I would only add: do waste time on writing. It actually really helps to solidify new characters and words in your memory. If you spend time deliberately writing down a character, it helps to focus on the components the character is build up off and just the mere physical interaction and movement of your muscles will help your memory. the more senses you involve with learning, the better the retention. It has helped me a lot in distinguishing characters that look similar, when writing them you become more aware of their differences.
Eveyone learns differently. I find the act of writing them solidifies them in my memory too. The same even for writing something in English, I’m far more likely to remember if I’ve written it by hand, it’s just how my brain works.
I love Andre's strategic tips like listening to Chinese media, getting a language exchange partner, reading material at your level, etc. I've found all those things crucial as well. My one addition would be singing along to Chinese songs! It really builds flair for tones and vocabulary.
@@handsanitizer1963 You can try some Chinese documentaries. But they are a little difficult for beginners. Chinese primary school textbooks are also a good choice.
My experience is that -no matter how much you've practiced your pronunciation and tones, when you use it they don't understand you even when you are certain you've said it correctly. But when I speak quickly without worrying about correct tones they understand me. This was advice I got from an American I met whose Chinese was quite fluent. When I speak slowly they never understand what you say. I don't know why this is but I've seen this with others too not just me. The problem with this is that when you speak fast the response is fast from the native.you're conversing with. You can ask them to speak slowly but one minute later they are back to speaking normal speed. For character memorization I find that staring at a character for 5 or more minutes solidifies it for me. You may forget how to pronounce it but you'll remember the shape, a bit like recognizing a face.
they need a certain amount of words to calibrate their listening towards your pronunciation. So just start with some nonsense phrases 我来说一下 and continue talking. If you only say 1 or 2 short words and then stop they have no chance to calibrate, they need context. It's like pumping gasoline, the line needs to be filled before gasoline is flowing
Chinese is a category 10 language which is objectively impossible and unnecessarily complicated, and one can literally learn 5 or 10 or 15 easy and pretty languages like Icelandic + Norse / Dutch / English / Norwegian / Breton / Welsh etc and get to a fluent level in 2 or 3 years, instead of trying to learn such impossible languages with characters and tones and syllables instead of words that one cannot even understand, I don’t even understand how natives even learn to speak Chinese, since it all sounds the same like the same sounds said in different tones, how does one differentiate between the words or sounds, it isn’t a properly-constructed language with normal words and a good balance between short words and medium words and long words! I highly recommend learning 5 or 10 pretty and easy languages such as category 1 and category 2 languages (and 2 category 3 languages like Irish and Scottish Gaelic) instead, and, anything harder than a category 5 language is impossible and one will never get to a truly fluent level in such languages, not even in a decade, and even natives cannot learn most characters and cannot properly express complex ideas, and one is bound to forget the characters, regardless of how many times one sees them, as there is way too much detail for one’s hern to permanently remember, and Chinese doesn’t even have tenses, so it doesn’t even make sense, unlike Germanic languages which are the most logical languages ever with the most organized aspect and the easiest and most logical alphabet aka the Latin alphabet and the most logical grammar, so one should always choose wisely if one wants to be a successful polyglot, by only choosing the easy and pretty languages with normal letters and pretty and distinctive words that are naturally easy to memorize! I started learning languages on my own about one year ago, and I am learning 15+ languages at the moment, including the prettiest languages ever created Icelandic + Norse and Dutch and Norwegian that are as pretty / refined / poetic as English and too pretty not to know, and I am already upper intermediate level and close to advanced level in Icelandic and Norse and advanced level in Norwegian and upper advanced level in Dutch after only learning them for a few months, plus Icelandic pronunciation and Norse pronunciation are super easy category 1 pronunciations, and Dutch pronunciation also, so I can even pronounce the new words in these languages without practicing at all, and I can naturally pronounce them without accent, so it sounds like native pronunciation, and I highly recommend learning them! The other Germanic and the other pretty languages on my list are also gorgeous, so they are all a great option! Það er mikilvægt að læra Íslensku og FornNorrenu og Hollensku og Norsku, því þær eru alltof flottar og fullkomnar! 🇮🇸 🇳🇱 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇺🇸 🇩🇰 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇱🇺 🇮🇪 🇫🇴
By the way, my current levels are... - upper intermediate level in Old Norse / Icelandic / German - writer level in English + native speaker level in Spanish - upper advanced level in Dutch + advanced level in Norwegian - intermediate level in Swedish / Portuguese / French / Italian / Welsh - beginner level in Breton / Hungarian / Gothic / Latin / Faroese / Galician / Danish / Slovene - total beginner in Cornish / Manx / Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Aranese / Elfdalian / Gallo / Limburgish / Occitan / Luxembourgish / Catalan / East Norse / Ripuarian / Swiss German / Alemanic / Austrian German / PlatDeitsch / Greenlandic Norse / Friulian / Pretarolo / Sardinian / Neapolitan / Sicilian / Venetian / Esperanto / Walloon / Ladin / Guernsey / Norn / Burgundian / West Frisian / North Frisian / East Frisian / Yiddish / Afrikaans / Finnish / Latvian / Estonian etc (and the other languages based on Dutch / German / Norwegian / Italian / French that are referred to as ‘dialects’ but are usually a different language with different spelling etc) (I highly recommend learning Dutch / Icelandic + Norse + Faroese / Norwegian as they are so magical, as pretty / refined / poetic as English - all other Germanic and the other pretty languages on my list are also gorgeous, so they are all a great option!)
Norse and Icelandic are two of the prettiest languages I’ve ever seen and the languages that truly deserve the attention as they are too pretty not to know, with the most alpha aspect and sound and the coolest pronunciation rules (like Dutch and English) and with real gorgeous words like erfiði / yfir / haf / vindr / dyn / skegg / dróttinn / veit / drengr / fjall / hǫnd / fisksins / lengr / hvassir / rauðr / hvarr / grænn / hvat / líkligr / hǫss / afi / frændi / heitir / veð / hráka / þó / kvern / mælti / hét / setja / hinn / kveða / sinn / leið / brott / knerri / við / dýr / með / heyra / eða etc, and the word endings (like nir and inn and sins etc) and the letter combinations are so pretty, just like the word endings and letter combinations in English and Dutch and Norwegian, and Icelandic is very similar, and Faroese also, and Icelandic also has almost only gorgeous words like efni / verða / fer / eyra / nafni / hef / leita / hafið / drekka / líf / dreki / samviska / logn / vindinn / viska / hæna / garðinn / sófn etc - I can’t stop learning new pretty words in Old Norse and Icelandic (and the other pretty languages) and they are really áddìctive to look at and read and hear in lyrics etc, I’ve been listening to Skáld songs in Old Norse and Icelandic since I found the first song in Old Norse (Troll Kalla Mik) and I’ve memorized most of those lyrics!
My daily Chinese homework as a 3rd grade student: read a new passage-write down the new words-look them up in dictionary and write down their meanings-find 10 synonyms for each-write them for 10 times
I’ve spent about 100,000 hours studying English humor and Western culture, and many years studying Chinese culture. My native language is Chinese. I teach Chinese in humorous way and with cute pictures. Hope somebody recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese.
I don’t why I feel somehow happy to see mandarin learners suffering. 😂 because I see myself in you guys. It’s just for me it’s learning English but the pain is the same.
It really takes time to acquire this language, the most important thing is trying to enjoy your study journey and make something you learned practical by any means.
Thank you! I'm learning Chinese for the past couple of months and I love it, even though it is difficult at most of the time. I feel like I don't see a progress to my studies (and tbh I can't say I spend so much time on it outside of my school curriculum, but still I'm trying my best) I was feeling a bit demorilazed about it and your video made me feel better
@@andré-8888 Keep at it bro. Don't study books do things like listening to music and watching dramas and learning Chinese characters from there. That's basically what I did to become native-like level in Chinese.
The interesting thing about English is, although there are so many grammatical rules, there are actually more exceptions to the rules. After all that time learning the rules, remember that over half the time, they don't apply, and it's really very arbitrary, there's no rule to govern when rules do and don't apply 😂 It's fine, a minority of native English speakers have a firm grasp on grammar. You could take two English Language graduates, considered to be proficient in Grammar, and watch them correct each other all day 😂
😅i personally don't think English tense is complex. It's actually one of the simplest. It's mostly only the pronoun he/she where an 's' is added, but I understand you if you are a Chinese speaker. Anyways,you can try french 😂😂😂😂it has so many conjugations and rules with exceptions.@@CherikoM
😅i personally don't think English tense is complex. It's actually one of the simplest. It's mostly only the pronoun he/she where an 's' is added, but I understand you if you are a Chinese speaker. Anyways,you can try french 😂😂😂😂it has so many conjugations and rules with exceptions.@@CherikoM
I’ve made many videos teaching Chinese language vividly and in a humorous way. I hope somebody can recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese.
I will be moving to Sichuan in two months, Your videos helped me plan my tours, Chinese learning classes and much more🙂 thanks bro. hope to meet you one day
Congratulations man! I've been living in Xiamen for one year now and so many people never give Mandarin a proper go. Not uncommon to meet people who have been there for 15-20 years and speak virtually zero Chinese. The feeling of reward you get when you've put in so much effort and you finally get to some "non-trivial" conversations is priceless! Thanks a lot for sharing your insights.
