Bohdan Nykolyshyn

[Photo: from China Plus]

To many foreigners, learning standard Chinese, often called Mandarin is one of the most difficult, most challenging hobbies one can take on. Because unlike an alphabet which represents only sounds, Mandarin is made of a system of symbols known as characters and  each character has a unique meaning. For instance, to be able to read and comprehend newspaper, you are required to master at least 3000 characters out of a possible 50 thousand. See why it gets tricky? 

Well to find out how complicated the learning process actually is, Nillah spoke with Bohdan Nykolyshyn- a Ukrainian student in China whose dream is to someday become a Chinese language instructor to foreigners. In this episode of My China Story he talks about why he chose to major in Mandarin Chinese and reveals some of his best techniques for mastering this language.