Thinking about taking up Chinese, how complex is it to learn?

[the nomad]

Thinking about taking up Chinese, learned Italian and French because I thought it would be cool to impress girls in my younger years.Although most of American's spending power on the East Coast is from the U.K., the largest amounts of immigrants on the East Coast speak Chinese. 

To effectively learn a language it's better if you live in the native land or a large community of people who speak it.
Anyone care to share how they learned to speak Chinese? How complex is it? How long before you became fluent?



 

 

[mojodmonky1]

Thinking about taking up Chinese, learned Italian and French because I thought it would be cool to impress girls in my younger years.Although most of American's spending power on the East Coast is from the U.K., the largest amounts of immigrants on the East Coast speak Chinese. 


To effectively learn a language it's better if you live in the native land or a large community of people who speak it.

Anyone care to share how they learned to speak Chinese? How complex is it? How long before you became fluent?




 

im not chinese nor do i speak it, but i believe there are multiple different dialects (most common being mandarin and cantonese) and just because you can speak one doesnt mean you can speak the other

 

[the nomad]

im not chinese nor do i speak it, but i believe there are multiple different dialects (most common being mandarin and cantonese) and just because you can speak one doesnt mean you can speak the other

Apologies, assumed everyone knew this. I'm under the assumption Mandarin is the most commonly used especially in New York, anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[saintanton]

Mandarin would be the useful one on a worldwide scale.  Cantonese is big on the east coast, west coast, and Hong Kong.  Couple other spots too.  Mandarin is the way to go if you ever wanna apply it to business.

The thing about Chinese is a language is it uses tones.  Learning to incorporate tones in language is hard if you haven't done it before.  

 

[mojodmonky1]

Apologies, assumed everyone knew this. I'm under the assumption Mandarin is the most commonly used especially in New York, anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

again, i could be wrong, but i think Mandarin is the official dialect of China so maybe it is the most common? My in laws (well those that do speak it since my wife is 3rd generation so her father doesnt really speak it) speak Toisan? Taishan? which I believe is related or part of the Cantonese dialect. I think it is fairly common amongst the LA Chinatown community.

 

[the nomad]

Mandarin would be the useful one on a worldwide scale.  Cantonese is big on the east coast, west coast, and Hong Kong.  Couple other spots too.  Mandarin is the way to go if you ever wanna apply it to business.

The thing about Chinese is a language is it uses tones.  Learning to incorporate tones in language is hard if you haven't done it before.  

Interesting, and pretty much answers a few things I was pondering today.

again, i could be wrong, but i think Mandarin is the official dialect of China so maybe it is the most common? My in laws (well those that do speak it since my wife is 3rd generation so her father doesnt really speak it) speak Toisan? Taishan? which I believe is related or part of the Cantonese dialect. I think it is fairly common amongst the LA Chinatown community.

 

I think here in New York Mandarin is the primary language, I tried Rosetta Stone but it's just not effective enough. Most people speak Cantonese and although it's more fluent I've been told that Mandarin is hard for them as it is for me and more acceptable and second to English...if I'm making sense.

 

 

[johnnyredstorm]

i wouldn't mind learning mandarin but i gotta stop messing around and nail down french first plus polish my spanish since i haven't used it in a while.

 

[soleasian]

OP, I'm in NYC too and to be honest Canto is more useful if you want to get food or ask for directions/other small talk in Chinatown or Flushing. However, for business or anything more Mandarin is the dialect used. You can do fine with speaking Mandarin in Chinatown/Flushing but I'm pretty sure Canto is spoken more.

 

[the nomad]

OP, I'm in NYC too and to be honest Canto is more useful if you want to get food or ask for directions/other small talk in Chinatown or Flushing. However, for business or anything more Mandarin is the dialect used. You can do fine with speaking Mandarin in Chinatown/Flushing but I'm pretty sure Canto is spoken more.

Agreed Sole, 

This is what I've been told, that most households speak Cantonese but Mandarin is more universal because even people that speak Cantonese are influenced to learn Mandarin here in NYC.


 

 

[tsmooth]

Preaty complex. Italian and french are a lot easier. Writing it is a complete pain. I actually went to chinese school as a kid on saturday and writing is very complex.

 

[killthehype]

My question to everyone ... does Rosetta Stone work?

I have a levels or Japanese and French.

I watch a lot of Anime in Japanese now instead of english dub so I can understand a little better and I am recognizing some stuff but not full dialoge.

