How long does a person take to speak Chinese?

[Shi Tong]

Wedge, while I agree totally that immersion is essential, I would also argue something quite funny:

My wife is from Taiwan, and I leanred a lot when I went to Taiwan for 3 months study. I got all the basics down and had a very hard and progressive learning curve.

The funny thing was that my main practice partner was my (future) mother in law. I would go back to my girlfriend's parents house by about mid day and wait for my girlfriend to get out of bed.. which could take up to around 5pm.. I would spend that time talking to my (future) mother in law about what I had learned that day.

So immersion is pretty helpful for fast progress but it doesn't mean to say that your main practice partner has to be someone you're in a relationship with!

PS: How long does it take someone to speak Chinese?

That depends on the person.

I've known people who have had relationships with people from China and Taiwan and have never been able to speak a word, DISPITE taking classes in the countries they have "married" into.

I also know of English people who have learned Chinese just by learning it from classes.

To speak Chinese in a very basic way took me around 3 months, but it's taken me about 9 years to get "fluent", and I dont really think there is such a thing anyway-- you will always have knowledge gaps.

So how long does it take to speak Chinese?

I ask you this: How long is a piece of string?

[Fergus_1]

to reach pre-intermediate level, from say low elementary starting point, I am guessing 18 months if you're on 3 hrs a day self study and 3 or 4 classes 2hrs classes a week. How long did it take but also, how frequently did you study to get to that level in the time frame you did?

[crazillo]

I now joined my school's uni tennis team. I'm an undergraduate and started with Chinese in October 2008. Guess how I felt out there on the court trying to understand what the coach said about forehands, crosscourt balls, down the line, swinging the racquet, hitting the ball deep etc. The 一般 can be mastered quickly, but apart from that, it's tough. I wouldn't wanna bet if my professor who speaks great Mandarin could follow my tennis coach's instructions properly.

[SunDaYu]

After about 3 months in China I could walk around without always bringing out my dictionary during conversations. I didn't become fully comfortable in in every situation until month 10. I'm on month 13 now and I'm starting to understand the evening news and the paper

[aristotle1990]

I know it's a bit of a controversial topic here but every case of which I am aware of a foreigner becoming really good, surprisingly fast at Mandarin involves dating a local. Makes total sense to me.

Thing is, though, as someone who has been dating a local for about six months now, I can tell you that after a few weeks, you start to notice that the conversations are becoming increasingly similar, and that the words your partner uses are generally the same. So, while my Chinese has certainly improved as a result of being with my girlfriend, it has only really improved in certain 口语 aspects that'd you'd never get from a textbook -- 猪头, 大头猪, 傻子, 崩溃了, the precise usage and connotations of words like 白痴, 讨厌, etc. (How highly does my girlfriend think of me...)

So I speak like a Chinese girl now, but has my ability to discuss politics improved a whit? No. In fact, sometimes I feel that just talking with her takes away from my study time (Anki), because all the structures she uses I am already comfortable with. Reading, in my opinion, is actually the best way to improve one's speaking ability.* This was a view that I held even before I started going out with her -- try reading a lot of 百度百科, for example, and you'll see how your language subconsciously changes to match up with the text.

*Actually, I think there's a point at which speaking becomes useless -- after a certain level, it's better to go memorize sentences and vocab that you're never going to encounter in a conversation with your girlfriend. (Though I imagine if you were in a situation where you were interacting with different locals constantly, though, your Chinese would certainly scale to meet the different registers and circumstances.)

[tooironic]

@aristotle1990 Those are some interesting points. If I ever date a Chinese man I'd hope that we would talk about more in-depth topics, the improvement of my Mandarin notwithstanding. Funnily enough, for a number of years I've been at a point where my reading skills far outstrip my conversation skills, so I guess I'm in the opposite situation to you. Neither situations are really all that fun.

[rezaf]

I have had the same experience with my fiancee. Even my accent is like a Chinese girl now. I am very good at 骂人 like a Chinese girl as a result of being with her: 臭婊子，臭流氓，放屁....And the conversations are all about 吃饭 and 买东西。 But she certainly hasn't helped me with my Chinese a lot.

[chrix]

there are people around who speak good Chinese without having been in a long-term relationship with a native speaker.

But as has been said before, even if you are in such a situation, be sure to have a wider circle of friends and interests, just so you don't fall prey to the "girlfriend syndrome", where accommodation occurs to such an extreme that you might not understand any other native speaker any more, and other native speakers will have a hard time understanding you (and on top of that your partner might also "dumb down" their Chinese to such an extent that your Chinese level will stagnate after reaching some point).

If you don't find other native speakers other than your partner in the area you are at, be sure to read a lot and watch TV and listen to radio through the internet...

[renzhe]

Yes, what they said.

I'm lucky that my girlfriend is very supportive and willing to talk and correct tirelessly, but you do end up in a rut sooner or later, talking about the same things the same way. It takes effort and inventiveness to get out of it and keep conversations interesting and useful.

Having a wider circle of friends and acquaintances which you can practice with is a really good tip, as important as a partner can be. This will not only give you different topics, but also give you new vocabulary and topics to practice with your partner later.

[wedge]

but you do end up in a rut sooner or later, talking about the same things the same way

Well... I've experienced this with all my previous (native English-speaking) girlfriends anyway

[Shi Tong]

Also, I'd say, keep curious.

I learned a lot by just evesdropping on my wife's telephone conversations, remember tidbits that I'd not heard before and asking like a mad thing after the conversation ended.

This happened with her friends actually coming to visit or us going to see her friends too- listen in, and "take notes", then ask as much as possible before the words drift away. You'll also find that this way you'll get a better pronunciation and explaination.. you'll say something like "what's jiang4zi3", and be corrected "no.. it's jiang4zhi1", and then given an explaination of what it is.

The worst thing, I think, is to talk to a "native" speaker (like my mother in law) with a bad accent.. you can find yourself "learning" wrong things!