Why Chinese?

[AdamD]

 

We met 3 and a half years ago and we'll be getting married in September, now that it's is finally legal (我是他的男朋友...)

 

Brilliant! Brilliant brilliant brilliant. Massive congratulations.

[Wei]

Thanks, Adam. What a nice welcome to these forums. (I'm still new here.) 

 

I thought that learning his native language was the very least that I could do. 

[jobm]

Ever since I was a child, I have been interested to different languages. I first started to learn Spanish, then French, then read some Chinese and learned Korean. Among those four languages, I really persevered in learning Korean since I am greatly interested in Korean culture and K-pop. I was able to attain a low intermediate command of the language and as I progress to higher intermediate, the vocabulary words are turning into disyllabic, Sino-Korean words which confuse me! Also, Korean employ Chengyu in their language and learning Chinese Characters (termed Hanja in Korean) is highly encouraged. So, before I entered college, I promised myself that I would study Chinese first before Korean. 

 

When I entered the university, I first took Chinese because of its advantage in learning Korean. Learning Chinese in it's own sake is really secondary. I acknowledge that speaking Mandarin is really an edge and the linguistic characteristics of Chinese intrigue me (e.g. the tones, its isolating typology, etc.). I have completed 3 semesters of Chinese (24 credits) and passed HSK 4 last year. (WAH! I was a little bit hesitant to take HSK 4 that time and until now I do not know how did I pass the exam; I speak better Korean than Chinese). 

 

As I progressed in learning Chinese, my classmates (who are also my friends) and especially my dearest Laoshi were the ones who helped me and encouraged me to do well in my Chinese classes and love the Chinese language and culture. Even though it has been very hard for me, this experience of mine taught me a lot of things about languages, communication, linguistics, culture, and about my self. On my last semester with my Chinese course, I was enrolled in a Korean language course and it was just very easy for me to remember the words.  

 

Now, I have decided to pursue in studying Chinese because I think it is more useful in what I want to become in the future. My dream is to work for the United Nations as one of their translators or interpreters. Also, since I am still learning Korean, I believe I should master Chinese first so that it would be a piece of cake for me. The department where I major right now is also in need of Chinese instructors and they could hire me after I graduate. I also plan to do graduate studies in East Asian linguistics and I think I have the advantage if I know Chinese fluently.

 

My Chinese language journey might not have been a road for me to take into in the first place but as I explore this new and exciting world, I eventually became motivated to continue studying Chinese until today and up to the end. Now, I applied for the Chinese Government Scholarship and I hope and pray, I would study in China for one year and develop my skills in the language.

[Basil]

I was very bored around ten years ago and didn't know what to do. I wandered into a library which had a shedload of Chinese books and thought that this might be a bit of a challenge.

 

I've now been in China for more than half of the last ten years. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it; but on the whole, it now feels like home. 

 

I used to believe I was fluent, I definitely felt like I was, when in Beijing; but since moving to Sichuan, it's a whole different ball game. So currently trying to up my Sichuanese listening ability, whilst steadfastly refusing to speak it.

 

It was the characters that first transfixed me, and after not reading anything for quite a long time, they've become my focus again. Really hoping to get my reading speed up to at least half that of my English reading speed at some point. It's tough and I suspect it might prove to be an elusive goal.

[Basil]

 

 

So currently trying to up my Sichuanese listening ability, whilst steadfastly refusing to speak it.

 

I should update this.

 

I was in a four hour meeting today that was held almost exclusively in Sichuanese. I understood virtually everything. It looks like I'm finally over the hump. Thank the Lord! 

 

I will still refuse to speak it however. No point messing up my tones any more than they already are.

[pokey]

Basil, looking back, how much work, and what particularly was involved getting to that level, do you think?

[abcdefg]

I was in a four hour meeting today that was held almost exclusively in Sichuanese. I understood virtually everything. It looks like I'm finally over the hump.

