|
 |
Chinese and Spanish | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 21 30 January 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged | ||
|
So I am learning Spanish now, I'm still at a basic level, and I recently learned a friend of mine knows Chinese (I don't know what dialect). I am thinking about taking Mandarin I at my high school next year (senior year) and if my friend will help then I most likely will. This is too good of a chance to pass up to me, but I wanted to know what you guys think of studying Spanish and Chinese at the same time (but by the time I start Chinese I plan to be a lot further along in Spanish). Any experience with these two languages?
Edit: He speaks Mandarin Edited by Johntm on 30 January 2010 at 1:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6318 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 2 of 21 30 January 2010 at 1:36am | IP Logged | ||
|
I've studied both (currently focusing on Chinese) and I think it's perfectly doable, though it depends on how you ration your time. Obviously Chinese is going to want a lot more of your efforts than Spanish, at least in the beginning stages to get over the most obvious hurdles like characters and tones. Have you ever considered teaching yourself Chinese? I'm not sure how far you'd get in a class with respect to the length of time you'd be taking them.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 21 30 January 2010 at 1:41am | IP Logged | ||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5569 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 4 of 21 30 January 2010 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
|
I am studying both languages. Spanish is definitely a lot easier, so I concur that you will want to spend more time on Chinese. One piece of advice I have for you is to start learning the characters immediately. It is tempting to go the easy route and try to learn through Pinyin at the beginning, but that is a mistake. Pinyin should be nothing more than a tool to help you with characters you don't know how to pronounce yet. Make a point of learning a few hundred of the most common characters right off the bat. Edited by Levi on 30 January 2010 at 4:38am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| irrationale Tetraglot Senior Member China Joined 6052 days ago 669 posts - 1023 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Tagalog Studies: Ancient Greek, Japanese | Message 5 of 21 30 January 2010 at 6:00am | IP Logged | ||
|
I started with Chinese 5 months after Spanish (self taught both). It's doable, no problem. If I were you I would just wait until you have basic fluency in Spanish first so you can put it on the back burner. Getting to basic fluency in Chinese is somewhere around 4 to 5 times harder than Spanish, at the very least, so just a fair warning, it will be nothing like your experience with Spanish. Be sure to make plenty of room in your mind.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 21 30 January 2010 at 7:41am | IP Logged | ||
|
Thanks guys, I was planning on getting decently far (no idea exactly how far) in Spanish before seriously started Chinese, although I might start with the characters soon. Apparently the class I plan on taking teaches simplified, and my friend knows the traditional one, and he said he'll teach me the traditional ones.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5883 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 21 30 January 2010 at 4:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Doable for a very select few irrationale. The level to which I've taught myself Spanish and with which you've taught yourself Spanish and Chinese is very rare.
You know as well as I do the amount of discipline and focus required to actually come out the other side speaking to natives on a regular basis on a wide variety of subjects. My advice like irrationale's would be to gain fluency in Spanish first if you're able. Then, if you still have the desire, by all means start the Mandarin. You'll then have the advantage of learning how to learn a language and you'll be much more productive. People have different reasons for learning languages. If your reason is to be able to converse with native speakers and call yourself fluent, focus and immerse yourself entirely in one for as long as it takes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Johntm Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5424 days ago 616 posts - 725 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 8 of 21 30 January 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, I don't plan on native fluency for Chinese, just intermediate or advanced. I do want advanced or native fluency in Spanish. I expect to have Spanish down pretty good before next school year (In August, when I start Mandarin), as I have plenty of Spanish materials and know plenty of bilingual English/Spanish speakers. I just have to stick with it and not get lazy 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
