Comments on: About Author

By: Lindsey Kasmarek

Lindsey Kasmarek — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 17:22:03 +0000

Good blog! I truly love how it is simple on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified when a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your RSS which must do the trick! Have a great day!

By: SS

SS — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:43:31 +0000

I agree with you all here. Learning chinese is not easy although both my parents can speak and write in chinese.
But I keep trying to learn chinese. And it is also put my mind a bit ease that other people have difficulty learning chinese..
jia you

By: baining

baining — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 07:44:47 +0000

20 Years!! I have only been learning for 4 years and surprisingly this is encouraging to me. I always thought of this as a long term goal so I am ok with it. To hear someone still enjoys it and is humble to admit they are not all knowing is refreshing. Honestly since I have started learning Mandarin I have learned a lot about English, so I guess After 29 years of life I am not completely fluent in English either! Great Blog!!

By: chitchatchinese

chitchatchinese — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:18:59 +0000

Ha, yea great way to fight senility. And, yes, worth it. I still find it an exciting language, after all these years. Even reading children’s history or chengyu books can be exciting.

By: KaiTing

KaiTing — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 08:07:27 +0000

I just finished a degree in Chinese and I still feel like I’m just getting started (I still can’t read a newspaper – how messed up is that?!). The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know. (For reference, Mandarin is the eighth language I’ve studied in depth, including a degree in Russian, so I feel like I can make a pretty good comparison). I think it’s fair to say that I could definitely 花一輩子 studying it and would never feel like I’d figured it out. Of course, you can have a conversational grasp of it after a few years, especially if that included an in-country stay, but I don’t think it’s unfair to tell people what they’re getting into in terms of fluency. The challenge for me is trying to learn all of the stories and the history behind the thousands of idioms you’d have to master to be able to feel like you were expressing yourself as a native would. Cultural references are tough in any language, but when your history is as long as China’s, it’s an added challenge. There’s also the additional burden of learning/practicing characters – time that in another language that could be spent working on oral practice. It’s definitely worth the struggle, though! (and a great way to fight off the Alzheimer’s, right?)

By: Ning

Ning — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:33:59 +0000

I love your site…and I love your articles! Thank you for this effort. I’m elbow deep into learning Mandarin — and I love it. My own personal sudoku puzzle! It doesn’t surprise me that how to actually study the language causes a lot of passionate responses — personally, I’m struggling with a system that wants me to learn BOTH simplfied and traditional characters. Simplified is hard enough.

The joy of learning Mandarin is the Chinese people you talk to — they’re so wonderful when you try their language!

By: HZC

HZC — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 14:27:10 +0000

(@hsknotes)

While telling people the reality of learning Chinese might be discouraging, I feel that they ought to know what they are getting themselves into. The truth is, Chinese is a language that takes a lot of study and dedication, far more so than perhaps any other language, and if you’re not someone who is willing to put in the time, then perhaps it would have been nice for someone to have told you this from the get-go so that you could have decided to learn Spanish or French instead.

Adults should not need to be fooled, pampered, cajoled or otherwise deceived so that they think they have a good shot at learning a language. No matter how you splice it or dice it, languages are not easy and the whole idea of making people think it is is just downright deceiving and wasting their time.

Imaging after studying Mandarin for 4 or 5 years you finally realize the truth that it’s a very hard language and you are still not fluent. Wouldn’t you be mad? It has been written about time and time again that this is one of the hardest languages to learn and gain fluency in. Even children growing up with Chinese as their mother tongue have a lot more rote learning to do than the average Joe.

So, if you are going to learn Mandarin or any other Chinese language, do it because you just want to; do it because you love it; for any other reason, perhaps you need to think twice, maybe thrice.

By: Min Min (Learn Chinese Everyday)

Min Min (Learn Chinese Everyday) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:28:54 +0000

Hi,

I have a Chinese learning website – Learn a Chinese Character a Day.
http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com

If you find that my website is useful, please link my page on your website. I am happy to have add your blog into my blogroll.

Thanks.

Regards,
Min Min

By: Min Min (Learn Chinese Everyday)

Min Min (Learn Chinese Everyday) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:10:34 +0000

Hi,

I have a Chinese learning website – Learn a Chinese Character a Day.
http://www.learnchineseeveryday.com

If you find that my website is useful, please link my page on your website. I am happy to have add your blog into my blogroll.

Thanks.

Regards,
Min Min
Regards.

Philip Perry
–

By: chris(mandarin_student)

chris(mandarin_student) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:32:59 +0000

hsknotes, it depends on your attitude and interpretation of the phrase.

I still have and always will have a fascination with my mother tongue English. I will never stop learning things about English and I have no real technical interest or understanding of English grammar.

I disagree very strongly with the attitude of forcing language and grammar on adults, someone can learn that way if they wish, but adults can learn in a similar manner to kids very successfully.