Learning Chinese

"Better to ask the way than to go astray". I can only speak from my own experience. I was learning Mandarin at uni, so I had the comfort of having the teachers to consult with. However, learning on your own allows you to move in your own pace.  It's hard to say how difficult it is, since it depends on a few factors. My mother tongue has similar sounds, so it wasn't that hard for me to learn the pronounciation. There are only four tones, so it's not the hardest. For me personally speaking was never a problem. Learning to read and write though... That was difficult. It took me a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, grammar was easy. It was probably the easiest of the languages I've been learning, grammar-wise. My advice to you is give it a try and persevere :)

 ZhouYanRan:

"Better to ask the way than to go astray". I can only speak from my own experience. I was learning Mandarin at uni, so I had the comfort of having the teachers to consult with. However, learning on your own allows you to move in your own pace.  It's hard to say how difficult it is, since it depends on a few factors. My mother tongue has similar sounds, so it wasn't that hard for me to learn the pronounciation. There are only four tones, so it's not the hardest. For me personally speaking was never a problem. Learning to read and write though... That was difficult. It took me a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, grammar was easy. It was probably the easiest of the languages I've been learning, grammar-wise. My advice to you is give it a try and persevere :)

Thank you for encouraging me! I suppose with any new language it takes a lot of practice. There do seem to be quite a lot of online resources so that's definitely one benefit of learning languages nowadays especially if it's as popular as Chinese.

Good to know that the grammar is easy! Grammar can be one of the hardest things to get a hang of when learning languages. I've started off really slow. Just dipping my toes and learning a few common words here and there are trying to pick up words from dramas like I did with Korean.

 purpleh2o:

also, i thought this was funny ~

https://www.tiktok.com/@bernicecomedy/video/7218960063690509610?lang=en

The youtube video was great! And I completely agree when he said that just learning words is not enough if you are not speaking them. I realised this recently when I tried speaking in Korean and was struggling because I never practiced my speaking even though I was reading and listening at a higher level. These kinds of advices are perfect for any language learner. Also learning Mandarin in 1.5 years is incredible. But I'm sure a lot of it is because he had a speaking partner because they can correct you in real time and teach you the natural way of communicating. That's why I was wondering if it would be easier to find a native speaker through language exchange. 

I've seen that tiktok video before and she is amazing. But it was also scary that one can possibly mispronounce strawberries so terribly. haha. I also saw a video of someone who said, just talk fast and you won't have to worry about tones. Problem is, I don't even talk fast in my native tongues. :P

It's difficult to even get to an intermediate level alone?

How easy or difficult did you find it? 

haha. I wish I could absorb languages quickly. I wouldn't mind being an interpreter I suppose. But yes, atm it's for a hobby. I just enjoy learning languages. I'm in the middle of learning Korean so I am trying to figure out if I can learn Chinese as well. Some Korean words are based on Chinese words so there might be some benefit to learning both.