{"id":446,"date":"2021-09-06T08:10:37","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farfromchina.com\/?p=446"},"modified":"2021-09-28T21:41:24","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T04:41:24","slug":"is-chinese-hard-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farfromchina.com\/2021\/09\/06\/is-chinese-hard-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Chinese hard to learn? Here are my tips."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Yes. It is very difficult to learn Chinese as an overseas Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I\u2019m saying this as a person who has had the best opportunity to learn it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the very least, where I grew up in Singapore, I could find the environment to learn it very quickly if I wanted to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Alas, no, I waited until 2014 before I started really putting some effort into learning Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I always joked that moving to Canada has improved both my English and Chinese. What an irony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But it’s true. I have seen much improvement over these seven years and I\u2019d like to share how I managed to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believe you can do it too. If you want to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’d have to say the biggest problem I faced really came down to not having an environment that encouraged Chinese learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All my friends spoke English and almost all Singaporeans are bilingual. The latter meant that you could just skip all the difficult vocabulary in Chinese by filling the gaps with English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Everything I watched was in English too. Thanks MTV, Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and Days of Our Lives<\/em> for filling my childhood with American culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, that was the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had a marked change in my motivation to learn Chinese in my 20s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in Toronto, I met a much more international community. I met the smartest Chinese people and had a good time interacting with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alongside that time spent with them came understanding and appreciating their culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, we’re all Chinese here, but there are some differences between us. For example, I would always feel bewildered when some of my Chinese friends say they dislike eating Indian food because the smell is too strong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suppose it’s like some people finding the scent of durian to be a stench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the record, I hate the smell of stinky tofu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I further went to China multiple times in the 2010s and really felt awestruck by what I saw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Living in small city North America, those bullet trains and big city life felt like I just advanced 1,000 years into the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think just having more contact with East Asian Chinese people (aka non-overseas Chinese) made me see the value of learning Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what benefits have I gained from investing this time in myself?<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a deeper understanding of the Chinese language, I am much more able to connect with other Chinese people whose language is Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is advantageous in helping you connect with someone else whether in a friendship, dating or business sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a pal who I met at university. He has a Chinese fiance and I almost always find that she\u2019s much more able to express herself in Chinese.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, being able to speak and listen to Chinese is the aspect I find most important. The other side to it is reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reading is pretty useful. You know how when you go to a restaurant and their menu is something that doesn\u2019t make sense in English?<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you read the original Chinese names of the dishes, you\u2019ll have a much better idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I mean, a youtiao<\/em> is something most Chinese people will know. The translations will leave you completely bewildered because there\u2019s no such equivalent concept in English. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A \u201cChinese donut\u201d doesn\u2019t make sense because a donut is almost always sweet, not savoury. And what is a \u201ccruller?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Can you imagine if people called churros a \u201cMexican donut\u201d or \u201ccruller?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhat benefits have I gained?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Go to Chinese language meetups<\/h2>\n\n\n\n