Do you think German is more difficult than Chinese?
Do you think German is more difficult than Chinese?
Is that a serious question? Given that Chinese is a tonal language, and its characters are immensely complex, I guess it's infinitely more difficult than German, even if your native language is not Indo-European.
Actually I don't think German is that difficult at all - that's just a myth the Germans are fond of. *g*
Actually I don't think German is that difficult at all - that's just a myth the Germans are fond of. *g*
How can you compare these two languages in terms of difficulty?
What a silly question! How old are you? 10?
What a silly question! How old are you? 10?
anyway from a grammatical, morphological point of view German but also Russian, French, Spanish are light years more complicated than Chinese.
anyway from a grammatical, morphological point of view German but also Russian, French, Spanish are light years more complicated than Chinese.
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That is a percipient obaservation!
Chinese grammar is pretty much like English grammar.
If you think English grammar is easy, then Chinese grammar is equally easy!
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That is a percipient obaservation!
Chinese grammar is pretty much like English grammar.
If you think English grammar is easy, then Chinese grammar is equally easy!
Leonora Sun Jan 11, 2009 1:08 pm GMT
Is that a serious question? Given that Chinese is a tonal language, and its characters are immensely complex, I guess it's infinitely more difficult than German, even if your native language is not Indo-European.
Actually I don't think German is that difficult at all - that's just a myth the Germans are fond of. *g*
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Yak. This is a serious question.
Chinese just has a different writing system, its grammar is infinitely easier than German.
Is that a serious question? Given that Chinese is a tonal language, and its characters are immensely complex, I guess it's infinitely more difficult than German, even if your native language is not Indo-European.
Actually I don't think German is that difficult at all - that's just a myth the Germans are fond of. *g*
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Yak. This is a serious question.
Chinese just has a different writing system, its grammar is infinitely easier than German.
For an IE speaker used to conjugations , genders and such the simplicity of Chinese grammar may end up resulting difficult. They surely are more comfortable with German.
It's not such a silly question. Once you pick up the tones in Chinese, they come naturally - and Chinese has no adjectival endings, cases or verb conjugations...
Well, I don't know Chinese grammar, but I imagine the very concept of different tones conveying different meanings must be *extremely* difficult to master for anyone whose native language isn't tonal.
German, on the other hand, is easy to pronounce and pretty straightforward, once you've learned the grammar. I've heard that it's much easier than English or Italian, because it doesn't have as many exceptions - I'm not sure whether that's really the case.
German, on the other hand, is easy to pronounce and pretty straightforward, once you've learned the grammar. I've heard that it's much easier than English or Italian, because it doesn't have as many exceptions - I'm not sure whether that's really the case.
More difficult for who/whom? Are you Chinese, Shuimo? You sound like a Chinese language promoter. You'll have to duke it out with Tom because he's an English language/English only promoter.
Back to the question-
The "difficulty" of German or Chinese is subjective-it depends on the person who is learning the language, what languages (s)he speaks already and the person's interest in the culture and language.
I don't find either Mandarin or German to be difficult. I'd say they are "so-so", kind of intermediate in difficulty, but only if you already know Japanese characters and English (because it shares about sixty percent in vocabulary, I think.)
For regular, normal learners (not crazed polyglots), I'd say that most IE speakers would find German easier.
The trick to learning Mandarin is looking at it directly and seeing that there are three areas to consider as new territory.
These areas are the tonal aspect ( I don't think it is so bad, but some people disagree with me.) of Mandarin, the hours one needs to put in to learn the characters, and the fact that there isn't much in the way of "free" vocabulary/cognates.
This means that you have to think and remember actively, no words like "das Boot" for boat and no sentences like "Ich habe ein Buch." for, oh heck, I don't even need to tell you that one.
What the learner gets is the fun of seeing what all those pictographs are all about and maybe the joy of hearing something beautiful like a poem being read while seeing beautiful calligraphy. I can only think that it is like the joy of hearing a good recording of a Bach piece while looking at the score.
You are feeding your gray matter a gourmet meal, but you could also do that with Goethe who wrote wonderful things.
So, at first glance it seems like an obvious question, but it isn't.
Back to the question-
The "difficulty" of German or Chinese is subjective-it depends on the person who is learning the language, what languages (s)he speaks already and the person's interest in the culture and language.
I don't find either Mandarin or German to be difficult. I'd say they are "so-so", kind of intermediate in difficulty, but only if you already know Japanese characters and English (because it shares about sixty percent in vocabulary, I think.)
For regular, normal learners (not crazed polyglots), I'd say that most IE speakers would find German easier.
The trick to learning Mandarin is looking at it directly and seeing that there are three areas to consider as new territory.
These areas are the tonal aspect ( I don't think it is so bad, but some people disagree with me.) of Mandarin, the hours one needs to put in to learn the characters, and the fact that there isn't much in the way of "free" vocabulary/cognates.
This means that you have to think and remember actively, no words like "das Boot" for boat and no sentences like "Ich habe ein Buch." for, oh heck, I don't even need to tell you that one.
What the learner gets is the fun of seeing what all those pictographs are all about and maybe the joy of hearing something beautiful like a poem being read while seeing beautiful calligraphy. I can only think that it is like the joy of hearing a good recording of a Bach piece while looking at the score.
You are feeding your gray matter a gourmet meal, but you could also do that with Goethe who wrote wonderful things.
So, at first glance it seems like an obvious question, but it isn't.
<<You are feeding your gray matter a gourmet meal, but you could also do that with Goethe who wrote wonderful things. >>
Or Freud, for example.
