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Q: Do you want to give up chinese learning?
Because this is the most difficult language in the word?因为这是世界上最难的语言？
11 years 40 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - Shanghai
No! But, it is going very slow.
Difficult? yes, I am also having in my mind 'complicated'?
Sometimes, when Chinese don't understand me, I call my Chinese girlfriend. I explain to her, what I want, and she ask Chinese person in Chinese:
my Q: where is the Railway Station?
My girl talk to the other person 5 minutes! I am just guessing, what is going on.
In English, Q is only one sentence, and A is also one sentence.
What do they talk about for that long?
Sometimes, I have feeling Chinese 'reach to L pocket with the R hand'! 'around the a$$', that is!
Chinese 'character system' comparable to our 'letters system' is much more complicated: when you know 26 letters, you can read about anything you want.
In Chinese, you must know all different characters to be able to read and understand meaning of the text.
Not giving up!
AdamE:
I run into situations like this all the time where I need a question asked and they end up talking forever.
It's not a matter of the question being shorter or longer in English or Chinese. It's simply a matter of people asking/talking more than what you spcefically asked.
For example in English if you did the same thing your gf might ask the person "my friends lost he needs to find the railway station, where are you guys right now"...guy says "we are on abc street"....gf says "where is that? it is near the railway station".....guy goes into more detail "hmmm it's over by 123 street a coupld blocks from the large nike store, yes the railway staiton is near, he needs to head north on abc street then turn left, oh no wait sorry i mean turn right on....." etc etc
That's a pretty accurate example of how any conversation in any language can go. All you wanted asked were there exact words "where is the railway station" but a lot of times people won't ask things exacly how you want it asked or people responding will give more details than you wanted.... of course since you can understand what they are saying it seems weird to you, if they were speaking english it wouldnt seem weird though.
at least this is what i've come to learn.
it goes both ways though, you may have also noticed a lot of times you'll be saying something in English maybe talking for 2-3 minutes straight, telling a story or something, and then when your gf/friend/translator translates what you said it only took 5 seconds. This is another good example of the language not being shorter or longer, its the person translating and the way they choose to ask/tell something.
I have been in China for 10 years now. I can speak and understand "Chinese" fairly well, but I have pretty much given up on learning more, because it is not useful for me to learn more.
I can have conversations in Chinese, albeit what I consider basic, but that's all I need for day to day things. Many Chinese people think that the Chinese language is the most advanced and best form of communication there is. I find the language extremely limited, grinding on the ears, and inefficient.
If you speak "Chinese", well, it's only useful for the location you're in. There are dialects, accents, and really almost a different language for each city you're in. If you learn how to speak and say things in Jiangsu province, people will have no idea what you're saying in Henan province.
Plus, many Chinese people cannot understand or accept that a foreigner could possibly speak this language. I cannot even count the times I have gotten into a taxi and told the driver where to go in Chinese, with proper tones and fluency, and they look at me like I'm speaking Swahili. They just assume they can't understand me because I'm not Chinese, so they don't even try. I've gotten into taxis and said "ni hao" and the driver replies "Ting bu dong!" .
A lot of Chinese people are very arrogant about their caveman language. Even if you can speak it, they don't accept that you can because you're not Chinese. Some people get very excited if you can speak it because it shows that you have an interest in China - the language, the culture, etc. But overall, this language is useless except for daily communication IN CHINA. It will never be a world language. Advanced science is even taught in ENGLISH in China because the language cannot accurately describe what needs to be described.
It's pretty much a dead language. People can't simply make new characters, they must only use what is already known. This is why "train" is basically "fire cart" and computer is "lightning (now used for electricity) brain" - "electric brain"
Quantum mechanics is 量子力学 - "quantity child power knowledge". Sorry, it loses something in Chinese. On Earth, only 2 languages are capable of accurately explaining this stuff. English and German, and English is better at it. This is why all scientific papers are in English. It can accurately describe things.
