The place to ask China-related questions!
Beijing Shanghai Guangzhou Shenzhen Chengdu Xi'an Hangzhou Qingdao Dalian Suzhou Nanjing More Cities>>

Categories

Close
Welcome to eChinacities Answers! Please or register if you wish to join conversations or ask questions relating to life in China. For help, click here.
X

Verify email

Your verification code has been sent to:

Didn`t receive your code? Resend code

By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .

Sign up with Google Sign up with Facebook
Sign up with Email Already have an account? .
Posts: 209

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Q: Hardest part about learning Chinese?

I'm sure I'm not breaking any new ground with this question but it seems the toughest part is tones, I've met foreigners here who speak it very fluently and very smoothly though always seem to mess up the tones.

10 years 50 weeks ago in  Teaching & Learning - China

 
Answers (12)
Comments (19)
Posts: 9631

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Tones, and then the fact that all words/characters sound the same. 

Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4935

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Scandinavian is right for some people. For me, it's not the tones, same sounds, characters, etc.

 

For me, it's motivation. I'm sure 99% of the people in the world could learn Chinese if they were motivated enough. The biggest problem when trying to learn anything is motivation. If you don't have the drive to continue, you'll give up quickly.

Scandinavian:

ah, I have that on too. I pretty much don't care what people say, and the wife speaks plenty of English to keep me entertained

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

ambivalentmace:

motivation is a big problem and the fact that ok now i speak chinese, what does that mean, i can listen to ridiculous irrelevant gossip on the bus, i can piss off the inlaws by discussing politics, rule of law, i can work at a company that tries to take advantage of me everyday, what is the benefit to learning the language, i havent found a benefit to justify the time and energy. perhaps i will find one in the future.

10 years 48 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 237

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Virtually endless homophones cool

Traveler:

Are you homophonic?

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

t91camp:

Haha, that made me do a double-take.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Hulk:

Yeah, I've come across some pretty gay phones here.

10 years 48 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 57

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

For me, getting from an elementary standard to an intermediate one.  Seems like a big jump in almost every learning resource I've investigated; a far greater jump than beginner to elementary

Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1084

Shifu

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

The variations of the same question.

Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 9192

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

Even if I understood Chinese language, I wouldn't understand the meaning often. There are so many things that have no words for like computer or airplane or man who keeps godzilla in his pants.

t91camp:

I tried to point that out over on the main site, and people just thought I was racist or something. no

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

Racism is an emotive tag people use when they have no logical argument . I was accused of that once on here as well.

 

When you are called a racist, you know you have won the argument  ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 3292

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I never saw the point in learning it. The few supposedly professional teachers I tried had terrible teaching skills, and quite frankly, outside China, Chinese has very little use.

t91camp:

And in the places where it is useful, most of them aren't speaking Mandarin...

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

JungleLife:

You don't see much point in learning it? wow. I think anybody who is in China will have  a much better time if they learn Mandarin, or at least try. You're treated better constantly, better for business, can connect with more people, can express yourself better and more often, don't get lost as much, don't get ripped off as much and even get discounts, save time, get more respect from the people, get more female attention by far, more Chinese guys want to be friends too, easier ordering food, directing a taxi, etc, etc.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

None of that is of any importance. A translator is only as far away as the mobile phone. There was no need for me to learn the language. I survived quite comfortably for over a decade without it.

 

Most of my work was to teach Chinese people to conform to western standards, for either the employer they were working for, or for acceptance to western universities. If they didn't want to conform, there were plenty more waiting to take their place. There was no need for me to reject my own culture and conform to China, though I did respect it.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Hulk:

Traveler is right. I've never actually needed any of the Chinese I know.

 

I can get by with just pointing and smiling... then again, you can get by anywhere in the world with nothing but body language.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

Pointing and smiling? That is exactly what the Chinese do to foreigners smiley ... Shift+R improves the quality of this image. Shift+A improves the quality of all images on this page.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

JungleLife:

You aren't rejecting your own culture by learning Mandarin. And yes, of course you can still 'survive' in China by not learning Mandarin, but are you optimizing your time, experience, connections, etc.?

I can dial a dozen contacts too that can always translate via the phone too, and I often do, but don't you think it is so much easier if you don't have to do that ALL the time?

I also like to mingle a bit with the people as I go about my day if I am alone too, if you don't speak Mandarin you are just restricting yourself from being able to do that. I think one only realizes/feels the benefits once they start to use Mandarin, before that they don't know what they are missing. Also, you don't think Mandarin will be useful to know in say...20 years from now back in Oz?

