Chinese Language Forums - Chinese Etymology Institute

There is another great discussion at Yahoo!Answer

Question: from optimist
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?
Chinese is a very difficult language.
Searching the key word “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?” there are over
33,000 results.
Can anyone comment on those articles?
Is there an easy way to learn Chinese?

Answers:
A. From anonymous:
I took Chinese courses in high school and because the teacher fudged
the grades because she wanted to show numbers that showed high school
students could actually handle a Chinese course I actually ended up
with a B.

So despite being a statistical fabrication, I can tell you that
Chinese is hard for the following reasons:
1. there are two different styles of Chinese writing, both of which
are hard to understand and write
2. the pronunciation of Chinese words is very specific and sometimes
differs in only enunciation like ni for instance has an up sound, down
sound, flat sound and up-down sound which are all different words (up
sound meaning increase in pitch when saying, down is opposite etc.)
3. there is no frame of reference going from English to Chinese like
there is going from English to Spanish or other Western-style
languages. There is no real sentence structure like adjective- noun,
verb-noun that you'd be used to in the traditional sense. This can
also be seen as a pro since there are also no Chinese conjugations of
words in past, present or future like in Western languages.

All together though if you work hard it will come to you. Better than
it did me too because I hardly worked.


B. from S:
Chinese is difficult only because it is so different to other
languages. It's only a matter of perception, I believe. Because we are
in a world where Western cultures and languages dominate, we are
naturally exposed to a lot of western languages. Familiarity takes
away many of the perceived 'hardness'. I am a Chinese native living in
Australia, and I meet many Australians who learn Chinese very well
too.

There is no 'easy' way to learn Chinese just as their isn't an 'easy'
way to learn any language too. Familiarize yourself with the Chinese
culture and try speaking with some natives and soon, you may find
Chinese not difficult subject anymore.

Or, if you just want to learn Chinese for fun, start watching some
Taiwanese dramas... or listen to Mando-pop.



C. From Blevins:

I was in China for a year, and I found it pretty easy to pick up the
basics of spoken Chinese. Stuff like shopping, asking directions,
answering all the questions about my personal life. The writing system
makes it pretty difficult for an outsider to learn though.


D. From Daniel Qi:
Because its for Asians...lol
Well mainly because its been around for over 2000 years and the words
changes but not the pronunciation so its a very hard language its
basically trying to learn ancient languages such as Egyptian
hieroglyphics.


E. From fishstix:
because it was developed on the other side of the world and is
therefore very different than english.
yes, go to china


F. From titanic_sims
why do you even want to know it..its spoken in 1 country.


What are your answer on this?

taiwan wrote:There is another great discussion at Yahoo!Answer

Question: from optimist
Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?
Chinese is a very difficult language.
Searching the key word “Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard?” there are over
33,000 results.
Can anyone comment on those articles?
Is there an easy way to learn Chinese?

Can you provide the Yahoo!Answer url on this?

taiwan wrote:Answer:
F. From titanic_sims
why do you even want to know it..its spoken in 1 country.

What a loser!

Calista wrote:
Can you provide the Yahoo!Answer url on this?

Here it is.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 054AAtYP7Z

That “Chinese written language is so damn hard” is a universal experience for anyone who learns it as the second language. Thousands websites discussed this issue. The followings are the top rank sites.

Antimoon.com http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t10216-45.htm

learning_chinese.blogspot.com http://learning_chinese.blogspot.com/20 ... -damn.html

The Nomad Lawyer http://nomadlaw.com/2009/02/why-chinese-so-damn-hard/

Chinese Lessons http://www.wakinggiants.net/blog/?p=700

Balderdash http://gssq.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-ch ... -hard.html

brezhnev.net http://www.brezhnev.net/2006/06/02/68.html

Hacker News http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=176498

How to learn any language.com http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/fo ... PN=1&TPN=4

新浪BLOG http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4a6ede7f0100jgcq.html

Language forums http://mattschiavenza.com/2010/11/07/wh ... damn-hard/

Language forums http://cdevers.posterous.com/why-chines ... -damn-hard

Science Forums http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/4086 ... damn-hard/

fanpop.com http://www.fanpop.com/spots/learning-ma ... -damn-hard

Kai Lukoff http://www.kailukoff.com/uncategorized/ ... damn-hard/

Delayed Echoes http://jingc.tumblr.com/post/81779393/w ... -damn-hard

Savage Minds http://savageminds.org/2006/09/18/why-c ... t-goodies/

Language forums http://www.badmintoncentral.com/forums/ ... -Damn-Hard

Language forums http://archfinch.com/item/21fbm/why-chi ... -damn-hard

papabear wrote:That “Chinese written language is so damn hard” is a universal experience for anyone who learns it as the second language. Thousands websites discussed this issue. The followings are the top rank sites.

Good info, thanks.

When am searching answer for query got a big head spinning after referring many more referral articles and the thread information provided by the forum Gurus got relaxed to start learn.

Jimi Preston wrote:When am searching answer for query got a big head spinning after referring many more referral articles and the thread information provided by the forum Gurus got relaxed to start learn.

papabear's point is to show that

papabear wrote:That “Chinese written language is so damn hard” is a universal experience for anyone who learns it as the second language.

But, I think that this forum's point is to show that "that universal experience" is the result of ignorance by going to the old schools. By learning this new Chinese etymology, the so damn hard will become so damn easy.

Yep, I think Chinese is much more difficult than English because of its long history and rich culture. Both the strokes of characters and the pronunciation are hard to learn. I think the best way is to be involved in Chinese environment, and you'll learn more easily through real life. Also, you can make a Chinese freind whose English is good. You can communicate a lot. This is better than taking a course or sth.

Yes, for many foreigners, they think Chinese is hard for the ridiculously difficult writing system, the confusing four tones, the extensive system of measure words, so a lot of things to memorize... But, the fact is that Chinese is not that hard. Take Chinese grammar for example, Chinese grammar is much simpler if compared to that of the European languages. Chinese language has little or no bound morphology and there are no grammatical paradigms to memorize. Each word has a fixed and single form: verbs do not take prefixes or suffixes showing the tense or the person, number, or gender of the subject. Nouns do not take prefixes or suffixes showing their number or their case. Whereas some European languages like Spanish have a complicated grammar (masculine and feminine genders, verb conjugations, etc).
So everyone can learn Chinese well if one make efforts and know Chinese rules.