{"id":182226,"date":"2017-10-31T17:17:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T21:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/learn\/is-chinese-hard-to-learn\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T00:33:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T05:33:43","slug":"is-chinese-hard-to-learn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fluentu.com\/blog\/chinese\/is-chinese-hard-to-learn\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Chinese Hard to Learn? 4 Reasons It’s Not as Difficult as You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

According to the Foreign Service Institute<\/a>, Chinese is a level IV language\u2014a “super-hard language” for English speakers to learn, particularly because everything is new: the writing system, the sounds, the words, the sentence structures.<\/p>\n

However, Chinese grammar is relatively simple, the characters are quite logical, and learning tones is pretty quick business. Plus, you already know how to pronounce most of the sounds in Chinese.<\/p>\n

So without further ado, let’s go through these common pain points for new Chinese learners<\/strong> and see exactly why they’re not so scary.<\/p>\n

[fluentu-toc]
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1. Chinese grammar is pretty simple.<\/h2>\n

Sure, if you speak English then French is a lot more similar to your language than Chinese. But this difference also has its advantages!<\/p>\n

For one, Chinese grammar<\/a> is often considered simple and easy to learn. Common grammar obstacles in European languages like tense and gender are nonexistent in Mandarin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This means you’ll be constructing your own sentences<\/a> within a few months of studying the language, and you’ll be understood more often than you expect. If you’ve ever studied a European language, this will seem unusual!<\/p>\n

Consider this sentence in Chinese, where the bold word is the verb:<\/p>\n

\u6211\u53bb<\/strong>\u8d85\u5e02\u3002 (w\u01d2 q\u00f9<\/strong> ch\u0101o sh\u00ec.)<\/em> \u2014 I go to the store.<\/p>\n

You’d use the same verb form whether you’re headed to the store right now, you’re going tomorrow, you went yesterday or you’re making a general statement like “I go to the store on Tuesdays.”<\/p>\n

Pretty nice, huh?\u00a0Even in English you’d have to change the verb dramatically to convey the tense.<\/p>\n

In Chinese, however, individual words are like bricks<\/strong> that you’re often free to arrange in your own order. Of course, there’s definitely correct and incorrect grammar in Mandarin<\/a>, but as a beginner, you’ll be amazed by how much you can do!<\/p>\n

2. Chinese characters contain useful components.<\/h2>\n

Reading and writing in Chinese<\/a>\u00a0can be majorly intimidating to learners of the language. There are tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet to help you read them.<\/p>\n

Yes, there are indeed many \u6c49\u5b57 (h\u00e0n zi)<\/em> \u2014 Chinese characters to learn, and they all seem different and complex. The good news is that they come with their own helpful hints for understanding and pronouncing them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All Chinese characters are made up of specific elements known as radicals and components<\/a>. Once you’re familiar with a few of these, the writing stops looking so alien and starts to make more sense.<\/p>\n

For example, the radical for “grass” appears in the following four characters. It’s the horizontal line with the two small vertical strokes that sits along the top of each character:<\/p>\n

\u8349<\/strong> (c\u01ceo)<\/em> \u2014 Grass<\/p>\n

\u83dc<\/strong> (c\u00e0i)<\/em> \u2014 Dish, meal or vegetables<\/p>\n

\u8336<\/strong> (ch\u00e1)<\/em> \u2014 Tea<\/p>\n

\u836f<\/strong> (y\u00e0o)<\/em> \u2014 Medicine<\/p>\n

Can you see how each of the meanings relates back to “grass”?<\/p>\n

As you continue your Mandarin studies, more and more of these patterns<\/a> will start to appear.<\/strong> Instead of impenetrable squiggles, you’ll see the elements that make up each individual character and, more often than not, also hold clues to their meaning and pronunciation.<\/p>\n

Though reading a newspaper or novel will require a few thousand characters, functioning in day-to-day life is a lot easier. With just two or three hundred well-chosen characters<\/a> you’ll be able to read menus, navigate public transport and even carry out basic text conversations.<\/p>\n

Even better, you don’t really have to learn how to handwrite Chinese characters if you don’t want to\u2014you can simply use pinyin<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. There are only four Chinese tones.<\/h2>\n

Maybe you don’t even want to learn to read or write Chinese at all. Is it the speaking and listening that’s got you spooked?<\/p>\n

The fact that Chinese is a tonal language is a common source of alarm for prospective learners. A tonal language<\/a> means that the tone used to say a word is essential to understanding its meaning.<\/p>\n

In terms of number of tones, Mandarin is definitely on the low end:<\/strong> Thai<\/a> has five tones, Vietnamese<\/a> has six and Cantonese<\/a> is often considered to have a total of nine(!) tones.<\/p>\n

Mandarin, on the other hand, has just four tones<\/a>, as well as a “neutral tone.” Take a listen to the differences in these five words:<\/p>\n

\u5988<\/strong> (<\/em>m\u0101<\/em>)<\/em> \u2014 Mother<\/p>\n

\u9ebb<\/strong> (<\/em>m\u00e1<\/em>)<\/em> \u2014 Hemp or flax<\/p>\n

\u9a6c<\/strong> (<\/em>m\u01ce<\/em>)<\/em> \u2014 Horse<\/p>\n

\u9a82<\/strong> (<\/em>m\u00e0<\/em>)<\/em> \u2014 To scold<\/p>\n

\u5417<\/strong> (<\/em>ma<\/em>)<\/em> \u2014 Particle for forming questions<\/p>\n

Getting tone pronunciation down takes just a little bit of practice.<\/strong> Did you notice the line above the “a” in each word above? Follow that line with your voice, and you’ve pronounced the tone\u2014it’s that simple! Hearing tones in use is one of the best ways to learn them. You can get plenty of practice with a program like FluentU<\/a>.

FluentU<\/strong> takes authentic videos\u2014like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks\u2014and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app<\/a> or Android app.<\/a><\/p>\r\n

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)<\/a><\/i>\r\n<\/p>\r\n

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