This post is for two kinds of people, those who’ve thought about trying Mandarin but think it’s impossible, and those who’ve already learned a little Mandarin but are frustrated. Good news for both of you: there are parts of Mandarin which are really easy.
While some in the West are under the assumption that the “Chinese language” is just Cantonese. The fact is, Cantonese is merely one of the eight major dialects spoken in China.
In Chinese, each syllable (or character) has a tone, and in Mandarin there are four tones. In PinYin(Chinese Phonetics), the mark above a syllable indicates its tone: ( ˉ ) first tone, ( ́...