If you learn Chinese....

Hey....

Me again! hehe.

I decided to tell you about the kind of problems (and of course, the advantages -remember to face both sides of the mirror hehe-) you may face when you are learning Chinese (this is specially true if your native language uses the "normal" alphabet system).

First of all, the Chinese language is based on precedent drawings, inspired at the nature itself or representations of this. Many (mainly the most basic and common meaning ones) are just like "pictures" of the object they are mentioning.

This system most of the time (75% or more) DOESN'T relate with the sound! Maybe some people will start saying ufff such a nightmare! But, being honest one of the most studied and popular languages in the world nowadays has this same condition and I'm using it right now!

People who speak languages like the Latin ones (I don't know if others, but you can tell me if you are familiar with those) may feel terrible about this, since Spanish for example, the way you write is the way you read and viceversa, that really makes things easier, even when we conjugate verbs and have female and male terminations, I know!!!! hehe. And not forget to mention the tones... depending of which one you use, out of 4, the words change dramatically in meaning. Just for example if you pronounce ma like asking it's a horse, but if you say it like chanting melodiously an keeping a high tone is mother. And angry, quickly is a bad word!

Passing these points I would say some of the good things about learning Chinese, it really opens you a world of new possibilites, like a new way of ordering the semantics in your head, usually you would put all the birds together, or all the I don't know colours, things to do, hobbies, etc in groups, but in chinese the radicals, (part of the "picture", character naming one meaning by itself but put together in the whole set) can give you another grouping way. This reorganizes your mind, helping you to avoid becoming stagnant and old in your mind ways hehe.

Another thing is this one... I love it!!!

When you are a child, what can you remember first? One picture of the sun that like a circle with rays or like a typical moon? Or can you read the word "sun, sol, soleil..." properly?

Well, I think with Chinese even a 1 year old baby could start reading very soon! Because it's very accesible. You look at the picture and you can figure it out (not always but maaany times!) the meaning is representing! Or how the combination of two or more in a new character makes another new meaning...

Now, this days, what problems I'm facing? The usual ones of any other learner hehe, plus the fact that I'm learning sometimes translations to English or to Spanish and that makes a whole mixture inside my brain hehehe.. Funny one indeed, hehe! Sometimes it helps me to speak different languages in advance, even French because there are similarities... yes!

Well, sometimes I can recognize the pronounciation but I can remember the writing or viceversa hehe! The worst haha it's when i can see it, i know the meaning but I can't say it or rewrite it by myself, without looking. This problem, dear learners don't you worry, many times, even the Chinese people face it hehe... So it's ok! Just part of the fun hehe.

Wish me luck, I have dictation and I feeling my head bit crazy since today I achieved the #200 character in my list haha..

If you want more information about this, I think there are several sites in the internet... Here, one... http://home.wangjianshuo.com/archives/20070624_chinese_characters.htm

(A blog that by the way had inspired me, helped me and I strongly recommend hehe! Specially talking about Shanghai and surrounding areas).