Was it worth the time and effort? How did it affect your life in Taiwan?
Yes, it’s worth learning Chinese…unless you don’t mind signing legal documents that you can’t read or getting swindled.
It’s also easier to talk to people when you can communicate in their language.
Yes, it’s worth learning Chinese…unless you don’t mind signing legal documents that you can’t read or getting swindled.
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I’ve lived in Taiwan for 11 years, and I’ve never signed a “legal document” that wasn’t translated into English. As for getting “swindled”, sorry, hasn’t happened yet.
Well, that’s reciprocal, isn’t it? Anyway, I rarely talk to people I don’t know. They don’t interest me.
Yes, it’s worth learning Chinese…unless you don’t mind signing legal documents that you can’t read or getting swindled.
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I’ve lived in Taiwan for 11 years, and I’ve never signed a “legal document” that wasn’t translated into English. As for getting “swindled”, sorry, hasn’t happened yet.
Well, that’s reciprocal, isn’t it? Anyway, I rarely talk to people I don’t know. They don’t interest me.[/quote]
So for you was it worth while learning mando?
Yes, it’s worth learning Chinese…unless you don’t mind signing legal documents that you can’t read or getting swindled.
[/quote]
I’ve lived in Taiwan for 11 years, and I’ve never signed a “legal document” that wasn’t translated into English. As for getting “swindled”, sorry, hasn’t happened yet.
Well, that’s reciprocal, isn’t it? Anyway, I rarely talk to people I don’t know. They don’t interest me.[/quote]
Fuckin Jimi, always nailing it. :bravo:
What kind of ‘legal documents’ are people singing and getting swindled on? NDAs? Rep Agreements? Rental agreements? Work contracts? etc… And if they are important why are you signing them without a lawyer or a translated copy? That is reckless and stupid. This is not a language issue, it is a common sense one.
Regarding the putong-hua, I think most of us study for a while, get to a functional level (where we can handle our daily shit, chat with a cabbie, have a few Mandarin speaking friends, pick up chicks etc…) and then we basically curtail our studies and add to our Mandarin by picking things up as we go along. Sure we’d all love to be fluent but for most of us it isn’t a necessity, an asset of course, but a necessity…no.
[quote=“akikaki1”]
So for you was it worth while learning mando?[/quote]
Did you read my post?
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“akikaki1”]
So for you was it worth while learning mando?[/quote]
Did you read my post?[/quote]
Still wasn’t sure if you thought it was worthwhile lol.
The problem with learning mando in taiwan is that essentially its not essential you can speak it and therein is quintessentially your problem.
Besides mando f*cks up your english anyway.
Still i cant fathom not speaking and understanding mando and livin on the wan for say ten anos.
For me, yes, it was worth it. I love learning languages, and came to Taiwan just to become fluent in Mandarin.
It affected my life greatly – the ability to converse fluently with locals, the friendships I made in the process, the ability to read signs, packages and menus – all greatly improved my experience.
Well, it may have been more time than I was willing to invest in a single language but it has made my life in Taiwan easier in every way, since being able to maneuver independently, keep up with what happens around you by yourself and not depend on third parties “understanding” is priceless. Not easy, won’t be a fast return investment, but it works so far.
[quote=“jimipresley”][quote]
Yes, it’s worth learning Chinese…unless you don’t mind signing legal documents that you can’t read or getting swindled.
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I’ve lived in Taiwan for 11 years, and I’ve never signed a “legal document” that wasn’t translated into English. As for getting “swindled”, sorry, hasn’t happened yet.
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Good for you. Neither have I. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen. And what about mobile phone service contracts. Those aren’t legal documents?
Well, that’s reciprocal, isn’t it? Anyway, I rarely talk to people I don’t know. They don’t interest me.[/quote]
How would you know you won’t find someone interesting if you judge them as “not interesting” even before you talk to them?
@OP Learning a new language is a good thing. It may not be easy, but it’s worth it especially if it is the main language where you are living.
Nonsense. That’s what concubines are for. :aiyo:
I can detect the stench of ennui and mediocrity from a mile away. Anyway it’s a known fact that all interesting people speak English. I read it on wikipedia.
I have lived in Taiwan for 26 years, and have applied myself studiously to learning Chinese throughout my time here. I had attended evening classes in London to gain a basic grounding in the language before I came here.
I have spent countless thousands of hours working on my Chinese. I do not regret it at all, and never have regretted it. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t use more effective and efficient methods of acquiring it in the early years. If only I’d started off with the approaches that I now know to be most productive for me, I’m sure my brain could have absorbed the language far more quickly and effortlessly, particularly when I still had the language-absorption capacities of younger years.
