learning chinese

[Scoobyqueen]

I often encounter odd reactions from some people

[xianhua]

I guess it depends on the situation. If I am with my wife, then people wouldn't be surprised, as she quite clearly hails from the Middle Kingdom.

I keep trying to encourage some of my friends to take up a foreign language, then we'll be able to experience the rigours of study together.

[OneEye]

I get all kinds of reactions too. Some people think it's cool, but most people seem to think it's kind of weird. If I said I was learning Spanish or French, or even something like Russian, the reactions would be different.

I worked at a really nice hotel/convention center for a while. Most of the businessmen that came in would tell me it was "a good idea. Their economy is growing like crazy, you'll be able to work for a big company." Some people would say something like "might as well, we'll all be having to speak it soon enough anyway." That was always funny.

But by far the most common one I get (when I tell them I'm majoring in Chinese) is "what are you going to do with that?"

[wushijiao]

It’s hard to say what kind of reaction I get, since for most of my time learning Chinese, I’ve lived in the mainland or Hong Kong. In the mainland expat community, even if people don’t know Chinese, I think everybody’s in agreement that it’s something they should at least attempt to do.

However, I was in a Western expat café in the Mid-levels in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, having breakfast and coffee while reading 蘋果日報，and I certainly got a lot of uncomfortable stares from other people. I’ve noticed this phenomenon quite a few times in Hong Kong. So, if I’m reading Chinese in public, I try to choose places that have a decent amount of privacy (such as tables being far apart), and hopefully no one really notices me.

[Daan]

In the Netherlands most people generally come up with the horrible cliche about how rapidly the Chinese economy is growing and that they're sure I'll be making lots of money soon. Others tell me it's a great idea because it's the language we'll all speak in the future. No one seems to be able to understand when you say you're genuinely interested in the Chinese cultural heritage - that makes no sense to them! So yes, they'll usually think I'm a loony. I don't mind though ;)

Oh, and wushijiao, you should try speaking Chinese with other Europeans on the Taiwanese MRT...that's guaranteed to make all the other commuters' journey far more interesting. Or you should try reading a book in Chinese on the MRT. This is also guaranteed to make them all very curious ;)

[heifeng]

People usually have no clue why I study Chinese so they just ask why...I guess I can't be figured out wahahaha

notes on privacy: I actually strike up interesting conversations w/ people no matter what I'm reading, but especially if it's something in Chinese. In fact I know people will be interested in chatting me up about why I'm studying it, which is fun to discuss..but can be a bit tiring. Anyway, I do the following to my books that I plan to carry with me and read in public: 1) find a perfume add in a magazine since this page is usually a nice, durable weight of paper*. 2) fold into a book cover, scented side facing out. 3) tape the heck outta it so it is almost as though it were laminated (of course leave a lil' opening for the perfume fold). 4) Enjoy the privacy of reading with a scented book on the bus. A way to pass the time by reading and forget you are on a smelly bus. Plus your book will stay in mint condition longer.

*Girls know. Ask your wifey or gf if necessary. Don't worry there are such things as cologne ads too.

[Scoobyqueen]

Interesting to hear the reactions.

Heifeng - Thanks for the tip on the perfume. I guess scribbling hanzi also has the same effect in terms of privacy. I think my fellow train users think it is really odd to be writing out Chinese characters from an audio clip. It is the staring that gives it away.

[renzhe]

I haven't had the "looney" thing happen to me. Many people are simply shocked ("you can READ that?!?!") and impressed.

Of course, I didn't tell them that I was looking at a list of the most common 500 characters, and not a Tang poem.

[Lu]

The usual reaction I get is 'Chinese?? Why Chinese?', and when reading on the train, sometimes a 'can you read that?' (No, I'm just pretending :-/ ). I don't really like discussing China and studying Chinese with people who react this way, as it's always more or less the same conversation and I'm pretty tired of it.

But well, those are the okay reactions. Some people start saying Nee How! and Ching Chang Chong! So funny. Ha. Ha. Ha.

[Meng Lelan]

Some people start saying Nee How! and Ching Chang Chong! So funny. Ha. Ha. Ha.

