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Mandarin Chinese really so hard? | ||
Tags: Difficulty | Mandarin | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| delectric Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6967 days ago 608 posts - 733 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: German | Message 9 of 36 24 August 2007 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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All of them were studying abroad. Their speaking was pretty weak as expected. On the course they attended they weren't allowed to speak English. I would say in general their accent wasn't great and usually it would be me that could understand the locals better. However there were a few who were good though it must be noted that these few had a Chinese background (ABC's).
Looking at what they were reading I wasn't all that impressed. Sure some of it looked like pretty hard text but with the harder text it was all covered in their notes almost translating every character. I only started to study writing after a year and a half of studying. Where as they must have started reading and writing from the start. Wouldn't say their level was higher. The main advantage of course that I have is that I permenantly live in China though for much of my time i'm stuck in an English speaking environment teaching English. Though actually some of them live and study full time in China too. For sure they all spend a lot of time studying it would seem at least 8 hours if not more every day. With my work i'll be lucky to manage 4 and when I started Chinese (with my naive expectations) at times I thought I could get by with 30 minutes to an hour a day. Edited by delectric on 24 August 2007 at 10:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| furyou_gaijin Senior Member Japan Joined 6172 days ago 540 posts - 631 votes Speaks: Latin* | Message 10 of 36 25 August 2007 at 3:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Aren't you exposed to the language 24/24 (minus your working hours) since you're living in China?! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jee Senior Member Australia Joined 6095 days ago 105 posts - 105 votes Studies: English | Message 11 of 36 03 September 2007 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Do not pay attention to think about how hard it is
Just learn and practise it designedly It's easier than what you think look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFbN8Evh4U 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6969 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 12 of 36 04 September 2007 at 6:09am | IP Logged | ||
This only further confirms my belief that studying languages at the university is not a good idea. A dedicated self learner using efficent methods will beat even the most dilligent university student. Unless of course the university student does self study on his own. I went on a guided trip to China a couple of years ago and the Swedish guide on the trip had studied Chinese at a Swedish university and also two years at 北大。 My pronunciation at that time was actually better than his. At that time I had only studied Chinese for 6 months intensively. Of course his vocabulary and reading ability was much better than mine, but he still pronounced 猫 like 帽 on one occasion. Confusing the hell out of the person he was talking to. I believe, that if you want to get anything remotely close to a decent accent you have to take the self-study route. At the university you will only spend your days listening to beginner mandarin spoken by your fellow learners. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| solidsnake Diglot Senior Member China Joined 6827 days ago 469 posts - 488 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin | Message 13 of 36 06 September 2007 at 3:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the bottom line comes down to how much you use the language everyday. If you live with a chinese gf/wife, work in a chinese office, have all (monolingual)chinese clients, you are gonna smoke any kid who had newspaper chinese spoon fed to him at Yale.
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| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6128 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 14 of 36 07 September 2007 at 1:10pm | IP Logged | ||
^_^ I spent a lot of time on Skype speaking with native speakers and I think it helped a lot. The self-teaching courses I have teach me how to translate something to Chinese but without actually speaking the language in real conversations I don't think I would be where I am now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jee Senior Member Australia Joined 6095 days ago 105 posts - 105 votes Studies: English | Message 15 of 36 08 September 2007 at 10:13am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Asiafeverr
I have listened to the recording of your Mandarin speaking It'pretty good,your pronounciation is good enough,look, Mandarin's pronounciation is really not hard to learn BTW,there r 2 mistakes in it first,in Chinese order,it should be "Germany Berlin" instead of "Berlin Germany" second one is your year's counting, it should be 一年半"yi nian ban"= 1.5 year, not 一半年 cause 一半年 = 一个半年= 1* 0.5 year= 0.5 year, but 一年半 =一年+半年 = 1+0.5= 1.5year the reason for the mistake's happening is the different order between Chinese language and European languages,such as English"one and a half year".We just move the "year" to the position after the first number word "one year and a half " ok keep going ,it's good on u Edited by Jee on 08 September 2007 at 10:15am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Asiafeverr Diglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6128 days ago 346 posts - 431 votes 1 sounds Speaks: French*, English Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, German | Message 16 of 36 08 September 2007 at 12:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is exactly what I meant. I have been learning Mandarin for a little bit over 6 months, which is 0.5 year.
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