Job Discussion Forums

[ohahakehte]

im curious to know how well you`ve learned mandarin while in china and how hard it was?

[fluffyhamster]

All languages have their share of difficulties (and in Chinese that would be mainly the tones), but there's no excuse to not make at least some progress in Chinese (as opposed to say, Japanese, with its more complex writing system, various verb forms/constructions, honorific language etc), in my opinion, even if you arrive in the country knowing next to nothing. (I arrived with some knowledge and improved somewhat upon that, but that was a while ago and I could do with studying more and/or doing a refresher course to feel confident enough to say that I were intermediate (still)).

[kev7161]

If it weren't for those d*mned four tones . . . !!!!! grrrrr!

(plus many Chinese's expectation that you have PERFECT pronunciation before they deign to try to understand what you're saying . . . !!! grrrrr!!!)

I chose the last option.

[Girl Scout]

I came here knowing no Chinese. After three years of on and off study I am able to communicate in basic ways. I will never get lost. I can buy food and go shopping in the markets. I can answer simple questions about myself. I have a long way to go. I enjoy Chinese even though I find it frustrating quite often.

Your poll doesn't have enough variables.

[Babala]

I'm the same with Girl Scout. I know enough to get by but now I'm trying to motivate myself to start doing some serious studying.

[tw]

I guess the OP forgot about the FT's in China who are of Chinese heritage and/or could speak Mandarin fluently before coming to China.

I've been told that I have a 南腔北调, i.e. a mix of northern and southern accent, thanks to trying to imitate the locals in Qingdao, Dalian, and the Beijing accent on TV). People always ask me where I'm from and I've BS'd by saying that I am from Hebei, Guangdong, and even northeastern China. Most people say I sound like someone from Guangdong (thanks MOM!!! ).

[anthyp]

I am in the same boat as the two young ladies.

I have been here for just under two years, studying on and off. My Chinese is all right, but I am too shy and afraid of making mistakes for it to ever really get good. I do enjoy studying it, but I plan on returning home in the summer. So I don't know how much more effort I will put into it.

It's not a very difficult language if you are not a lazy-ass like the rest of us. The grammar is easy and nobody is really going to care if you mess the tones up. One thing that's tricky is that the locals will always be jabbering on in their local dialect, so your chances to practice real, honest-to-goodness Putonghua might be limited.

At least, that's my excuse.

[shuize]

[Super Mario]

I arrived in China in 1997 with no knowledge of the language. After 6 months, I was functional in day to day situations. My learning curve since then has been very slow, but I handle most situations.
If only I worked on it..........

[fluffyhamster]

I wasn't aware I was wildly exaggerating the difficulties (and when I say 'difficulties' I never mean insurmountable to a motivated student) of Japanese (if you'd prefer, I could phrase it thus: Chinese seems slightly/somewhat easier to learn than Japanese. Putting things another way, I don't think many westerners - you yourself say Japanese is at the least ("just") 'different' - would view either language as exactly a doddle, at least not until they were reaping the benefits of hard study...which is what you appear to have done, Shuize! Good on yer!); and like I said, all languages have their share of "difficulties" (and in Chinese it's remembering the tones)...but I still don't think many would deny that there appears, on the face of it at least, more grammar to wade through in Japanese coursebooks, or that its writing system looks and indeed is the more challenging (in Chinese it's hard to remember the tone, but at least there is only the one reading for any given character); these two factors (more complex grammar and orthography) have spawned what seems to be a whole JFL industry almost as large and "impressive" as the EFL one (by that, I mean perhaps JFL books are generally better/more serious than many EFL ones - they need to be!). Still, could just be ultimately my own personal feelings intruding and talking here - I'll admit that I just don't feel as motivated to reach the same level in Japanese as I did in Chinese...

[sheeba]

I've been here for 13 months and my Chinese gets better day-by-day. My confidence in spoken Mandarin is pretty high now. I'm no way near perfect - I would not even say intermediate yet but I get the gist of most conversation around me now. Taxi rides provide useful entertainment for me as I talk to the drivers about premiership football, the Olympics and learning Chinese. My student teaches me football vocabulary and this is how I�m currently learning. Most of the taxi drivers know a si na (Arsenal) Li wu pu (Liverpool) qie er xi (Chelsea) Bei ke Han mu (Beckham) Heng li (Henri). I find it really interesting talking about football and players. It's something I was missing from England and now I�ve got it back. My cabbie today thought Beckham was too old - Can't agree with that one but Hengli is the nuts - Oh yes shifu oh yes!! ni shuo hen dui le.

I think improving is just picking topics you want to talk about and learn as much as you can about them from books, your students, TV etc. I've always got the footy on TV and I'm picking up a lot of language with my students help. I�ll get bored of football and we'll change to something else soon - maybe politics as I keep getting asked about Blair but I can't really get into that right now. Mind all I need to say is 'Terwat' but what is that in Chinese?

I'm not saying Chinese is easy as I spend hours every day learning but
I predict I'll be a fluent speaker within 3 years as long as I don't need to go back to England for personal reasons. I hear people talking about the tones as if they are a problem. I just can't get that to be honest. I learn words as I hear them. The same way I learn English. There is no need to even think about the tone. The Chinese often don't know the tones themselves - try asking them and you'll see - That's probably just me though.

Writing is helping me a lot with my spoken language. I get kids books with tracing paper and spend hours listening to music and copying the common radicals. I reckon I've got to the point where I know most of these common ones. Now it is seeming to get a lot more difficult but I enjoy all the challenges learning Chinese.

Anyways - as I always say to my students - ji xu xue xi ji xu ti gao - Continue to practice continue to improve.

[stil]

I've been here a couple of years and I'm at the same stage as the girls and anthyp. I find I don't learn steadily but stay at plateaus for awhile then make a leap. I don't study (lazy) I just try to talk to people and I'm the only foreigner in town. Speaking hasn't really gotten any better in a while but the listening is improving. I understand much more than I can say. As anthyp said, everyone speaks in their local language so just listening to others doesn't help. Actually, one of my problems is I sometimes don't know what language it is I'm understanding.

[sheeba]

Apologies to the Pinyin Police . I will rephrase my 'ni shou hen dui le ' to ni shou de tai dui le . I hate it when I make Pinyin mistakes !!

[ohahakehte]

[fluffyhamster]

Sheeba, I know what you mean about picking up the tones generally, there is a more general contour to sentences and kind of only one or two keywords within them...but still, I found that if I ever gave up trying completely then there was always somebody coming along and claiming that they 'couldn't understand a word I was saying' (could it be a coincidence that these types were often those who spoke great English - English teachers, for example - who generally preferred that we converse in English rather than having to put up with nudging me along in my Chinese, I wonder).