320 Years of History
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- #21
English is a tough language to learn.
Of that there is no doubt.
From my own experience, three weeks of semi-immersion in China -- I have a translator in the office, but all my leisure activities happen without her -- and I was able to speak Mandarin well enough to do basic things like shop, go out to eat and ask about the food or ask for items/services I wanted, ask and answer basic questions and/or exchange pleasantries, and hail cabs and explain where I wanted to go. That didn't happen via "osmosis." I bought a "learn Mandarin" book and DVD and I used it and practiced.
Reading and writing Mandarin is an entirely different matter. I'm completely illiterate in that regard. I've made no effort to alter that condition, and I doubt I ever will. I have no need to read or write in Mandarin; thus I have no will to learn how. I can crank out pinyin if I have to, but that's it. That said, doing so works just fine to send texts to my Chinese acquaintances and colleagues who all are amenable to texting with me in pinyin rather than Hanzi.
Spanish and French were equally easy to speak, and, because the alphabet is largely the same as English's, reading and writing in those languages doesn't present a problem. That is largely "it" re: my reticence to learn to read and write in Mandarin. It's not that the language is grammatically difficult to learn in the same way English is, because it just isn't.
Chinese grammar just isn't that difficult. Neither are the spoken tones. We have them in English too. "The housekeeper will polish your shoes. The cook can prepare Polish sausages if you'd like." In saying that sentence aloud, tone is the only thing distinguishing the meaning of "polish/Polish." It's no different in Mandarin. Indeed, in one way it's easier for the actually "spelling"/character as well as the tone differs with the meaning.
- mā --> 媽 --> mother
- má -->麻 --> hemp
- mǎ --> 馬 --> horse
- mà --> 罵 --> scold