Learning Chinese Language as a White Person
 

:suspicious:

So i've began to learn mandarin and decided to take on this new language given that it helps out fitting into the new vancouver culture.

I've given up on trying on trying to lean the symbols for now as I started to realize there are 6000+?

But as a start I do want to learn both mandarin and cantonese.

Question would be is... it easier to learn mandarin then cantonese after?

Do you think there any guidelines that would help learn the language faster?


:considered:

More like 50,000 characters but you probably only need to know 2000 to read a book. The characters are words, you don't need to know every single English word to read a book. Same with Chinese.

I'd like to learn to read Chinese one day... hahaha.. I was born in China, raised in Vancouver. Can speak Cantonese but totally illiterate, I know numbers up to 3 and I wouldn't recognize my own name...

source books with hanyu pinyin (the romanized phonetic system from mainland China)

traditional characters with pinyin is probably the way to go for Westerners

Mandarin will be more useful in Vancouver

For many non-Chinese speakers, Mandarin is probably easier to learn than Cantonese -- it's 4 "sounds" in Mandarin vs 9 "sounds" in Cantonese. Additionally, in terms of learning and structure, there is probably a more organized and cohesive structure in Mandarin learning material than Cantonese learning material.

As a language, however, I'd have to say Cantonese is a more lively language, with descriptive words that come in more variety, is more accurate / specific, more to the point, etc. But because of this liveliness, it is probably also a little more difficult to pick up the more current trendy terms.

Culturally speaking, I consider simplified Chinese characters to be absolutely nothing short of blasphemous. While not all characters are simplified, many of the ones that have been simplified have completely lost the meaning and elegance of the word itself. For example, the word "love" in Chinese is written as "愛" in traditional character, and "爱" in simplified character. In the traditional character, the character "心" forms part of the word for love -- the Chinese character is able to capture the essence that to "love" someone, you need to use your "heart". But in the simplified character, that "heart" part has been stripped out from the character. So from a literary point of view, WTF is "love" when there is no "heart" in it?

I really appreciated this explanation.

i'm a native mandarin speaker who learned traditional characters using Bopomofo...i'm also semi-fluent in another dialect
then later learned pinyin after becoming fluent in English

tbh for the average person who just wants to learn an additional language efficiently, simplified may actually be the more productive choice

but if you're gonna do history, calligraphy, or going for the cultural impact, then traditional

i'm banking on my now limited knowledge of traditional characters for picking up kanji when I finally try learning Japanese down the road

good luck and have fun either way...sinographs/Chinese is apparently the hardest language to pick up

Diu Lay No Mo, Poke Guy, Ham Gar Chang, Chow Height.

Every white people begins with these Cantonese wordings.

learn pinyin fairly well and you'll have learnt enough to get by.

Are you trying to fuel your yellow fever ? Fucking yaletown is full of white guys and Asian girls already hahhaah

This is a no brainer. Learn Mandarin. Cantonese is useless now as it's only really applicable in Hong Kong and Guangdong province. Mandarin is Guo you (country's language) and spoken across China in every province. Not only that, it's also good in Taiwan and Singapore.

Writing wise simplified is easier but Chinese is Chinese. It all involves memorizing a bunch of words. Grammar for Chinese isn't very complicated but it's the memorization that kills the learning of the language.

A+ to OP for trying to learn a new language.

you can be like this guy

When I was in Grade 1, my next door neighbour/best bud was white.
One day he was whining and complaining to his dad because I had Chinese school two days per week, so he had no one to play with on those days.
Couple weeks later, our Chinese teacher introduces this kid to the class as a new student. At the time I thought it was hilarious. He lasted longer than I thought though, and actually did the homework we were assigned.

Wtf man. I learned numbers from playing MJ lol

My name is pronounced BUN JAO!


:troll:

BANG A FOB

KUAI DIAN KUAI DIAN WO LAI LE WO LAI LE

NI DAI TAO LE MA , WO MEIYOU

TA MA DE NI DE SHA BI

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

rip life

You know how the fuckers in Richmond talk with the "herrow" accented engrish, this guy's got the English version of that accent for both Cantonese and Mandarin. Hahahah props though!!!

Chinese people are always very accommodating and surprised if a white guy speaks some mandarin or Cantonese. . How come no white people ever seems surprised when I speak fluent English :suspicious:

I mean I am learning some Español right now and there are a good number of Chinese people in the class. Makes sense, since the 3 most popular languages in the world are English, Mandarin and Spanish.

Just learn whatever language you want, man.

becuz english is international language lol.............also cuz u dont live in china, i get a lot of white guys surprise and not just with my english lol

u pretty my much just have to use it more when it comes to speaking, get the speaking on lock first cuz without proper (or decent) pronouncation, pinyin could be a little tricky (words that start with X is an example)

i say that cuz im english speaking when it comes to pronouning words and that does effect my typing (especially when i sound out words and realize my pronouncation is not actuate)

i can speak canto and mando well as im mix chinese, but i never really learn to read and write, i live in china now and i practice everyday by using it (i would even type in chinese to my family members when they type in english, my dad was one of them)

a good trick i use a lot is have a translator app handle for when i have trouble with some of the words and after i translate the word, i would look at the pinyin to see where or what i did wrong (aka look for my mistake)

i still cant write (besides my own name) but i can do simple regular conversations in chinese typing and i have been back for 7 years or so (progress has been very very slow on my end)

hope this helps

heard that only 70% of asian people can write in their own language..

well that's quite the confident boost :fuckthatshit:

i'll stick with it for a year, pinyin and speaking... symbols will take a raincheck for now

Get the writing down and the rest is easier.

I can read and write moderately well but that's because I took Chinese school at an early age. I'm shanghainese so that means I got shanghainese floating around in my head, followed by mandarin and lastly the TVB my wife and her family blasts into my brain is all Cantonese. Now I'm fluent in all this garbage and none of it helps my professional career.

Learn to read and write. The rest is a cake walk.

Sidebar: don't want your kids to have a fobby accent? Send them to Edmonton for grade 1-2 with a Catholic elementary school. Those mean ass nuns beat the English into you and expelled all the fobbyness in 2 years guaranteed !!!

Key Language Training - Mandarin Chinese Classes Vancouver | Mandarin Chinese Courses and Tutoring - friends mom runs this mandarin school and they teach different variety of lessons, check them out

out the pan into the fire....Move to China and learn from the locals you meet....i swear if you hang around them enough you will catch on,Right?.

If you guys are female Caucasian and can speak/understand fluently Cantonese and Mandarin, very good skill that is worth a lot of money.

E.g. My receptionist at work studied in Asia for many years and fluently can speak/understand, one of my coworkers friend does international business, offered to hire my receptionist for over 6 digit salary to go with him to meetings when he deals with Asian clients (executive assistant/secretary in disguise). Using her to eaves drop into what they are negotiating and saying, because clients will think she only speaks English.

My reception flat out said no, must be stupid? Rather be working a $40K job sitting at the front desk.........

Or just come to Richmond hahaha

learning swearing words is a "MUST" and the "FIRST" thing to learn

LOL six figures to eavesdrop on "Asian clients". Sounds like she's going to be doing a lot more than that if ya know what I mean...:ifyouknow: