17 Myths about learning Chinese

Millions of people all over the world learn Chinese as a foreign language. However, many people are still diverted from learning Chinese by stereotyping and misconception. This article explains why some common myths about learning Chinese should be forgotten. It is not much more complicated than any other language.

Myth (1):  You can attain high-level proficiency level in Chinese if you begin learning it at an early age

The truth is kids do not memorize Chinese characters easily and quickly as it is supposed. Many studies showed that adults learn even better than children under the same conditions.

Typically, it is asserted that older learner’s brain is less flexible. However, an adult’s ability to build strong motivation for the subject outweighs all the disadvantages. The main meaning behind this myth is that kids do not have all that knowledge about the complexity of Chinese. Just ignore it, and you will get the kids benefits.  

Myth (2): You need extraordinary memory skills to learn Chinese words

The truth is the difficulty of Chinese words appears to be overestimated. Every Chinese character has its significance and then used as a part of other words. For example, in English, there are words ‘mango’ and ‘apple.’

Letters used in both words have no purpose on their own. We just have to remember that it is written ‘m-a-n-g-o’ (not (m-n-g). In Mandarin, they say ‘芒果’ for mango and ‘苹果’ for apple. And ‘果’ means ‘fruit,’ so it is easy to get the meaning. You do not need to learn new characters every time you learn a new word. Learning around 150 most commonly used Chinese characters, a learner can use them as ‘building blocks’ for other words.

Furthermore, you will perhaps love the beauty of some words and how logical is their etymology. As a conclusion of this passage, a good memory is not something that you must possess. It is the Chinese language that helps to improve memory.

Myth (3): Due to the difficult tones it is impossible to sound like a native-Chinese

The truth is Chinese is a tonal language. Practicing Chinese four tones is essential, but pronunciation in any language requires practice, too.

The truth is that the number of syllables in Chinese is minimal. Some people think that every Chinese character has its pronunciation, and students have to learn an endless number of sound combinations. It is totally wrong.

Myth (4): Mandarin is totally different from other languages; there is nothing in common with European languages

The truth is the Chinese language has many unique features, but you will be surprised by some similar concepts. Basic grammatical terms are the same such as there are verbs, nouns, prepositions, adverbs, verbs, etc.

The structure of the sentences has much in common with other languages. Furthermore, some idioms and proverbs have a straight forward translation into English and Russian. And I am sure there are even more excellent examples in other languages.

Myth (5): It takes many years to be able to speak basic level Chinese

The truth is Chinese grammar is much simpler than most European languages. There are no genders like in French and German, articles like in English, and cases like in Russian.

The verb is not changed to show the tense. The time of the action is shown in the context.

Myth (6): Learning writing in Chinese is equal to learning calligraphy

The truth is calligraphy is an art, and people who are talented at it are quite rare even in China. These days, you do not need to learn writing with a brush. Many learners are satisfied with learning, just typing in Chinese on a computer.

It is easy to type with pinyin Romanization. It appears like a test with several answer options. You just insert a word in pinyin, and then you make the right choice, and the required character appears on the screen.

Myth (7): Living in China is required for learning Mandarin

The truth is, of course, it is always a good idea to practice what you have studied in daily life, but even if you have no such a possibility, you still can improve your Chinese skills. Learning through Skype and other similar social media tools are very helpful since you can be guided by a native speaker.

What important is that immersing yourself; in fact, immersing can cut down on the amount of time required for you to learn and gain fluency in Mandarin. It is not necessary for your travel to China in order to learn Mandarin. While it is excellent you dedicate some time learning Mandarin in China - it is still very much possible to learn the language through Chinese courses online.

Myth (8): Learning Chinese is a waste of time since it will never substitute English as a global language.

Truth: I am sure that English will hold its role as a global language, but anyway, the knowledge of Chinese gives you fantastic career opportunities.

In terms of business, China will remain the biggest market for years. Knowledge of Chinese is a great foundation, especially when paired with other skills such as design, computer science, business, engineering, etc.

Myth (9): You require to learn thousands of Chinese words

Chinese characters are the main reason why learning Chinese seems impossible. For people used to an alphabet, learn many Chinese characters, each with a different pronunciation, seems like a huge task. The number of Chinese characters used in daily life is surprisingly small.

