Is Chinese difficult?

Question

Is Chinese difficult?

I can speak Chinese well!

But......I can't speak English well.......

Why???

Answer 1

English and Chinese are two different language.

English is not toner, and is phonic.

But for Chinese, it is toner, and not phonic. It is pictorial.

In learning chinese, one has to master the writing by practice it. It has many strokes in one word.

Each word is not make up of certain phonic. Each similar sound has different tone, and mean differently, and it is also written differently.

In English, we learned phonic since young, and what we need is ABC as basic.

But in Chinese, there is no tense, no verb to be etc. It is a simple language in that sense. No much rule involved.

So, each language is unique in it's own.

Hope you enjoy it.

Regards

(I've mastered English, Chinese and Malay. Now the greatest challenged for me is to learn Thai. It is much more difficult that the 3 language I have learned.)

Answer 2

The two big things that could cause one to seek another language than Chinese from an English point of view are the ideographic writing and the fact that Chinese is a tonal language. English is a stress language and uses an alphabet, as everyone knows. So unless one is artistically inclined learning the number of character required to read Chinese is a long and painfully difficult event. I would say that it would take on average 10 years to be able to read Chinese on a basic level.
With the tonal nature of Chinese it requires that a person become accustomed to hearing the four tones. Finding that situation outside of a college or a trip to China might be difficult. Hmm... possibly friends on the interest whom one can converse with regularly might help.

Chinese seems to be an original language unlike English which is a conglomerate of unlike languages throughout its history. So the spelling makes no sense unless you understand the history. Well, I am sure that there are ample reasons why English should be difficult for a Chinese speaker and vice versa.

Answer 3

As far as I am concerned, I would say that I wouldn't compare these languages too straightforwardly: 1) pronounciation: Chinese is the hardest (Japanese pronounciation is easy) 2) reading: Chinese is the hardest (there are indeed thousands of characters to be remembered, but actually these are the combinations of characters which is even harder) 3) Writing: Of course, Chinese is the hardest. That's the aim of my life, to be able to write properly in Chinese... 4) Grammar: Japanese is the hardest. It is indeed a very logical, nuanced and structured language. Chinese is more straightforward, above all in speaking (however, contrary to what the myth says, Chinese does have an elaborate grammar - but the spoken language is quite flexible) At the end of the day, it also depends on the level you want to reach and what you will use the language for. For Korean, I cannot say... But Chinese is clearly harder than the two others...

Answer 4

Conversational not too difficult, you just need to practice. But learning how to write and recognise (read) the characters yes, it is difficult. They are so many Chinese characters, and there is also simplified Chinese (used in China and some SEA countries)and traditional Chineses (used mainly in Taiwan), and the characters can look very different.

Answer 5

Being able to Write Chinese is Pretty hard Because there are so many characters to remember, so that takes some getting used to. But Learning to speak it is just the same as if you were going to learn any other Language.

Answer 6

Sometimes; it depends what you order. I always cope fine with chopsticks for the bigger stuff, but when it comes to the rice I always have to use a spoon.

It's also not too expensice the start - in North Cheam there is a restaurant that is doing a lunch time buffet for only £3.99, Monday to Thursday.

Hope this helps.

(PS - if you mean is learning the Chinese language difficult, the answer to that is also NO - almost 11 BILLION manage to speak it with no dificulty whatsoever.)

Answer 7

Hi there.

Apparently it is. I understand from my Chinese friends that Mandarin is easier to learn than Cantonese. Cantonese is more tonal and as I recall, someone said that (spoken) Mandarin is closer to the English language.

I understand that Cantonese is spoken primarily in Hong Kong and the southern part of mainland China, while Mandarin is more popular in the north of the country. So, if you are planning to learn the language in regard to staying in HK or China for an extended period, you obviously need to learn the appropriate dialect if you have a particular place in mind.

Hope this helps, may God bless you.

Answer 8

I would say yes, apparently to make everything more difficult, there are many dialects. Haven't you ever heard that saying 'Difficult as basic Chinese'? Anyway, it can't be impossible, so if you want to give it a try, it has to be cool to learn a language that doesn't even have the same symbols as yours.

Answer 9

Speaking Chinese shouldn't be a challenge, because you have evidentally mastered the English language, which is one of, if not the hardest to learn.

Answer 10

I'm from Taiwan. It's difficult to learn to read and write.