 

Congratulations. That was no mean feat.

 

I'm still light years away from being able to understand most conversations conducted in (Kunming dialect) 昆明话。People don't realize how much of a foreign language 普通话 is in the older parts of the city, such as where I live.

 

Had a foot massage this morning after 太极拳 and gave the proprietor's child a few sweet 龙眼 since I had just purchased half a kilo next door.

 

Me (holding out the fruit): 小朋友，吃一点龙眼吧。

(Child looked at me wide eyed and uncomprehending.)

Father: 他是外国人，讲普通话的， 像你的幼儿园老师一样。 

Mother: 说谢谢，小宝。

[Basil]

 

 

Basil, looking back, how much work, and what particularly was involved getting to that level, do you think?

Mainly just speaking to loads of people who either cannot speak or refuse to speak putonghua with me.

 

Re: refusing to speak putonghua

 

Meals out are frequently very boring. Everyone can speak putonghua, but always prefers to speak Sichuanhua. The main reason is that they feel that sichuanese has a 'style' that allows them to joke and laugh. I imagine this is partly true, putonghua is to some extent a manufactured language.

 

Very rarely does it happen that someone realises that that is rude and encourages everyone to speak in mandarin.

 

So I suppose that 'helps' but it is hard work.

 

Re: other stuff.

 

I used to listen to some Sichuanese songs, that helped pick out the biggies.

 

Solid grasp of mandarin. Some laowai just learn straight sichuanese. I have no idea how good they get, I imagine most stay at the 'kitchen' level of competency.

 

Sichuanese is arguably a different language to standard mandarin, though it is getting less unique year by year. If we go by the mutual intelligibility test, can two peasants, or otherwise rather uneducated people from each of these areas have a conversation without having had prior exposure to the other's dialect.  In my experience, the answer is a resounding no. Beijingers feel completely lost when they get to Sichuan. They cannot understand anything, though locals have less trouble, not no trouble, with their dialect. 

 

It'd be nice if the government came clean and said, actually there are a shed load of languages in this country. It would make it easier for us when we try to choose where to live...

[querido]

To Basil:

"they feel that sichuanese has a 'style' that allows them to joke and laugh"

 

That is very interesting. I get that impression from Cantonese speakers. I'm thinking of other groups too, and of differences between different groups in my own country. I would rather think that one could discover the roots of it and genuinely adopt it, but I know it's almost impossible.

[Basil]

 

 

I would rather think that one could discover the roots of it and genuinely adopt it, but I know it's almost impossible.

 

I think it's just because it's just because it's the dialect/language that they grew up speaking. They feel most comfortable in their own skin when speaking it. Hence the easy humour and reluctance to speak the national force learnt dialect/language when at play.

[oceancalligraphy]

Hi everyone!

I didn't have a choice as to whether or not I wanted to learn Chinese since I was born into it. I've been learning Taiwanese and Taiwan Mandarin (國語) all my life.

There's so much out there to learn when it comes to languages. My focus is to prevent my skills from slipping, and to keep improving and learning.

[Bird in a Forest]

Hello!

 

I am a 混血儿。 I am half-Chinese and half-German (an interesting mix for sure).

I had started learning Chinese all the way back since elementary school (it was compulsory) and to tell you the truth, by high school the only think I could do in Chinese was count to 1-10 and I knew a little about the culture and whatnot. Once High School started both Chinese and German were compulsory (a brilliant coincidence). I dropped Chinese for German as I was a lot better at the time with German than Chinese. Although I must say, they teach Chinese excrutiatingly slowly in school.

Recently I have been offered the chance to go to China. Actually, under normal circumstances I shouldn't be able to go but I convinced the higher-ups to let me hehe .
I didn't want to waste such a wonderful opportunity (especially after all the trouble I went through to get it). So I decided to pick up learning Chinese again. I found that the rate I can learn Chinese by myself far exceeds that of what I could do in a classroom evironment, so no regrets XD.

