Why is Chinese so Hard to learn?

By Lareesha Khabatari, lk145@uakron.edu 

We all know that Chinese is difficult to learn but what is it that makes it so hard? Well, there are a multitude of reasons for this and it is especially confusing for the average English speaker. The language groups themselves vary extremely yet Chinese still seems somewhat challenging for people in the sinosphere as well.  But why? Well, the main reasons for Chinese being hard is that there is no alphabet, the tonal system, and no similarity with the Indo-European languages.

First of all, the alphabet system can be a giant hassle as there just isn’t one. If you look at other languages in the Sinosphere, they at least have an alphabet (ex: Japan’s 3 alphabets and South Korea’s alphabet; Hanguel). We are used to having letters and sounds that correspond with the letters. As early as Kindergarten, we have been learning phonetics from school and maybe even earlier from kid’s tv shows. This is not the case in China. They use a repetitive system where to memorize characters, they write it multiple times in thick textbooks. For the average American, this could be the biggest challenge because a single stroke can change the entire word’s meaning.

Next, the tonal system in not only Mandarin but the other dialects as well. One tone could be the different between mother and horse (mā vs mǎ). Not to mention, there are a bunch of dialects in China. Although Mandarin is the main dialect, there is Fuzhonese, Cantonese, Sichuanese, etc. Cantonese has 9 tones! In English, one word just means the one word no matter your accent which is the complete opposite. The tones even sometimes act as a deterrent for most people. The pronunciation can be difficult as well and even if you do master it, if you go to a different area, you might not understand the locals’ dialects at all!

Finally, we have no shared words or any similarity with Chinese. An example is Spanish, we share many words or at least similar pronunciations for them. Even in the Sinosphere, the languages vary by a lot. Japanese sounds completely different from Chinese despite sharing many characters with each other. You’d think Japanese would be more difficult to grasp by them having 3 alphabets but you couldn’t be more wrong. The pronunciation is very similar to English; going as far as to share some same words in Katakana. But Chinese is just a whole different rodeo with all the memorization.

In conclusion, Chinese is not easy to learn but do not take this as a deterrent but more of a challenge. You can learn Chinese but just be sure to be aware of the differences and be sure you are ready. It will take a long time but by the end, it is very fulfilling! Not to mention how impressive it is. Wouldn’t you be more surprised by someone knowing English and Chinese rather than English and Spanish?