Notes on teaching Chinese to foreign learners

Abstract Recently there has been considerable discussion over “how to teach Chinese to foreign learners”. This article investigates the common problems which Chinese teachers encounter in teaching Chinese to the speakers of English. It points out that (1) for foreign adult learners who are just starting out to learn Chinese, the best teachers are those who speak the same language as their students do rather than native Chinese teachers; (2) the later the students start learning Chinese characters, the faster and easier for them to pick up the language, and hence, Chinese characters should not be introduced at the early stage; and (3) one should aim at achieving phonological accuracy in Chinese.