Best of luck to you and I love the enthusiasm! That said, I do think writing is worth it. Writing Chinese every day has helped my reading a lot and also transformed my brain in a sense. I think it's worth it.
English and Chinese have much in common, because they are both analytical languages, where parts of words don`t change so much to show the relations between the words. In Chinese it`s just more obvious. And I wouldn`t agree that writing is a waste of time. It really helps me to memorize characters and recognize them afterwards. I am also finishing HSK 4 after one year of study from zero
nah, there's very little in common. I've had classmates from multiple different countries, they all learn chinese faster than westerners. He is right about writing too. I've spent a whole lot of time on it. Nothing wrong with it if you enjoy it but the ROI truly is weak. I write only when i need to now. I refuse to waste any time practicing it.
@@yurichang3056 Based off what? I can't say i have seen any one from those language pick up chinese quickly. I have however seen korean, vietnamese and japanese (with bad pronociation) pick chinese up quicker than others.
bruhhh I already told you compared to spanish and other western languages... It's just truism that korean vietnamese and japanese can pick chinese up faster cuz for hundreds of years they've been impacting others...@@barrelrolldog
@@yurichang3056 So again, what are you basing your chinese and latin languages on? sounds like nothing. I'd even say from what i have seen french speakers have an even harder time of it. Oh its a truism now but everywhere else online people will happily tell you that japanese has almost zero in common with chinese.
I've started learning chinese a few months ago, about 3-4h per week. As I have an excellent visual memory, it does in fact help me a lot to write the characters. Obviously I know I won't ever write a letter in chinese or stuff like that, but without writing the characters it would be much harder to remember them.
There is no logical reason to try to learn Chinese or other similar languages, all should be learning the gorgeous and magical languages Icelandic and Norse and Dutch and Norwegian etc (which are as pretty / refined / poetic as English) instead of trying to learn Chinese or other similar languages - language learning should be fun, and one should choose wisely, by only choosing the pretty and easy languages that look pretty and sound pretty and cool, and that have that perfect flow and harmony, why would someone try to learn Chinese or Japanese or Korean etc is beyond me, they are objectively impossible and unnecessarily complicated and they don’t even sound / look good and have mostly non-pretty words or just random one-syllable words said over and over in different tones, I don’t even know how they can be considered languages honestly, and most languages that exist also, as they look and sound like a total mess, the most random sounds słæpt 2gether, very few languages are properly-constructed by dudes that have natural artistic talent and a mind on the logical side that knew how to create proper words that are pretty and balanced and in perfect harmony with the other words, such as the Germanic languages and the modern Celtic languages and Hungarian and Galician / Portuguese / Latin etc and Slovene etc!
100% agree. Total immersion is the best way to learn, especially if you're a lazy person like me. It motivates you more, and you very quickly get used to the speed in which native chinese speakers talk. If I was in Shanghai or Beijing I'd have let my laziness get the better of me and resort to English whenever I encountered a problem. At least here I have to use Chinese if I want to see the doctor, dentist, order meituan, buy things etc. And locals are very tolerant and willing to help you improve.
@@oiocha5706unfortunately that usually means your chinese isn't good enough. If you have good enough pronunciation/tones/grammar, and are easily understandable, chinese people will love talking with you- even if you use super basic words to communicate. On the other hand, if you're not easily understandable/ have a strong accent, they will probably just think it would be easier to speak English.
I've found it's better NOT to get yourself too much in a twist over learning and understanding. You train yourself to be in this overhyped drive to "learn it fluently" which just works against you. You have to relax and trust your brain is working it all out even though it doesn't seem like it. Sure you need to focus, getting too relaxed doesn't work so well either, but when learning your own language you are relaxed and are never in this hyper state to force it, except on rare occassions maybe. If I miss phrases I miss them and don't get in such a twist, and just look things up, move on, and just keep learning and getting input.
Thank you for making this! I am a Spanish living in UK and I started to learn Chinese (in my second language lol) back in January. I do write in hanzi and in pinyin and as you said, I really feel that takes so much time since a single lesson cant take me over an hour and I just learned a few of words when I finish, but I love it and it actually helps me to focus and to memorise... At the present I am able to recognise some characters straight away and is so rewarding. What app would you say is the best in order to practise conversation? Struggling with this...at the moment Peppa Pig is my best resource as well!
Hey Andre! It's so impressive and inspiring seeing you learning Chinese as a foreigner! Chinese is one of my native languages, and your Chinese is great, keep it up!
I’m so glad to have found your channel. I’ve got a year left in my English Ed degree, I’m going to then teach 11th and 12th grade English for a few years to save up some money, and then go spend a year in China learning the language so I can also teach English abroad. Cheers!
I learned Chinese and the best way to learn is to have Chinese girl friend who is NOT interested in learning another language! Learning Chinese Characters is difficult but I wrote some years every day 2 or 3 hours characters. It's like meditation and really relaxing. There are books which explain the structure of the characters and how they are developed. You will see the picture in the character, for example riding is a man sitting on a horse. If you do not learn Chinese Characters you are lost outside Chinas big cities. One day in the morning in Beijing I was surprised I dreamed in Chinese. That's the point everything changed. Do not think it is difficult or could be wrong. Chinese is one of the easiest languages on earth. No difficult grammar, everything is simple. That's the reason they need the characters to explain something in books and newspapers. High level languages using only a few characters and difficult grammar. Never judge a language by characters!!!!! During school my English teacher offered me, if I quit English lessons, he would rate me medium grade. But if I would continue to study English, I would fail. I was so proud and happy to learn Chinese later, because it was much easier than English. Visual learning is my favorite way of learning and I always struggle with grammar. Korean characters are world heritage because they are so simple and easy to learn. Korea used Chinese Characters before. So is Korean easier than Chinese? No, absolute not! You can learn all Korean Characters in one day! But the grammar is so difficult it needs years to understand a conversation. They can express emotions, sarcasm, irony, complex situations with grammar and it needs no additional characters like in Chinese. I'm learning Korean now for more than 5 years but still Level 1 or 2. It is horrible. BUT why could they use Chinese characters earlier? One of my friends in China told me, in his hometown people speaking similar to Korean. 56 minorities living in China and they have their own languages. Chinese we learn is a language created to communicate with all minorities based on the characters, which are unique for whole China. Minorities are speaking Putonghua because this is needed during work and daily life. But there is always a level behind this, where they use their local language in thinking and speaking. That's the reason in Chinese TV you always have Chinese subtitles in movies and shows. If you can not read and write Chinese characters you are lost outside of large cities. Even you can speak fluently Putonghua, you need the characters in poor areas where people speaking local dialects. Chinese Characters in Korea were difficult to learn, so many many people couldn't write or read and the country was poor. The best decision was to create characters, which are easy and fast to learn. In Korean Characters there is always Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel .. This is so easy to type on computers and smartphones and connects logic of computer systems with language. It's a reason why South Korea is developing so fast in modern technology. Compared to Korean, how difficult would it be to use Chinese Characters for computer programming? How easy would it be if there is a key with a picture of a man and a key with a horse? You would press the horse and next the key with the man and everybody would understand riding something. Next you press the key with a car and everybody knows you riding a car. But it needs too many keys. Putonghua is not a high developed language. Sure, spoken dialects could be. But Putonghua is the simplified way to make it possible to communicate between them. Maybe someone knows the bells in China. In ancient time they are also simplified and used in daily life. There is no clapper inside. Why? The volume of the bell could be used to measure liquids. The weight of the bell could be used to weigh the grain or fruit at market. And the sound for tuning instruments. The goal, like writing, was to achieve standardization in society. That was a good idea 2000 years ago. But today it is no longer appropriate. The Chinese have a problem understanding irony or complex jokes. Pie in the face is still funny.
actually putonghua is totally based on bejing dialect. which is called guanhua in the ancient time. so putonghua is of course a developed language, like the other languages with a long history in the world. Do you think Putonhua is a human made language? no, it is the bejing dialect.
in brief: The video titled provides insights into the creator's experience of learning Chinese after living in China for a year. 1. **Introduction**: - Andre marks one year since he moved to China and shares his experience with learning Chinese. - He mentions the challenges of learning Chinese, especially for native English speakers, due to the vast differences between the two languages. 2. **Challenges**: - Chinese is often considered the most difficult language to learn, especially for English speakers. - Learning Chinese to fluency requires approximately 2,400 hours. - Pronunciation is tricky due to similar sounding characters differentiated by tones. - Chinese doesn't use tenses like English; instead, it relies on word order. 3. **Motivation**: - Initially, Andre was motivated to learn Chinese because of the unique experience of being a white person speaking Chinese. - However, motivation fluctuated, especially during challenging times. He emphasizes the importance of having a solid motive. 4. **Experience in China**: - Upon arrival, Andre knew only a few phrases but felt like a "helpless child." - Over the year, he adapted to life in China and found speaking even intermediate Chinese very helpful. - Despite China's focus on English education, there's limited English information available, especially in smaller cities. 5. **Learning Tips**: - Living in the right environment helps. For instance, living in a third-tier city where fewer people speak English can be beneficial. - Engage with Chinese communities, even in your own city. - Listen to Chinese audio and video content. - Having Chinese friends or partners can aid in language learning. - For reading, choose material suitable for your level. Andre uses a translator pen to help with unfamiliar characters. - Focus on speaking, listening, and reading rather than writing. Typing in Pinyin is more practical than writing Chinese characters. - Andre recommends apps like Pleco, Quizlet, and Hello Talk for learning. 6. **Conclusion**: - Learning Chinese is rewarding, especially as foreigners aren't expected to speak it. - It's fulfilling to communicate with locals, understand their culture, and connect through their language. - Andre encourages viewers to have a genuine interest in learning for success and thanks them for watching.
thank you, it‘s so pratical. I’m gonna teach Chinese to my schoolmate in high school in America. It is amazing to know how people think when they first learn this language.
