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Chinese is a complicated language in itself. Put that with the fact that there are twelve distinct dialects which makes it even more complicated. Mandarin Beijing Jingshi is primarily spoken in the Beijing providence (which is also where the city is situated). Mandarin is one of the most popular dialects and most people in China can somewhat understand it. It is also the official language of China since 1913. The only common characteristics between the dialects is that they all are represented by symbolic characters in the place of letters.

Learn Chinese Before You Go
A great company that is very helpful with learning Chinese online is ActiveChinese. At ActiveChinese you can explore the site and see all that is has to offer. Check out an introductory video that explains what ActiveChinese is all about. There is a virtual classroom online that teaches the basics. Also, you can talk via Skype to your online professor about lessons or any questions you may have. You can work on simple words and phrases, vocabulary, grammar, and even conversation. The self assessment feature lets you test your knowledge before you go to China. Check out this site to see just how efficient and versatile ActiveChinese can be!

Geography
Shanghai and Hong Kong (two of the most well known cities) lie on the water. Shanghai faces South Korea while Hong Kong shares a waterway with Taiwan. This is the best geographical way to separate them. Beijing, the capital of China, is nestled in the northeastern quadrant of the country and is also near the ocean. Depending on where you are situated in China, the dialects can change accordingly. For example, people in the south can barely understand the dialects of the west. However the one thing that stays consistent is the consistent use of the Mandarin dialect.

History of the Language
There are about 70,000 Chinese characters and phonetic sounds in the Chinese languages. In order to read a local news paper a person must be able to recognize at least 3,000 characters. Just top give you an idea, in the primary schools, usually about 5,000 characters are taught. The new Chinese dialects have been around since the 11th century. Before that, the old Chinese of the 5th to 8th centuries spoke in sounds primarily and only few characters. The language has been evolving and adapting ever since. Influential languages such as Latin and Russian also attributed to the development of the language as a whole.
More and more Chinese is becoming an international staple language. This is in part because China has the largest by far population of any country in the world. It is almost overwhelming with a crazy number of about 1 billion people presently calling China their home. Chinese is thus consequently the most spoken language in the world, followed by English and Spanish.

Helpful Phrases and Words
Hello – knee how
Good Bye – zi gee¡¯en
Yes – shr
No – Boo shr

I – wore
You – knee
He/she – tar

Thank you – sheh sheh
You are welcome – boo yong sheh
Excuse me – dway boo chee
Correct – dway
I do not understand – wore ting boo dong

How much? – dor sheow chen
I would like – wore yeow

Stop! – ting
Go – chee
Left – zaw
Right – yo