How Difficult Is It for International Students To Learn Chinese?

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“Dui bu qi wo de zhongwen buhao.” (Sorry, my Chinese is terrible.)

Do you also religiously use this phrase to avoid all potential conversations in Chinese? Is Chinese really so complicated to study? Should I even study Chinese? Will I be ever able to learn Chinese in my lifetime?

Chinese is one of the most challenging languages to master, and tere is a lot of anxiety out there when it comes to learning it, but is it impossible to learn?  How difficult is it for international students to learn Chinese?

As an international student myself, I have been learning the language for the past year, and one thing I can say is that it is not easy but it is exciting!

I decided to interview a few international students,  as well as an experienced Chinese teacher teaching international students in Beijing! Are you excited to see their responses? Without further ado, let’s dive straight away into the interesting responses.

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I asked the same questions to everyone:  How long have you been learning Chinese and how difficult do you think is it for international students like you to learn Chinese? What are the difficult and interesting aspects of the language?

Lorenz Hoffmann, age 17, Grade 11, German School of Beijing: I began to learn Chinese two and a half years ago. And it’s a mess! Chinese is a language that is not influenced by the central European culture area. As a German, it’s a completely new system. Learning languages requires a general understanding of the style (grammar) of that language. That makes Chinese even more complicated. Not to mention the hanzi, the characters.

Sunni, age 17, Grade 12, International School of Beijing: It has been around a year and a half since I started learning Chinese. Out of all the languages I learned, I felt like learning Chinese was the hardest (but that might be because I just started learning). But the good thing about Chinese is that the grammar structure is similar to that of English. For me, I find having a conversation in Chinese the hardest because of the different tones and word patterns.

Paul, age 16, Grade 12,  German School of Beijing: I’ve been learning Chinese for a bit more than two years, since we decided to move to Beijing. When we were still in Germany, I learned online. Now I have Chinese in school. Of the languages I’ve learned so far, Chinese grammar is the easiest, while vocabulary, characters, and pronunciation are by far the most difficult. Overall, I’d say Chinese probably takes a lot of effort and is the most difficult, but it’s a lot of fun too, especially when I’m able to understand something in everyday life.

American student, age 17, International School of Beijing: I’ve been learning Mandarin Chinese for five years. As a native English speaker, I think it’s a pretty difficult language to learn, because of all of the different characters to learn. I also struggle a lot with tones, but I find that I can still communicate alright without fully using them (even if I end up sounding like a robot or a broken violin). Despite Chinese’s difficulty, I do appreciate its grammar! Compared to English, its grammar is relatively simple, and definitely a lot more consistent. This made sentences a lot easier to construct when I was a beginner, without having to worry about conjugations, cases, or articles. Then again, as I continued learning Chinese, I found that there were a lot of more subtle grammar rules that are difficult to explain in English. Some examples are the different meanings of “了,” or how Chinese has aspects, but not tense. So, overall, I would say Chinese is pretty difficult to learn, because of the characters, pronunciations, and grammar.

As an experienced Chinese teacher teaching international students, What do you think are the areas where students do well and the areas where they struggle to excel?

A Chinese teacher in an international school: My observation is that for international students living in China, it’s easier to make progress in listening and speaking than in reading and writing, mostly because they are immersed in the target language environment which enables them to better understand the context and communicate more effectively.

Any tips on how international students living in Beijing can overcome the language difficulty and learn Chinese better?

As long as they are willing, there are many opportunities to practice using the language in real life. With the use of apps such as Didi, Weixin, Meituan, Taobao, etc., students can also practice reading in authentic scenarios. Another opportunity is the road signs, shop signs, etc. Overall, the most difficult part is writing, simply because people don’t write much nowadays, and characters are more complicated to write. To improve, the most effective way is to practice. Using resources that show the stroke orders would help. Taking calligraphy lessons is also a way to appreciate and understand the characters.

Overall, the responses were great and optimistic! So, yes, there are some areas where international students generally struggle, but with the right amount of practice and interest, one can learn the language efficiently. To all those who are or who will be learning Chinese, I will say only one thing: “Jiayou 加油!” (“Come on, you can do it!”)

Images: Unsplash

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