What 's the reason you study Chinese?

[galitonwu]

Could you tell me the reason of it?

Like Chinese history , because business reason or the others?

[林彪]

That's a great question.

I study it because I grew up in a family that was half Chinese, lived in heavily Chinese neighborhoods in New York City, spent time in Chinese-dominated schools and around Chinese friends and families, and always felt inferior that I couldn't read all the Chinese characters around me.

So I decided to attempt to remedy my feelings of inferiority when I got to college. Needless to say, having some semblance of being able to read Chinese makes me feel very powerful.

Plus, learning Chinese is kind of fun and I discovered I was actually pretty good at it.

Oh yeah, and once I started learning it I discovered that by reading stuff written in Chinese I could see things from a new perspective.

[xuechengfeng]

I'm learning it because it is so foreign to me. Western culture and languages are different, but at the same time they all share major similarities. East Asian focus for me is getting around ethnocentric beliefs, and learning about new cultures. Also, I am someone who likes a challenge, so when someone tells me Chinese is very difficult, it motivates me to learn it to prove to myself. Also, I plan to become President of the US, or involve China in my politics.. also I want to use it prior to this in a business aspect. Let's not forget how cool it is to speak Chinese or tell people you can when you're a white 20 year old from America!! The faces always end up like.. it's empowering

[beirne]

I got started because of incorrect information in the 1965 World Book Encyclopedia. It said:

Spoken Chinese is weak in speech sounds because the language is monosyllabic. That is, each word has only one syllable.

This puzzled me. The article went on to explain that there were 400 or so syllables not counting the 4 tones. I couldn't figure out how a language would function with only 1200-1600 word sounds. I'd grill my Chinese co-workers about the topic but never quite understood. Finally, when I was turning 40 and getting divorced I heard that the Unicon unicycling convention would be held in Beijing. I decided I needed to try something new and go to China. I already unicycled, so going to Beijing was the new part. I hate going somewhere where I don't know the language, so I started private Chinese lessons.

That was 4-1/2 years ago. I made it to China but not for the Unicon. Knowing Chinese help A LOT, especially when I spent a night in the hospital and when I ended up in cabs with drivers who didn't know how to get to the Hard Rock Cafe and back to Tiananmen Square in Beijing. I'm sticking with Chinese at this point because I don't want to give up. Also my teacher is now my girlfriend so that helps make the language interesting.

BTW, I did figure out how Chinese works, and I understand that words like bicycle, computer, and streptococcus require more than one syllable. I also looked in later editions of the World Book and found they corrected their mistake. I'm sticking with the language anyhow.

[xuefang]

I think I have always been interested about China and that intres grow bigger when I turn 14. The reason is that I'm so interested of China's culture and my dream is someday visit and live in China.

And now I have a Chinese boyfriend who speaks Cantonese for his mother language. But I'm still learning Mandarin first 'cause by using it I can reach more people. I guess I will study Cantonese too, 'cause if i got children with my BF they will learn to speak Finnish and Cantonese and I will like to know what their dad says to them

[PheonixUK]

I am trying to learn PuTongHua to prove to myself that I can learn a language after I flunked German. Before I started learning it I thought chinese was the hardest language in the world but now I am finding it easy to learn ( I still haven't tried learning characters but I will). I am finding china to be an interesting country despite never visiting it ( I hope to though) and chinese people are realy nice to talk to. I am also interested in chinese history so I wanted to learn how to pronounce famous names like Cao Cao properly.

[Yuchi]

I was already fluent in Mandarin and could understand shanghainese, and I had a student who came from china this year to our school, I felt inferior and deficient compared to him, and since september, I've learned many new things, including how to write like... 20 characters? It might not seem alot, but it is to me, seeing as how I'm so lazy ^_^

[pamokkha]

Hi,

i decided to study business administration, but thought just studying business adminstratin would be quite boring. So i thought, why not study a foreign language. I am German, studied English, Latin and Spanish before, that is why i decided to pick up an non-european language this time. Why not Chinese? My study is coming to an end this summer, spent 1,5 years in Xiamen, Fujian and am still fighting with Chinese tones.

Florian

[高可文]

I didn't really go into Chinese for any concrete reason. I was bored with Spanish, didn't want to take Latin, and the Chinese teacher at my school was a great guy. But in fact until classes started I wondered if i had gotten in over my head. But since then I've become fascinated by Chinese and hope to be able to continue improving my language skills.

