Question by : How long would it take to learn chinese?
I would like to learn mandarin Chinese. How long do you think it would take to become fluent in it? I know it is a very difficult language to learn but I really want to learn it. How many years would it take to become fluent?
Best answer:
Answer by Canadian Laowai
This is an unanswerable question as it would depend entirely on how much time you are goign to put into it, where you live, do you talk to native speakers, are you going to school or learning on your own and more.
To give you some ideas, I’ve been living in China 7 years but never actually studied and just learned throguh communication, I’m average level in speaking and beginner in writing, but again, I have never actually studied.
I have a friend who studied hard for a year and a half and spent all his time studying, he’s advanced in both speaking and writing.
For the average person studying in school I would say you could become fluent in 3-4 years in China. But if you study hard and practicce with the locals a lot much less. if you aren’t in China, longer.
Spoken Chinese isn’t too hard, it’s written that will get you. It’s basically just memorization of a couple thousand pictures. Not fun but interesting if you learn also where they come from.
What do you think? Answer below!
There’s another Elena (Elena S) on this forum who will say “Learning Chinese is as simple as learning English.” (She’s originally from the Ukraine.)
However, as an English teacher, I can truthfully say that there is no set definition of “easy/hard” when it comes to language learning. Some people pick up languages easily while others trudge along for years, resulting in an inability to string two sentences together.
As Canadian Laowai said, a lot of it depends upon your age, your opportunities to use the language and your motivation for doing so. My husband and I have been in China for close to five years now (and I lived here for 2 1/2 years before that) and neither of us are fluent in Chinese. However, our two children (now ages 8 (soon-to-be-9) and 10) are completely bilingual and have pretty much mastered all four disciplines involved in language learning (reading, writing, listening, speaking). Of course, their fluency is age appropriate . . . they don’t have the vocabulary of adults, but they wouldn’t be expect to even in a mono-lingual setting.
Provided you are motivated and not afraid to open your mouth and speak, you can master conversational abilities in about two years. I concentrated on speaking and listening and I trudge along in reading and writing on my own. I take an occasional class to keep me inspired, but most of my learning is through self-study and asking lots of questions when I’m with my friends.
Complete fluency will take a lifetime. Hopefully, you will never say, “I know all there is to know, ” because that can’t/won’t be the case.
http://www.yellowbridge.com is a good site that can probably help you in your endeavors. You can also try http://www.mandarintools.com.
Enjoy!
If you were interested in Chinese language, that will be good start. You have to learn the basic like “four tones”,”PInyin”, you can also take the live online Chinese lesson with native teacher. Could not be sure how long you can get fluent, It will be soon improved if you have daily practice
It is hard to say how long to be fluent in Chinese. Different ways of learning may come to different levels.
If you study and live in Beijing, China, and you can practise it every hours, you can become fluent in half a year i believe.
a long time… Chinese is known as one of the most difficult languages in the world… Good luck!
It takes about 3 years to speak easy chinese.But it is very difficult to memorize chinese characters .About 5000 words or more than that！We ,using chinese characters everyday,can’t remember all of the chinese characters for more than 40 years.Good luck！
I think you have to spend more than 5 years to master Chinese. But if you just want to learn some simple Chinese. It will take you about several months.
Depends. I am a background speaker of Chinese (Cantonese) and English is my second language. So personally, it would be easier for me. I have studied Mandarin during my school years every Saturday and even there, it was rather difficult as the tones and grammar were slightly different.
It comes down to how fast of a learner you are – some people absorb new ideas better than others – we all learn in our own pace.
It can take years before you are fluent but the key thing is start young.
though it is unanswerable, but i suggest u make a chinese friend, then you can have more opportunities to practice it. Chinese has a lingering charm. you know
It’s actually a very practical language, and not too difficult to transition to from English. Obviously, it depends on how you approach learning it, but if you’re immersed, it’s gonna be about 5 to 6 years on average, given you have a good grasp on at least 60% to 80% of common speech or vocabulary within the first two years. If you can’t get through that as soon as you can, and you take your time, you might be talking upwards of a decade to be able and get through a conversation. Nothing is impossible, but the truth is, you’re just not gonna become fluent without being immersed. It’s a thought process, and not really a flash card game. Most surveys actually show most successful amateur learners to do best with movies and a pocket translator. It’s usually a bit harder getting the ball going doing that, then say an organized program, but don’t be too intimidated by Mandarin. Most people will understand the language structure within their first 500 vocabulary words. Just remember that there is no right or wrong way to go about it. It’s all a matter of 50% memorization, and 50% immersion. Most people start running away at the thought of having to memorize a large amount of material, but that’s what learning a new language is. Not very avoidable in this case. Good luck, and have fun…..