Hey! I agree with most of what you say. I just wanted to add that I'm studying traditional Chinese over 6 months in Taiwan and writing didn't help me at the beginning (that's what i thought back then) and i can remember the caracteres so easily now. I see one caracter on the street and i can write it right away. It also helps with my memory, different ways to save information on our brain helps more
First learn as many survival phrases as possible, second learn as many survival phrases as possible, third learn as many survi......it helps your mental health and gets you out of the terrified helpless feeling, which can hold you back. 4th learn the radicals and characters you see everywhere especially near home and work, after a few months you will see them and just process the meaning...no translation to English, this grounds you, reduces the alienation feeling which is a huge mind trip . When I lived in Chongqing the dialect was a daunting task, often characters were the only safety net but in Xi'an it was way easier to understand people. 5th Go on walks , spend time in busy areas, just listen to the conversations all around you. 6th You don't need to write thousands of characters, but the first 200 in HSK are a massive help, and it's really not about the writting it's remembering and recognizing them. And no matter what you do you will be unbalanced, like you might be good at reading or listening and struggle with speaking...at some point one of these areas will hold you back. Because of smartphones pinyin is important, I only see the older generations 55+ drawing characters on their phones, young people use pinyin and select the character from the many options that pop up on screen.
加油！To tell you the truth, as a native speaker of Chinese, I found Japanese most difficult to learn(who can believe that? There so many Chinese characters in Japanese, right?) Today also marks one year of me begining to learn Japanese as well, yet I fould myself not much improved...But like you said, if it takes 6-7 years to learn a difficult language to fluency, so be it. Let's go!
Hat off to you! Japanese is killing me...but I just want so much to understand what my favorite athlete say in his native language. So I will definitely press on! Good luck to you!@@TheMoniMode
'takes 6-7 years to learn a difficult language to fluency' that's difficulty for English native speakers. There are no universally difficult languages. But yeah, people overestimate the similarities between Japanese and Chinese.
I'd say if you don't have to write the language, you just want to use Chinese for conversational purposes mostly relying on Pinyin, it's not that difficult and you can achieve fast results. Writing the hanzi, reading and passing tests are another thing though.
Im a native speaker and I honestly think the hardest part is really just writing. I always thought speaking was actually not that hard, except the tonal part. Its the writing thats a nightmare. If you thought Kanji was hard, well the entire mandarin writing is just Kanji everywhere in essence. But maybe because Im so fluent I have a hard time figuring out why ppl have hard time learning it. I think its also worth mentioning most ppl probably learn thru hanyu pinyin which i didnt. I learned zhuyin instead.
было бы круто если бы они перевели Три Кота.) Прикольно наблюдать за тем как взрослый дядька сидит и внимательно смотрит детский мультик, но за этим скрывается другой глубокий смысл )
不是，人家中文口音已经比我的根准- His Chinese pronunciation is already better than mine bro Congrats on getting this far! Although I'm a native, I remember my pronunciation getting worse as I wasn't speaking it as much. Never would have been able to practice 20 minutes a day, never mind an hour. Respect
Hi there, I like your channel and appreciate your honesty about learning Chinese. I am a professional Chinese teacher in U.S. I think that your tips are very helpful for language learners. I recommend Peppa Pig shows to my students too. 100% agree with your immersion style of language learning. As for learning Chinese characters, I humbly think that the most effective way would be learning them from the most common ones to the least common. With the top 140 most commonly used characters, you can recognize about 50% the characters in daily readings! After having learned the top 3,000 characters, you can read more than 99% of the characters. And, another effective way to learn Chinese characters is learning by the radicals (偏旁部首). This way, they are easier to understand and remember. For example, if you use the radical 女(meaning “woman”)， you can easily learn many of the characters with this radical: 妈 (using the meaning of 女 and the sound of “马”）. Similar examples are: 姐、妹、姑、娘、嫂、婶,etc. They are just my humble suggestions for Chinese language learners. Hope they help. Thank you for your great videos! May DeLosh
bro. im half chinese but i live outside china. i have studied chinese since kindergarden till now highschool. thats a little over a decade. and i can only barely pass hsk4.. my ancestors would be crying blood rn
Recently I've been watching a Chinese Anime about a woman who helps people and ghosts it is called "Fairies Album " . It has English subtitles and the spoken language is Zhongwen . I catch some of the words and this makes me really happy as I must have learnt something along the way . I guess my motivation to learn Chinese is just because I find the language and culture of China so intriguing . It is the very differences to English that I find most intriguing and I'm really in no rush to gain any proficiency , I'm just enjoying the journey . 🤔😊
My native language is german and I thought having german or english as native language would make no difference in learning chinese but then I just looked at that ü and that ü looked at me and I knew I had a small teeny tiny advantage
these two language are so different in many aspect，when Andre said"it will cost almostly 2800 hours to speak mandarin fluently. for a native English speaker",i realize as a chinese native speaker,so do i.i can accelerate the retention by costing more hours per day，but this procession still needs approximately 5 years.
看到你说关于阅读合适的书籍有助于帮助理解中文，我的建议是，教科书那一类的工具辅导书真没啥意思，特别是作文类的书籍。不知道你有没有体会过作文感觉都大差不差（这是一个成语，意思是都很类似），我更推荐你看少年类的小说或漫画，比如《小屁孩日记》（the dairy of a whimpy kids in Chinese), 郑渊洁童话故事（《皮皮鲁》&《鲁西西》），或是一些你母语的作品的翻译作，但你需要知道，外国作品翻译成中文会形成一种独特的“翻译腔”，因为英语的形容方式在中文很不常见，不过会和你们的语法更贴合所以会更舒适一些吧。最后请注意一点，我作为一个中文母语者非常非常不推荐你看电视剧来学习中文，一些台词和剧情太脱离现实了，比较好的电视剧有：《甄嬛传》（这是一部关于中国古代某个朝代的宫廷的故事），《隐秘的角落》（背景是现代），《狂飙》（中文现代背景下的刑侦类电视剧）
Nice! How are you going nowadays? PS. I learned handwriting, and I have to somewhat disagree with you on this: I use it for taking notes (although I have to admit, there are successful students who don't learn handwriting).
I had learned handwriting along with reading and listening. They are my stronger points compared to speaking. But I would write one character at least 25 to 100 times And while I would listen to the flashcards of the hsk level that I was studying, I would attempt to write the characters.. That also helped me memorize how to write the characters. And I did the same thing that you did I would take my notes using the characters I had learned how to write. I can pretty much write all of hsk 1 characters, but not 2 and 3. However, with 2 and 3, my listening is the strongest point
@@nicoleraheem1195 yeah i self study chinese and i mostly focused on writing at first, it pays out so much because the more you write the more you can memorize new words easier. You feel more the language than just seeing pinyin in your head. Also if you can write then you can read but that doesnt work the other way around :)
Hi, thanks for the video. I am learning Chinese for three years now and next year is my first travel to China. Could you please tell me, where to buy the book you recommended (that for children)? My Google search was not successfully ;) Thank you :)
Interesting video! Many thanks to the author of the channel for the recommendations! The problem with many people is that they want to take a "magic pill" or get "secret knowledge" and immediately have skills and abilities. However, the truth of life is that knowledge, skills, and abilities do not come by themselves. You can't learn a foreign language without doing anything, without wasting your time and effort, just like you can't learn to ride a bike lying on a comfy couch, listening to lectures and watching videos about "modern methods of learning" on a bike. To really learn something, you have to really practice every day. You're going to fall down while you're learning, and you're going to get bumps - that's normal! The ups and downs of learning are an integral part of our lives. Motivation from success and depression from failure will always be your study companions. However, every student has problems in his or her studies that he or she lacks the knowledge to solve. It can be: poor memorization of words; no progress in language learning; the student can speak, but does not understand speech by ear; misunderstanding of grammar; incorrect pronunciation, etc. Agree that a problem you don't know how to solve is very demotivating. In order to find the answer to our question we have to spend a lot of time to read videos, articles and books by polyglots. In today's world, we have to solve problems as quickly as possible. I don't have time to study and analyze a huge amount of information. My goal is to master the basic knowledge of a foreign language as quickly as possible and already start earning money effectively in the international arena. I settled on the practical guide by Yuriy Ivantsiv " Polyglot's Notes: practical tips for learning foreign language". This book is always in my bag. If I have a problem while learning a language, I quickly find the answer in this book. There are many different techniques and tips for learning a foreign language in Polyglot Notes. I have made my own individual schedule and plan for language learning. Now I know what I am going to study, how I am going to study, when I am going to study and what results I am going to achieve. No problem could stop me! With an effective language learning plan my professional skills are more and more in demand internationally every day. Friends, don't stop there! Everyone has talents that millions of people around the world need! Learn the language and make your ideas and dreams come true! Thanks to the author of the channel for the informative and useful video! Your videos motivate me.
