On Learning Languages

I started learning Chinese at the beginning of this year, if I recall correctly. When you choose a language to learn, one might not think that a language as far removed from your mother tongue as it can get would be the best choice.

However, the fact that the language is so very different, I feel like I'm starting from a clean slate, and there's very little from my native English that can interfere with the almost grammar-less and tonal Chinese.

Learning Chinese is particularly enjoyable! I love learning the pronunciation, and the tones make it sound like you are singing as you speak. The abruptness and almost monosyllabic nature of it makes commands and short phrases easy to say quite quickly. For example, 不要 (Bùyào) or "don't want" can be said very, very quickly when one of your friends is trying to make you eat something you really hate! 不要不要不要不要不要! Compared with the contortions your tongue has to perform when speaking English quickly, it is most refreshing.

Character writing and reading is particularly challenging, but with each attempt at reading I become more and more fluid with my comprehension. Chinese grammar is incredibly different from English, and turns-of-phrase and the "way you just say things" makes translation from Chinese difficult, even with beginner texts.

Writing is a whole different story. Recognising a character is one thing, but reproducing it is another. Stroke order and proportion of the character are very important in making it legible.

Learning Chinese also opens you up to the world of Chinese and Taiwanese drama! I love the period dramas (eg, 还珠格格), but I try to watch some modern ones every now and then as the language is much more applicable and less 成语-filled.

Resources

• Chinese Grammar Wiki - fantastic resource for Chinese grammar points, organised in different levels (beginner to advanced)
• Memrise - great for learning new characters
• Mandaread - collection of articles and stories from around the internet with a fantastic translation/reading aid tool built in to the site
• Chinese Reading Practice - beginner to advanced texts with great translation and reading aid tools
• FluentU  - while no longer completely free, the subtitle overlay and subsequent vocabulary study from FluentU's videos is a fantastic learning tool
• Viki - Taiwanese and Chinese drama source ;)
• ZhongWen Popup Dictionary - a neat little Chrome extension that you can switch on and hover your cursor over unfamiliar characters while you browse the innernets

Alas, my language learning adventures are not limited to Chinese. At the coaxing of one of my friends, I've started learning German. From a language as far removed from English as it gets to one that is almost too similar! German grammar is very close to English (both being Germanic languages makes this an obvious point), except for the addition of gendered nouns and verb conjugations, that is. German is incredibly phonetic, and has a Roman alphabet to boot (shock!), so reading something like "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen" is not as far off a dream as reading "哈利·波特与魔法石".

German learning resources are very easy to find, but my favourite by far has been Duolingo. An interactive language-learning tutor and game website, I think I would call it. Very soon they will have more languages available. I'm crossing my fingers for Chinese!

再见 and Auf Wiedersehen!