Picking up Chinese again has induced a love of learning languages in me so I am also studying Japanese and casually studying Cantonese and Bahsa Malay. Eventually I might pick up a few other languages but I think I have enough on my plate for now.

[尹乔龙]

The reasons I'm learning Chinese is because I live in China, my wifes Chinese and I love chinese tea ,gongfu , and chinese history. But I think the biggest thing is I just love talking to people and socializing .pluse I think it would be very beneficial to be able to talk to my wifea family my business partners in there second language instead of third or fourth language aka English.

[Alvin 钟]

Fell in love with a chinese girls, she showed no interest in me but my love for mandarin grows while i killed my feelings towards her....

[莱利89]

I have a good Chinese friend here in Canada that took me to his hometown in Dongguan. We visited his friends and family as well as went to Macau, Guangzhou and HK. After this trip I realized how interesting Chinese culture was and I decided to sign up for a Mandarin course in my hometown of Vancouver(lots of Chinese here). Since my first trip to China I have returned an additional 4 times (Chengdu, Laoshan, Emeishan, Beijing). I met a girl from Sichuan province (Bazhong city) and we have been seeing each other since. I find it a bit difficult to learn Chinese the way my Beijing teacher has taught me, and then speak to my girlfriend that speaks Sichuanhua but I am going to keep at it!

[kāfēi]

I have a daughter and we home educate her. As I am an Englishman living in Wales it seemed right that we learn Welsh together. After a while my daughter informed me she found it boring. As I wanted her to have another language I gave her the choice of learning any language in the world. She said either Chinese or Klingon. I couldn't find a Klingon teacher, but I did find a fantastic Mandarin teacher originally from China to teach her a couple of hours a week via Skype.

 

Meanwhile I carried on learning Welsh via books and websites. Last year we moved house and I was finally close enough to college to learn Welsh formally.

 

This summer my daughter's teacher is having a break. To help her keep going I bought Chinese with Mike. We are up to lesson 44. My daughter is familiar with much of the material, but some of it is new to her and she has lots of questions for her teacher. I'm enjoying my Chinese experience so far, about a month into it. I'm hoping to continue learning Mandarin.

[Meng Lelan]

She said either Chinese or Klingon. I couldn't find a Klingon teacher, but I did find a fantastic Mandarin teacher originally from China to teach her a couple of hours a week via Skype.

 

 

You go girl! Loved this one. 

[renzhe]

Yes, it's hard to find native speakers of Klingon in this century. Wait a few hundred years, and it should get easier.

[cowlegend999]

Hi. I am new here so I will post why I'm learning chinese. I want to speak another language and since I'm super interested in so many different parts of China, and my country has many chinese people, I have decided to learn chinese. Although I am very busy right now with university (engineering major), I want to work hard studying chinese because I would like to go to China to practice next summer. Ideally I would like to go take university classes taught in chinese along side other chinese students, however I'm not sure if this is a realistic option or not. Right now I would guess I could maybe just pass the hsk 3 if I took it (I'm most worried about the listening section since I haven't practiced that much as reading and writing) and I don't know all of the vocab for it yet (since I've been learning vocab as I come across it, not for the hsk specifically yet). I plan on taking (and hopefully decently passing) the hsk 3 next week so that if I start to apply study opportunities in China I will have some kind of measure of my profieciency, also it will be good practice for when I later take the hsk 4. If I pass the hsk 3, then I plan on taking the hsk 4 a few months later (December or January), though since Im busy with university already this may not be possible. The reason I want to take it this soon is that I would guess most study in china application deadlines would be around january/february, so If I can say I passed the hsk 4 already (Which from reading online is the requirement at most universities for foreigners to be able to enroll in undergraduate programs taught in chinese), then that would greatly help my chances of being able to study in china next summer. I dont know if I can learn fast enough however... Right now I would say my biggest weaknesses are spoken (words don't come to my head quickly from a lack of practice since I dont know any chinese people who actually want to hear my terrible chinese, and I still hate the 3rd tone with a passion) and listening (some accents I hear sounds they are saying as completely different than what theyre actually saying, again this comes from a lack of practice), though my writing (typing by pinyin) and reading are pretty quick for my level since I regularly (with the help of a dictionary) use my phone to text chinese friends. I will mainly continue to focus on reading/writing/vocab acquisition to help me prepare for the hsk tests. If I find out my level is good enough to go to china, or after I finish these tests, I will then practice learning to actually write all of these characters (since I can just recognize them now), as well as try and stop being shy and practicing my spoken and listening since that will be far more important if I do go to China. Nice to meet all of you!

