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From:
Australia
Queensland
Brisbane
@Barry1
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Time
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2016-06-01 13:37:29
#7
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For anyone interested in the rigors of learning Chinese, here's an excerpt from one of my blog articles
https://blog.chinalovematch.net/blog/article/Is-China-a-Good-Place-to-Live-for-a-Westerner-Part-5-of-the-Teaching-in-China-Series
"I figured enthusiastically if somewhat naively that if I could master basic Pinyin (Chinese language using Western style characters rather than the chicken scratching type of alphabet), life would become so much smoother here. Makes sense, right?
Wrong!
To my consternation, I quickly learnt that Chinese language has four basic tones. One can say a word with a barely noticeable incorrect tone and the result can have an entirely different meaning to that intended. Westerners continually grappled in exasperation with these subtle tonal differences as they attempted to learn Mandarin. For Chinese however, voice tones had been force fed, hammered and inculcated into them since early childhood, so it was second nature to them. Some impolite inhabitants smirked or outright laughed at stupid Westerners' inability to comprehend these.
For example, I recently met a teenage boy here named “Yung Wei”. This isn’t the correct Chinese spelling, but is spelt how it phonetically sounds to a native English speaker.
“Please be careful how you speak to him, Barry” Tina advised me. I then repeated his name to her several times. Easy enough, right?
“No, no, no!” Tina exclaimed. "Your pronunciation is wrong. What you are saying isn't his name, but actually means “impotent” or “soft penis”. He'll be offended if you address him like this!”
So I repeated Yung Wei’s name many times to Tina. Half the time I called him by his right name using the correct tone - and half the time inadvertently I called him a soft cock! Yet the variation in tone was almost imperceptible to my Western ears. But it was of critical importance in the real world.
I then practised some other Chinese words but continually found the same annoying thing. I wasn’t using the correct tone or voice inflection most of the time. Thus if I spoke to a native using my poor pronunciation, they’d have no idea what I was trying to say to them. Because tone of the words - how you say them, not just what you say - was crucial. Worse still, a Chinese won't necessarily accommodate or make allowances for tonal errors, just because they're uttered by an ignorant Westerner. So one needed to be correct and precise at all times. Near enough just wasn't good enough in day to day communication with citizens who weren't aware they were talking to a blundering gringo with imprecise Mandarin ability.
SUPER HARD
Feeling quite deflated, the next step in attempting to learn basic Chinese was to research on the internet how difficult it was to master according to the experts. Maybe it was just me that was finding it so troublesome? To my dismay, both the US State Department and the Foreign Service Institute ranked Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese and Arabic all in the “super hard” or “exceptionally hard” category.
Oh, my Godfather!
I’ve thus given up the idea of learning Chinese. It’s just too damn difficult. I’ve no doubt that it could be accomplished eventually, but not before many months of study had passed. Two years of regular training around twenty hours per week - plus live there for a few months in order to practice - had been quoted by the State Dept in order to achieve reasonable fluency. A friend of mine said don't bother with this, just spend an hour per day on it. But even this was a big commitment, given everything else occurring around me. I just didn’t have the time - nor the inclination - to spare. It's something I can live without. I have better things to do than spend ten or twenty hours per week - every week - learning Chinese.
BYE BYE, MISS AMERICAN PIE
An annoying song kept rattling around in my head. How did it go again?
Bye bye Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levy
But the levy was dry
"Miss American Pie" in this instance means the Mandarin language. "Drove my Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry" refers to my futile hopes to learn it.
This places me in the situation of living in a country where constantly I have no real idea of what’s going on around me, unless I’m with Tina. Sure, the big stuff unfolding around me is comprehensible, but all the interesting minutiae of life and culture are lost. It's akin to living in a world where I can see multiple rainbows as a whole but frustratingly cannot discern their colours, marvel at their vibrancy and richness. I intuitively know that I'm missing out on a helluva lot, chronically constrained by my phonetic ignorance and this continually exasperated me."