It’s quite often that even the Chinese native speakers forget how to write the Characters correctly, let alone foreigners. That’s because the formation of hanzi has nothing to do with it’s pronunciation, which is unique in the world. Basically, the Characters are like the irregular Symbols and you have to rely on rote memorization.
Everyone has their own opinion but here is an analogy. Imagine that you were learning English for the first time. In this hypothetical scenario had two choices. You can either type words or write the words in cursive. Option 1) You type into Microsoft word and there is no spell check or Grammarly to correct you. You use the computer to type all your class notes, the new phrases you learn on the street, the sentences you have come up with, the answer to questions from your reading homework. Option 2) You spend all your time learning to write cursive. You learn the stroke order (for lack of a better word) and make sure when you write capital letters you start form the top and go down. When you write lower case letters you start from the bottom. You even download an app that lets you use your finger to write cursive manually. The app then converts it to normal print handwriting which is useful when you text a friend or search the web. Now imagine instead of only having 26 letters to practice writing in cursive you tried to memorize how to write 200 letters a year. Maybe you want to write professional memos at work and want to know 8,000 letters or maybe just 2,500 needed to understand the newspaper. Let’s say you get tired of the order and just figure good is good enough. I am just going write ll then go back and put the pi, then attach ow to the end of the ll. I have still functionally written the word pillow. People can still understand my cursive handwriting and I got the job done even if I didn’t write it in the convention way of left to right p-i-l-l-o-w. This analogy is not perfect ,and I am a fast typist as well as pen-and-paper notetaker. But hopefully it gets you an idea of what you are up against. You can and probably should handwrite a little bit to supplement and reinforce what you are learning. I handwrite flashcards and have to write characters by hand to answer the reading comprehensions and sentence construction questions for my university homework. The vast majority of my focus though is not on writing by hand, but rather character recognition. Full disclosure, when I first moved to China I took the opposite extreme. I focused exclusively on Pinyin. If I was learning and practicing how to say “have you eaten yet?”, I would write “nǐ chīle ma?” Is going to this extreme the best idea? My friends told me I was shooting myself in the foot in terms by not being able to read characters. I guess if you just really want be able to listen and speak as quickly as possible, you can do that. All your communication to friends and colleagues would have to be through voice message though because the moment they wrote anything you would be stuck. Anyway, good luck to all those learning Mandarin. Whether you are in China or somewhere else, stick with it. Don’t give up.
It's not the most difficult language for sure. There's a lot in common between English and Chinese. Both use svo. I started learning 20 years ago and I'm still learning a lot but progress goes in waves. The key is to memorize tons of vocab. I just finished memorizing the Hsk 9 list and it took about three years. But actually using the words right and being able to do that will probably take another five years. So even getting to level six is just scratching the surface. So yeah even after 20 years to talk just like they do with all of the different idioms and expressions still evades me. Realistically it probably takes about 30 years to get to around native level
The only way to learn chinese is to interact with the locals, watch lots of tv dramma and read and have fun. Fun is the best way to learn and improve. Like playing sports, if not fun you don't improve.
My son spent 3 months at primary school in China and he could talk to us in Madarin by typing pinyin which would be transferred to characters easily by the logiciel. Of course that is his mother language because he was born in China.
That Peppa Pig is so funny because it's one of the only American children shows I can find on TH-cam in Arabic 😂😂 I wanted to watch animes like Pokemon, play games like Metal Gear V, watch Disney movies, but it turns out for religious/cultural/political/technical reasons that those translations often just don't exist. Most of the media I consume in English would probably be banned in the countries that speak Arabic in my target dialect. Most virtual game stores like Steam and most video game engines like Gamemaker or Unity just don't seem to support Arabic. Rarely you'll get subtitles, but 80% of the Arabic entries on Steam probably have 30 words in their UI and that's it. Shoutout to Minecraft for having not just Arabic but Pirate, lolcat, Shakespearean, upside down English, Esperanto, Georgian, Lojban, Low German, Quenya Elvish, Klingon, Ukrainian, and way way more. It's just simple items but it's so satisfying to recognize words like "carrot" and "bread" and "dog" from duolingo, and also to learn "stick" as well as how they classify all the trees.
Well, you’ve made an excellent video here, so I hope this gives you some motivation to push through some of your biggest challenges with the language. Your Mandarin sounds awesome, btw 🏆💪
Peppa Pig is by far the best series for learning a language, because of the easy structured sentences and the easy vocabulary
bro is setting me up
Chinese pepper pig? Hang me, now.😂
100% agree with this.
Peppa pig and du Chinese are my go-to methods, especially when I'm looking for less formal input 🌻
spongebob too ... or should i say Bob Esponja
@@CheesecakeOnTheMoon do you interest in spoken Chinese?
i think i spend more time watching videos about how to learn chinese than actually learning chinese lmao
Same lol
actually thats me and i think this is so funny HAHHSJSJ
BRO THIS IS LITERALLY ME SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TODAY LMAO
@@intothewoods22SAMEE OMGG
@@lil_ooog i ended up starting spanish dude
If you learn to read the Chinese characters , you will be able to read the Chinese novel and trust me , its the gate to another galaxy.
I really wanted to learn so i dont need to go for machine translation
Fr chinese webnovels, socmed, and music is the one pushing me through
@@moonknight5743socmed ?
Any recommendations for beginners ?
@@d0liprhan863Things like novels and typical books r too hard for beginners honestly, try some easier thing I'll say.
I would only add: do waste time on writing. It actually really helps to solidify new characters and words in your memory. If you spend time deliberately writing down a character, it helps to focus on the components the character is build up off and just the mere physical interaction and movement of your muscles will help your memory. the more senses you involve with learning, the better the retention. It has helped me a lot in distinguishing characters that look similar, when writing them you become more aware of their differences.
Eveyone learns differently. I find the act of writing them solidifies them in my memory too. The same even for writing something in English, I’m far more likely to remember if I’ve written it by hand, it’s just how my brain works.
I don't write ever since everything is typed out nowadays. everyone has different ways,.
I write in pinyin only. I know people who knew how to write long time ago then completly forgotnit due to the convienece of typing.
I manage just fine reading, never bothered writing. I have never needed to. I always type in Chinese, but never write physically.
eyyy das what I was thinking.
I love Andre's strategic tips like listening to Chinese media, getting a language exchange partner, reading material at your level, etc. I've found all those things crucial as well. My one addition would be singing along to Chinese songs! It really builds flair for tones and vocabulary.
arthurian knights
Haha, I watched Peppa pig to learn English many years ago:)
I’m learning Chinese mandarin soon, anything u recommend ? Haha
@@handsanitizer1963 You can try some Chinese documentaries. But they are a little difficult for beginners. Chinese primary school textbooks are also a good choice.
@@Arthur-qy6ru will try that 🤔
I admire folks that can learn to read hanzi without handwriting them. I would never be able to distinguish between similar characters such as 己 and 已
My experience is that -no matter how much you've practiced your pronunciation and tones, when you use it they don't understand you even when you are certain you've said it correctly. But when I speak quickly without worrying about correct tones they understand me. This was advice I got from an American I met whose Chinese was quite fluent. When I speak slowly they never understand what you say. I don't know why this is but I've seen this with others too not just me. The problem with this is that when you speak fast the response is fast from the native.you're conversing with. You can ask them to speak slowly but one minute later they are back to speaking normal speed. For character memorization I find that staring at a character for 5 or more minutes solidifies it for me. You may forget how to pronounce it but you'll remember the shape, a bit like recognizing a face.