[victorhart]

My reason for studying Mandarin is pretty unusual. I'm doing it as a language acquisition experiment. I guess that sort of begs the question, though: why do such an experiment and why the choice of Mandarin?

 

I tried to answer these questions in the following post about my experiment:
 

First, why am I studying Mandarin?

1. I really enjoy learning new languages, and through them, getting insights into different cultures.
2. It is an exciting and altogether new challenge to learn an utterly unrelated language. I speak four languages—English, Portuguese, French, and Spanish—but they are all closely related. My “second” languages, French and Spanish, are easy for someone who already speaks English and Portuguese. (I’m using “easy” in a relative sense, because learning any language is enormously challenging, and at more advanced levels interference from a closely related language—such as interference from Portuguese when one is trying to perfect one’s Spanish—is very difficult to overcome.)
3. I believe learning Mandarin will be an amazing exercise for my brain. And I think one should always exercise the mind, like the body, to keep it healthy and sharp and expand its powers.
4. I have a language institute and work with international relations. Learning Mandarin may contribute to success in both fields.
5. Mandarin is the most spoken language in the world—certainly by number of native speakers, and arguably by number of total speakers.
6. It seems cliché, but I do believe in my lifetime we will continue to see the rise of China. It will have the largest economy on earth within a few years. In an uncertain, rapidly changing world, I like the opportunities that speaking Mandarin will offer me.

Why am I trying to learn Mandarin through this unusual experiment?

1. As an English teacher during several years, and at present in my advisory role at the institute, I constantly touted the benefits of watching authentic video sources for improving one’s listening skills. I always insist that, along with reading literature and other high quality texts, speaking with natives, and writing essays, watching authentic videos (especially movies) and listening to audiobooks and radio are the very best methods for learning a foreign language. Students often resist watching videos because they feel that they don’t understand enough. They think they don’t benefit if they’re not understanding most of what they hear. This experiment, by isolating variables, has the potential to prove that watching videos can be beneficial at any level. It’s not just a way to reinforce what you’ve already learned, but also to learn more.
2. I like the idea of conducting a quasi-scientific experiment and contributing to understanding about language acquisition. Though I am not a linguist, I like the field of linguistics.
3. I hope to drive quality, long-term traffic to the website of The Natural Language Institute. In particular, I want traffic that will improving rankings worldwide and help attract teachers, translators, and other collaborators. Although the Institute operates pretty much exclusively in Brasilia at present, my vision is to expand it internationally (at least via the internet), especially in the fields of distance learning and translations. I believe the way to build traffic is by creating interesting, valuable content. That is one of the main purposes of this blog and, indirectly, of the experiment itself.
4. Although I’m honestly not sure, I do believe that in the long run my method will actually be effective and efficient. If my hypothesis is proved correct, and at the end of 1,200 hours I’m understanding a decent amount of what I watch (enough to “get” what is going on in any normal type of video), I think that will be an excellent basis for expanding my studies—adding speaking and study of characters, as well as continuing my viewing.
5. Logistically, it’s a very easy (not to mention cheap) way to study.
6. It’s a very enjoyable and relaxing method!