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Q: Multilingual folks, I got a language question for you...
So you can speak Chinese ha? Man you should get some award or a cash prize to be able to speak the unspeakable, specially if you learned it after you came here (in an adult age)... I am trying to get my shit sorted to learn this language, tough luck so far! I try to watch one Chinese movie a week, "try" to study at least an hour daily (by myself), once a week a Chinese lesson also, but that doesn't help much (also cuz it's so damn expensive). ask questions to my colleagues, so far... Nothing solid! (I hope to attempt HSK 1 in couple of months)...
Well... It got me thinking! I come from a country with multiple languages, I am petty fluent in 3 more languages, (not counting English - cuz you know, nothing is good enough for you guys) so why is it so difficult to grasp Chinese? I realized I am doing same mistake many Chinese people do, and that is... thinking in your own language and then trying to translate the words into Chinese and speak. Which in my class, I call "Thinking in Chinese, Speaking in English". which is wrong, so wrong.. f**ks the grammar, and sentences do not make any sense... Other languages I know, all those I leaned when I was child so it's pretty easy to speak, but Chinese I am trying to learn as an adult.
I know if you start to think in the language you learn pretty fast and you can communicate better, it saves time to translate the word from your mother tongue to Chinese. so how do you guys do it? Is there a secret formula? how do you start to think in a foreign language? or maybe you don't have too?
8 years 43 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Just takes time. There's no cheat sheet.
Karma101:
Of course, I know THAT... I keep repeating it to my colleagues who wish to study English. I was getting into a more deeper problem of the brain, as too how would you stop yourself from doing the "thinking English, speaking Chinese" thing?
xunliang:
I don't know what else to say. Only by using Chinese for a long time will you start to automatically think in Chinese. You can't trick yourself into doing it now. You need to be very familiar with the language.
Just takes time. There's no cheat sheet.
Karma101:
Of course, I know THAT... I keep repeating it to my colleagues who wish to study English. I was getting into a more deeper problem of the brain, as too how would you stop yourself from doing the "thinking English, speaking Chinese" thing?
xunliang:
I don't know what else to say. Only by using Chinese for a long time will you start to automatically think in Chinese. You can't trick yourself into doing it now. You need to be very familiar with the language.
Step 1: Get a Chinese girlfriend.
Step 2: Get her to move in with you
Step 3: Agree to spend one day only speaking Chinese to each other. In my house, Monday was "Chinese day".
Step 4: Astound your friends with your newly learned Putonghua.
Karma101:
Nice, I've had Chinese gf's but never thought about the "Chinese day".
Thanks! excellent idea... 
I'll get back to finding a rich girl... Later 
You will struggle at first, then you will find it easy, then you will struggle to learn extra then you will slowly get the hang of it.
Karma101:
yeah, I know what you are talking about, looong way go....
I got another question on the similar lines for you who speak good Chinese.
Inspired by Tom che and few of my colleagues... Sarcasm!! do people understand if you are being sarcastic, in Chinese?
For sure, no sarcasm understood in English.
I was discussing this with my boss, he said they do, I just don't know because I can't speak the language?
So sarcasm is common in Chinese language?
Shining_brow:
Apparently, yes! It's huge.. a lot of comedy is based on such sarcasm.. and MIL sarcasm, and govt policay sarcasm...
There was a post put up somewhere (someone on here linked it) about how 'bad' America was... not making people pay for things, forming lines (and thus, not getting the seat) etc etc... all sarcasm!
WanderingTeacher:
Yes, I'm often sarcastic with my sports friends when we play, they always know. It's all about how you say it. Just like in English
Learning a second language as an adult is quite difficult especially when the linguistic properties are not similar in any form. Its quite easier for a child to acquire a language pretty fast due to the fact that his/her language acquisition device is much active but as an adult, it takes time and you may never achieve competence in the use of the language. Just learn it gradually that's the key. Stay more with the native speakers its much easier learning from them.
I've been here a year and a half and I'm almost flueny in Chinese. This is just based on my experience. Stop hanging out with foreigners. Don't speak English unless you have to. Spend as much time with Chinese people. Don't get a Chinese girlfriend/boyfriend (it doesn't help).
If I'm not in class teaching, I'm always speaking Chinese. Every morning I play volleyball and jianzi in the park with the locals. Every evening I play jianzi again with them. We go hiking together and often eat dinner together. So the majority of my time in China has been spent not speaking or hearing English. Language is a like a muscle that you have to build and use, or you will lose it. Mod to my dreams are in Chinese now. When I talk to my friends in America, without thinking, I'll say something in Chinese, because it's a reflex. It's not necessarily thinking in Chinese, it's more reflexive. For example I always think in English, however, when I talk to Chinese people, I never "translate" in my mind what they are saying to English and then translate what I want to say into Chinese. In my mind it's like English and Chinese just combined into one language. It's like having many words the mean they same thing like "fast, quick, swift, rapid, etc" and depending on which word you choose, and which form (adjective or adverb) you format your sentence differently.
It sounds complicated but that's how it works in my head. I speak English, Spanish, French, and now Chinese. Buy in my head, these languages are not separated. It's like this one big dictionary with many words and phrases with the same meaning and I just start speaking without thinking about it. A month ago I went to Shanghai and was eating ay a Colombian restaurant. I was talking in Spanish to the owner of the restaurant and all of a sudden I started speaking Spanese (Spanish+Chinese) "Yo 想 cuatro 个 sangrias, 谢谢." Spanish is as much my native language as English, but hadn't spoken Spanish since I was in America. It was so weird, I felt my my brain was about to have a seizure or something. Anyways, it's a muscle, you have to use it. Once you use it often enough, it will become reflexive and you won't even need to think about what your about to say, it will just come out. Good luck
rasklnik:
Not to mock you, but you sound like you are naturally good at languages. An example I give is that I have managed to learn to read menus pretty well, with little formal study. I have met people who have been here as long as I have who can barely read at all. Based on your already trilingual background, it isn't hard to believe you've learned Chinese in a year of practice. A elderly man with no prior language learning experience isn't going to have your luck.
