language learning

[dichroic]

I'm am American, just about to leave the Netherlands after a year here to move to Taiwan for two years. I've very much enjoyed living here, but there are definitely some annoyances, like the very short shopping hours and having no freezer in our flat. I know those things will be much better in Taiwan - in fact, from what I've heard, most American

Comments

[savage_angel]

I dislike the short shopping hours here too... and the fact that only the major city centres are open on Sundays (except for koopzondags where they open in more cities). But, no freezer??? I have a freezer! :-P I find it difficult to learn Dutch though, just because when I do speak it people immediately hear that I'm not Dutch and they start speaking to me in English, that's the most frustrating thing I think about learning a new language... not being able to practice it.

Best of luck in Taiwan!

[mubeimmik]

Dutch is kicking my ass right now! How long have you lived in The Netherlands?

[claydust]

I met heaps of Peace Corps Volunteers in Thailand who spoke fairly good Thai.
And I've met several people here in Japan who thought it was easier to learn to speak Chinese than Japanese.

But really, it's going to be the writing/reading that's a bigger challenge.

Good Luck!

[homasse]

I studied Chinese for a year in college, and gave up after a year only because the characters were kicking my ass, not because of a problem speaking (oh, the irony--I live in Japan now studying Japanese full time, and my kanji/hanzi are really good), and I can still speak enough to tell my Taiwanese arch-nemesis to go to hell and understand well enough when he starts cussing me out in Chinese (our fighting has become so infamous even amongst the teachers

[dichroic]

Thanks. I'm actually not too scared of the tones - so far I can't hear them well enough to tell whether a word uses, say, tone 1 or tone 2, but I can hear them well enough to imitate pronunciation correctly. What's hard for me is remembering the words. Dutch was easy because so often even if I couldn't connect a word to a close English equivalent, there was often a related English word or an archaic one that was similar. In Mandarin I can't do that. Back in my years studying Hebrew, one teacher used to make up silly sentences to help us remember words; I suppose I can do that again if I have to.

[homasse]

Yeah, that makes it a LOT harder--there are very, very few words in common. One thing that helps me with Japanese, ironically enough, is the characters. It's easy to put a character with a meaning to remember them, and in Chinese, most of the characters have a phonetic component. It's a bit roundabout, but it gives you an extra visual clue to help with things

[dichroic]

Since I leave tonight, that won't quite work! We do have a listen and repeat book, but it hasn't been that easy to follow. (Cheap one I bought in an airport.) And we will be starting classes as soon as possible.

[mintblue]

It is difficult, but by no means impossible to pick up an Asian language. I'm Australian, and my Japanese is pretty good - not fluent, but close. It is also pretty much completely accentless - if I don't give my name, people on the phone with me think I'm Japanese.

If you have time to take Mandarin classes, you'll be giving yourself more of an advantage than someone who just tries to "pick it up".

I've only ever visited Taiwan once, but I really liked it when I was there. Good luck!

[aliceinfinland]

Yes, totally possible, I know people who've done it. The hardest part, beyond just putting in the slog to learn all those unfamiliar words and idiomatic patterns, is really imitating the pronunciation, getting yourself over the inhibition, not feeling like you are mocking people and it's wrong. You need to let yourself go and imitate so they can understand you, and the better you do it the more they will accept your speech and help you through the next step.