they need a certain amount of words to calibrate their listening towards your pronunciation. So just start with some nonsense phrases 我来说一下 and continue talking. If you only say 1 or 2 short words and then stop they have no chance to calibrate, they need context. It's like pumping gasoline, the line needs to be filled before gasoline is flowing
Is it even possible for a new beginner to speak fast without thinking it’s right or wrong 😅?😂
Chinese is a category 10 language which is objectively impossible and unnecessarily complicated, and one can literally learn 5 or 10 or 15 easy and pretty languages like Icelandic + Norse / Dutch / English / Norwegian / Breton / Welsh etc and get to a fluent level in 2 or 3 years, instead of trying to learn such impossible languages with characters and tones and syllables instead of words that one cannot even understand, I don’t even understand how natives even learn to speak Chinese, since it all sounds the same like the same sounds said in different tones, how does one differentiate between the words or sounds, it isn’t a properly-constructed language with normal words and a good balance between short words and medium words and long words! I highly recommend learning 5 or 10 pretty and easy languages such as category 1 and category 2 languages (and 2 category 3 languages like Irish and Scottish Gaelic) instead, and, anything harder than a category 5 language is impossible and one will never get to a truly fluent level in such languages, not even in a decade, and even natives cannot learn most characters and cannot properly express complex ideas, and one is bound to forget the characters, regardless of how many times one sees them, as there is way too much detail for one’s hern to permanently remember, and Chinese doesn’t even have tenses, so it doesn’t even make sense, unlike Germanic languages which are the most logical languages ever with the most organized aspect and the easiest and most logical alphabet aka the Latin alphabet and the most logical grammar, so one should always choose wisely if one wants to be a successful polyglot, by only choosing the easy and pretty languages with normal letters and pretty and distinctive words that are naturally easy to memorize! I started learning languages on my own about one year ago, and I am learning 15+ languages at the moment, including the prettiest languages ever created Icelandic + Norse and Dutch and Norwegian that are as pretty / refined / poetic as English and too pretty not to know, and I am already upper intermediate level and close to advanced level in Icelandic and Norse and advanced level in Norwegian and upper advanced level in Dutch after only learning them for a few months, plus Icelandic pronunciation and Norse pronunciation are super easy category 1 pronunciations, and Dutch pronunciation also, so I can even pronounce the new words in these languages without practicing at all, and I can naturally pronounce them without accent, so it sounds like native pronunciation, and I highly recommend learning them! The other Germanic and the other pretty languages on my list are also gorgeous, so they are all a great option! Það er mikilvægt að læra Íslensku og FornNorrenu og Hollensku og Norsku, því þær eru alltof flottar og fullkomnar! 🇮🇸 🇳🇱 🇳🇴 🇸🇪 🇺🇸 🇩🇰 🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇱🇺 🇮🇪 🇫🇴
By the way, my current levels are...
- upper intermediate level in Old Norse / Icelandic / German
- writer level in English + native speaker level in Spanish
- upper advanced level in Dutch + advanced level in Norwegian
- intermediate level in Swedish / Portuguese / French / Italian / Welsh
- beginner level in Breton / Hungarian / Gothic / Latin / Faroese / Galician / Danish / Slovene
- total beginner in Cornish / Manx / Irish / Scottish Gaelic / Aranese / Elfdalian / Gallo / Limburgish / Occitan / Luxembourgish / Catalan / East Norse / Ripuarian / Swiss German / Alemanic / Austrian German / PlatDeitsch / Greenlandic Norse / Friulian / Pretarolo / Sardinian / Neapolitan / Sicilian / Venetian / Esperanto / Walloon / Ladin / Guernsey / Norn / Burgundian / West Frisian / North Frisian / East Frisian / Yiddish / Afrikaans / Finnish / Latvian / Estonian etc (and the other languages based on Dutch / German / Norwegian / Italian / French that are referred to as ‘dialects’ but are usually a different language with different spelling etc)
(I highly recommend learning Dutch / Icelandic + Norse + Faroese / Norwegian as they are so magical, as pretty / refined / poetic as English - all other Germanic and the other pretty languages on my list are also gorgeous, so they are all a great option!)
Norse and Icelandic are two of the prettiest languages I’ve ever seen and the languages that truly deserve the attention as they are too pretty not to know, with the most alpha aspect and sound and the coolest pronunciation rules (like Dutch and English) and with real gorgeous words like erfiði / yfir / haf / vindr / dyn / skegg / dróttinn / veit / drengr / fjall / hǫnd / fisksins / lengr / hvassir / rauðr / hvarr / grænn / hvat / líkligr / hǫss / afi / frændi / heitir / veð / hráka / þó / kvern / mælti / hét / setja / hinn / kveða / sinn / leið / brott / knerri / við / dýr / með / heyra / eða etc, and the word endings (like nir and inn and sins etc) and the letter combinations are so pretty, just like the word endings and letter combinations in English and Dutch and Norwegian, and Icelandic is very similar, and Faroese also, and Icelandic also has almost only gorgeous words like efni / verða / fer / eyra / nafni / hef / leita / hafið / drekka / líf / dreki / samviska / logn / vindinn / viska / hæna / garðinn / sófn etc - I can’t stop learning new pretty words in Old Norse and Icelandic (and the other pretty languages) and they are really áddìctive to look at and read and hear in lyrics etc, I’ve been listening to Skáld songs in Old Norse and Icelandic since I found the first song in Old Norse (Troll Kalla Mik) and I’ve memorized most of those lyrics!
My daily Chinese homework as a 3rd grade student: read a new passage-write down the new words-look them up in dictionary and write down their meanings-find 10 synonyms for each-write them for 10 times
This is the most useful comment.
@@MattapanCHC thank you
你真棒❤👍🏻 成功的秘诀就是”坚持”二字！ 你一定可以的，看好你 ✨
Thanks for the episode. You are absolutely right
I’ve spent about 100,000 hours studying English humor and Western culture, and many years studying Chinese culture. My native language is Chinese. I teach Chinese in humorous way and with cute pictures.
Hope somebody recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese.
subscribed! Your channel seems fun🤭
what is the name of your channel? please
@@Maninha482 Henry Guo Teach Chinese in Jokes and Tell Jokes, or you can just click his name above. enjoy...
Just had a look at your channel, and I've subscribed.
100,000 hours are about 4,000 days > 10 years
I don’t why I feel somehow happy to see mandarin learners suffering. 😂 because I see myself in you guys. It’s just for me it’s learning English but the pain is the same.
😭
English is easier 🥲
@@noufn2308 Depends on what your native language is
English must be a beast to learn. It's always changing and so inconsistent.
English is easy. Try German…
It really takes time to acquire this language, the most important thing is trying to enjoy your study journey and make something you learned practical by any means.
Thank you! I'm learning Chinese for the past couple of months and I love it, even though it is difficult at most of the time. I feel like I don't see a progress to my studies (and tbh I can't say I spend so much time on it outside of my school curriculum, but still I'm trying my best) I was feeling a bit demorilazed about it and your video made me feel better
加油！
@@andré-8888 Keep at it bro. Don't study books do things like listening to music and watching dramas and learning Chinese characters from there. That's basically what I did to become native-like level in Chinese.
English is complicated for Chinese people too😂😂. There are so many grammar rules!!
😂太tm真实了，It's so hard to remember so many words changes when tenses or person changes
You don’t want to learn Russian 😂😊
The interesting thing about English is, although there are so many grammatical rules, there are actually more exceptions to the rules.
After all that time learning the rules, remember that over half the time, they don't apply, and it's really very arbitrary, there's no rule to govern when rules do and don't apply 😂
It's fine, a minority of native English speakers have a firm grasp on grammar. You could take two English Language graduates, considered to be proficient in Grammar, and watch them correct each other all day 😂
😅i personally don't think English tense is complex. It's actually one of the simplest. It's mostly only the pronoun he/she where an 's' is added, but I understand you if you are a Chinese speaker. Anyways,you can try french 😂😂😂😂it has so many conjugations and rules with exceptions.@@CherikoM
😅i personally don't think English tense is complex. It's actually one of the simplest. It's mostly only the pronoun he/she where an 's' is added, but I understand you if you are a Chinese speaker. Anyways,you can try french 😂😂😂😂it has so many conjugations and rules with exceptions.@@CherikoM
Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us! I had so mich fun watching your video❤
I’ve made many videos teaching Chinese language vividly and in a humorous way. I hope somebody can recommend my videos to those who want to learn Chinese.
If don’t be stressful, practice writing the characters will be useful. But it is right to spend more time in listening and speaking.
I will be moving to Sichuan in two months,
Your videos helped me plan my tours, Chinese learning classes and much more🙂
thanks bro.
hope to meet you one day
How is Sichuan so far?
@@cafecake great but hard to communicate with locals🤣
@@muneebdanish1270 haha love it, Im planning on starting my mandarin learning journey soon, any advice and ways to start?
@@cafecake share ur wechat id with me
Congratulations man! I've been living in Xiamen for one year now and so many people never give Mandarin a proper go. Not uncommon to meet people who have been there for 15-20 years and speak virtually zero Chinese. The feeling of reward you get when you've put in so much effort and you finally get to some "non-trivial" conversations is priceless! Thanks a lot for sharing your insights.
Best of luck to you and I love the enthusiasm! That said, I do think writing is worth it. Writing Chinese every day has helped my reading a lot and also transformed my brain in a sense. I think it's worth it.
do you interest in spoken Chinese?
English and Chinese have much in common, because they are both analytical languages, where parts of words don`t change so much to show the relations between the words. In Chinese it`s just more obvious.
And I wouldn`t agree that writing is a waste of time. It really helps me to memorize characters and recognize them afterwards. I am also finishing HSK 4 after one year of study from zero
nah, there's very little in common. I've had classmates from multiple different countries, they all learn chinese faster than westerners.
He is right about writing too. I've spent a whole lot of time on it. Nothing wrong with it if you enjoy it but the ROI truly is weak. I write only when i need to now. I refuse to waste any time practicing it.
