Quote:
Originally Posted by Burning Down
I heard that Mandarin Chinese is the hardest language to learn if English is your first language. I'm assuming it's because it's a tone-based language and a word can mean 5 different things depending on the tone used.
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No, Chinese is rather easy. The tones are not critical to conversation. I have a friend here who has a big Chinese vocabulary, but he mispronounces
every tone. The people here still understand him. Mandarin has 4 tones: 1. mā 2. má 3. mǎ 4. mà
The differences in these tones is rather emphatic, so it makes it easier to pronounce words correctly.
If you devote a moderate effort into a 6 month course, you would certainly be able to talk to anybody. You'd be able to take your Chinese friends out for dinner; charm pretty women when they walk by you; order food, whatever.
Once you get accustomed to the tones, Chinese is
very easy to speak well. I can speak Mandarin better than many GuangZhou natives. My girlfriend is from here in GuangZhou, but my pronunciation of Mandarin is better than hers, although she knows many more words.
Writing Chinese is not too difficult either. The characters follow a combinatorial system of strokes. It seems daunting at first, and then it becomes clear quite soon thereafter.
There seem to be quite a few myths regarding Mandarin. Indeed, languages over here are actually quite easy to learn. Korean? Soooo easy. SImple alphabet. Japanese? Well, half of Japanese
is Chinese. Thai? Very similar to Cantonese (my favourite)