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

There are better things I can do with my time than learning Chinese.

 

In Australia, more people are learning Latin than Chinese, because most people don't see it as having any long term importance.

 

www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/hands-up-for-a-better-asian-language-plan-20130331-2h1hb.html#ixzz2PCWSGhcX

 

English is the international language of everything, though many in Australia learn Indonesian and Japanese. These countries have an established and projected long term association with Australia, and are considered far more relevant than China.

 

China needs to conform to the rest of the world if it wants to survive. It is generally considered unimportant in international affairs, except to the Chinese military. Even China's government realises that. That's why they have absolutely no foreign policy whatsoever.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

JungleLife:

China is not really conforming, yet they do not cease to be buying up Australia, USA, Canada piece by piece. They have money, nothing else matters.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

They think nothing else matters, but as they are finding out, they are very, very wrong:

 

www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/palmer-citic-rift-blows-out-to-400m/story-e6frg9df-1226595930883

 

This is the world's largest ever corporate blowout, but it is by no means an isolated case. The Chinese try to do the same crap in Australia that they get away with in China, but end up losing a large amount of their money. To Australians.

 

They just can't comprehend "rule of law," and that is to their own detriment.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

JungleLife:

No, they are not very very wrong, they are ruthless and smart. they will do things like this all the time and get away with it, or settle and walk out smiling, strategy that they can use, and the governments will sit back and accept it. Courts will not tell this economy supporting customer to go away and don't come back even if they could. There are now laws that protect these foreign state owned investors. They are ruthless in business and rich. Western countries are less so in all those ways. Ethics, honesty, or good character don't play a part in who wins the game of monopoly.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

Traveler:

OK. If you're happy to believe that, go on believing it. Actually, it is totally off topic anyway.

 

The point is, Chinese really has little use outside China, not knowing the language had absolutely no effect on me living there, so I couldn't justify wasting my time learning it. The same as most people in Australia see it as pointless.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse

JungleLife:

I never said I was happy to believe that. I was just laying out some facts.

10 years 50 weeks ago
Report Abuse
Report Abuse
10 years 50 weeks ago
 
Posts: 13

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I intend to live here. I also want to show some respect to my hosts. Also my girlfriend. So motivation is not an issue. Tones are Hardest. But i thought that was plain and obvious to anyone. 

Report Abuse
10 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 263

Governor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

The hardest part is understanding old Chinese. Many poems are written in it, if modern Chinese translation is not available, I'm lost.

Idioms are kind of hard too.

Report Abuse
10 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 4397

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

  Motivation is the hardest part. It occurred to me recently that the real trick to learning Chinese is to cultivate a genuine interest in the language. From that interest all else follows.

Report Abuse
10 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 1

General

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I think the best way is to speak more ,you can find a Chinese friend to chat ,the more you speak ,the better your  tones  will be .

Report Abuse
10 years 48 weeks ago
 
Posts: 2494

Emperor

0
0
You must be a registered user to vote!
You must be a registered user to vote!
0

I think it's the tones. The stresses and also one word can mean many things. Those two things for me I find is very very difficult. 

Report Abuse
10 years 48 weeks ago

There are cookies, bookies and too many rookies for me to sit here trying to be a hooky! Looky Looky don't call me a wooky. Touchy Touchy Feely Feely Spicy Spicy Nicey Nicey & that's what the doctor Ordered!!

 
Know the answer ?
Please or register to post answer.

Report Abuse

Security Code: * Enter the text diplayed in the box below
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <img> <br> <p> <u>
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Textual smileys will be replaced with graphical ones.

More information about formatting options

Forward Question

Answer of the DayMORE >>
A:  "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "S
A: "... through ..."?  Only "through" comes to mind is "Shenzhen agent can connect you with an employer, who's authorized to hire waigouren ... and can sponsor Z visa." It's not like every 10th person you meet in Shenzhen's hood can sponsor work visa ...  The only way to change from student to labourer visa is just a regular way by: 1. Finding an employer, who'll apply for an Invitation letter; 2. Exit China and apply for Z visa in your home country's Chinese embassy; 3. Enter China in 30-days after Z visa was stamped into your travelling instrument ...As I am aware, you won't be able to switch to Working permit by remaining in China....,so make ready for a return to your home .... -- icnif77