Why is it easier for Chinese people to learn English than English speaking people to learn Chinese?

Question

People often say "Learning this Chinese word took me all day" but never "learning this english word took me all day" for Chinese people.

Answer 1

Some Chinese would say because Chinese is the most advanced and difficult language in the world, but this is really just government propaganda to promote nationalism, which protects the Communist Party's mandate to be a dictatorship by diverting attention from real issues.

From a very young age Chinese students are forced to "learn English", which means they passively memorize endless lists of English vocabulary, so they can regurgitate them in badly written exams. Hence many educated Chinese know lots of English words, most of which they never have, never will and cannot in any case use.

On the other hand, if English speakers learn Chinese, it is by choice. Thus the average 20 year old Chinese will have a lot more English words in his head than the average 20 year old English speaker will have Chinese words.

The two languages are totally unrelated to each other, so will be as difficult to learn for the Chinese speaker learning English as for the English speaker learning Chinese.

I lived in China for two years, and though I never made much of an effort to learn it, when I really needed to speak Chinese I was amazed at was I was capable of just from being immersed in the language. I find Chinese more difficult to learn than German, however some words you use a lot just stick, others don't. So I can happily say, "Could you please buy me 6 bottles of beer", or, "No way. You've overcharged me buy at least 20 yuan. You bad taxi driver." but I don't know the Chinese word for milk, because you don't see milk all that much in China.

Answer 2

Actually Chinese is a lot less common in the states than English. When you immerse yourself in the culture you're more likely to learn the language easily. I actually thought Chinese was a whole lot easier to learn than English was minus the characters. There are no needs for conjugating in Chinese, so all fourteen of the verb conjugations that take place in most languages are not required. The problem results when it comes to intonations and characters in Chinese which only require a swift ear.

Answer 3

My native language is neither Chinese, nor English, but I'm at University and I study Chinese and English. My first language is Chinese, English is the second one. I like both of them, and I think that every language is hard on its way. In English you have to learn a lot of grammar, so you have to study very hard. The thing I like about Chinese is that you don't have to study that much. Their grammar is very easy, the most important thing is word order. They even don't have tenses. Because of it's characters and tones Chinese looks so hard, and they are hard, but you don't have to sit and study, you have to practice. You'll learn it from reading and writing and it is quite interesting if you like to explore some new languages.
Generally, It's easier to learn English because it looks easier as a language!

And the Chinese word for milk is 'niunai'!

Answer 4

Because Chinese is a difficult language to learn and I am suppose to know how to speak Chinese because my ancestors are Chinese. The dialect have to be in the right place or else the word will sound funny and the Chinese people will say what did that person try to say to me?

Answer 5

With hundreds of Chinese characters every one can have 4 tones meaning each character can have 4 different sounds hence 4 different meanings.
Also we are not brought up in the English language to make some of the sounds required to speak Chinese. Some of the sounds are totally alien to us & very difficult to pronounce.

Answer 6

Their "alphabet" has over 50,000 characters. Ours has 26.

Their characters stand for words. Ours are used to spell words.

Most english speaking people have neither the reason nor motivation to spend the time needed to master Chinese. By contrast, many Chinese feel that simply learning english will give them a leg up on a better job.

Answer 7

It is not any easier one way or the other. It is just your perception that you learning Chinese is harder than them learning English.

Learning languages as different as Chinese and English are difficult no matter how you look at it.

Answer 8

because English is easier than Chinese

Answer 9

Chinese has the different tones, which affect what a word means, and it can be difficult for a non-native Chinese speaker to get them right or distinguish between them. For English, you don't have the tones.

Answer 10

If you made the decision in learning to speak Chinese then you need to now that the best selection is a Program for Mandarin.