Chinese is only useful in China. Learn it if you want to, but it's kind of useless.
urbanina:
I'm so glad I'm not the only person this happens to. Taxi drivers treat me two ways; either they're delighted to meet a laowai who speaks some Chinese and they tell me their life story (interspersed with questions about my age, marital status and income), or, they argue that they can't understand me and when I ask for a destination they tell me I'm not being specific enough, or clear, or maybe not Chinese enough... doh
AdamE:
It drives me crazy when I run into people like that. I understand sometimes my prounciation is bad so I may need to say something a few times or if they don't understand the context they simply won't understand what I'm saying.
But I hate it when you say something perfect in Chinese that you know people can understand and they still don't understand it. It's like the come to a conclusion in advance that "this guy can't speak Chinese" so anything you say they just ignore it.
To be fair though there have been a few times Chinese people have said something to me in English and I say I don't understand, only to realize a few minutes later that they were actually speaking English but my brain just assumed it was Chinese.
owenren:
If the people can not understand what you speak (Chinese ), that is means you can not speak perfectly.... I have been to many different countries,when I speak local language to them, they are very happy, even it's not good speaking accent...
Meanwhile, for the different province in China, if you can speak good mandarin, all the people can understand in China, donot worry about this issue.
Language is only the communication tool, Chinese is the charmful language in the world, the same as other charmful language... do not think only your language is brilliant ...
Learn to respect people and you will enjoy the life ...
Not sure if Chinese 'is' the most difficult language in the world, for one thing English has the larger vocabulary. Also Chinese has pinyin, which makes learning pronunciation of the language very easy indeed. With English you have to learn pronunciation practically on a word for word basis, I mean what sound is 'ough' for example? The sound changes from 'thought' to 'through' to 'though' to 'rough'. English grammar is also more complex; in Chinese so much is dependent on the speaker stating when an action occurred rather than implying it through the use of tense. But to answer your original question, no, i've not given up on studying it, it's a fascinating language.
MrTibbles seems hate chinese language a lot
icnif77:
nobody hates anybody. It is just an opinion!
If you are fluent in Chinese and English, please give us you opinion about differences between two languages!
I'm living in China, learning Chinese and loving everyday of it.
Don't hate it, embrace it !
owenren:
Thanks, friend
Nice to hear you are leaning&loving Chinese, any questions in Chinese, pls talk to me through Skype, I will help people who respect China .
First off, its not the most difficult language in the world.
I go through phases where I study a lot, and others where I barely study. But I do enjoy learning it.
Also I agree with most of what Mr Tibbles said.
I agree part of Mr Tibbles ' opinion , cuase the science is originally controlled by English , not chinese.
All the time I go through phases where I try to learn Chinese. Then quit. Then I want to learn again, then I quit. Then I want to learn again and quit.
I've come to the conclusion that I'll probably never be able to speak Chinese all that well. But one thing that keeps me going is that at least my listening improves..... Even if theres a word/phrase/sentence that I struggle to pronounce or say, if someone says it to me I can still understand it instantly.
Trying not to lose face is another reason I still try to study. It makes me look bad/lazy/stupid to certain people (my gf's family for example) if my Chinese doesn't improve.
mArtiAn:
I know exactly what you mean about wanting to learn for sake of face. I quit work and took myself to university for four months a few years back, just because I realised my Chinese should have been better after the amount of time i'd been learning. I do think it reflect poorly on foreigners who are here long term who can only speak the basics. The main, most important thing is to cultivate a genuine interest in study.
AdamE:
Yes I think it does reflect poorly on someone when they've been here awhile and can only speak the basics.
Every week I end up meeting/talking to strangers and the reaction I get now compared to when I first came here is totally opposite. It use to be "wow welcome to china, your chinese is pretty good!". Now it's "wow you've been here that long and you still can't speak the language, why not?". Suddenly the first impression someone gets of you is that you may be lazy or stupid.
谁跟你说汉语是最难学的语言？ it is one of , not the only most difficult one
BTW, are you han meimei ?