I actually feel like he's quite right about the similarity, if compared to spanish or french or other western latin language @@barrelrolldog
@@yurichang3056 Based off what? I can't say i have seen any one from those language pick up chinese quickly. I have however seen korean, vietnamese and japanese (with bad pronociation) pick chinese up quicker than others.
bruhhh I already told you compared to spanish and other western languages... It's just truism that korean vietnamese and japanese can pick chinese up faster cuz for hundreds of years they've been impacting others...@@barrelrolldog
@@yurichang3056 So again, what are you basing your chinese and latin languages on? sounds like nothing. I'd even say from what i have seen french speakers have an even harder time of it. Oh its a truism now but everywhere else online people will happily tell you that japanese has almost zero in common with chinese.
I've started learning chinese a few months ago, about 3-4h per week. As I have an excellent visual memory, it does in fact help me a lot to write the characters. Obviously I know I won't ever write a letter in chinese or stuff like that, but without writing the characters it would be much harder to remember them.
I agree and can relate to this. Writing helps me too.
أنا أيضاً تساعدني الكتابة في تذكر معني الكلمات والعبارات وحفظها أسرع حظاً موفق للجميع ❤
@@Mochacoffee224 谢谢你🫶🏻
you don't know chinese, it's not even a language lol
There is no logical reason to try to learn Chinese or other similar languages, all should be learning the gorgeous and magical languages Icelandic and Norse and Dutch and Norwegian etc (which are as pretty / refined / poetic as English) instead of trying to learn Chinese or other similar languages - language learning should be fun, and one should choose wisely, by only choosing the pretty and easy languages that look pretty and sound pretty and cool, and that have that perfect flow and harmony, why would someone try to learn Chinese or Japanese or Korean etc is beyond me, they are objectively impossible and unnecessarily complicated and they don’t even sound / look good and have mostly non-pretty words or just random one-syllable words said over and over in different tones, I don’t even know how they can be considered languages honestly, and most languages that exist also, as they look and sound like a total mess, the most random sounds słæpt 2gether, very few languages are properly-constructed by dudes that have natural artistic talent and a mind on the logical side that knew how to create proper words that are pretty and balanced and in perfect harmony with the other words, such as the Germanic languages and the modern Celtic languages and Hungarian and Galician / Portuguese / Latin etc and Slovene etc!
100% agree. Total immersion is the best way to learn, especially if you're a lazy person like me. It motivates you more, and you very quickly get used to the speed in which native chinese speakers talk. If I was in Shanghai or Beijing I'd have let my laziness get the better of me and resort to English whenever I encountered a problem. At least here I have to use Chinese if I want to see the doctor, dentist, order meituan, buy things etc. And locals are very tolerant and willing to help you improve.
I've never met anyone with the patience to talk to me in Chinese. They immediately go get someone who speaks English
@@oiocha5706 Just pretend you don't speak English so they have no choice.
@@oiocha5706unfortunately that usually means your chinese isn't good enough. If you have good enough pronunciation/tones/grammar, and are easily understandable, chinese people will love talking with you- even if you use super basic words to communicate. On the other hand, if you're not easily understandable/ have a strong accent, they will probably just think it would be easier to speak English.
Thanks Andre! I love your content and had to follow immediately! :D
Thanks for the support!
Props to your dedication from Denmark! 你做得好，谢谢
I love writing. I like it way more than learning. Haha. best feeling when you get the perfect stroke you were going for.
It helps me when I write characters, and understand radicals, depends on preference.
你说的太对了
As a Chinese, I fell the same way when I studied English,English is soooooo hard to learn
意满离
I'd like to say it's easier than japanese and german or....I mean, english is the easiest language on the planet in my mind.
Wait till you try Spanish
@@SMCwasTaken The pronunciation of Spanish is easier I think
I've found it's better NOT to get yourself too much in a twist over learning and understanding. You train yourself to be in this overhyped drive to "learn it fluently" which just works against you. You have to relax and trust your brain is working it all out even though it doesn't seem like it. Sure you need to focus, getting too relaxed doesn't work so well either, but when learning your own language you are relaxed and are never in this hyper state to force it, except on rare occassions maybe. If I miss phrases I miss them and don't get in such a twist, and just look things up, move on, and just keep learning and getting input.
Thank you for making this! I am a Spanish living in UK and I started to learn Chinese (in my second language lol) back in January. I do write in hanzi and in pinyin and as you said, I really feel that takes so much time since a single lesson cant take me over an hour and I just learned a few of words when I finish, but I love it and it actually helps me to focus and to memorise... At the present I am able to recognise some characters straight away and is so rewarding. What app would you say is the best in order to practise conversation? Struggling with this...at the moment Peppa Pig is my best resource as well!
Hey Andre! It's so impressive and inspiring seeing you learning Chinese as a foreigner! Chinese is one of my native languages, and your Chinese is great, keep it up!
I’m so glad to have found your channel. I’ve got a year left in my English Ed degree, I’m going to then teach 11th and 12th grade English for a few years to save up some money, and then go spend a year in China learning the language so I can also teach English abroad. Cheers!
Hey, thank you for shooting this video. I hope to reach intermediate level in a year
Seeing him watching Peppa Pig on TV made me laugh. He even shook his head trying to emulate a kid 😂. Nice guy
You are an inspiration man
I learned Chinese and the best way to learn is to have Chinese girl friend who is NOT interested in learning another language!
Learning Chinese Characters is difficult but I wrote some years every day 2 or 3 hours characters. It's like meditation and really relaxing. There are books which explain the structure of the characters and how they are developed. You will see the picture in the character, for example riding is a man sitting on a horse. If you do not learn Chinese Characters you are lost outside Chinas big cities.
One day in the morning in Beijing I was surprised I dreamed in Chinese. That's the point everything changed. Do not think it is difficult or could be wrong. Chinese is one of the easiest languages on earth. No difficult grammar, everything is simple. That's the reason they need the characters to explain something in books and newspapers.
High level languages using only a few characters and difficult grammar.
Never judge a language by characters!!!!! During school my English teacher offered me, if I quit English lessons, he would rate me medium grade. But if I would continue to study English, I would fail. I was so proud and happy to learn Chinese later, because it was much easier than English. Visual learning is my favorite way of learning and I always struggle with grammar.
Korean characters are world heritage because they are so simple and easy to learn. Korea used Chinese Characters before. So is Korean easier than Chinese? No, absolute not! You can learn all Korean Characters in one day! But the grammar is so difficult it needs years to understand a conversation. They can express emotions, sarcasm, irony, complex situations with grammar and it needs no additional characters like in Chinese. I'm learning Korean now for more than 5 years but still Level 1 or 2. It is horrible.
BUT why could they use Chinese characters earlier? One of my friends in China told me, in his hometown people speaking similar to Korean. 56 minorities living in China and they have their own languages. Chinese we learn is a language created to communicate with all minorities based on the characters, which are unique for whole China. Minorities are speaking Putonghua because this is needed during work and daily life. But there is always a level behind this, where they use their local language in thinking and speaking. That's the reason in Chinese TV you always have Chinese subtitles in movies and shows. If you can not read and write Chinese characters you are lost outside of large cities. Even you can speak fluently Putonghua, you need the characters in poor areas where people speaking local dialects.
Chinese Characters in Korea were difficult to learn, so many many people couldn't write or read and the country was poor. The best decision was to create characters, which are easy and fast to learn. In Korean Characters there is always Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel - Consonant - Vowel .. This is so easy to type on computers and smartphones and connects logic of computer systems with language. It's a reason why South Korea is developing so fast in modern technology. Compared to Korean, how difficult would it be to use Chinese Characters for computer programming? How easy would it be if there is a key with a picture of a man and a key with a horse? You would press the horse and next the key with the man and everybody would understand riding something. Next you press the key with a car and everybody knows you riding a car. But it needs too many keys. Putonghua is not a high developed language. Sure, spoken dialects could be. But Putonghua is the simplified way to make it possible to communicate between them.
Maybe someone knows the bells in China. In ancient time they are also simplified and used in daily life. There is no clapper inside. Why? The volume of the bell could be used to measure liquids. The weight of the bell could be used to weigh the grain or fruit at market. And the sound for tuning instruments. The goal, like writing, was to achieve standardization in society.
That was a good idea 2000 years ago. But today it is no longer appropriate. The Chinese have a problem understanding irony or complex jokes. Pie in the face is still funny.
actually putonghua is totally based on bejing dialect. which is called guanhua in the ancient time.
so putonghua is of course a developed language, like the other languages with a long history in the world.
Do you think Putonhua is a human made language? no, it is the bejing dialect.
and looks like you didn't type Chinese with keyboard, because you said it needs many keys for typing Chinese characters.
I dont agree with u on the coding part... U can just use pinyin. 真的很简单啊，几秒就能打出字来。跟用键盘打出英语没什么区别啊..?
中文绝对是一个高级语言，我在翻译公司做过，如果中文翻译成日语，则日语字数是中文字数的两倍，英语字数差不多是中文字数1.5倍。为什么呢？因为平均每个中文字的含义都比英日要多，如果你读过中文古诗都能够明白我所说的。或者，如果你经常观看中文电视剧的话，当字幕是英语时，你会发觉句子通常看起来都比中文长，而且来不及看。"中文是写意的，就如同中国的书法和绘画"，这句话你能懂的话，那你是真正明白了中文以及中国文化的精髓。
in brief:
The video titled provides insights into the creator's experience of learning Chinese after living in China for a year.
1. **Introduction**:
- Andre marks one year since he moved to China and shares his experience with learning Chinese.