By just three hundred characters, you can get by eating, shopping, and doing most of the daily tasks in China. Because of the way Chinese root characters associated with forming new characters and characters combine to form words, the more Chinese characters you learn, the easier it gets.

Writing Chinese is much easy than it used to be because of the technology. Instead of remembering all the strokes for each character, to write Chinese on a phone or computer, you just need to pinyin a simple tool writing Chinese words using the Latin alphabet.

Myth (10): Up to a certain the extent you can learn Chinese

This myth applies to all languages but is more prevalent among Chinese learners because of the language's reputation for being tough and complicated.

However, the truth is, you can learn any language at any age.

Myth (11): Courses are expensive

Enrolling yourself in a Chinese language course may not be very affordable. However, it is not very costly, like many people imagined it to be.

Myth (12) Mandarin learning Apps and Translation software all I need

Application and translation software does not make learning the Chinese language unnecessary. A language is more than just a bunch of letters and words. It is also about a particular country’s culture.

These are the things that applications and software cannot teach you. Communicating in Chinese is not as simple as knowing the right words.

To indeed be fluent in Chinese, you need to know the nuances of the Chinese people as well. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to build a meaningful and productive relationship with the Chinese people.

Myth (13): People want to learn a new language

Many people learn a new language because they desire to connect with other people. Whether it is professional, personal, or business reasons, we need to know the other person's language to communicate effectively.

By accepting the fact that you want to learn a new language to connect with other folks, you will understand that learning a new language is less about the language and more about other people. 

Myth (14): Learning Chinese is like, you can marry into it

There is a supposition that if you have a Chinese-speaking spouse, you will somehow automatically absorb the language.

The truth is there is a difference between teacher and spouse, especially when facing the stress and time pressures of everyday life. When children are on the scene, communication happens most quickly and efficiently possible, which means foreign language education does not occur.

Myth (15): The components of a Chinese character tell you what they mean, so memorization is not necessary

This is also a myth, and like many other myths, there is a grain of truth behind it. Sometimes there are indeed precise meanings in the characters, but drawing an association from the components to the meaning usually needs agile mental gymnastics that often have nothing to do with the character's actual etymology.

This topic gets complex, as historically Chinese linguists cannot agree about how even accurately to categorize the ways components relate to each other. And this does not even mention the worst part; each character has its tone that must be learned too.

Many characters have tone changes that occur according to meaning within context.  The bottom line is analyzing Chinese characters is useful, but it the end, you still have to learn it, along with the meaning and phonetic information.

Myth (16): Chines does not really have grammar

You probably have noticed that there are a lot of sources online that claim the Chinese language does not have grammar. This is far from the truth, and the Chinese language does have grammar. Chinese words do not change form.

You do not learn verb conjugation charts, so in that way, it is more straightforward. But in reality, words fit together in specific ways and do not fit together in other ways. That is grammar, and you have to learn it.

The reason why many people claim that the Chinese language does not have grammar because a lot of the grammatical features present in European languages and English do not exist in Chinese.

By grammatical features, I mean the following, tenses, cases, gender plural forms of nouns. The Chinese language has absolutely none of these. But do not be fooled, Chinese grammar is quite challenging and vast.

The deeper you dig into the Chinese language, the more grammar plays a role. It is quite reasonable to be able to speak basic, conversational Chinese without having studied much grammar because, at an elementary level, you do not need a lot of grammar to communicate.   

Myth (17): Your Chinese is so good

Of course, it is quite bad compared to native speakers. Folks that are learning French suffer from the opposite myth; no matter how efficiently you speak in French, the French people will be happy in telling you how awful your French language is.

The issue for Chinese is this; China has spent decades working on standardizing pronunciation. Without this standardization, it is nearly impossible for one person from one region to communicate with another person from another region verbally.

In the mountainous area, this problem can exist from one village to another. This is so much at the front of people’s minds that if you can speak words the way the government decided those words should be pronounced, you seem to have reached the pinnacle of Chinese learning.

If you can speak like a news anchor when you talk about the language, then your Chinese is so good.