Is Chinese difficult?
818322
English and Chinese are two different language.\n\nEnglish is not toner, and is phonic.\n\nBut for Chinese, it is toner, and not phonic.  It is pictorial.\n\nIn learning chinese, one has to master the writing by practice it.  It has many strokes in one word.  \n\nEach word is not make up of certain phonic. Each similar sound has different tone, and mean differently, and it is also written differently.\n\nIn English, we learned phonic since young, and what we need is ABC as basic.  \n\nBut in Chinese, there is no tense, no verb to be etc.  It is a simple language in that sense.  No much rule involved.\n\nSo, each language is unique in it's own. \n\nHope you enjoy it.\n\nRegards\n\n(I've mastered English, Chinese and Malay.  Now the greatest challenged for me is to learn Thai.  It is much more difficult that the 3 language I have learned.)
265106
Nothing is "Easy" in latin.  I would say its one of the hardest languages to learn!  But as the lady above says "Facilis" is the translation of the word "Easy".
218847
I'm impressed that Chinese people are usually polite and hard-working.One of my friends who is Chinese is  excellent in her study and she gets along with her friends in a good manner. I quite like Chinese people.
431259
Well, I agree that Chinese and Japanese (along with other languages that use only characters to represent an entire word) would be the most difficult. \n\nHowever, speaking only of languages that use alphabets, I would say Russian and English. English because modern speakers constantly use figurative language, and we have more homonyms and homographs than any other language I have known. Russian, because it has even more letters than the English alphabet, and there are very many rules that modify entire words based on their gender, despite the absence of articles (i.e., a, an, or the).
338493
In the universities and state and city colleges . . . it can be . . . if the students are in a process in obtaining their business degrees.\n\nI know a little Chinese . . . of various dialects because of my company's manufacturing plants in China.  It helps to speak the language . . . even though I think I butcher it at times . . . lol.\n\nAre you an accredited educator?  If so, apply at the university to see if there is any openings . . .
673970
Mandarin is extremely hard to learn to speak. First the pronunciation is quite difficult, and then there is the issue of tones. There are roughly 5 toes in Mandarin, and so you can say "ma" 5 different ways, and each one has a vastly different meaning. for example #1: mom, #2: horse, #3 ok, #4 scold, #5 (indicates a question)\nIf you truely want to learn to speak mandarin you need to MOVE to Taiwan or China. I have been living in Taiwan for 5 years and that's the only way to successfully do it. I tried for 2 years in my home country and learned nothing. \nGood luck.
13153
I'd say Mandarin Chinese. Not only do you have to learn words ... inflection is also key ... and there are four inflections you can put on any word/syllable. And some of the words are best pronounced in a sing-song sort of tone. \n\nJapanese is definitely easier because it is not so heavily dependent on inflection. \n\nFrench, Spanish and German are all a piece of cake compared to Mandarin Chinese.
913141
Hi,  One of my clients is traveling to China for employment I will pass your email along to him...Thanks then\n\nI am traveling to Paris in about 6 months and am studying French...seems easier than Chech....\n\nI feel everyone needs to at least learn some of the basic language to make the experience more enjoyable. ..:)
691336
I'm in china too, and I've found that most Chinese textbooks for learning chinese are not very useful or applicable to real life.\n\nI started with the pronunciation of the pinyin with the free class my school gave.  Then I moved to writing/reading (which should be combined but they don't understand that) I used "Reading and Writing Chinese" by Tuttle Publishing, Hong Kong.  can buy in major cities' foreign language bookstore for around 120RMB.  It mostly teaches the old characters but is very useful because it has english explanations and step-by-step (or stroke-by-stroke) writing diagrams.  And if you know the old you can learn the new ones easily, but not the other way around.\n\nOnce you have basic numbers, travel words and everyday needs, you should sit down with a phrasebook or a restaurant menu and study the foods.  It is a must-do!  Eat something different every day and study the characters and pronunciation of the food words.\n\nBeyond that, I would recommend you take a chinese friend to the bookstore and look through a few books until you find one that best suits you.  DONT buy the one your friend recommends, keep looking... you will find one, but it has to be challenging and interesting, not the "Kunming is the spring city" type of book, thats BS that you will never need in your daily life as a foreigner.
444003
go meet a chinese person and ask the t teach you. the best way to learn is from who has the experice
1172197
Some people are not very friendly but most should at least be fairly neutral. It's the communication problems that normally put people off rather than any acutal unfriendliness; it's hard to build up any kind of meaningful relationship or friendship with someone if you can't understand each other as a large part of it is based on communication and conversation. If you can get a dialogue going you're probably in with a good chance. Should the first people you try not want to know, just ignore them and move on.\n\nStill, your english skills seem quite good (far, far better than most british people's chinese proficency, that's for certain)...... heck by the look of the internet it's better than a lot of so-called native english "speakers" :-) so good luck.
4692
Many people think that the difficulty of learning a language depends on whether that language is similar to your native language or not.  By that reasoning, it would depend on what the person's native language is.\n\nIn my personal opinion, I think that all languages have some difficult and some easy features.  However, the way that English is often taught in countries outside of the United States, Canada, and England is not as effective as the language teaching methods that many teachers in those countries are using for teaching all languages.  Hopefully as the English teaching profession continues to develop in other places, English learners in other countries will benefit from our most current knowledge about how to help people learn.
63304
Mandarin is more practical and easier to learn for caucasians...but I strongly recommend cantonese too! mostly bcoz I SPEAK CANTONESE! lol! there're many interesting slangs and cool stuff to do in Hong Kong! :p
844175
Yes, it's difficult but not impossible. There are strategies to minimise the difficulties though. If you are serious about learning post a comment or something and and I'll tell you how I did it without killing myself - or anyone else.\n---------------------------------------------------------\nScottish, Irish and Manx Gaelic for that matter, are all descended from the same common ancestor - Old Irish.  They are strongly related to each other and within each they have their own dialects. Donegal Gaelic bears more similarities to the southern dialects of Scottish Gaelic than it does to Scotland's northern dialects. There are countless similar examples of comparison in the Gaelic world.\n\nYou can learn Gaelic from books and CDs, at least, it's a good way to start before you start forking out on summer colleges and the like to perfect your skills.\n\nThe BIGGEST question before you part with any cash and to avoid disappointment later is, which Gaelic do you want to learn? Your name is Riley. Are your family Irish? From where in Ireland? Do you want to learn modern standardised Irish Gaelic or can you pin-point where your family came/come from and maybe want to learn the local dialect if materials are available?\n\nThe first link below will put you in touch with a subscriber list which has a number of experts willing to help beginners begin and to dispense free advice on what you should begin with. Both their breadth of knowledge and their patience never cease to amaze me. It is also linked to Scottish Gaelic and Manx Gaelic lists if that is what you are looking for instead.\n\nThe second link is for Beo, an online Gaelic magazine, the best thing like it in the Irish Gaelic world.\n\nFinally, you are welcome to email me. I live in the Donegal Gaeltacht and have learned Gaels around me on every side.
374555
not hard not easy ...\n\nif u liked it much u will learn it ... so u must love it at first ...\n\nbut in general its easy ...just in side of vocal ..some how it hard but if u work good for it u will passe it ..\n\nand when u learn this language ..it will be so easy to you to learn spanish and italy....\n\nand by the way its good choice ...have good luck ..
667601
its not a nature of the language. its a cultural thing. an english speaking chinese would have possibly done the same thing, if u happen to get acquainted with him or her. as a matter of fact most polite people would probably get into small talk. a simple example is the way bussiness meetings are held, a lot of goofing around could happen
343372
No, I think you can take Chinese