[Alleluia]

My major subject at University is East-Asian studies. They give us the option of choosing either Chinese or Korean as our main language, and for me, well, I'm really not that interested in Korea. China is my obsession. I don't know what I'll do after I graduate, but whether I choose an academic career or something else, being able to read and write Chinese is going to be essential.

As to why I chose East-Asian studies in the first place, I can only say that I've been interested in foreign cultures for ages. I was thinking about India and Japan as well, but ended up with China, and I haven't regretted it for a day! Three years and still going! Chinese language and culture is my future.

[wushijiao]

I chose to study Chinese mainly because it's a non-European language and I wanted to learn an Asian language. I'd also give the following reasons:

1) China's huge population

2) China's history

3) China's influence in the history of other Asian nations is considerable

4) China's economy, and thus cultural changing rapidly

5) China is in many ways the "anti-America", everything that can possibly different is. And, as an American, this fascinates me. My favorite writer Octavio Paz says, "La pregunta sobre nosotros se revela siempre como una pregunta sobre los otros"- (roughly "the question about ourselves always reveals itself as s question about the "other"). By knowing China on a deep level, I end up learning more about America, and myself.

6) Characters are cool. Characters give Chinese literature a different historical development from other European languages.

[bjgodefr]

Because of the beautiful Chinese women!

Just joking. It all started rather by coincidence. Three years ago a family friend invited me for a visit to Beijing. It was my first time in Asia and I was really overwhelmed. I find the difference with western culture really interesting and attractive. Since then I’ve been addicted to the country.

Last year I traveled through south-east asia and really loved Cambodia and Thailand. I even considered learning one of these languages, but finally decided in favour for Chinese since I think it is the most influential country/culture in asia.

I’m now learning the language for 8 months and find it more rewarding and fascinating the longer I study it!

Plus, when I was a little kid I always wanted to have some kind of secret token language. Now I finally have one! Only 1,3 billion people share it with me.

[pazu]

Plus, when I was a little kid I always wanted to have some kind of secret token language. Now I finally have one! Only 1,3 billion people share it with me.

This is a very funny way of using language, haha. Though I oppose of talking about Mr A in front of Mr A using a different language, sometimes I used this as a secret orthology to write something down.

[Lu]

That's a question that has been asked to me sooo often... But ok, I'll answer it once again.

In highschool, I got an interest in Chinese culture. I got more and more interested, and then I went to university to study Chinese. In my third year I lived in Beijing for 8 months, and I fell in love with China, so now I'm still studying Chinese.

[beijingbooty]

lets not be too modest - of course a major factor in learning chinese if you are a white european is to SHOW OFF. So much fun !!!

Suddenly you are the centre of attention and oh so popular.

[markalexander100]

杜甫

[Altair]

I like studying languages.

Chinese is fun. It's a major language with a great literature and history. It's very different from English and therefore interesting in its own right.

I also have a very serious interest in Taijiquan 太极拳 and need to know enough Chinese to understand some of the classics in the art and avoid translation pitfalls. For example, how should one translate 虚灵顶劲 or 虚领顶劲 into English? How about 分虚实? All these have translations that are inadequate without an understanding of the underlying Chinese. Even the name of the art itself, i.e., Taijiquan 太极拳, suffers greatly in translation and loses essential information about the nature of the art.

[ananda]

虚灵顶劲, such words of Taijin box and chinese medicine are

even quite difficult to understand by most of chinese, 'coz they are

traditional chinese's usage and always have their taiji's meaning. I

search from the google, and take a try.

顶劲: keep your head straight, not wry, so the blood and Qi(气) could

reach your pate.

虚灵: don't forget to still keep relax and dexterous, just as a rope is

lifting you up.

that means keep naturaly except well done with Qi. This is the main

key to practice Taiji box, well, i think to keep calm and not think any

complicated thing will work during the beginning of your practicing, after

some time, you will know the feeling from your body.

[Haethurn]

For the challenge, more or less. I love languages and am trying to be a decalingual by the time I am thirty and hexalingual before I am even in college. I also would someday like to work for an American business in the Middle East or in Asia.

As far as languages go, Romance languages don't appeal to me much at all...I'm more interested in Near and Far Eastern languages than anything else, although in school I will be learning Spanish and French (of course, this high school in West Virginia does not offer any course in Japanese, Chinese, or Arabic).

[confucius]

I just began learning Chinese characters last year so that I can now read Mu Zi Mei.