age, goals

[Ding Yiyi]

20, I started because I saw that China makes the news almost daily for reasons of diplomacy and their economy, but after studying for a semester I came to enjoy it so much that learning it became my reason to study. I don't have any huge plans for using Mandarin in my daily life, hopefully I'll find a job where it will be a useful skill, but I've still got another year and a half before I really have to worry about that.

Adrianlondon: American Chinatowns are only located in a few American cities, New York City and San Francisco pop to mind right away, I'm not certain about any other cities but in the state of Ohio where I live there are none in any of the three main cities (Cleveland, Columbus or Cincinnati) as none have a real history of Asian immigration, and none are what you would call "big" cities, so it might not be possible for babygodzilla to go and live in one of those places.

[trien27]

Hmm. What is there to say? I use it for everything most of the time, besides English, everyday, anyway. Except foreign languages.

Bryan

[thph2006]

Well, I guess being over 50 makes me the great grandfather of the group. Hope I won't be shunned for being older than dirt! I've been self-studying since May of last year. I want to be able to go to Beijing in 2008 to watch the Olympic Games and have enough Mandarin under my belt to carry small talk conversations and order dinners. I think I'll make it.

[Lu]

25, started studying it at 18 out of interest, not with any goal in mind. Now that I speak it I want to find a job in which I can use it. And apart from that I want to learn to read Chinese books so well that I can read them for fun without needing to look up words all the time.

Edit: Babygodzilla, maybe you can try language exchange again. You just have to meet a language you get along with, and in your case one who is patient enough to talk some Chinese with you. I've had a lot of language partners, some of them I only saw once or twice because it didn't work, some I'm still in touch with.

[赫杰]

21 going on 22, been studying for a little over three years, and been a full time student in Wuhan for bout a year and a half now. My major back in the states is IT (have not graduated), so there is a good chance I wont use chinese in my career in the future, then again there is a good chance I just may. I like watching, reading, learning things in chinese about as much as I like watching, reading, learning things english, but I have found I really just enjoy thinking about things in chinese, using it to express myself and interpretating things from english to chinese (though I still kinda suck at this right now).

interesting topic!

[Crivens200]

39 years old here. Started studying 4 years ago when I took a year out to study in Beijing after my job finished in Hong Kong and I didn't want to go back to UK. Went back to UK for a nearly a year and realised that I had made a drastic mistake so came back to China to start a business that is now starting to take off after 2 years hard work.

I need the mando to communicate with the factory on a daily basis. Not really sure what my language goals are now as I'm now in a position where I can always make my self understood and very rarely don't understand what's being said, but still short of what I would term fluent.

Anyone else reached this comfort level and don't know how to improve the level?

[novemberfog]

Crivens,

I have reached that level in another language and it is really frustrating. I tried many ways to study on my own or with private tutors, yet I did not improve and in the end it felt like I was just wasting money and time. In my situation, I could speak and listen with very little problems, and I could read just about anything with a dictionary by my side for complicated or specialty vocab. My weakness was writing, however. I still had not progressed from textbook to natural writing even though I spoke quite naturally. When I wrote something, the complex grammar that I could understand in reading would not pop into my head. I never found remedy to the problem.

I am starting to feel that improving from that level is very difficult an requires a drastic change such as:

1) entrance into graduate school where advanced level writing is required, and lots of it

2) change the field of work -- something you don't know anything about

3) taking time off from work and dedicating yourself to in-depth studies with native speakers who are skilled in their language (not just a normal native speaker)

It is not something one can easily do, espeically with responsibilities and work and having to provide for oneself. Anyway, the only foreigners I knew who overcame the hurdle all attended graduate school. They still have problems compared to natives, but they are in that next rank that both you and I are striving for.

[toygirl]

i'm 22 and have been studying mando for the last year at my university. going to china and taiwain in march for a year or so. first wanted to learn mandarin for business and for work, but i love learning languages so i hope to relearn my 3 years of spanish i took in school and also learn korean or japanese and maybe one of the romance languages. one day maybe i can work for the CIA or as a foreign service officer.

i'm still young enough to dream right?

[Lugubert]

i envy the young ones... now im 23

Sigh. I'm 63 (thph2006, yer no gramps to me), and for most aspects of life, I wouldn't want to be that young again. Language learning capacity is of course an exception. Dutch is rather close to Swedish, but never the less I think that, from scratch, approaching fluency in two months when working in Amsterdam is indicative of what I was capable of at 24.

The reason I learn Chinese is that it is a language (yes, I know there are many, but so much the better). I try to learn as many languages as possible, but concentrate (I think) on those that are spoken by many people and/or belong to a fascinating cultural sphere and/or are important internationally or linguistically for other reasons. 汉语 fits most of my criteria. So far, after 1.5 years net, I sometimes understand parts of a written text. One year more (0.5 ys. net), and I hope I will feel ready for a year or so of immersion in China herself.

[ziyi star]

i'm 19 and started recently to study even though i've been interested in China for a long while. i'm very fond of learning languages and different cultures, and china really attracted me. i'm studying architecture and chinese were (and still are) masters in this aspect, so it's one reason more for me to study.

so... to sum it all up, i'm studying for pleasure, but it will help me out when studying architecture and working.

[hunxueer]

24--had to or else become one of those foreigners in china who's been here for years and can't say anything beyond 一瓶病的啤酒 (i'm not even sure if all those characters are right--i'm sure i've never come across that sentences in a textbook).

that said, i think for mostly having studied on my own, my progress has come along pretty nicely.

additionally, i'm half-chinese so that gives me some incentive as well, although my mother actually can't speak any mandarin--a dialect of cantonese is her mother tongue, and she speaks (or used to? hasn't used it much in the past 15 years since her father passed away) hong kong cantonese as well. so i'm now doing the pimsleur cantonese course too, and i'm going to shenzhen for business for a few days tomorrow, so i can try it out if i come across any canto speakers or if i cross the border into hk! problem is beyond "i can understand a little cantonese" i'll be lost. heh heh.

[myann23]

I'm 24, have been working as a slave in Hollywood for the past couple years, but have a great opportunity to work at an entertainment company HQ in the states, but recently opened up a Beijing office.

I'm an ABC, but 4 months ago didn't know much of Mandarin. My parents are Cantonese. I'll be leaving for China in 6-8 months, so I'm going to try to learn as much Chinese as I can using a combo of Pimsleur and Assimil before I leave so I can do basic things when I get there. My goal is to become proficient in Mandarin as fast as I can, so I can start working at the company full-time within 24 months. (They are only letting me work part-time since they want me to focus on Mandarin learning initially)