What things are difficult or easy about Chinese?

Some opening Q & A

In this day of rising interest in China, interest in the language is also exploding.

Can Chinese (standard Mandarin) be learned by English speakers?
Yes, but expect it to take more time to learn to any particular level of proficiency than the commonly studied European languages.

How much longer?
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (http://www.dliflc.edu/) has grouped languages into three groups in terms of time it takes English speakers to learn them. Chinese is in the third, or most difficult/time-consuming, group, along with Japanese, Korean, & Arabic. Their estimate is that languages in this group take about two and a half to three times as long to learn to certain benchmark levels. This is also reflected in the length of time that each language is studied in their programs. Also keep in mind that their students are already preselected for high presumed ability and likelihood to succeed. They also spend huge numbers of hours a week studying, and are therefore less likely to forget things between lessons. Believe it or not, this is actually intended as an encouragement. In other words, don't be discouraged if you find that studying Chinese by less rigorous methods and schedules is taking you even more than 3 times as long as it took you to learn a less challenging language. On the other hand, this might motivate you to maximize progress and minimize forgeting by daily practice and reinforcement. In addition, I believe that understanding the nature of what it is that you must learn can also help provide you with greater focus.

Outline of some difficulties

Very briefly, for English speakers, what are some of the more difficult aspects of Chinese to learn?
Basically, in outline, this includes all aspects that are significantly different from English, including:

Writing & Reading: How to write & read several thousand Chinese characters. This includes the formidable question of how to associate those thousands of characters with their pronunciation and with the appropriate tone.

Pronunciation: How to differentiate (both in listening and in speaking) the tones of Chinese and certain sounds or distinctions that we don't have, such as two kinds of "sh" (pinyin sh & x), two kinds of "ch" (pinyin ch & q), or the rather buzzy initial "r" sound, among others. Added to this is the problem of understanding significant numbers of Chinese speakers of Mandarin who are actually native speakers of other varieties of Chinese, and who therefore do not themselves pronounce words in strictly standard fashion.

Vocabulary: Except a small number of loan words, Chinese words bear no relationship to English, and even the loan words can be difficult to recognize without some training.

Grammar: The grammatical difficulties of Chinese lie in areas other than the areas of conjugation and case, that give us some much trouble in European languages.

A few General Observations

In language learning, as in learning in general, it is more difficult to learn things that are different from things one already knows. Similarities with things one already knows, on the other hand, usually make learning (at least initial learning) easier, although when learning two or more similar languages, learning to differentiate a large number of similar but not identical items can also be difficult. Because there are many aspects to languages, a language that is difficult in certain respects may not be so difficult in others. For English speakers, for example, learning the cognate vocabulary component of many European languages may be much easier than learning non-cognate vocabulary, verb conjugations, case endings, or when to use the subjunctive, etc.

Furthermore, both on an aspect for aspect basis and in general, for any language pair, the difficulties faced by speakers of language A trying to learn language B are not necessarily the same or of equivalent degree as those of speakers of language B learning A. Clearly English speakers face a massively more formidable challenge learning how to write and read several thousand characters of Chinese, than is the case in reverse. If, in a very rough kind of way, we can visualize languages (and each constituent aspect) in terms of Venn diagrams, we should ask not only what parts are similar (overlap), but also what is the amount or nature of the parts of the target language that are not like that (/those) already known.

Knowledge of additional languages, can help in at least two or three ways also. First, it can provide a larger repertory of familiar items to drawn upon when learning the new language and a sense of at least a few of the ways in which languages can be different. Secondly, most people who have already studied another language have acquired a better of the formal terms in which languages are usually described (parts of speech, terms for grammatical functions, gender, etc.). In addition, such people also have some prior experience of some methods that may help in learning another language.

Other factors can also enter into the equation, such as motivation, learning styles, attitudes, degree of success in previous language learning, or simple ability to stick with something that cannot be learned in a short amount of time. How a language is taught and or studied can also produce significant differences.


