Chinese is easy

[geraldc]

I had an epiphany today. Chinese is super easy to learn. People say it's hard, it's not. 

[Shelley]

And why have come to this conclusion? you can't just throw out a remark like this and offer no more details.

 

my curiosity is peaked, need to know more.

 

Please elaborate

[renzhe]

I sense a really long thread coming..... this will be fun

[MPhillips]

Considering the fact that there's no genetic connection & a relatively short history of contact between the two, English & Chinese are remarkably similar in spirit. Since what little grammatical inflection English still posesses is dying out(for instance, in US Eng. as spoken by those under 40 neither the "there is"/"there are" distinction nor the one between "actor" & "actress" seem to exist anymore) it looks as if they'll only be getting increasingly similar in the future.

[querido]

Waiting for geraldc above all, but may I give my two cents now?

 

I studied French in my teens, Russian in my thirties and Mandarin in my fifties. I thought Mandarin was easier than Russian, and Russian easier than French. I'm comparing them up to the minimally-useable level that I reached in all three.

 

Fascination with the writing system and a strong reading/writing orientation led me to an unwise approach to Mandarin. If I had chosen simple daily-usage materials and then really used them every day it would have been easier.

[Hofmann]

Nothing is difficult in itself. Only compared to other things.

BTW I thought "there's [plural NP]" was just something uneducated Utahns do.

[MPhillips]

I've heard "there's" in place of "there are" coming from (for instance) the pundits on NPR, but women calling themselves "actors" is what really sets my teeth on edge.

[Bird in a Forest]

With the right approach to language any language can be considered easy.

I find Mandarin is incredibly practical to speak. It has very straight-forward and logical grammar, so you don't need to spend as much time trying to find the correct grammar structures to say something in past tense or as a relative clause etc.

The reading and writing system can also become really easy if you know how to tackle them. If you properly learn the radicals then you see that pretty much every single character can be broken up into less than three radicals. Then you just have to remember the radicals to write them.

I think people are just frightened by either the characters or tones (which beginners often neglect) or because it's not like English enough (compared to Spanish etc.)

[耳耳语语]

"I had an epiphany today. Chinese is super easy to learn. People say it's hard, it's not."

 

Ancient zen masters debated of sudden and gradual enlightement. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subitism#Rivalry_between_schools )

I think learning chinese allows to experiment both : gradual-sudden epiphanies of "OMG it's so damn hard", "So many things left to learn", and gradual-sudden satoris of "Hey I got this".

[geraldc]

OK, I'll admit this was a little experiment to see what reactions would come up.

 

Facebook recently found success in manipulating users moods by only showing them positive news updates from friends. It had the wonderful term emotional contagion.

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full

 

Then there's also research that has found a link between mood and learning.

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/news/releases/a-positive-mood-allows-your-brain-to-think-more-creatively.html

 

The forum's role is to help its members to learn Chinese, so if we have more posts with a positive element, theoretically everyone would be in a better mood, and return to their studies after visiting the forum in a better state for learning.

 

Chinese is still easy.

[Lu]

Hm, I wonder if a better sublimimal message wouldn't be 'You can totally learn this'? Not necessarily because it's easy but because you're smart and hard-working? Because if someone would come away with the thought 'yeah, it's easy!' and then still has trouble, that's just frustrating.

I like the idea though!

[imron]

You missed the benny thread didn't you geraldc?

[geraldc]

Imagine a week where there are no bad ideas. Everyone gets encouragement and congratulations, planning to learn Chinese in 2 months? Sounds like a plan, why not also buy this guy's 30 day course too and see if you can do it in 45 days.

[Hofmann]

Buy my book and you can do it in 15.

[Pingfa]

I agree with Lu. Early on I found it frustrating when people would talk about the ease of certain things that I was having trouble with. Just adds salt to the wound.

Better to tell people how great they are doing, what dedicated learners they are and assure them it is within their capability.

[renzhe]

I have to admit that I am disappointed with this thread so far. Everyone's too negative.

Here is my contribution to this thread. The speaker is a Managing Director and he applied psychology to studying (!) He will explain how to be fluent in Mandarin in 6 months, and then "a little bit longer" to be full native level:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0yGdNEWdn0

Plenty of great advice, like using sign language with a train conductor for 8 hours.

[Johnny20270]

I agree with geraldc in that it is beneficial when you take a positive attitude towards learning. However naivety  should not replace realism. There are always ideas, opinions, claims about how to make a seemly hard task into something simple. The claim is usually followed by a product for sale. Its the typical, i.e. get a 6 pack in 6 weeks commercials on TV, or invest $1 to make $1000. It encourages people for a short time but reality sets in and you feel inferior for not achieving a "simple" task.

 

"Chinese is easy" should be replaced with "Chinese is surmountable" or "Chinese is not as hard as you believe" perhaps.

[Melanie1989]

 

You missed the benny thread didn't you geraldc? 

 

 

 That thread was the funniest thing i've read in my life. I stumbled across it when i first joined the forums. Bloody hilarious.

[lechuan]

Saying "Chinese is hard" is a great way to fish for compliments 

[洋人丹]

 

 

I have to admit that I am disappointed with this thread so far. Everyone's too negative.

Here is my contribution to this thread. The speaker is a Managing Director and he applied psychology to studying (!) He will explain how to be fluent ™ in Mandarin in 6 months, and then "a little bit longer" to be full native level:

Plenty of great advice, like using sign language with a train conductor for 8 hours. 

 

 

It annoys me that people like that get to have seminars or make speeches about language learning. There is so much misinformation in there.

 

The main thing being that language learning, like learning an instrument or anything else, takes a lot of time and practice. People would probably laugh if you said "I have a method that can make you into a master guitar player in 6 months! You will be able to play anything at a professional level!"

 

There's no magical short-cut. It takes time and practice and effort and determination.