About a decade or so ago if anyone knew that I knew Chinese, they would do that stupid imitation of "Ching Chang Chong", it didn't seem funny to me and I would just walk away and they would never hear from me again.

[Guittar]

大家好

I have just started to learn Chinese. Thank you for this forum.

In the first year that I was studying Japanese, I used to carry a notebook and practice my writing several times a day. Even if it was just for a few minutes. I worked my way through a study book my Japanese host had given me. After almost a full year, I felt like I had mastered the book. I called my Japanese friend to tell him of my success. He laughed outright. (not usual Japanese response) Then he told me if I was in Japan I would have just finished 1st grade! I usually practiced talking with the tapes in the car. Yes, I got funny looks because I was alone in the car.

[Neil_H]

The strangest looks I got was not whilst studying Chinese but in 2004 when I was in Beijing on a Sunday morning at about 6.30 -7am. My wife and I were waiting for a tour bus to take us to a tourist attraction called the Summer resort south of Beijing. We went into a typical "locals" cafe and got some breakfast and a newspaper. My wife went off to make a phone call and left me eating noodle and conjie. Two young Chinese chaps came in grabbed a table.

One looked over at me and obviously got a surprise to see a foreigner eating conjie at 7am on a Sunday morning whilst looking like I was reading a Chinese Newspaper.

He obviously said something to his friend who turned round and had a good look.

The two of them started smiling at me giving me thumbs up signs.

[Neil_H]

As for the people that know I study Chinese nobody questions it as the link with my Chinese wife is the obvious reason.

[gougou]

I can't remember ever anybody asking me why in the world I would study Chinese; it seems all the people I spoke to found it a cool thing to do.

I did get asked though why in the world I would want to live in Beijing. (And on smoggy days, I do ask myself that too.)

[sukitc]

I find parallels with the reason why people choose to study traditional Chinese vs. simplied one. Given the significance of China today, it would be much more useful for people to learn simplified Chinese exclusively. But, you still have a lot of people wanting to learn traditional Chinese, simply for its aesthetics and cultural values.

[OneEye]

I find parallels with the reason why people choose to study traditional Chinese vs. simplied one. Given the significance of China today, it would be much more useful for people to learn simplified Chinese exclusively. But, you still have a lot of people wanting to learn traditional Chinese, simply for its aesthetics and cultural values.

Define "useful." Just because China is a more dominant power does not make simplified characters categorically more useful, and definitely doesn't mean people should learn simplified exclusively. There are plenty of reasons ("useful," practical ones too) to learn traditional characters besides "aesthetics and cultural values."

[sukitc]

I use the term "useful" in the sense of functionality (commerce, prevalence, mass culture, etc). In the same way that I would believe that English is far more useful than French. In no way am I suggesting that the study of traditional Chinese is "useless".

I am simply suggesting that perhaps people learn traditional Chinese because they find it more aesthetic and has richer cultural depth than simplified Chinese. This is because if they study Chinese simply to benefit from China's emerging economic super power status (which seems to be what people generally think we study Chinese for, in earlier threads), then they might as well spend their time and effort exclusively on simplified Chinese.

[Meng Lelan]

This is a thread about reactions to loonies learning Chinese, not about usefulness of trad vs. simplified.

[rob07]

When people see me reading in Chinese more often than not they will ask "Are the kanji in that book Mandarin or Cantonese?". It is quite a difficult question to answer properly but I suppose I should just say Mandarin.

I tried to explain to one guy that Chinese is not a phonetic language (although of course that is getting into a grey area). He insisted that he knew for a fact that there were Cantonese Characters that they use in Hong Kong that were also called Traditional Characters and Mandarin Characters that they use in the Mainland that for some reason are also called Simplified Characters. I started to tell him that there was no such thing as Cantonese characters but lost all credibility when I realised I was wrong.

[wushijiao]

I started to tell him that there was no such thing as Cantonese characters but lost all credibility when I realised I was wrong.

True, but to be fair to you, whether or not there are Cantonese characters is a fairly irrelevent issue to a learner of Mandarin.

But in any case, I guess it's nice when people know enough to talk about content related stuff.