Some Specifics for learners of Chinese

Writing System: Not just the volume ( 3 to 5 thousand characters-汉字 han4zi4), but also learning to visually discriminate so many characters, and the extra problem of learning how to write them! To be sure, this large number of characters has been built up from a much smaller number of constituent parts, including but not limited to the 214 radicals (部首 bu4shou3) by which all characters are classified in traditional dictionaries. In such dictionaries, characters are grouped together with others that share the same classificatory radical (部首 bu4shou3). These radicals themselves have a traditional order in which they occur in dictionaries, based on the nuber of strokes in each (although some radicals have variant forms with different numbers of strokes.

The vast majority of modern characters have at least two, three, or more components, although have been eliminated or otherwise simplified in simplified characters (简体汉字 jian3ti3 han4zi4). So learning to write or recognize these compound characters is not a question of learning several thousand totally different characters, but of remembering which combinations of more or less familiar components they contain. Furthermore, certain components or combinations of components tend to come in particular locations in compound characters, so this also helps one learn. The classificatory radicals mentioned above, tend mostly to come at the top or at the left hand side of compound characters.

A further difficulty is that the characters are not "spelled" phonetically. Although many do contain a component or combination of components that points to some (sometimes quite vague) kind of phonetic similarity (sometimes referred to as "rime"). Unfortunately, the writing reflects similarities in the pronunciation of Chinese of more than a thousand years ago, often very different from that of modern Mandarin, and the similarities may not have been that precise to start with!

It can be very helpful for the learner of Chinese (and also of Japanese or traditional Korean, written with Chinese characters) to see characters that share the same rime components grouped together, because they may be easily confused, sharing one or more components in their appearance and often having a similar sound, though not infrequently with a different tone. Rick Harbaugh's character based dictionary (Zhong1wen2 Zi4pu3 中文字譜, Chinese Characters: A Geneology and Dictionary) does exactly this, but it contains a formidable number of characters, and is, partly of necessity, tradtional character based, because some of the rime components have been lost or changed in simplification.

The online version at Zhongwen.com is definitely easier even for non-beginners to navigate and to move back and forth between traditional and simplified characters. The online dictionary Yellow Bridge, gives a breakdown of the components of each character looked up individually when you click on the etymology tab. If there is a phonectic component, it will be indicated as such. In addition, on the left-hand side of the etymology tab page, there external links that include one directly to the full character in the just cited Zhongwen.com. Once in Zhonwen.com, on the right-hand side of your screen, you will see that character on a "genealogical" tree (or at least a componential compnent tree) placed on a branch under its phonetic rime component along with other characters that also share the same component. If the phonetic component is itself a compound of components, it will also be linked to a node of one of its components, not necessarily phonetically related.

Knowledge of Chinese characters as used in Japanese or Korean can also be somewhat helpful.

Pronunciation:


(to be continued)

The Beijing Olympics and Sports--some vocabulary

Rev 6/14/10--In traditional Chinese society, the number eight is regarded as a propitious number. It is undoubtedly with this in mind that the official opening date of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics is 8/8/08. The Chinese official website in Chinese is
http://www.beijing2008.cn/ and the English version is http://en.beijing2008.cn/. Comparing these. US coverage is available at NBCOlympics.com. CEDICT and Wikipedia (various articles inc. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Summer_Olympics) are some good sources of vocabulary, as is a comparison of the Chinese & English versions of the official Chinese site. An English venue map is available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beijing_2008_olympic_venue.svg. The official Chinese site for the Paralympics (which run from Sept. 6-17, 2008) is http://paralympic.beijing2008.cn/index.shtml. The English version is at http://paralympic.beijing2008.cn/index.shtml

Yellow Bridge Flashcards has some sports terms: under the heading of Themed Word Lists, select Topical Vocabulary, then select sports. And if you happen to have the Longman Chinese-English Visual Dictionary of Chinese Culture (汉英中华文化图解词典), there are about 20 pages of line drawing illustrations and associated vocabulary about sports (not all of them Olympic sports), starting on p. 252 with vocabulary for topic #151. It's a great dictionary, but there is no pinyin. Here is some vocabulary for the games and about sports in general (not only Olympic Events).

