All references in this blog to Chinese language are specific to Mandarin Chinese unless other wise stated. NB – Chinese … is a language family consisting of languages which are mostly mutually unintelligible to varying degrees – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_language
Are you sure you want to do this?
People often ask me for advice on how to learn Chinese. I must warn you it is painfully hard and learning to read and write is like learning a separate language from the spoken.
My written Chinese is still limited to simple text messages. I am not sure if I will every read and write at the newspaper level. NB: I recall asking a friend who had lived in Canada for a long time how to write a word. It became a group debate. Chinese who have lived abroad for a long time forget much of the writing. Having said that I have a friend doesn’t speak but can read and write. I think having a photographic memory helps : )
Learning to speak is a less lofty goal. I have met many non-Chinese who can speak at some level, I myself speak daily Chinese fluently though at the time of this post my business Chinese needs work. Of course there is Mark Rowswell.
You need to decide early on if you want to read and write or not. If you do, you need to start now. The learning process is different if you want to learn to read/write and speak/listen and it takes time.
It is possible to speak intelligibly after 2 years living in China. It is possible to learn to read and write at a reasonable level in 4 years of full time study, if you have the gift and determination.
I will post some tips on this blog most of them for learning to speak/listen. Feel free to submit tips and ask questions. I will help as I can.
Tags: Chinese, Language, Learning Chinese