Chinese: to teach or not?

The decision to start learning a new language can be caused as a professional necessity and desire to meet the spirit of the times. Whereas in the past, before last centuries possession French or German were the standard for an educated person, but now confidently holds the palm English. But the arena has a new player who had begun to restrict its competitors. Name - Chinese.

Chinese, despite its complexity, in recent years, steadily increasing its number of "subscribers." Every year an increasing number of foreigners moving to China to live, work, learn the language. This is due, of course, not with a great culture and a rich history in the event of China and its economy. The new economic miracle of China, which has become a magnet for shorthand around the world workers in the crisis in 2008 year, prompted many inquiring minds to bring it to their attention and ask: "Do not learn if I Chinese tongue?".

In order to understand whether or not to take on a Chinese or not, you need to answer the two questions:

1. Why do I need the Chinese language?
2. How much I'm willing to spend time on it?

The motives for learning Chinese can be very different

1. Expand horizons, learn something new.
2. Learn another foreign language (for show, to resume, to raise self-esteem).
3. Know the culture of China, read philosophical treatises and ancient Chinese poetry in the original language.
4. See the original voice acting in films of Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee.
5. To conduct business with China.
6. Enroll in Chinese universities.
7. To emigrate with his family to China.
8. I would like to learn some language, and to the European somehow does not pull.
9. I would like to learn how to communicate in everyday life with your fellow-Chinese.

At this stage the most important thing - to determine for themselves their motives. Their understanding will change the content of the phrase "learn Chinese". All of the above reasons for learning Chinese will demand from you a couple of different preparation methods and different amounts of time, so clear a picture is worth in advance.

We define its goals in the study of Chinese language

1. In the case of Chinese "for fun" will be enough to enroll in some courses and listen to podcasts, Ask a friend to teach Chinese characters. At this level, vigorous dialogue with the Chinese in the spirit of "Hello, how are you?" Can even be considered a finishing point in the study of Chinese.
2. If a person wants to learn the language for show or to feel cooler, here it is all somehow strongly blurred turns. How to determine the "ceiling" and the goal? Free reading morning papers? Reading literature without a dictionary? Or understanding of the news on TV and a casual conversation with a Chinese political scientist? If you do not define your purpose in learning Chinese, it will never come a feeling of fullness and completeness. With this approach, the language can be taught all my life, but never reach the goal (because it does not exist!).
3. If a person wants, for example, to read the original Nobel laureate Mo Yan or other Chinese literature, it is necessary to focus on writing Chinese. If the purpose - to read, then oral Chinese with its pronunciation and listening can safely push into the background, freeing up time for sayings, idioms, words and fanciful fictional story China.
4. In order to watch Chinese films in the original language, you need a good listening and language skills. Spoken Chinese all the same will be important, especially pronunciation, because good listening is possible only if the person speaks well. Movies require comprehensive training adept of the Chinese language, and the only relief he It gives, is that the movie can be stopped and see an unfamiliar word (which can be done during call). Those who want to watch Chinese films in the original language, it is also desirable to define the genre of the movie. For more laconic militants suitable household lexicon that can be mastered in a relatively short period of time, while in historical epics have a sip of elaborate structures and archaic words that have to spend several years to understand even half film.
5. For business it's pretty straightforward. It needs a good spoken Chinese (even if it is a relatively nasty accent), the ability to understand Chinese figures and manipulate, the terminology of knowledge in the field of logistics and an understanding of the specifics of doing business with China. Even if you're not going alone to negotiate with the Chinese, and are planning to hire a professional translator, still it makes sense podnataskal in Chinese for this purpose. Firstly, you will understand the general gist of what they say your translator and partner, and Secondly, you will easily do without the services of an interpreter in a not very suitable for life Foreigners China.
6. If you are planning to go to university in China, the scope will need to take the surrender HSK (Analogue of TOEFL for Chinese). To do this you will need to surrender podnataskal HSK, which may take a relatively short time. My two-clever friend passed on HSK 8-9 level (12) without leaving even to China. But to go to university, having passed HSK level 4-6 - is one thing, but to study it on a par with China - is quite another. To read on the blackboard handwritten characters and understand non-standard pronunciation of Chinese teachers, one handed HSK will be small. That's why many applicants are recorded on the training courses in the 1-2 years long. And even this training is often not enough. So it pays to be aware that higher education in China - a long-standing saga, which will require plenty of time and effort in return for several years.
7. In the case of emigration to China it's pretty simple. Your task - to learn the basics of the Chinese, which will make it possible to your comfortable life. The good news is that during the development of the Chinese on some level, you no longer need to spend time maintaining it - your level is consistently low.
8. If you want only to teach any foreign language, for example for the development of memory, the Chinese - it's not the the best choice, because the language requires a lot more time and effort than, for example, Spanish or German. Assaults did not take: for minimal progress in China will need at least 3-4 hours per day. If you engage in less, then you will not feel the progress, and therefore the desire to learn the language will gradually disappear.
9. To communicate with friends, the Chinese you will still have to sweat and invest a minimum of many months of intensive training. As I have said, the Chinese do not have a quick start, so naive, "How to say it in Chinese?" Nothing intelligent will not work to master.