Olympic games--奥林匹克运动会--Ao4lin2pi3ke4 yun4dong4hui4
Olympic games (shorter)--奥运会--Ao4yun4hui4
Paralympics--残奥会--Can2ao4hui4
International Olympic Committee--国际奥委会
--guo2ji4 ao4wei3hui4
International Olympic Committee (shorter)--国奥会--guo2ao4hui4

Olympic spirit--奥林匹克精神--Ao4lin2pi3ke4 jing1shen2
One World, One Dream (motto)--同一个世界，同一个梦想
--tong2yi1 ge shi4jie4, tong2yi1 ge meng4xiang3
Five Rings (Olympic Logo)--五环--wu3huan2
Olympic flame (lit., sacred fire)--圣火--sheng4huo3

Gold medal (金牌 jin1pai2)
Silver medal (银牌 yin2pai2)
Bronze medal (铜牌 tong2pai2)
National Anthem (国歌 guo2ge1)

Opening ceremony--开幕式--kai1mu4shi4
Closing Cermony--闭幕式--bi4mu4shi4

Olympic Village--奥运村--Ao4 yun4 cun1
Beijing National Stadium--北京国家体育场
--Bei3jing1 Guo2jia1 Ti3yu4chang3
gymnasium--体育馆--ti3yu4guan3
the track--跑道--pao3dao4
lane--分道--fen1dao4
starting block--起跑器--qi3pao3qi4
starting line--起跑线--qi3pao3xian4
finish line--终点线--zhong1dian3xian4
swimming pool--游泳池--you2 yong3 chi2

Sports-运动-yun4dong4
Sports meet--运动会-yun4dong4hui4
Match, competition--比赛--bi3sai4
Team competition--团体比赛--tuan2ti3 bi3sai4
Individual single event--个人单项--ge4ren2 dan1xiang4
Individual all-around--个人全能--ge4ren2 quan2neng2

Athlete--运动员--yun4dong4yuan2
Athlete, competitor--选手--xuan3shou3
Team--团体--tuan2ti3
spectator, audience--观众--guan1zhong4
spectator's grandstand--看台--kan4tai2
(soccer) fan--足球迷--(zu2qiu2) mi2


Track and field events--田径运动--tian2jing4 yun4dong4
田径 is also called "athletics" at the Beijing Olympics site.

track events--竞赛--jing4 sai4
(foot)race--赛跑--sai4pao3
sprint, dash--短跑--duan3pao3
middle distance race--中跑--zhong1pao3
long distance race--长跑--chang2pao3
relay--接力赛跑--jie1li4sai4(pao3)
hurdles (race)--跨栏赛(跑)--kua4lan2sai4(pao3)
hurdle--跨栏--kua4lan2
steeple chase--障碍赛跑--zhang4ai4 sai4pao3
cross country--越野赛跑--yue4ye3 sai4pao3
marathon--马拉松--ma3la1song1


field events--田赛--tian2sai4

long jump--跳远--tiao4yuan3
triple jump--三级跳远--san1ji2 tiao4yuan3
high jump--跳高--tiao4gao1
pole vault--撑杆跳高--cheng1gan1 tiao4gao1

shot put--推铅球--tui1qian1qiu2
shot--铅球--qian1qiu2
discus throw--掷铁饼--zhi4tie3bing3
discus--铁饼--tie3bing3
hammer throw--掷链球--zhi4lian4qiu2
hammer--链球--lian4qiu2
javelin throw--掷标枪--zhi4biao1qiang1
javelin--标枪--biao1qiang1

decathlon--十项(全能)--shi2xiang4 (quan2neng2)
pentathlon--五项(全能)--wu3xiang4 (quan2neng2)
modern pentathlon--现代五项--xian4dai4 wu3xiang4