Or Freud, for example.
>>I've heard that it's much easier than English or Italian, because it doesn't have as many exceptions - I'm not sure whether that's really the case.
Interesting question. Can I say grammatical regularity also exists along with phonetic, verb regularity, etc? Globally, it's only a matter of different forms. The only concern is related languages may be compared more easily in terms of both vocab and grammar.
Interesting question. Can I say grammatical regularity also exists along with phonetic, verb regularity, etc? Globally, it's only a matter of different forms. The only concern is related languages may be compared more easily in terms of both vocab and grammar.
That question should have been formulated more clearly since one's language background can make a difference when learning.
In my case none are difficult because I'm a native speaker of an European language and already knew English when I started learning German. As for Chinese, I learned it after reading and writing in Japanese, which means I had to learn the tones in Mandarin and then learn the Chinese readings for the characters I already knew in Japanese in addition to learning some characters not used in Japanese.
In terms of grammar Chinese is very simple since there are no verb conjugations, genders, distinction of singular/plural and the structure is basically SVO, which means a speaker of an European language can simply
arrange the words like in his/her language.
Ex. I study Chinese （我学习中文), I am Brazilian (我是巴士人），I live in Japan （我住在日本), Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),etc...
I might have messed up some sentences but I guess people will understand me if I stick with this pattern.
谢谢您门！
In my case none are difficult because I'm a native speaker of an European language and already knew English when I started learning German. As for Chinese, I learned it after reading and writing in Japanese, which means I had to learn the tones in Mandarin and then learn the Chinese readings for the characters I already knew in Japanese in addition to learning some characters not used in Japanese.
In terms of grammar Chinese is very simple since there are no verb conjugations, genders, distinction of singular/plural and the structure is basically SVO, which means a speaker of an European language can simply
arrange the words like in his/her language.
Ex. I study Chinese （我学习中文), I am Brazilian (我是巴士人），I live in Japan （我住在日本), Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),etc...
I might have messed up some sentences but I guess people will understand me if I stick with this pattern.
谢谢您门！
J.C. Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:50 am GMT
《That question should have been formulated more clearly since one's language background can make a difference when learning.》
I agree with you there!
<<In my case none are difficult because I'm a native speaker of an European language and already knew English when I started learning German. As for Chinese, I learned it after reading and writing in Japanese, which means I had to learn the tones in Mandarin and then learn the Chinese readings for the characters I already knew in Japanese in addition to learning some characters not used in Japanese.>>
Your language learning experience sounds quite impressive! I really wonder
what has motivated you learn these languages. Are you a lover of foreign language learning?
<<In terms of grammar Chinese is very simple since there are no verb conjugations, genders, distinction of singular/plural and the structure is basically SVO, which means a speaker of an European language can simply
arrange the words like in his/her language.>>
That is true! The basic sentence structure of both English and Chinese is SVO, which is very much in agreement with the natural way we construe the world. I don't think any other European language can bear such a close likeness as English in relation to Chinese.
<<Ex. I study Chinese （我学习中文), I am Brazilian (我是巴士人），I live in Japan （我住在日本), Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),etc...
I might have messed up some sentences but I guess people will understand me if I stick with this pattern.>>
<I am Brazilian (我是巴士人）.>
Brazilian is not 巴士人, it should be 巴西人
<Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),>
Chinese grammar is easy. It should be put thins way: 中文的语法很容易。
The word 是 in the sentence 中文的文法是容易 is absolutley unnecessary, and sounds extremely awkward. If you insist on adding 是,then you must add 的 at the end of the sentence. LOL
<<谢谢您门！>>
您 in Chinese is never used in a plural sense together with 们。
The word expressing plural sense is 们, not 门。
Best luck to your learning of Chinese!
Happy 牛 year! (*^__^*)
《That question should have been formulated more clearly since one's language background can make a difference when learning.》
I agree with you there!
<<In my case none are difficult because I'm a native speaker of an European language and already knew English when I started learning German. As for Chinese, I learned it after reading and writing in Japanese, which means I had to learn the tones in Mandarin and then learn the Chinese readings for the characters I already knew in Japanese in addition to learning some characters not used in Japanese.>>
Your language learning experience sounds quite impressive! I really wonder
what has motivated you learn these languages. Are you a lover of foreign language learning?
<<In terms of grammar Chinese is very simple since there are no verb conjugations, genders, distinction of singular/plural and the structure is basically SVO, which means a speaker of an European language can simply
arrange the words like in his/her language.>>
That is true! The basic sentence structure of both English and Chinese is SVO, which is very much in agreement with the natural way we construe the world. I don't think any other European language can bear such a close likeness as English in relation to Chinese.
<<Ex. I study Chinese （我学习中文), I am Brazilian (我是巴士人），I live in Japan （我住在日本), Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),etc...
I might have messed up some sentences but I guess people will understand me if I stick with this pattern.>>
<I am Brazilian (我是巴士人）.>
Brazilian is not 巴士人, it should be 巴西人
<Chinese grammar is easy (中文的文法是容易),>
Chinese grammar is easy. It should be put thins way: 中文的语法很容易。
The word 是 in the sentence 中文的文法是容易 is absolutley unnecessary, and sounds extremely awkward. If you insist on adding 是,then you must add 的 at the end of the sentence. LOL
<<谢谢您门！>>
您 in Chinese is never used in a plural sense together with 们。
The word expressing plural sense is 们, not 门。
Best luck to your learning of Chinese!
Happy 牛 year! (*^__^*)