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Q: A quick poll: How's your Chinese compared to the amount of time you've spent here?
It's fun to take a poll from time to time, so i'd like to take a quick one right now. How is your Chinese coming along after.......however long you've been here? Personally I started studying the language about ten years ago and have been here full-time for the past eight...and my Chinese is..........What is the name of those Muslims again? Oh yeh.....Shiit.
I'd say, to be honest, I speak at the level of a child of about 6 or 7, though i'm probably being generous in that estimation.
So.....waddaboutchoo?
My Chinese is comical. I can get by and I studied a few hanzi but I know little. I can sometimes have a short conversation with taxi drivers. I'm gearing up to study hanzi and give it some time to reach something resembling competence.
mArtiAn:
I think i've had some of my best conversations with taxi drivers. Makes sense because they probably interact with foreigners more than anyone else. Most people just rattle on as if I understand every word just because i've said 'ni hao'. Taxi drivers seem to know how to 'dumb down' a little to accommodate for my basic level.
bill8899:
The thing is, I'm clueless as to how I can hold a conversation. Now that I think about it, I understand a word or two and guess what they said and just run with that. Sometimes it works quite well. Hell of a lot of fun no matter what.
I came here 10 years ago. I understand almost everything, but some idioms give me a hard time because you need to know the stories. What I find more challenging is writing.
mArtiAn:
Almost 'everything'? That's impressive, I so 'do not'. Guess i've just been a lazy student. Haven't bothered learning to write at all either. Don't see the point. I mean beyond it being a fascinating and beautiful written language and all that.
ElenaDob:
Sorry, I didn't mention the fact that I study Chinese in Anhui university now.
I've reached an odd point where most of what I say is understood, but when they speak, I just go "ting bu dong a..."
Been coming for 3 years, and picking up Chinese for 3.5 years total. However, I've really only spent maybe 1 or 2 months MAXIMUM studying Chinese. Come to think of it... it probably only amounts to 2 weeks of actual study. The rest is just picking up characters here and there.
3 months in China, 0.5 level out of ten. I haven't studied it so its ok. Anyway I think that I would have to stay in China for more than two years to know how to speak so I surrend about learning it, I'm not going to stay more than one year...
Been there six years, and I'm supposed to have a level high enough for HSK lvl.... 5, I think?
I only need 2 more words to learn and by tomorrow I will be proficiency. This is like a friend who once told me: "I need only 2 Euro, can you lend me.. ?". I asked him: "Why?". He said: "This is what I need to buy a Ferrari". So it's me about Chinese language since I arrived in China back in September last year. At this pace, certainly I will sooner buy a Ferrari than learning Chinese.
After several years in China, my Chinese is still almost non-existent. In fact, I think my spoken English has also become worse.
Shining_brow:
Because, Pulker, if you're not in an environment to use the full extent of your language skills, you start to lose them. If traveler doesn't have some good, intellectual native speakers about, who share interests, then you're not going to be using your language.
And, add to that, if you're an English teacher to lower levels, it means 90% of your English is 'dumbed down'.
Unfortunately, that means even your brain starts losing it.
You shouldn't be so surprised - it happens with migrant families all over the world. I mean, how many kids are brought up in a household with one language, but live in a country with a different language... and by the time they're in their teens, they can 'understand' their grandparents, but can't really speak to them in their language. There's plenty of research on the subject!
(btw, it's also why expat sites such as this are actually quite good for keeping up our language ability... even if we're having a gi-normous debate! (which is probably better for us... :D)
Traveler:
In my last city, the only other foreigner I knew was a Kiwi, so intellectual conversation wasn't possible.
Did you know that the Kiwis invented the condom in 1802, using the lower intestine of a sheep? The Australians refined that in 1822, by actually taking the intestine out of the sheep before use.
mArtiAn:
I know what you mean about your own language suffering, even if you were joking. So many times i've finished a lesson where i've been dumbing down in order to maintain comprehension from the students, only to find myself talking to a colleague afterwards like they were 8.
My first day in China a young woman taught me all the Chinese I need, Tim Bo Dong.
Even if I don't understand the words, I usually have an idea about what is being said. I love google translator.
as I have stated before I speak enough to dig myself a deeper hole
Hulk:
Lol. I do that sometimes, but my written Chinese is actually pretty decent. I can usually communicate very well by writing with others.
16 months and I know
wo bu zhi dao
wo bu ming bai
ting bu dong ---------- said timmadong .. and they seem to understand
wo ai ni
actually I know a little more than that, my speaking is progressing at a reasonable pace that will have me fluently speaking Chinese by my 70th birthday, my goal.
Understanding locals, I think will be in another life.
putonghua
guangdonghua
leizhouhua
BRIANHUA
Starting year 3 here. And as I said when I was starting year 1: Must learn Chinese! Must learn Chinese! Must le.........ahhhh stuff it.