Gymnastics--体操--ti3cao1


weightlifting--举重-ju3zhong4

Martial Arts--武术--wu3shu4

Karate--空手(道)--kong1shou3(dao4)
Judo--柔道--rou2dao4
Taekwondo--跆拳道--tai2quan2dao4
Taichi--太极拳--tai4ji2quan2

shooting--射击--she4ji1
fencing--击剑--ji1jian4

Swimming--游泳--you2yong3
freestyle swimming--自由泳--zi4you2yong3
butterfly--蝶泳--die2yong3
breaststroke--蛙泳--wa1yong3
backstroke--仰泳--yang3yong3

synchronized swimming--花样游泳--hua1yang4 you2yong3

diving--跳水--tiao4shui3
springboard--跳板--tiao4ban3
high platform diving--高台跳水--gao1tai2 tiao4shui3
diving platform--跳台--tiao4tai2

water polo--水球--shui3qiu2


Ball games
play ball--打球--da3qiu2

soccer--足球--zu2qiu2
soccer field--足球场--zu2qiu2chang3
basketball--篮球--lan2 qiu2
tennis--网球--wang3 qiu2
table tennis --桌球--zhuo1qiu2
ping pong--乒乓球--ping1pang1qiu2
ping pong table--乒乓球台--ping1pang1qiu2tai2
baseball--棒球--bang4 qiu2
volleyball--排球--pai2qiu2
beach volleyball--沙滩排球--sha1tan1 pai2qiu2


(I may still add a few things.)

Varieties of Chinese & Standard Chinese

Language Family and "Dialects"
The Chinese language is part of the Sino-Tibetan language family (han4zang4 yu3xi4 汉藏语系) and may be referred to in Mandarin by any of several terms, including zhong1wen2 中文, zhong1yu3 中语, zhong1guo2hua4 中国话, han4yu3 汉语, hua2yu3 华语, or hua2wen2 华文. Chinese includes a range of mutually incomprehensible geographical varieties, which therefore from a purely linguistic standpoint could all be called different languages, but due to emphasis on the cultural and historical unity of China are usually referred to as dialects (fang1yan2 方言). To choose middle ground between the terms "language" and "dialect," DeFrancis and Mair have chosen to translate fang1yan2 方言 as regionalect and topolect, respectively. However, going in the other direction, fang1yan2 方言 is the standard translation for "dialect." Furthermore, linguists often note that even as used in Europe, the terms language and dialect often do not reflect mutual comprehensibility as much as feelings with regard to historical, cultural, or ethnic unity or independence. The principal difference is that in Europe the main tendency has been to call linguistically similar varieties "languages" if they belong to groups asserting their political or ethnic differences, whereas in China, the emphasis on unity has been to call linguistically rather different varieties merely "dialects." In both arenas, socio-political reality and implications are significant factors. Indeed a commonly cited definition often attributed to Max Weinreich, is that "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy." At any rate, suffice it to say that the major geographical varieties of Chinese are at least as different as major languages of Europe.

Major Geographic Varieties of Chinese
Some of the major geographical varieties of Chinese include Mandarin (in the sense of dialect group with about 850 million speakers, called Bei3fang3hua4 北方話 or guan1hua4 官话--this of course includes Beijing dialect, Bei3jing1hua4 北京话), Wu (Wu2yu3 吴语,which includes Shanghainese Shang4hai3hua4 上海话), Cantonese (Yue4yu3 粤语, more specifically for Canton itself, Guang3dong1hua4 广东话), Hakka (Ke4jia1yu3 客家语, Xiang (Xiang1 湘), Min (Min3yu3 闽语which includes Taiwanese, Tai2wan1hua4 台湾话), and Gan (Gan4 赣). Maps of regional dialect groupings with further links can be found at Wikipedia's articles entitled Chinese Language and Spoken Chinese, and an outline of their place in the broader picture at Sino-Tibetan language family. According to the numbers in the Wikipedia article on Chinese language, Mandarin, with about 850 million speakers is by far the largest dialect group, followed by Wu, with about 90 million, Cantonese, with about 80 million, Min at 50 million, Xiang and Hakka at 35 million each, and Gan at 20 million.

