Hi everyone! I am Steve Kaufmann.
Today I am going to discuss an issue in Chinese with all of you.
The discussion is about learning Chinese language.
That is to say,
is learning Chinese easy or not?
Or put it this way, is learning Chinese difficult or not?
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Alright.
So, today somebody discusses this topic:
which language is easy to learn,
and which language difficult to learn?
More than half of the people
especially Westerners would say Chinese language
is rather difficult to learn.
And I am going to mention some
factors that may play a role in this discussion.
That is to say, how these factors may influence
the discussion on whether Chinese is easy or difficult to learn.
I believe there are subjective factors
as well as objective ones.
As to subjective factors,
your attitude is one of them.
I think attitude is of utmost importance in language learning.
And therefore if you are particularly willing to study Chinese,
the so-called difficulty of learning Chinese
is no problem at all.
The same rule applies to any languages.
As long as you are very motivated to study the language,
there will not be any problem at all.
There is nothing
that can impede you.
So your willingness to learn,
in my opinion, is a very important subjective factor.
It's also important that you're confident in your capability to learn this foreign language.
For example, if you believe... and I have seen
some Canadians and Westerners who think that
Chinese language is too difficult.
In fact, there are many
foreigners, who are not Chinese people.
And they succeeded
in learning Chinese and they are able to speak Chinese fluently.
So I think this kind of confidence, or self-confidence,
is also a very important subjective factor.
Moreover, passion is very important.
For example, in my case,
I often went to bookstores to look for new materials, when I was studying Chinese.
That was fifty years ago.
Back then there was no Internet.
Language learning materials were not in abundance.
So I often went to bookstores to look for these materials.
For me, I looked for
learning materials suitable for my interests and language level.
I was passionate.
Of course, passionate in various aspects.
If you wait for your teachers to teach you the language,
then it is more difficult to learn Chinese language.
But if you are willing to learn,
confidence in yourself and passionate,
I think it would not present much of a problem.
On the other hand,
I think that there is objective difficulty
in learning Chinese
because I intensively studied the language.
When I was studying Chinese, everyday I
spent six or seven hours on the language.
I was either reading, practicing my writing,
or talking with my teachers,
or listening to cassettes.
Basically, I spent six or seven hours everyday
very intensively learning the language.
I would say intensive learning is better.
This applies to all languages.
But there are languages, especially Chinese,
which require intensive learning, in my opinion.
So this is another subjective factor.
There are quite a lot objective factors too.
Let's say. The biggest or most important obstacle to
learning Chinese
is the Chinese characters.
That's because learning any languages
if the language you are studying
and the language with which you are familiar
use Latin alphabet
or a similar alphabet
such as the one used by Russian language,
the Cyrillic alphabet,
then there will not be any problem.
But there are a lot
of Chinese characters to study.
That's because reading is a very important method to study language.
Or it is an important activity.
You have to know
two thousand, three thousand or four thousand words in order to be able to read
fiction or read newspaper.
So alphabet is a rather significant and objective hurdle and difficulty in learning Chinese.
But it is also because of this reason intensive learning is necessary.
That's because when you study Chinese language
you have to learn three to four thousand Chinese characters.
And every Chinese character has
from two or three to fifteen strokes.
So this is not easy.
And in order to know these Chinese words,
at least when I was learning them,
I wrote them down with my hands. Now I cannot.
I cannot write them with my hands,
but I can type them in the computer.
But this is the very process
that takes lots of time.
But that's because of this factor
you have to learn the language intensively.
As no sooner had you learned the Chinese characters than you forgot them.
Of course, this happens when you are learning other languages too.
Regardless of what words you are learning,
you will definitely forget them.
You will learn and forget them once again.
This is the learning process.
But this process is especially important in learning Chinese.
Here is the subjective difficulty of learning Chinese.
In additional, there are four tones in Chinese languages.
Chinese is not the only language with lots of tones.
English is one of the so-called tonal languages too.
Of course, in English and other languages
there are different tones.
But the word's meaning may not change according to its tone.
The tones in a sentence
will not change
the meaning of a particular word,
which is different from the Chinese tones' functions.
Those unfamiliar with the tonal system in Chinese language may believe that
the four tones in Chinese language can be a problem: mā má mǎ mà.
But this is also a problem related to habits.
So you need to listen to Chinese more frequently,
and be willing to study the language.
Another objective factor
that influences language learning
is whether or not there are enough interesting learning materials.
In fact, I do not know if there are enough such materials for learning Chinese.
But I estimate that there are quite a lot now.
When I was studying Chinese in the past, there was no Internet.
In any case, even back then there were quite a lot
interesting materials.
And therefore I think it is probably
a positive factor.
Moreover, when you have learned enough Chinese characters,
it becomes easier to enlarge your vocabulary base, comparing with other languages.
That's because every new word
and every new expression,
that is to say,
are usually composed of two or three words.
So when you are a new word,
and there is a familiar word (component) in the new word,
you may guess the new word's meaning.
Or maybe this is a new word for you.
We call it "word" in English. You already know two words
which are components of the new word.
In this case, it is comparatively easy for you to memorize the new words' meaning.
That is why I always believe that
the concept of vocabulary in Chinese
is different from our understanding in English language.
It is not similar to the situation where a native Spanish speaker wants to learn Italian.
Around 80% or more of the words in these two languages are basically the same.
There is no such a thing
when you are studying Chinese. This may be a problem.
But when you are learning Chinese, and you start to know
more and more Chinese characters,
then you can guess
or at least it becomes easier for you to memorize
the meaning of new words. This is a something good about learning Chinese.
I also want to say that Chinese culture
is not too complicated.
For example, in comparison with Slavic languages,
such as Russian language, Chinese language is much easier.
When you say: "I will go tomorrow,
I went yesterday."
Or, "I am going now. You go. I go. He goes."
The word remains unchanged.
There is no gender in Chinese language. No masculine or feminine form.
So Chinese language is rather easy to learn considering this cultural aspect.
When I was studying Chinese, I entirely
ignored those culturally specific words.
It does not matter. You just have to listen to the language more.
You will gradually get used to the new words.
So, in cultural aspect,
Chinese language is comparatively easy,
and easier than the languages which I have learned.
In a nutshell,
the difficulty in learning Chinese language
is composed of both subjective and objective factors.
Regarding the objective factors, if your attitude
is not persistent enough,
your perception may be influenced by the objective difficulty.
You may be influenced by those factors,
and think that Chinese language is difficult.
But if you are sufficiently motivated
willing and confident enough to learn, and like the language,
then the so-called difficulty in learning Chinese
cannot stop you.
To sum up, I hope that those who have not yet started learning Chinese
will feel slightly more motivated and become more willing to learning the language after watching my video.
That's because if you have this kind of attitude
Chinese language is definitely not difficult to learn.
Okay. Thank you everybody. Goodbye.