So, Who speaks Chinese?

[DanKearney]

Well, I've been married to a Chinese girl for about 6 years now. Been to China 5 or 6 times since 2005. I spent some time getting a little tutoring in Mandarin, but only used Pinyin, I didn't learn any characters. Since I work at a university, I decided to take advantage of that and I enrolled in the beginning Mandarin class this semester.

It's killing me!

It's a 5 semester hour class, so I expected a little more effort, but this is ridiculous. Class 4 days a week, listening comprehension and writing every night, and weekend tasks to complete. The biggest problem I'm having is that I can easily understand everything the professor speaks in class; I can formulate answers in Mandarin, and I can pretty much recognize every character we've learned so far when I am reading.

The big problem is that when I sit down to write, I can't remember how to write 95% of the characters I've painstakingly practiced writing every night at home. It's driving me nuts.

So, to make a long whine even longer. How many of you folks living in China are fluent in reading and writing Mandarin (Not to mention the endless dialects out there)? Up till now I've relied on my wife to be my translator, and it's worked OK, but the day is going to come when I won't have her around as I travel.

We're going to (eventually) "retire" to China in a few years. Am I unnecessarily beating myself with this attempt to become literate, or can one live nicely without more than a few phrases?

Cheers,

Dan K.

[lobotomous]

Hi Dan, Greetings from Beijing.
I can't speak for others, but like you I struggled for years without being able to recognise a single character. Being dyslexic is an additional nightmare I have to cope with.
My breakthrough came when I discovered the Heisig book - Remembering Simplified Hanzi - it is a series of standardised mnemonics designed specifically for adult readers. This, and using a flashcard app on the iphone has enabled me to start learning and remembering much more efficiently.
Most people seem to agree that the first 50-100 characters are painful. After that it all comes a little easier.

[DanKearney]

Lobotomous (Nice name. . .),

Thanks for the input. I looked up that author, and I'll check out the book. Of course, I have the added weight that my professor is Taiwanese and insists that during this first semester we must learn only traditional characters! I can't believe the number of strokes some of these characters require as compared to simplified. I'll get my hands on that book (There is a traditional version of the book) and see if it helps. Guess I just need to hang in there and hope for the best.

Cheers and 謝謝，

Dan K.

[Kennon]

hakka, catonese and a little understanding of mandarin but i cant reade simplified chinese writing Traditional all the way

[td_ref]

cant reade simplified chinese writing Traditional all the way

I don't think writing in traditional is essential. I learnt simplified at primary school, but also can read traditional writing with little effort (Don't know this would work for native-English speakers too).

Besides, Dan K, you were staying in mainland, you would need Simplified Chinese.

[slabo]

Hi Dan,
I think what you need is a flashcard program, but you don't need an iphone. There's a program called anki. You can download a shared deck that follows the Heisig book, but also, check out this >> http://backsla.sh/anki/panki
I think it's missing character stroke order and radicals, but I really like that it tests your listening, reading, writing, and comprehension using for each character you introduced.
Good luck.