The Chinese language, also known as Mandarin, is the language of the Han nationality and the main language of China. The standard language of the modern Chinese is called putonghua, which means “standard Chinese”. Based on the northern dialect of the Chinese language, putonghua uses Beijing phonetics for the standard sounds, and typical modern vernacular for grammar. It is a good idea for students of Putonghua to learn the Chinese phonetics first, as this will be useful when putting words together and learning the characters.

lì li: nĭ yĭ qián xué guò hàn yŭ ma?
丽丽： 你以前学过汉语吗？ 
Lili:  Have you studied Chinese before? 

mài kè: wŏ xué guò yī nián.
麦克： 我学过一年。 
Mike:  I've studied Chinese for one year. 

lì li: nĭ yīng gāi xué xí biāo zhŭn de pŭ tōng huà.
丽丽： 你应该学习标准的普通话。 
Lili:  You ought to study standard Chinese.

mài kè: hàn yŭ de shēng diào hé hàn zì bĭ jiăo nán.
麦克： 汉语的声调和汉字比较难。 
Mike:  The tones and the Chinese characters are pretty difficult.

lì li: yŭ fă ne?
丽丽： 语法呢？ 
Lili:  What about Chinese grammar?

mài kè: yŭ fă bù nán.
麦克： 语法不难。 
Mike:  The grammar is not difficult.

lì li: nĭ mĕi tiān dōu liàn xí xiě hàn zì ma? 
丽丽： 你每天都练习写汉字吗？ 
Lili:  Do you practice and write the Chinese characters everyday?

mài kè: shì de. Bù mĕi tiān xiě de huà hěn róng yì wàng jì. 
麦克： 是的。不每天写得话很容易忘记。 
Mike:  Yes. It's easy to forget them if I don't write everyday.