- He mentions the challenges of learning Chinese, especially for native English speakers, due to the vast differences between the two languages.
2. **Challenges**:
- Chinese is often considered the most difficult language to learn, especially for English speakers.
- Learning Chinese to fluency requires approximately 2,400 hours.
- Pronunciation is tricky due to similar sounding characters differentiated by tones.
- Chinese doesn't use tenses like English; instead, it relies on word order.
3. **Motivation**:
- Initially, Andre was motivated to learn Chinese because of the unique experience of being a white person speaking Chinese.
- However, motivation fluctuated, especially during challenging times. He emphasizes the importance of having a solid motive.
4. **Experience in China**:
- Upon arrival, Andre knew only a few phrases but felt like a "helpless child."
- Over the year, he adapted to life in China and found speaking even intermediate Chinese very helpful.
- Despite China's focus on English education, there's limited English information available, especially in smaller cities.
5. **Learning Tips**:
- Living in the right environment helps. For instance, living in a third-tier city where fewer people speak English can be beneficial.
- Engage with Chinese communities, even in your own city.
- Listen to Chinese audio and video content.
- Having Chinese friends or partners can aid in language learning.
- For reading, choose material suitable for your level. Andre uses a translator pen to help with unfamiliar characters.
- Focus on speaking, listening, and reading rather than writing. Typing in Pinyin is more practical than writing Chinese characters.
- Andre recommends apps like Pleco, Quizlet, and Hello Talk for learning.
6. **Conclusion**:
- Learning Chinese is rewarding, especially as foreigners aren't expected to speak it.
- It's fulfilling to communicate with locals, understand their culture, and connect through their language.
- Andre encourages viewers to have a genuine interest in learning for success and thanks them for watching.
شكرالك لقد أختصرت بشكل جميل جداً ❤
Thanks, AI
should have added “in 200 words or less” to your prompt
This is very helpful, thanks very much
Very impressive Andre!
I have started learning too but I procrastinate a lot so I haven't even reached hsk1 as I'm still learning the tones.
Achieving HSK 6 after 1 year is crazy haha. Been living in China 5 years and just started HSK 6 half a year ago
I had a Japanese and a Korean friend who both learned to speak English in like 3 months. I'm not sure if Chinese is that much harder?
Interesting perspective!
thank you, it‘s so pratical. I’m gonna teach Chinese to my schoolmate in high school in America. It is amazing to know how people think when they first learn this language.
Hey! I agree with most of what you say. I just wanted to add that I'm studying traditional Chinese over 6 months in Taiwan and writing didn't help me at the beginning (that's what i thought back then) and i can remember the caracteres so easily now. I see one caracter on the street and i can write it right away. It also helps with my memory, different ways to save information on our brain helps more
Great job!! Chinese really is hard - especially for a scandinavian
When I learned English in university days, I listened and sang a lot of English songs too like the ones from Westlife boyband 😂😂😂
First learn as many survival phrases as possible, second learn as many survival phrases as possible, third learn as many survi......it helps your mental health and gets you out of the terrified helpless feeling, which can hold you back. 4th learn the radicals and characters you see everywhere especially near home and work, after a few months you will see them and just process the meaning...no translation to English, this grounds you, reduces the alienation feeling which is a huge mind trip . When I lived in Chongqing the dialect was a daunting task, often characters were the only safety net but in Xi'an it was way easier to understand people. 5th Go on walks , spend time in busy areas, just listen to the conversations all around you. 6th You don't need to write thousands of characters, but the first 200 in HSK are a massive help, and it's really not about the writting it's remembering and recognizing them. And no matter what you do you will be unbalanced, like you might be good at reading or listening and struggle with speaking...at some point one of these areas will hold you back. Because of smartphones pinyin is important, I only see the older generations 55+ drawing characters on their phones, young people use pinyin and select the character from the many options that pop up on screen.
Informative! Thank u.
The intro was so relatable. 😆
加油！To tell you the truth, as a native speaker of Chinese, I found Japanese most difficult to learn(who can believe that? There so many Chinese characters in Japanese, right?) Today also marks one year of me begining to learn Japanese as well, yet I fould myself not much improved...But like you said, if it takes 6-7 years to learn a difficult language to fluency, so be it. Let's go!
I am learning chinese and Japanese, by far japanese is the most difficult, so frustrating. In the other hand chinese aint that hard
Hat off to you! Japanese is killing me...but I just want so much to understand what my favorite athlete say in his native language. So I will definitely press on! Good luck to you!@@TheMoniMode
@@shirleyyi9140 加油 💪🏼💪🏼
'takes 6-7 years to learn a difficult language to fluency' that's difficulty for English native speakers. There are no universally difficult languages.
But yeah, people overestimate the similarities between Japanese and Chinese.
I'd say if you don't have to write the language, you just want to use Chinese for conversational purposes mostly relying on Pinyin, it's not that difficult and you can achieve fast results. Writing the hanzi, reading and passing tests are another thing though.
Thanks Sir. This inspired me a lot to be fluent in Chinese!❤
hi do you interest in spoken Chinese?
Im a native speaker and I honestly think the hardest part is really just writing. I always thought speaking was actually not that hard, except the tonal part. Its the writing thats a nightmare. If you thought Kanji was hard, well the entire mandarin writing is just Kanji everywhere in essence. But maybe because Im so fluent I have a hard time figuring out why ppl have hard time learning it. I think its also worth mentioning most ppl probably learn thru hanyu pinyin which i didnt. I learned zhuyin instead.
Thank you for sharing your experience
было бы круто если бы они перевели Три Кота.) Прикольно наблюдать за тем как взрослый дядька сидит и внимательно смотрит детский мультик, но за этим скрывается другой глубокий смысл )
Very nice experience sharing! Like your video.
English and Chinese use the same grammar structure, that's so huge
不是，人家中文口音已经比我的根准-
His Chinese pronunciation is already better than mine bro
Congrats on getting this far! Although I'm a native, I remember my pronunciation getting worse as I wasn't speaking it as much. Never would have been able to practice 20 minutes a day, never mind an hour. Respect
good advice, its helpful for my English learning, help me know whats different in both of two languages
Hi there,
I like your channel and appreciate your honesty about learning Chinese. I am a professional Chinese teacher in U.S. I think that your tips are very helpful for language learners. I recommend Peppa Pig shows to my students too. 100% agree with your immersion style of language learning.
As for learning Chinese characters, I humbly think that the most effective way would be learning them from the most common ones to the least common. With the top 140 most commonly used characters, you can recognize about 50% the characters in daily readings! After having learned the top 3,000 characters, you can read more than 99% of the characters.
And, another effective way to learn Chinese characters is learning by the radicals (偏旁部首). This way, they are easier to understand and remember. For example, if you use the radical 女(meaning “woman”)， you can easily learn many of the characters with this radical: 妈 (using the meaning of 女 and the sound of “马”）. Similar examples are: 姐、妹、姑、娘、嫂、婶,etc.
They are just my humble suggestions for Chinese language learners. Hope they help.
Thank you for your great videos!
May DeLosh
bro. im half chinese but i live outside china. i have studied chinese since kindergarden till now highschool. thats a little over a decade. and i can only barely pass hsk4.. my ancestors would be crying blood rn
Recently I've been watching a Chinese Anime about a woman who helps people and ghosts it is called "Fairies Album " . It has English subtitles and the spoken language is Zhongwen . I catch some of the words and this makes me really happy as I must have learnt something along the way . I guess my motivation to learn Chinese is just because I find the language and culture of China so intriguing .
It is the very differences to English that I find most intriguing and I'm really in no rush to gain any proficiency , I'm just enjoying the journey . 🤔😊
I loved your video Andre...you give really great advice which also serves for learning other tough languages.😁😁😁
Great job sir thanks for uploading such informative knowledge ❤
Just watched your changdu traveling video. Really like it
My native language is german and I thought having german or english as native language would make no difference in learning chinese but then I just looked at that ü and that ü looked at me and I knew I had a small teeny tiny advantage
Pleco mentioned!!!!! i use that app all the time as a kid when learning chinese.
these two language are so different in many aspect，when Andre said"it will cost almostly 2800 hours to speak mandarin fluently. for a native English speaker",i realize as a chinese native speaker,so do i.i can accelerate the retention by costing more hours per day，but this procession still needs approximately 5 years.
The most important part of learning Chinese is listening, then reading and speaking😊
If you need any help with Arabic ! I am here mate! And good job👌🏻🥰
Can you help me up with arabic?
Good job thanks to share your experience good luck .
看到你说关于阅读合适的书籍有助于帮助理解中文，我的建议是，教科书那一类的工具辅导书真没啥意思，特别是作文类的书籍。不知道你有没有体会过作文感觉都大差不差（这是一个成语，意思是都很类似），我更推荐你看少年类的小说或漫画，比如《小屁孩日记》（the dairy of a whimpy kids in Chinese), 郑渊洁童话故事（《皮皮鲁》&《鲁西西》），或是一些你母语的作品的翻译作，但你需要知道，外国作品翻译成中文会形成一种独特的“翻译腔”，因为英语的形容方式在中文很不常见，不过会和你们的语法更贴合所以会更舒适一些吧。最后请注意一点，我作为一个中文母语者非常非常不推荐你看电视剧来学习中文，一些台词和剧情太脱离现实了，比较好的电视剧有：《甄嬛传》（这是一部关于中国古代某个朝代的宫廷的故事），《隐秘的角落》（背景是现代），《狂飙》（中文现代背景下的刑侦类电视剧）
Nice! How are you going nowadays? PS. I learned handwriting, and I have to somewhat disagree with you on this: I use it for taking notes (although I have to admit, there are successful students who don't learn handwriting).