When you have decided on the motive for learning Chinese, it's time to ask yourself the second question (about time).

Am I ready for the nth number of months / years to spend so many hours in the day to study Chinese? If the answer to this question may be that your appetite for Chinese commensurate with the time that you are willing to spend on it. For example, if you want to learn Chinese for watching movies, but you will have only 1-2 hours of Chinese per day, then this is a dubious enterprise can drag on for years, and not giving a tangible result.

The main difficulty lies in the Chinese characters that are thousands. And not all of them are as easy and logical to remember, for example, 人 (rén - people)Where downright seen long-legged walking man. Or, for example, 口 (kǒu - mouth)Which looks like a mouth. Having learned these two characters, the student will be pleasantly surprised to learn that these two characters together - 人口 (rénkǒu) - means "people." How in fact logical!

But these simple characters that Chinese children are beginning to understand more before mastering the skill walk like a drop in the sea, that you drink in the first few months of learning Chinese. About the tone, pronunciation, vocabulary, and other pitfalls in learning Chinese, I am not going to say - this is a topic for another article.

Traps in the study of Chinese language

Chinese Home trap is that breaking the first threshold in the form of basic characters, more or less tonal pronunciation and somehow listening, persons with due diligence and on the condition that he lives in China, will show tangible progress in learning Chinese, and it would seem that it would be always. This first period of "take-off" may last a year or two. Every six months, the following would seem that there is not much to push that even half a year - and your Chinese. But somewhere somehow is the third year that teach Chinese is becoming increasingly difficult.

Usually after 3-5 years it starts to mow kitaistov awareness of their situation. Someone goes into the bout, realizing that something was a burden unaffordable, someone in tears leaves the Celestial Empire, who is looking for a new meanings of his stay in China, and some pumps themselves a horse dose of optimism and continues to this unequal the battle. Survive only the most persistent, and they are half-Chinese with their Eastern thought and tradition.

One more "pleasant" surprise in the Chinese is that, while in China, you will rarely hear the good, quality Putonghua (China's official language). In the vast and densely populated China, hundreds (if not thousands) of local dialects, which leave their imprint on pronunciation inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom. For all the 5 years that I have spent in China, I met on the strength of a dozen Chinese people who speak pure Chinese, and those working for TV. Even my teacher of the Chinese was not without sin: she uttered a sound th where there was supposed to be the sound of s.

A good illustration of how different can sound Putonghua is an episode of a show, where even leading said though a good, but not quite the standard of Putonghua with a southern flavor, and then the sound of eating "ds" instead "J".

At the time of participation in the TV show, I taught Chinese somewhere 2.5 years, with the first year and a half I was an average of 8 hours a day.

During the time that you spend in order to achieve a good level in China (by the way, is very vague concept), you could be at a high level to master the 2-3 European languages. Therefore, before you "dive" in Chinese, should first weigh the pros and cons and figure out whether the game is worth the candle.