Re: Thinking of learning Chinese (or Japanese)
Posted: Wed Sep 04, 2013 5:01 pm
I would like to stress that learning Chinese will likely be much more difficult than learning Japanese, which should definitely considred in your cost/benefit analysis. Depending on the amount of time you will be able to devote, it may be more fruitful to study Japanese.
That being said, as a native Chinese speaker, I am pleased about your decision. It is for sure a language worth learning - if not for the applicability in your life, then for the myriad pieces of poetry, literature, and other pieces of writing that defy faithful translation.
Some personal thoughts:
Pinyin is likely crucial: I personally did not really use it (I was an avid reader and so knew most of characters before learning them in class). However, being able to associate characters with sounds will greatly facilitate your progress (not to mention it is much more efficient as it also improves your listening and speaking abilities). Since you will likely not have the chance to be immersed in a Chinese-speaking environment, I suspect pinyin is your best way to achieve the association.
Watch a lot of TV/movies (with subtitles and translations): Again, this will help with linking characters to sounds. Furthermore, it will help you develop a feel for grammar. There might be a danger in relying too much on translation. One idea might be to watch movies that you watched originally in English and dubbed in Chinese with Chinese subtitles after you develop a basic proficiency.
Read what interests you: Reading is crucial as well (both to develop feeling for grammar and to expand your vocabulary). Unfortunately, reading is a very painful process at the beginning. This is further excerbated by the fact that at the beginning what you could try to read would likely be boring. In fact, I suspect that one of the key reasons why children learn languages faster is that even introductory text is exciting for them. I don't know if there is a way around it - you may have to just work at it until you achieve basic proficiency. One fortunate thing is that introductory text may provide you with interesting facts about China, which may make it a bit less painful. After basic proficiency (perhaps grade 1-2 vocalbulary) is achieved, though, it would definitely be very helpful if you can find genres of literature that interests you.
Tones are not super important for communication, but may be very useful for learning: People will still be able to understand you even if you have not mastered tones. However, the association process will likely be much harder if you can't at least mentally sort out the tones. This means that your actual pronunciation is not as important as being able to mentally keep track of the tones. Furthermore, Chinese poetry loses a lot of their beauty if you aren't proficient with tones.
That being said, as a native Chinese speaker, I am pleased about your decision. It is for sure a language worth learning - if not for the applicability in your life, then for the myriad pieces of poetry, literature, and other pieces of writing that defy faithful translation.
Some personal thoughts:
Pinyin is likely crucial: I personally did not really use it (I was an avid reader and so knew most of characters before learning them in class). However, being able to associate characters with sounds will greatly facilitate your progress (not to mention it is much more efficient as it also improves your listening and speaking abilities). Since you will likely not have the chance to be immersed in a Chinese-speaking environment, I suspect pinyin is your best way to achieve the association.
Watch a lot of TV/movies (with subtitles and translations): Again, this will help with linking characters to sounds. Furthermore, it will help you develop a feel for grammar. There might be a danger in relying too much on translation. One idea might be to watch movies that you watched originally in English and dubbed in Chinese with Chinese subtitles after you develop a basic proficiency.
Read what interests you: Reading is crucial as well (both to develop feeling for grammar and to expand your vocabulary). Unfortunately, reading is a very painful process at the beginning. This is further excerbated by the fact that at the beginning what you could try to read would likely be boring. In fact, I suspect that one of the key reasons why children learn languages faster is that even introductory text is exciting for them. I don't know if there is a way around it - you may have to just work at it until you achieve basic proficiency. One fortunate thing is that introductory text may provide you with interesting facts about China, which may make it a bit less painful. After basic proficiency (perhaps grade 1-2 vocalbulary) is achieved, though, it would definitely be very helpful if you can find genres of literature that interests you.
Tones are not super important for communication, but may be very useful for learning: People will still be able to understand you even if you have not mastered tones. However, the association process will likely be much harder if you can't at least mentally sort out the tones. This means that your actual pronunciation is not as important as being able to mentally keep track of the tones. Furthermore, Chinese poetry loses a lot of their beauty if you aren't proficient with tones.
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