Some Historical Varieties of Chinese
Broad historic phases of Chinese are referred by the terms Old Chinese (shang4gu3 han4yu3 上古汉语) stretching from the Shang Dynasty (shang1chao2 商潮) to the Former Han (qian2han4 前汉 or Western Han xi1han4 西汉), Middle Chinese (zhong1gu3 han4yu3 中古汉语), and Modern Chinese (xian4dai4 han4yu3 汉语). The term classical Chinese (gu3wen2 古文 or gu3dian3 han4yu3 古典汉语) is used to refer to Chinese writing from the Zhou Dynasty to the end of the Han Dynasty. The term literary Chinese (wen2yan2wen2 文言文 or simply wen2yan2 文言) is used to refer to the linguistically conservative form, or register, of written Chinese used from the end of the Han Dynasty until early modern times when it gave way to vernacular Chinese (bai2hua4 白话), based largely on the modern spoken language. The largely logographic nature of the writing system, which did not have to be pronounced in the same way to be understood, and the classical literary education of all civil servants ensured by the civil service examination system helped to keep literary Chinese around for a long time, but in the meanwhile the differences between Chinese dialects were growing, as was the difference between the written and the spoken language. It should also be noted, that despite the large geographic differences in Chinese, it was principally only the standard language, used and spread throughout the country by civil servants, or officials also known to us as Mandarins, that was committed to writing.

Mandarin as a Dialect Group & as Standard Chinese
Mandarin is a term that has at least two different meanings. On the one hand, Mandarin (see Mandarin Linguistics and Mandarin Dialects) refers to the largest dialect group of Chinese, and on the other hand it is often used to refer to Standard Chinese. As a dialect group, Mandarin is spoken over vast stretches of China, in most of the north and the west, by about 850 million people and is by far the largest dialect group. While some of this scale may include somewhat more recently sinicized regions of China, which may therefore have somewhat less linguistic diversity than the sheer scale suggests, there is still room for very considerable variation from the Standard Mandarin that we study. This variation is most likely not just limited to phonology, but could include items of lexicon, grammar, and sociolinguistic factors.

A Couple of Mandarin Dialect Group Differences from other Chinese Dialect Groups

One of the most notable phonological characteristics of the Mandarin dialect group is its historical loss of syllable final consonants other than "n" or "ng." Other final consonants, such as "p," "t," "k," or "m," are present not only in other Chinese dialect groups, but also in modern day pronunciations of words in Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese based on the pronunciations of Chinese characters of in many cases, more than a thousand years ago. A look at romanized signs in almost any Chinatown will show many such final consonants, reflecting as they so often do, Cantonese or other non-Mandarin dialects.

The loss of most final consonants in Mandarin has had a major effect also on the lexicon, that has further differentiated Mandarin from other dialect groups. Older forms of Chinese and other dialects are noted for a high frequency of single syllable words. The loss or merger of final consonants that used help to distinguish many formerly single syllable words in Mandarin has produced large numbers of homophones instead. Among modern Chinese dialects, Mandarin therefore has the largest number of words of at least two syllables. Some are produced by combining two characters of similar or complementary meaning and some others by the addition of an element such as "zi" (子, a simple noun suffix).

Some Mandarin Dialect Group Internal Variability

Not all varieties of Mandarin are readily mutually comprehensible. Phonologically, vowel and consonant values may vary. Diphthongs such as "ai," "ei," "ao," "ou," may be pronounced as single vowels (monopthongs), without the vowel glide. Speakers of some Mandarin dialects (and some non-Mandarin dialects) lack the retroflex initials "zh," "ch," "sh," & "r," (pinyin values) replacing the first three with "z," "c," "s," and values such as "z" or "w" for "r." See the Wikipedia articles cited for more.

