The joys and frustrations of learning Chinese

I’m again sitting at home staring at my Chinese book wondering what do all of these strange scribbles on my book mean. I supposedly have learned all the characters, yet I always find it very hard to remember them when I see them anywhere outside of the original school book text. Those of you who have studied Chinese would know the additional challenge that a pictographic script adds to learning a language. I have discovered an entirely new world of “not understanding” or “partially understanding a language”

1. 1I do not know this word, I do not know how to write it and I do not know what tone it is.
2. 2I know what this word means and I can write it in pinyin, but I struggle remembering the correct tone (can often result in a completely different word) and I have no idea what the character for this looks like.
3. 3I know this word, I can pronounce it correctly with the correct tone but I can’t recognise or write the character (because I’ve never seen it).
4. 4I can recognise this character, and I know what it means but I have no idea how to pronounce it. (For example, this happens when you have seen a character in sign at a shop– but don’t know what the pronunciation is or how to write it either in pinyin or the character)
5. 5I know the word, can pronounce it and can recognize the character when I see it but I would not be able to write it unless I had a model.
6. 6I know the word, I can pronounce it, recognize and write the character. Unfortunately I still have very few characters that I can put in this group!

Add to the above idiomatic expressions  and grammar and you know why many people find studying Chinese frustrating. I’ve been told that Chinese grammar is easy – although I wouldn’t call it extremely difficult I don’t think it’s easy for speakers of European languages. Interestingly enough I personally find it often easier thinking about the English translation of Chinese than Finnish. Finnish language structure is just in its own league. I am yet to learn a language that resembles my mother tongue even remotely!

Despite the frustrations I still find Chinese language interesting.  The characters may be difficult but they are also beautiful. Writing has been one of the most enjoyable activities for me (a task that divides the opinions of many Chinese learners – some love it whilst others absolutely hate the scribbles). I am pleased that I have another 4 weeks to study and 2 weeks to travel in China, yet I know I will also be happy to complete my three and a half months here. I will want to continue studying Chinese yet I want to do it at a slightly less intense pace.

One fo the most enjoyable activities is writing Chinese characters. I can't recognise them - but I love writing them. Hence my character practise notebook has lines and lines of neatly drawn characters - and it isn't even part of my homework. I just like doing it whenever I can find the time. Putting it into practise is somewhat more challenging and my attempts at short dialogues or stories for class always end up coming back with multiple correction suggestions from my teacher (on the right). A long way to go to mastering this language - but it is a good start!