Learning Chinese

from China Daily (many of us have been there, and we feel this author's pain):

The rain of pain falls mainly on the brain
By Patrick Whiteley (China Daily)

"When does the magic happen?" most Chinese language beginners ask. How long does it take before they can roam from Xi'an to Yunnan and have the ability to speak freely to all and sundry?

But my biggest [complaint] is a little more selfish. "When does the pain stop?" I always ask.

Every time I study Chinese my head hurts so much. My poor old brain churns and burns and turns until I can't handle it anymore.

When I first started learning Chinese about two years ago, the brain pain began after about 10 minutes when everything became jumbled and confused.

The tones, the intonation and every word sounded the same. For example there are more than 40 meanings for "shi" depending on tone and context.

There was only one word beginning with "shi", which I was able to exclaim very loudly, but considering China Daily is a family newspaper, I will refrain from repeating it here.

There is also the sneaky grammar. My friends are not waiting (zai xia lou) "down stairs" they are waiting stairs down (zai lou xia).

The boy wearing the green shirt never leaves the bakery instead, "wearing the green shirt, the boy leaves the bakery".

Speaking was always difficult, but there was no use replying to anything because I couldn't understand what was being said.

Expats, of all ages and who speak good Chinese, assure us beginners that things get better, and the pain does stop.

This is kind of true. Today I can spend up to 90 minutes on Chinese lessons without suffering brain seizures. After such constructive and productive sessions, I applaud my teacher before collapsing into a heap.

"About three to four years," says Patrick Brown, Canadian Broadcasting Commission's Beijing correspondent, referring to when the pain stopped for him.

The veteran journalist began Chinese at age 42 and has been covering China for the past two decades. He says speaking and listening became easier after three years, but insists the learning process never stops because the language is so rich, ompact and detailed. Watching Chinese TV soap dramas is one of the best ways to learn.

"One of the biggest difficulties is actually training the ear, and this takes a lot of time," he says.

I've been watching Chinese television every day for two years and it's still a blur because everybody speaks so fast. I can pick up a few new words, but by the time I process the meaning the speaker has rattled off another sentence.

When I'm learning new words, it always feels like I'm pushing a heavily loaded wheelbarrow up a slippery mud-mountain and I'm forever sliding backwards.

The wheelbarrow is filled with shengci (new words), which I'm using to build a pathway. I load the wheelbarrow with a couple of hundred new words and push up that slippery slope laying down words where I can.

But I sometimes overload the barrow and it slips back and slams into my shins. Or it completely falls over and some days I feel like I've lost everything.

All Chinese learners know that sinking feeling. I need to be tougher and follow the advice of Tom Berenger's tough army sergeant character in Platoon. "Take the pain," he screamed to a wounded soldier writhing in agony in the Vietnam jungle.

Or maybe I should heed the words of that other great action man, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who would say in that Austrian accent: "No pain, no gain." One thing is certain, like Arnie's indestructible terminator, I'll never give up on my mission.

After every Chinese lesson, I pick myself off the floor, rub my aching head and tell my teacher, "I'll be back."

(For help with your Chinese language learning, or your children's, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.)


From: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/showbiz/2009-04/20/content_7694317.htm