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Chinese and Spanish

  Tags: Mandarin | Spanish
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
21 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3  Next >>
Johntm
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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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

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ChristopherB
Triglot
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New Zealand
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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.
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Johntm
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Joined 5424 days ago

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Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 21
30 January 2010 at 1:41am | IP Logged 
ChristopherB wrote:
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.
I never really thought about learning in the near future, to be honest. But I plan on keeping with it. Plus having a native speaker will help. Hopefully the teacher won't be too bad, and can help me with some stuff, but I figure the friend and the Internet will be much more helpful
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Levi
Pentaglot
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United States
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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

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irrationale
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China
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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.
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Johntm
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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.
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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.   
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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 
hypersport wrote:
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.   

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


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