Mastering Chinese pronunciation should constitute the very first step toward learning the Chinese language. The Chinese Pinyin is featured by all the Chinese phonetic alphabets and they are used in the pronunciation of Chinese characters. In order to distinguish the different tones, you must pay keen attention to the reading of the Pinyin letters, initials, finals, and all possible combinations.

The golden yardstick for measuring your performance: being capable of reading any Chinese character with the correct tone in Pinyin. Be warned: correct pronunciation from the start matters, and bad habits must be nipped in the bud.

Tip No.1: Note that Chinese is a tonal language. Pay special attention to the four basic tones of putonghua: the level tone, the rising tone, the falling-rising tone and the falling tone. Funny jokes abound in this respect. One of the most renowned pieces includes the English speakers' pronunciation of Yao Ming, the prestigious Chinese basketballer in NBA. The funny thing is, instead of the correct pronunciation of the rising tone, both words are mispronounced as the seemingly falling tone meaning "life-threatening"or "fatal"in Chinese, painting Yao an image of a monster.

Tip No.2: take the initiative to practice, whenever and wherever. Practice makes perfect. The more you practice speaking, the easier it will be for you to learn. If possible, take a Chinese class in the local community, and do the practice drills with your study partner or native speakers of Chinese. Find every means possible to practice anything you've learned. One of my friends once traveled in China, she made the best of her trip in the train by conversing with a female Chinese college student. There my friend taught her English while she taught my friend Chinese. That very experience encouraged her to practice Chinese whenever and wherever.

Tips No.3: utilize long distance learning Long term focus on one way of learning can be a twist, rather boring and exhausting, especially for Chinese learning. However, if multiple means are employed, it'll be a different case. For example, besides traditional classroom learning, multimedia resources such as e-learning and on-line radio, once fully employed, are rewarding to some extent.

Tip No.4: learn Chinese through singing Chinese songs Singing songs are absolutely mind soothing distractions and attractions. Songs cover a wide range of difficulty scales and topics, and therefore, can be an ideal means for learners of all levels to improve their Chinese. Some Chinese songs, such as The Chinese Language popularized by S.H.E, even consist of Chinese tongue twisters. Follow the singing process, and great progress will be on the way.

Tip No.5: practice with the help of oral Chinese softwares Taking advantage of the latest multimedia technology and combing words, sounds, pictures, animations and music, softwares of oral Chinese learning enable learners to speak on and off studying. It provides a pleasant and cozy environment for the learners to study Chinese in an interesting and completely new style

Tip No.6: learn Chinese consonants and vowels with the help of English pronunciation For the mastering of Chinese consonants and vowels, English words with the same sound can be associated with the corresponding Chinese initials, and facilitate learning and memorising in an easier way. For instance, b - as the "b" in "book"; p - as the "p" in "pool"; m - as the "m" in "moon".

Tip No.7: never ever underestimate the help of a dictionary. Get a good compact dictionary and make sure it has the phonetic spelling of the words. Whether you are learning all by yourself or in groups, dictionaries are the most dedicated teachers. Take it with you wherever you go. Remember, you are carrying learning opportunities with you.

Tip No.8: blurt out and show off loud Make sure that a cassette is available, listen to and repeat after the tape. Read out loud while learning, blurt out loud while practicing, and show off loud what you've learned. Passion paves the way for more efficient learning, especially true for pinyin study. Adopting a passionate attitude allows a full and all-round participation in learning which yields a rewarding learning outcome.

Tip No.9: learn to speak step by step, one word at a time The one thing that is sad about rooted mispronunciation is that learners make repeated mistakes without realizing them. Thus, learners have to be highly conscious of the value of the "one bird in hand" rather than "two birds in the bush". Take it easy, make it correct and then move on. Never repeat mispronunciations.

Tip No.10: Find joy in learning Chinese pinyin. Interest is the best teacher. Great athletes and accomplished musicians love what they do and then achieve who they are. Likewise, only when Chinese pinyin learning appeals to you can you make long term substantial improvement. You might have to spend numerous hours studying and practicing. Many people give up halfway. Go through the frustrating initial phase if you are find joy in learning Chinese pinyin.

An education organization in Guangzhou started an MBA program

for children of three to six years old. The World Journal reports that the courses are “imported” from the United States and the tuition is over 20,000 RMB

(about $3,000 US). The program provides 12 courses such as creativity,

creative writing, public speech skills, arts, economics and communication. More than 300 little MBA students have been registered. To nurture students’

independence, parents are not allowed to enter classroom.

Anchor Text: The visible text displayed for a hyperlink.

Backlink: Any link on any website that points to a page on your website. Also called an Inbound Link.

External Linking: Links to specified web pages on another website or informational resource.

Internal Linking: Linking to different pages within the current website.

seo services: Search engine optimization services.

Keywords: The words entered for a search engine query.

Keyword Density: Ratio of keywords on a page as compared to the total number of words on that page.

Keyword Phrases: A phrase which forms part of a search engine query.

Link Building: The process of creating inbound links to your own website.

Onsite Optimization: SEO-related work done directly on a web page or website to enhance its search engine rankings. Sometimes referred to as Onpage Optimization.

Offsite Optimization: SEO-related work done to enhance the search engine rankings of a web page or website, excluding work done directly on the website. Sometimes referred to as Offpage Optimization.

Page Rank: Google’s trademark for their proprietary measure of the popularity of a web page.