For me, learning Chinese has always been an end in itself. I took it up for its own sake, primarily because I was fascinated by the aesthetic appeal of Chinese characters. It soon developed from a fascination into an obsession. Since then, it has been one of the core and defining purposes of my life. I reckon it’s as worthwhile a purpose as most any other. I still spend solid chunks of time, day in and day out, striving to develop my proficiency. I still have a lot to learn, and expect to go on keenly plugging away at it until I’m on my deathbed.
I could have done all sorts of things with the time I’ve spent on the Chinese. I could have used it to earn large amounts of money or to acquire all kinds of other skills, qualifications and knowledge. But I’m very glad that I used it as I did, and have no problem with the cost I’ve paid for the far-from-stellar progress I’ve attained thus far.
Although learning Chinese has been an end in itself for me, I have also gained very substantial side-benefits from it. It has certainly made my life in Taiwan much richer, easier and more satisfying, and it has provided me with the main tool with which I have earned my living for most of the past two decades. It has played a key role in my being able to arrange my circumstances to suit me as well as possible, including being able to work from home and maintain a reasonably flexible workload and work schedule.
However, if I hadn’t been so strongly motivated to master Chinese for its own sake, I might have a very different view about whether it was truly worthwhile and cost-effective to put so much time and effort into it. What has been right for me might not be right at all for someone else with different motivations, different goals in life, and a different personality.
But if anyone does enjoy learning/acquiring foreign languages, and is planning to live in Taiwan, I would heartily recommend that they make the huge commitment needed to learn Chinese deeply and well, including learning to read and write it (which are of paramount importance to me). Now, with all the great learning tools available on the internet, it is so much easier than it was when I started back in the 1980s. If you’re young enough when you start, you should be able to get at least as far as I have in half the time or less, and it’s hard to imagine that you wouldn’t feel well rewarded in myriad ways for having done so.
So far people who love studying languages think learning Mandarin was worthwhile, and the others don’t.
I love learning languages and found learning Mandarin was well worth it.
I could speak Mandarin and without speaking, my life would have been crap in Taiwan. I can’t read nor write, it didn’t affect me much coz the husband could.
I think DD’s post about sums it up for me: I have enough Mandarin to hold a basic conversation that doesn’t involve politics or celebrities, but I have plenty of other things I’d rather do with my time. And yes, what little time I put in was 100% worth it. I agree that being able to read and write adds greatly to the utility of the language, and I’d hate to be considered “illiterate”. Somehow, it’s nice to be able to read the signs that say “don’t park here” or “no dumping trash”. It gives you a sense of being ‘home’.
Omni, can you elaborate on the methods that “worked best for you”?
I’ve been here almost a decade and actually regret not putting the time in when I first arrived. As it stands at the moment, I’m okay with survival stuff but can’t really hold a basic conversation although I can often get the gist of what people are talking about.
We’ve had this discussion before a number of times. How can it not be worthwhile learning the language of the country you choose to live in? It’s infinitely rewarding to be able to communicate with the people you live amongst, even if that communication is often quite banal. Some people don’t/won’t/can’t learn the language for various reasons and that’s fine too. There’s enough English spoken in Taipei that you don’t need to.
I think it’s quite arrogant to live somewhere and not at least attempt to speak the local language. Yes, English is great and we all love it, but it’s extremely arrogant to expect everyone else to speak our language.
Yes, it is worthwhile to learn Mandarin. Chinese people are everywhere in the world and there is no stopping the spread of them. I find Mandarin/Cantonese especially useful while traveling in Southeast Asia. I feel more comfortable just asking a Chinese person. I also find speaking some form of Chinese is easier than trying to speak English. In Singapore, I just speak Chinese to cabs instead of Singlish.
For me, I find it easier to understand the cultural background of words/phrases when learning. I’ve found my ability to guess at words at words I don’t know has improved tremendously. Chinese isn’t a difficult language because of it’s complexity, it’s fairly simplistic and not very developed compared to English. Chinese is difficult because it’s the opposite of our systems and uses a ideographic writing system and has tones. What we use intonation for has to be built grammatically in Chinese.
For example: In China, parents only want boys, and they will only have girls after a few boys. 先 means ‘first’ and 生 means ‘born’, so therefore 先生 is ‘first-born’, which is ‘male’. The character 男 is a 田 (field) and a 力 (power) because men work in the field. The character 女 is a vagina.
I wish I made those types of realizations early on (or if my teachers had taught this way), and I would be 100% fluent by this point.
Hmm, I didn’t know that. No wonder why all my elementary teachers (all women) never explained the resemblance of that character 