Reply #4: Learning to speak Mandarin is much easier [View All]

[geardaddy]

than learning to read it. I don't think you could learn to just read Mandarin without learning to speak it as well.

You are correct that there is no conjugation or tense inflection in Mandarin, as well as no gender. There aren't even definite articles.

Learning to read Chinese characters is all memorization, but once you recognize patterns, it is easier to learn even more characters.

Just my 2 cents from a Mandarin speaker.