How long does it take to learn Chinese?

Question

I was born in China but moved to the U.S. when I was six. Since then I've retained my Chinese verbal skills but can't read or write much beyond my own name. Hopefully that will change as I've decided to teach myself how to read and write. I'm 21. How hard will this be?

Answer 1

It shouldn't be very hard. Since you can speak Chinese, you'll proably learn each character fairly quickly.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

As you are from a Chinese family, I would say you would pick up quicker if your parents / relatives read Chinese magazine / books very often and they can give you a hand.

Learning how to read is a lot easier than writing (composition)! If you would spend an hour or 2 each day and for 1 year, you would reach a level at around grade 3. Self learning is very hard and you need SELF DISCIPLINE too.

If you develop an interest in reading Chinese story books for kids or comics, it would help a lot more. Some of my friends are overseas Chinese same like you and because they're fond of some artists / singers from Hong Kong in their teen and so much wanted to know the entertainment news in HK / Taiwan that they started to pick up Chinese from entertainment news / magazines.

Learning language is a long term investment, it's a life long battle, if you don't study it continuously, you would forget it a lot sooner then the time you spent on it. I learned French 3 years and I forgot nearly 80% soon after I quitted the class for about 6 months!

Don't give up, no matter how hard it would be and always be proud of how much you have already accomplished and how much more you want to go further. It is never too late to learn and is never enough from what you have learned.

Answer 4

It's honestly an overly useful language, and no longer too problematic to transition to from English. Obviously, it depends upon the way you procedure studying it, but when you are immersed, it is gonna be approximately five to six years on traditional, given you could have a well snatch on a minimum of 60% to eighty% of average speech or vocabulary inside the primary 2 years. If you can not get by way of that as quickly as you'll, and you're taking some time, you maybe speaking upwards of a decade to be capable and get by way of a talk. Nothing is not possible, however in fact, you are simply no longer gonna end up fluent with out being immersed. It's a idea method, and no longer rather a flash card sport. Most surveys honestly exhibit such a lot victorious novice beginners to do excellent with films and a pocket translator. It's ordinarily somewhat more difficult getting the ball going doing that, then say an geared up application, however do not be too intimidated by means of Mandarin. Most men and women will comprehend the language constitution inside their first 500 vocabulary phrases. Just bear in mind that there is not any correct or unsuitable strategy to cross approximately it. It's all a question of fifty% memorization, and 50% immersion. Most men and women begin walking away on the idea of getting to memorize a big quantity of fabric, however that is what studying a brand new language is. Not very avoidable on this case. Good good fortune, and feature amusing.....

Answer 5

I've got a few questions for you before I can give you a definite answer- Where in China were you born? Do you speak guoyu/putonghua with your family, or some sort of dialect (for example Fujianese, or guangdonghua)? When you say "retained your verbal skills", what exactly does that mean? There are four facets to learning a foreign language: Listening Comprehension, Speaking Ability, Reading Comprehension, and Writing Ability. Which one is your strongest? Also, you need a Chinese person who is proficient in writing characters to teach you- you can't teach yourself how to write in Chinese, because every character has a stroke-order, and you need to know in what placement, direction, and sequence each character is written in. (Hard to learn from books- also VERY slow) Hope this helps! Good luck!
Jen

Answer 6

It depends on a number of different reasons:
Age
Other exposure to the Chinese Language
Which particular language...Mandarin?
Situational
Emotions at the time of learning
Alertness
Learning Style
etc...
etc...

In my experience with learning rudamentary Chinese, it took me twenty weeks to become "proficient" according to the standards set by my University. Remembering that what a university calls proficient is most likely speaking, reading and writing as if you were in second or third grade.

I took accelerated courses at my university for both Chinese and Spanish. My reccommendation: Don't do this. It sucks. I did not learn verb meanings very well and retention has been somewhat poor. I do use my Spanish with teaching because it got me a pay raise during initial payroll and salary negotiation. I also have two kids right now that hardly speak a word of English and we therefore teach bilingually. So I remember enough to be able to teach my kids in the classroom...

I still watch Univision and occasionally visit MTVL...

A language learner uses their sensory inputs and outputs very differently between speaking, reading, writing and listening to a foreign language. Personal experience is that I am much more understanding of both languages when I listen to it rather than speaking or reading the foreign language. Writing for me was very similar to listening. If I could hear the words in my head as I wrote them my grammatics and syntax were very accurate.

So I guess it really depends on you. Your dedication to learning has much to do with how quickly learning takes place, and how much exposure you have to the written and readibility of the language. How much do you want to learn? A lot? A little? What is the desire factor to learn the language?

Again, everyone is different in any given moment, place and time...

Wish I could answer you better, but I hope this helps!

Answer 7

According to various language sites, it takes 200-300 hours to gain proficiency in a language. Pimsleur has a good link on how long it takes to gain certain levels of proficiency in a language (see below). I think the person who told you one year was accurate -- depending on the fluency level you want to reach and the time you have to spend. Since you already have verbal skills, you've got a head start.

Answer 8

It all depends on a few things. As you already know how to speak, it becomes easier. Are you speaking mandarin?
Invest in a good dictionary that shows stroke order.
go to your local university and pick up some basic chinese class readers. You also have your parents who would be able to help
Good luck with it!

Answer 9

I am a English-learner.Can I talk with you in English or Chinese.You can improve your Chinese and I can practice my spoken-English.I am studying in university at Shanghai.
My YahooMessengerID is [e-mail].

Answer 10

fairly difficult..but not insurmountable...I learned to speak mandarin and pinyin for years...and only now am I trying to read and write Hanzi...I'm finding it quite difficult..but I'm 57.and you have had a much shorter time away from Chinese...