Robots Text: A file that is read by spiders to determine which parts of a website to visit.

SEM: Search engine marketing.

Search engine optimization: The act of altering a website so that it does well in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines.

Spiders: Software programs that scan the Internet. Also called Bots and Robots, these programs have different purposes.

seo services can make a big impact on your website. If you haven’t optimized for the big search engines, you are missing out. Your website might look professional and you might be ready for the floodgates to open for sales or traffic or subscribers or membership but you won’t get very far until people can find you.

How about PPC? Pay per click has been popular since the beginning of cyberspace but the truth is that there is a lot of click fraud out there. You might be paying through the nose for your ad words campaign but may not be getting the results you want. That’s because when people search for a term online, chances are that they’ll choose from the first few results rather than the sponsored ad.

Organic seo results provide huge payoffs. Search engine optimization companies exist to help you get your website up to standard and get yourself indexed for your keywords on page one or two of Yahoo, Google and MSN. How do you get there? Can you do it on your own? Successful SEO consultants have years of experience and know that the rules across the search engines are different.

If you search for your targeted keywords on several different search engines, you’ll probably find different results on each one. The ideal seo company will help you get indexed on at least the top three and maybe even more than half a dozen search engines which can help you get more visitors to your website.

If you’re already indexed in the search engines and are getting a lot of visitors, are those visitors translating into sales? Do you know what they’re doing once they land on your home page? If you aren’t getting sales but are getting lots of visitors or if you are getting homepage visits but no deeper, you need your website optimized.

If you are selling something and search on your target phrases and don’t see results until the third or fourth page, you need seo consulting services. If you are having trouble finding the right tools to help you increase your online presence, you need to enlist the help of someone with a proven track record and who will give you the tools, the information and the help you need to increase your page rank.

Some people make the mistake of trying to do their own seo without the facts. This can even result in your being de indexed or banned from Google, Yahoo and others. Keyword stuffing and cloaking can sound like a great way to get indexed but if it works at all, it will be short lived. Others hire an inexperienced or dishonest search engine marketing firm. The firm doesn’t get the results or gets results by using gray hat or black hat tactics so it doesn’t last.

If you want real, effective results, you should hire a consultant who will look at your existing website, provide you with a detailed analysis and discuss with you a SEO services game plan that will result in guaranteed increase in your rankings.

 

The decapitated bodies of the soldiers lined a major boulevard, accompanied by a sign: "For every one of mine that you kill, I will kill 10." A bag of their heads, some still gagged with tape, was found nearby.

The discovery in Chilpancingo, an hour north of the resort of Acapulco in southern Mexico, marked the most gruesome attack yet against the Mexican army in its half-century battle against drug gangs.

The government honored the dead Monday in a high-profile ceremony aimed at reassuring the nation that it won't surrender, despite escalating violence that has killed 5,300 people this year and the betrayal of more than a dozen top law enforcement officials accused of accepting money to protect cartels.

The beheadings also came as Mexico prepares to use $400 million in U.S. aid to fortify its war on traffickers.

President Felipe Calderon said the attack shows that his government's crackdown is putting pressure on the cartels, and he promised "firm action" in response.

"We are well aware that these cowardly assassins are trying to terrorize the state and society," Calderon said at a speech in Mexico City. "We will not take one step back in this fight nor will there be any deal or mercy for the country's clear enemies."

Calderon didn't attend the memorial, but his defense and interior secretaries stood before flag-draped coffins at the army base in Chilpancingo.

Regional military commander Gen. Enrique Alonso Garrido said the beheadings were an "offense against Mexican institutions and especially against those who wear a military uniform."

"These criminals made a grave error with this audacious act," he said. "There will be no concessions, and what's more, we will not rest until we have put them in their place."

Authorities found 12 decapitated bodies Sunday in and around Chilpancingo, the capital of the violent state of Guerrero. So far, officials have identified seven as soldiers but haven't given information on the rest of the dead. Another decapitated soldier was found Dec. 9.

The Mexican Defense Department has refused to release details on how the soldiers were attacked or which cartel is suspected of carrying out the killings.

Mexico has often turned to the army to battle drugs since sending troops in a "great campaign" to wipe out drug plantations in 1948. Soldiers have grown ever more involved in tackling narcotics since then, largely due to corruption among police forces.

Calderon has accelerated the militarization since taking office in 2006, deploying as many as 45,000 soldiers to battle smugglers.

Gangs who once avoided confrontations with the army have responded with unprecedented violence, launching ever-bolder and bloodier killings, targeting not only rivals but police and soldiers on a nearly daily basis.

Sunday's discovery, however, was the largest group of soldiers beheaded at once. Shannon O'Neil, a Latin American expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the killings are troubling but not unexpected as the country's drug battle escalates.

"For Mexico, ultimately its success will be to make this a criminal problem instead of a threat to the state," she said.

The slayings were the latest blow to Calderon's crackdown on the drug trade. He also is in the middle of his most sweeping attempt to weed out corruption.

Several high-ranking police and prosecution officials have been detained for allegedly aiding the country's most powerful gang, the Sinaloa cartel. Among them are Noe Ramirez, Mexico's former drug czar, and Gerardo Garay, the former acting federal police chief.

U.S. lawmakers have conditioned 15 percent of the $400 million in anti-drug aid on Mexico's efforts to clean up its police force. The money is earmarked for training and equipment.