Middle Chinese had 4 tones (ping 平 "even," shang 上 "rising," qu 去"departing," ru 入 "entering"), as do most regional subdialects of modern Mandarin (yin1ping2 阴平, yang2ping2 阳平, shang4 上, qu4 去, that we usually just call tones one to four) . The relationship between the two is more complex than either the mutual existence of four tones or the similarity in the Chinese names for the tones might suggest. Tables in the Wikipedia article on Mandarin Dialects indicate that an interaction between the Middle Chinese (MC) tones and the type of MC initial consonant produced the Modern Mandarin tone categories. The first three MC tones split and regrouped somewhat depending on MC initial. The final MC tone was redistributed to the other tone categories in different ways in different regional dialects of Mandarin, although it was actually preserved as a fifth tone (ru 入) principally in the Jianghuai regional dialect.

Just because most Mandarin dialects have four tone categories, by no means indicates that the tonal contour of each of the categories is universally that of the idealized Standard Mandarin tonal contours we have studied. In the same way there is regional variation in the pronunciation of consonants and vowels, an additional table in Mandarin Dialects article gives a sobering idea of just how different those contours can be in different parts of the Mandarin dialect group area.

Mandarin as Standard Chinese--Modern Standard Mandarin, MSM

Mandarin as a standard language is referred to differently in different places. In the People's Republic of China, it is called pu3tong1hua4 普通话 or "common speech", in Taiwan it is called guo2yu3 国语 (written 國語 in Taiwan) or "national language," and Singapore has adopted more neutral hua2yu3 华语 or "Chinese (lit., language of the Chinese people)." The term guan1hua4 官话 or "language of the officials (mandarins)" reflects the historical role of the Mandarins, or civil servant bureaucracy, in spreading and establishing a more or less standard form of Chinese. Geographically, Modern standard Chinese is based largely on the educated Chinese of Beijing, although Nanjing and other historical capitals of China have also played a role in the development of the modern standard.

The term "Parisian French" suggests the important role that a capital can play in defining a national language standard, but the existence of Cockney in the middle of London is a reminder that socioeconomic and educational factors, among others, also play a role. The media also play an increasingly important and evolving role in defining language standards, in addition to literature and education. The standard German of Germany, though largely based on northern dialects, is not identical with that of any particular place and is said to owe a lot to the language of the stage (Bühnensprache). For the UK, the prestigious Received Pronunciation (RP), is sometimes called the Queen's English and sometimes BBC English, although these days at any rate, accents on the BBC exhibit more diversity. The central and regional media of the PRC and of Taiwan undoubtedly provide models of Standard Mandarin which one can compare with the supposedly standard Mandarin one is supposed to be taught in school or which one may have been told others spoke locally.

Differences in Standard Mandarin occur in many forms. For writing, mainland China uses simplified characters (jian3ti3zi4 简体字), whereas Taiwan uses traditional characters (fan2ti3zi4 繁体字, or officially in Taiwan zheng4ti3zi4 正体字). In terms of the spoken language, although some use of final vocalic "r" (er2hua4 儿化) is found in the media and the HSK vocabulary tests, the extensive use of this feature found in Beijing is thought be a feature of local Beijing dialect. Other regional phonological and vocabulary influences may flavor people's attempts to speak Standard Mandarin. For some examples for Taiwan, see the references in the sociolinguistics section of the Wikipedia article on Taiwanese Linguistics and in the pronunciation section of the Wikipedia article on Taiwanese Mandarin.

A number of differences in vocabulary between the mainland and Taiwan are reported in the Taiwanese Mandarin article, in a few pages at the back of the Langenscheidt Concise Chinese-English Dictionary, and a small number in a list at Yellow Bridge (http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/mandarin-differences.php).