only eleven distinct numbers in Mandarin (0-10). Every subsequent number is a combination of these eleven: twelve is written "ten two [shi er];" twenty-five is written "two ten five [er shi wu];" seventy-three is written "seven ten three [chi shi san];" and so on.
Days of the week are xin chi followed by the numbers one through six for Monday through Saturday. Sunday is the exception.
Months are the simply the numbers followed by the word for month- yue. January is written "one month [yi yue]"; June is written "six month [liu yue]." This pattern holds true for all months.