I am getting a little better but it seems Chinese with an Australian accent is incomprehensible to shopkeepers and taxi drivers. When I hear with my ear what I am saying it sounds very good but I continually get that puzzled expression on the listener's face and my efforts in the classroom have the kids in fits of laughter. I practise Chinese with the kids during a lesson and it now forms part of the teaching comedy act.
But honestly, this year, I have steeled myself, I have made up my mind that this is the year: I must learn Chinese!
mArtiAn:
I think I get the most practise of my Chinese during lessons with 9 year olds. You have to use Chinese to maintain discipline, to set up activities; I don't know how anyone manages without it when teaching little kids.
been here for a year and haven't tried to study it yet so I only know a few words, will start tomorrow.
I've been here 3.5 years, and I've taken about 6 formal classes with a real teacher and a book... and last year, I started using Pimsleur's, a website for flashcards, and a pdf book for character learning.
However, quite a bit of the Pimsleur lvl 1 I already knew, but I'm having hassles with Lvl 2 (and I'm only on the 2nd lesson!), and while I probably know about 100+ characters, and can read a little, it's pretty crap for the time I've been here (and how not-busy I've been!)
My real language learning has been situational - I've needed/wanted to say something, I've asked a friend, or checked a dictionary. But, my tones are really bad!
However, like most on here, one little 你好 and it's "Oh, your Chinese is so good!" Yeah? Thanks... just don't talk to me and we'll be fine! 
Been here a tadge over 2 years, been studying for a year, (first year was too busy buying new flat, gettting used to job area / etc).
I've got a vocabulary of about 3 - 500 words that I spend an hour a day studying reading speaking and a little writing, and of course listening.
My speaking is abysmal, my 2 year old daughter is better, 0.01 / 10
Reading is not too bad (for my level), 2 / 10
Writing is very basic, but quite tidy, 1/10
Listening is getting to the annoying stage where I can pick out individual words but not the meaning of the sentence, 2/10
In my defense I am self-hampered by (in addition to my own stupidity) refusing to speak Chinese anywhere my daughter can hear, as we are using OPOL to teach her English, and that pretty much 100% rules out at home and 90% of my free time, (I have to lock myself in my office to do my study), and I can't try it at work as I teach English and everyone wants / expects me to speak English, indeed under the terms of my new contract I'm responsible for staff (English) training too.
Appalling. Two years and I am at a very basic level. Would be total loss of face had I been Chinese
I've been here for more than 3 years and:
1. spoken Chinese: not where I'd like it to be, especially since I'm a student here and all my classes are in Chinese. Right now, I can't even have a simple discussion in Chinese because there are just too many words or Chinese idioms I haven't taken the time to learn.
2. written Chinese: as bad is it can get. I can read and understand most of what is written in our books but when it comes to writing something down, I can't seem to do it. I just can't write down a sentence that doesn't look like a 6 year old wrote it.
3. listening: hai keyi. No problems with everyday communication, just don't start up a complex discussion with me because I'll understand just about 30% or less of what you're saying.
On a positive note dear colleagues, your admissions of varying degrees of abyssmal failure have given me comfort and a modicum of guanxi knowing that I am not the only helpless foreigner fool in China. Ta muchly!
I've been here 2.5 years minus some generous R&R time back home. I can speak well enough to get around by myself (restaurants, taxis, haircuts, supermarket, etc). But it really makes a difference if I'm speaking to someone who's already familiar with me. For whatever reason, they're much more likely to understand what I'm saying than if I were talking with a stranger for the first time (the one exclusion here is taxi drivers, it seems they have some magical 老外的中文 universal translator). As far as character recognition, I'm up to about 600 or so. Memrise has been great for individual character learning, but doesn't really teach grammar or phrasing...so I'm lacking in that department. I just put all the words I think I need to use in a sentence in some random order; they usually get the gist of it, I think 
Listening is my big problem. Especially for people from certain areas more towards central and western China. My friends from Anhui, Hubei, Henan....I can barely make out the individual words, it's like it all comes out in the form of a flowing river; can't tell one water drop from the next. 
mArtiAn:
I'm the same, i've just piled up a load of vocabulary but i've never studied grammar or phrasing. Do like I do; whenever you want to have a conversation with someone, just pretend you're Yoda, his grammar's all back to front too. Works wonders.
Been here 2.5 years. Vocabulary of about 600 words and know about 200 Characters. Does not help living in small town where everyone speaks a dialect of Wu. I spent the first two months in China saying "hi hoa" instead of "ni hao." Have a gf now, so I am improving faster. I can write five character sentences now. Tones are getting easier, but I still have more studying to do....