 

[the nomad]

My question to everyone ... does Rosetta Stone work?
I have a levels or Japanese and French.
I watch a lot of Anime in Japanese now instead of english dub so I can understand a little better and I am recognizing some stuff but not full dialoge.

 This is how I learned French, watching movies over and over with subtitles then talked to people in French. Took maybe 3 years to hold a fluent conversation. By the time I picked up Rosetta it was a breeze.

Me personally I learn better on my own, my curve is a lot faster.

 

[sixhundredfour]

Incredibly difficult.
Chinese as a language does not use anything that resembles an alphabet, every word is essentially a drawing.There are cues and symbols that will help you identify the meaning of a word, but it's still pretty hard to decipher otherwise. 
Learn Mandarin, it is the official language of China. Cantonese is really only used in certain parts of china as well as Hong Kong, however, most people that can speak Cantonese have a pretty good understanding of Mandarin, but most people who are native Mandarin speakers don't know a word of cantonese. Cantonese is widely used in north america because when China took back Hong Kong from Britain, a lot of cantonese people fled, however If you plan to do business, mandarin is the way to go. 
Mandarin has 4 tones, meaning you can say the same word 4 different ways and it will have entirely different meanings.. from my understanding cantonese has 7. 
Also, there is simplified and traditional chinese. I myself, am learning traditional, mostly because I think the characters look better and have more historical significance, but simplified chinese at the moment, I believe, is more widely used. Simplified chinese is essentially traditional chinese but dumbed down... again, people who learn traditional can typically get by reading simplified chinese, but most people who only learned simplified chinese have no idea what's going on with traditional writing.
Like any language, the best way to learn is to visit the motherland herself. 
Hope that helps, Good luck fam. 

 

[dman14]

its easier if you learn as a child but to pick it up as an adult can be difficult.
i need to brush up on my. i can get away with conversation but i dont even understand the news, or shows too well. SMH

 

[limonyfresh]

Just do this so you can see what you're getting yourself into (for Mandarin). Go ahead and try to learn Pingyin. (Highly advise against skipping straight to learning words. You will get the if you do actually try to talk to someone using English pronunciation as your basis.) It basically teaches you the 'alphabet' using Roman letters that you can actually understand. You will be diving head first into tones and all the basic sounds.

This is the primary mode in which you will learn every word until you pick up characters, so if it seems overwhelming at this point then you know what you are in for.

 

[Sinner]

I think SaintAnton is pretty-much spot-on there.  

If you are thinking of using it in a "business setting", then Mandarin is the way to go.  At the end of the day, Mandarin is still the official language in China, despite the numerous Chinese dialects.

I'm from HK and am fluent in Cantonese and can speak conversational Mandarin (still rough around the edges tho 

).  I'd say learning Mandarin is a lot easier than learning Canto, mainly because Mandarin uses 4 major tones, while Canto, I think, has 9 tones.  

A common "joke" about the importance of tones is the example for "dumplings"

"Shui jiao", depending on which tones you use, can either mean "dumplings"... or "sleeping".  Don't wanna mix that up when ordering. Grammatically, it wouldn't work, but it was the example I was taught regarding the importance of tones. 

Mandarin uses the "pinyin" system to transcribe the words, so for Westerners, that'll probably be the system you'll be using.  

The most difficult part will be learning the Chinese characters, but if you just wanna learn the language, it won't be a problem cuz the pinyin system uses the English alphabet.  

Ultimately, it'll come down to how much work you put into it in terms "how long it'll take for you to get fluent"... same as any other language, I suppose.

 

[Nawzlew]

My family is Taiwanese, so I grew up speaking Mandarin. I'm not super fluent, but I can I survive when I go to an Asian country.

I did take Chinese classes when I was younger, to learn how to read/write, but stopped after 3 years or so. I really wish I didn't stop ...

I think as long as you stay exposed to an area that primarily speaks the language, you'll be fine, because you're forced to speak the language. I noticed that my Mandarin improved quite dramatically after I spent a month back in Taiwan this summer. Been speaking it a lot more to my parents since I've been back.

And in most of my experiences, people that speak Cantonese also speak Mandarin anyway.

 

[the nomad]

Planning on visiting China next year, want to be able to read for myself and hold a conversation with someone if needed. I'm a people person and often avoid "tourist traps" to seek out the down to earth crowd to experience things with. 

 

[weekz]

According to wikipedia, you need to know 3000 to 4000 characters to be functionally literate. And there is no such language as chinese or even standard chinese like there is for the arabic language spectrum. You simply have Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese, Hmong, Hakka etc etc.