I've been learning it for a while now, it's a mixed bag for me as a native German speaker.
The grammar is piss easy, it's almost nonexistant. The pronunciation is a bitch, but it's something that you'll eventually get the hang of, even though you'll maybe never get to a native level.
The characters are the worst thing by far. There's some basic rules to make them easier to remember but it's just plain memorizing for the most part. It's shit, but still very doable.
What has been invaluable for me so far is my language partner. I used HelloTalk to find a native Chinese speaker who's teaching me Mandarin and I'm teaching her German (and a bit of English), and I really think that without a native speaker correcting you every 0,5 seconds learning the pronunciation is a fool's errand. The intonation is obviously confusing as hell at first and Pinyin (romanization of the words) can be really misleading.
Basically, it's hard as far as languages go, but very doable. Try HelloTalk, luckily for you and me there are a lot of Chinese people who want to learn English, probably more than there are English speakers who want to learn Chinese.
Find someone, talk to them, get corrected a gazillion times when you try to pronounce anything, and learn.
Edit: Recently my language partner has complimented my pronunciation a lot and ngl being able to say those intonations correctly and to read some basic Chinese sentences feels like magic it's really fun. It's just a fun language to speak.
we like to circlejerk about how good china is, and while it does do some things better than our western governments, the level of control it has over its citizens compared to ours is quite drastic from what i gathered talking to my language partner
something's always gotta give, and if you value freedom and privacy, you're probably better off elsewhere
freedom to what? You couldn't claim we have more of either than they do. how many people have you heared about getting arrested or fired for facebook comments?
an example that left an impression of me was when i asked her some stuff about her government and she said she has to be careful what she types because certain words about the topic might get her wechat account frozen
thats not that big of a deal on its own but it still made me go "oh damn"
i like china, the reason im learning the language is that i wanna go there, but i would not call it as "free" as western countries, for better and for worse
keep in mind, this control it has allowed it to contain the pandemic much better too
Agreed, honestly. The insane amount of damage that has been done through the unregulated internet recently has made me understood the heavy restrictions, but it’s still always worrying that you have to rely on the people in charge having good intentions.
again, i was banned from facebook for posting the all men are trash meme. We have no more freedom than them. we are just accustomed to the ways in which we are unfree
I've been learning it for a while now, it's a mixed bag for me as a native German speaker.
The grammar is piss easy, it's almost nonexistant. The pronunciation is a bitch, but it's something that you'll eventually get the hang of, even though you'll maybe never get to a native level.
The characters are the worst thing by far. There's some basic rules to make them easier to remember but it's just plain memorizing for the most part. It's shit, but still very doable.
What has been invaluable for me so far is my language partner. I used HelloTalk to find a native Chinese speaker who's teaching me Mandarin and I'm teaching her German (and a bit of English), and I really think that without a native speaker correcting you every 0,5 seconds learning the pronunciation is a fool's errand. The intonation is obviously confusing as hell at first and Pinyin (romanization of the words) can be really misleading.
Basically, it's hard as far as languages go, but very doable. Try HelloTalk, luckily for you and me there are a lot of Chinese people who want to learn English, probably more than there are English speakers who want to learn Chinese.
Find someone, talk to them, get corrected a gazillion times when you try to pronounce anything, and learn.
Edit: Recently my language partner has complimented my pronunciation a lot and ngl being able to say those intonations correctly and to read some basic Chinese sentences feels like magic it's really fun. It's just a fun language to speak.
A language app that lets me nitpick every little mistake and have someone else nitpick my mistakes? Sounds pretty good.
But it requires talking to people :sadness:
that is generally what languages are used for yes
socially anxious linguistics/language enthusiasts rise up
deleted by creator
I mean if you're concerned about privacy then the main language of Mainland China might not be of much use to you
deleted by creator
i mean, its a surveillance state
we like to circlejerk about how good china is, and while it does do some things better than our western governments, the level of control it has over its citizens compared to ours is quite drastic from what i gathered talking to my language partner
something's always gotta give, and if you value freedom and privacy, you're probably better off elsewhere
freedom to what? You couldn't claim we have more of either than they do. how many people have you heared about getting arrested or fired for facebook comments?
an example that left an impression of me was when i asked her some stuff about her government and she said she has to be careful what she types because certain words about the topic might get her wechat account frozen
thats not that big of a deal on its own but it still made me go "oh damn"
i like china, the reason im learning the language is that i wanna go there, but i would not call it as "free" as western countries, for better and for worse
keep in mind, this control it has allowed it to contain the pandemic much better too
deleted by creator
Agreed, honestly. The insane amount of damage that has been done through the unregulated internet recently has made me understood the heavy restrictions, but it’s still always worrying that you have to rely on the people in charge having good intentions.
again, i was banned from facebook for posting the all men are trash meme. We have no more freedom than them. we are just accustomed to the ways in which we are unfree
Removed by mod
is this a joke or
no. you are parroting CIA propaganda. stop.
deleted by creator
im not parroting CIA propaganda I'm saying what I learned from my language partner who literally lives in China
Are you just going to pretend that the western country you live in isn't even worse about your supposed privacy?
You have no problem pointing out how China is supposedly a surveillance state yet you live in one and remain silent on that.
I‘m sorry how much do you know about my country‘s surveillance and how much do you know about China‘s?
deleted by creator
Why would she be talking about the US surveillance state in a thread about China?
Removed by mod
Because someone directly asked her about privacy in China in the context of her discussions with her language partner.
It was in the context of language learning apps, not CPC policy.
Try again.
Good point, they probably literally work for the CIA.
We all do, actuallyR e d a c t e dshhhh keep it down! you’ll blow my cover.
Anki is good.
why not?
deleted by creator