When foreigners come to learn Chinese in China, they will found that Chinese words are mysterious. It seems that many Chinese words are understandable for them. They think there are many exceptions out of the rules. So, it is difficult for them to remember those special words. But whatever it is, teachers should explain to them and take some measures to help them practice their Chinese language.
During the process of learning Mandarin Chinese, students may meet a type of words are adjunctive words. Teachers should explain that this kind of additional words are composed of root words which means a specific meaning and an affix that indicates some certain attached meanings.
It is a kind of important word formation way in Chinese language for the foreigners who study in China. Let’s take the formation pattern “root + affix” as an example, when teachers tell the character “子”, students should find some words with it such as “刀子、瓶子、胖子、桌子”. “儿” is frequently seen in Chinese words like “鸟儿、花儿、盖儿、头儿”. There are more like “头” in “老头、石头、年头” and “者” in “作者、读者” and so on.
Many foreign learners are often confused by the two-part allegorical sayings in Chinese when they learn Mandarin in China. It is difficult for them to learn because those sayings carry rich Chinese culture and some of them use the homophonic words. After teachers teaching the allegorical sayings, they should hold a small contest to encourage students to collect and understand more by themselves.
In Chinese language school, teachers can divide the students into groups according to the number of students. Each team chooses one group leader who can speak Chinese clearly. Teachers prepare the cards with the allegorical sayings and give them to the group leaders. If there are three groups with five students, the leader of group one reads the first part of the allegorical sayings to the members of the group two.
Accordingly, the members being asked should complete the later part of the allegorical sayings. The followings are some common allegorical sayings when foreigners study Chinese in China: 十五个吊桶打水——七上八下；瞎子点灯——白费蜡；哑巴吃黄连——有苦说不出；孔夫子搬家——尽是书（输），to name but a few. Each group does like this in turn to make sure everyone has the chance to practice.
In the same way, we can learn a training method from the form of the allegorical sayings. There are many set phrases to be learned when westerners learn Chinese language. Teachers can practice them by dividing the phrases into two parts. Each student of group one says the former two characters and the members of the second team should follow the left part and then exchange the role. For examples, “千方——百计；称心——如意；提心——吊胆”.
Teachers should tell the playing rules in advance so that students can be fully prepared. The set phrases are not limited in those are learned in the classes. In addition, students also meet many idioms when they learn to speak Chinese, so we can also practice them to remember by this way because most of them are combined with two parts like “求爷爷，告奶奶”, “千里送鹅毛，礼轻人意重”.
In order to train students’ ability of word formation, teachers can prepare some sentences or phrases for students like “中国的首都”. But some words in the sentences and phrases can be removed like “中 的首 “. In this way, we can stimulate students’ imagination and creation to learn Mandarin Chinese better.
To make it convenient for students to study Mandarin Chinese in this method, students should be divided into groups to ask and answer. We can also mark the point to stimulate their interest to train. One point will be marked when one word is guessed correctly. Teachers should choose different difficulty levels according to students’ language levels.
After training and practicing by the methods learned from the two-parts two-part allegorical sayings, students can remember the set phrases, idioms and all kind of words firmly.