I had learned handwriting along with reading and listening.
They are my stronger points compared to speaking.
But I would write one character at least 25 to 100 times
And while I would listen to the flashcards of the hsk level that I was studying, I would attempt to write the characters..
That also helped me memorize how to write the characters.
And I did the same thing that you did I would take my notes using the characters I had learned how to write.
I can pretty much write all of hsk 1 characters, but not 2 and 3. However, with 2 and 3, my listening is the strongest point
@@nicoleraheem1195 yeah i self study chinese and i mostly focused on writing at first, it pays out so much because the more you write the more you can memorize new words easier. You feel more the language than just seeing pinyin in your head. Also if you can write then you can read but that doesnt work the other way around :)
Yes, it is worth it.
the Peppa pig part was too relatable 😂
Hi, thanks for the video. I am learning Chinese for three years now and next year is my first travel to China. Could you please tell me, where to buy the book you recommended (that for children)? My Google search was not successfully ;) Thank you :)
Dude knows more about Chinese language characteristics than a native speaker like me~! tbh I didn't even realize Chinese had grammar lol
Great video and I watch Peppa Pig, too! 😄It has to be an effort of love to learn Mandarin, cause I agree….it is very, very hard ❗️🤦🏻♂️😖.
Interesting video! Many thanks to the author of the channel for the recommendations! The problem with many people is that they want to take a "magic pill" or get "secret knowledge" and immediately have skills and abilities. However, the truth of life is that knowledge, skills, and abilities do not come by themselves. You can't learn a foreign language without doing anything, without wasting your time and effort, just like you can't learn to ride a bike lying on a comfy couch, listening to lectures and watching videos about "modern methods of learning" on a bike. To really learn something, you have to really practice every day. You're going to fall down while you're learning, and you're going to get bumps - that's normal! The ups and downs of learning are an integral part of our lives. Motivation from success and depression from failure will always be your study companions. However, every student has problems in his or her studies that he or she lacks the knowledge to solve. It can be: poor memorization of words; no progress in language learning; the student can speak, but does not understand speech by ear; misunderstanding of grammar; incorrect pronunciation, etc. Agree that a problem you don't know how to solve is very demotivating. In order to find the answer to our question we have to spend a lot of time to read videos, articles and books by polyglots. In today's world, we have to solve problems as quickly as possible. I don't have time to study and analyze a huge amount of information. My goal is to master the basic knowledge of a foreign language as quickly as possible and already start earning money effectively in the international arena. I settled on the practical guide by Yuriy Ivantsiv " Polyglot's Notes: practical tips for learning foreign language". This book is always in my bag. If I have a problem while learning a language, I quickly find the answer in this book. There are many different techniques and tips for learning a foreign language in Polyglot Notes. I have made my own individual schedule and plan for language learning. Now I know what I am going to study, how I am going to study, when I am going to study and what results I am going to achieve. No problem could stop me! With an effective language learning plan my professional skills are more and more in demand internationally every day. Friends, don't stop there! Everyone has talents that millions of people around the world need! Learn the language and make your ideas and dreams come true! Thanks to the author of the channel for the informative and useful video! Your videos motivate me.
Thank you for your suggestion.
I am going to start learning chineese but I still afraid I won't be able to do that and am an Arabic native speaker 🙃
think about your motivation for learning Chinese
It’s quite often that even the Chinese native speakers forget how to write the Characters correctly, let alone foreigners. That’s because the formation of hanzi has nothing to do with it’s pronunciation, which is unique in the world. Basically, the Characters are like the irregular Symbols and you have to rely on rote memorization.
Hahaha ups!!! I focus all my time on writing 😂😂😂
谢谢你，说的很好呀！
I actually hate using the pinyin keyboard. Once my screen isn't cracked anymore, I like using the writing keyboard.
Thanks Andre for your advices. But isn't difficult to read and remember characters without trying to write it?
Not at all, Its WAY easier to remember what an image means than how to draw the image from memory yourself
Everyone has their own opinion but here is an analogy. Imagine that you were learning English for the first time. In this hypothetical scenario had two choices. You can either type words or write the words in cursive. Option 1) You type into Microsoft word and there is no spell check or Grammarly to correct you. You use the computer to type all your class notes, the new phrases you learn on the street, the sentences you have come up with, the answer to questions from your reading homework. Option 2) You spend all your time learning to write cursive. You learn the stroke order (for lack of a better word) and make sure when you write capital letters you start form the top and go down. When you write lower case letters you start from the bottom. You even download an app that lets you use your finger to write cursive manually. The app then converts it to normal print handwriting which is useful when you text a friend or search the web. Now imagine instead of only having 26 letters to practice writing in cursive you tried to memorize how to write 200 letters a year. Maybe you want to write professional memos at work and want to know 8,000 letters or maybe just 2,500 needed to understand the newspaper. Let’s say you get tired of the order and just figure good is good enough. I am just going write ll then go back and put the pi, then attach ow to the end of the ll. I have still functionally written the word pillow. People can still understand my cursive handwriting and I got the job done even if I didn’t write it in the convention way of left to right p-i-l-l-o-w.
This analogy is not perfect ,and I am a fast typist as well as pen-and-paper notetaker. But hopefully it gets you an idea of what you are up against. You can and probably should handwrite a little bit to supplement and reinforce what you are learning. I handwrite flashcards and have to write characters by hand to answer the reading comprehensions and sentence construction questions for my university homework. The vast majority of my focus though is not on writing by hand, but rather character recognition. Full disclosure, when I first moved to China I took the opposite extreme. I focused exclusively on Pinyin. If I was learning and practicing how to say “have you eaten yet?”, I would write “nǐ chīle ma?” Is going to this extreme the best idea? My friends told me I was shooting myself in the foot in terms by not being able to read characters. I guess if you just really want be able to listen and speak as quickly as possible, you can do that. All your communication to friends and colleagues would have to be through voice message though because the moment they wrote anything you would be stuck. Anyway, good luck to all those learning Mandarin. Whether you are in China or somewhere else, stick with it. Don’t give up.
@@atrujillo9 thanks so much for your advices
@@dekumutant thanks for your advices,seems more practical
It's not the most difficult language for sure. There's a lot in common between English and Chinese. Both use svo. I started learning 20 years ago and I'm still learning a lot but progress goes in waves. The key is to memorize tons of vocab. I just finished memorizing the Hsk 9 list and it took about three years. But actually using the words right and being able to do that will probably take another five years. So even getting to level six is just scratching the surface. So yeah even after 20 years to talk just like they do with all of the different idioms and expressions still evades me. Realistically it probably takes about 30 years to get to around native level
Im a brit... So I no idea why im reading the English subtitles 😅😂
Don't sleep on that Peppa Pig 😂 I still watch it and I'm 4 years in.
江健， 不错啊！ 😅😅努力努力再努力
I'm 14, learning Chinese. It'd probably take me 10 years to be fluent, the way I'm crawling T_T
The only way to learn chinese is to interact with the locals, watch lots of tv dramma and read and have fun.
Fun is the best way to learn and improve. Like playing sports, if not fun you don't improve.
Just started learning mandarin and knowing Japanese kinda helps with the characters since I’m familiar with the meaning. The tones are super difficult
My son spent 3 months at primary school in China and he could talk to us in Madarin by typing pinyin which would be transferred to characters easily by the logiciel. Of course that is his mother language because he was born in China.
am also learning Chinese listening to music and watching movies in Chinese also to learn
I can teach you Chinese, can you teach me English?
🥰
That Peppa Pig is so funny because it's one of the only American children shows I can find on TH-cam in Arabic 😂😂 I wanted to watch animes like Pokemon, play games like Metal Gear V, watch Disney movies, but it turns out for religious/cultural/political/technical reasons that those translations often just don't exist. Most of the media I consume in English would probably be banned in the countries that speak Arabic in my target dialect. Most virtual game stores like Steam and most video game engines like Gamemaker or Unity just don't seem to support Arabic. Rarely you'll get subtitles, but 80% of the Arabic entries on Steam probably have 30 words in their UI and that's it.
Shoutout to Minecraft for having not just Arabic but Pirate, lolcat, Shakespearean, upside down English, Esperanto, Georgian, Lojban, Low German, Quenya Elvish, Klingon, Ukrainian, and way way more. It's just simple items but it's so satisfying to recognize words like "carrot" and "bread" and "dog" from duolingo, and also to learn "stick" as well as how they classify all the trees.
is that Changzhou? I literally saw my home in the first clip, near the stadium.
Well, you’ve made an excellent video here, so I hope this gives you some motivation to push through some of your biggest challenges with the language. Your Mandarin sounds awesome, btw 🏆💪