Is Chinese Hard to Learn? Myths vs. Reality

Chinese is often considered a challenging language to learn, particularly for native English speakers. In fact, the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) of the United States Department of State ranks Chinese as a category 5 language, the most difficult language to learn. However, this is not necessarily the case. In this blog post, we will explore the reasons why Chinese is often considered challenging, and how to make it easier to learn.

The Challenges of Learning Chinese

There are many challenges to learning Chinese. Some of the most common challenges are:

• The writing system is complex and difficult to learn.
• The tones are difficult to master and understand.

However, these challenges are not insurmountable. With the right tools and resources, you can learn Chinese and overcome these challenges. I would argue that the main challenge is not the language itself, but the lack of resources, tools, and systems to learn. If you have the right tools and resources, you can learn Chinese and overcome these challenges and reach a decent level of proficiency in a reasonable amount of time.

This is not just driven by speculation, but by my personal experience. I spent a lot of time attending classes and studying Chinese, going in place, wasting time, or simply not progressing as fast as I would like. I have also seen firsthand the benefits of using the right tools and resources to learn Chinese.

The Right Tools and Resources

Let's consider the earlier difficulties that were identified in learning Chinese. They are firstly the writing system and secondly the tones. Let's address these challenges one by one.

Learning Characters

Learning characters in Chinese is the uphill battle. There are a lot of characters (though you may only need a subset for most interactions), they take time to learn, and are forgotten without practice. For this reason, I would recommend using a tool to help you learn characters and vocabulary.

From my personal experience, SRS (Spaced Repetition System) is the best way to learn characters. It is a system that helps you review characters and vocabulary at the most optimal time, and is forgotten without practice. For this reason, I would recommend using a tool to help you learn characters and vocabulary. We have a blog post about this here. Of course, HanyuGuide has an SRS system, and you can try our demo on the homepage. However, against my own commercial interest I would recommend you try as many tools as you need until you find one that clicks or make a plan for how you will use these tools. Typically thirty minutes or less per day is all that is needed to make significant progress.

It is worth noting that I believe HanyuGuide's active system is great particularly for beginners who need to pay attention to details (such as tones). I would of course recommend HanyuGuide generally, but I believe it is of particular value to motivated beginners.

Tones, Tones, Tones

The tones of Chinese are difficult to master and understand. They are used to indicate the pitch of a syllable. There are four tones in Chinese. My personal experience is that the tones are the most difficult part of learning Chinese because they aren't easily self-studied like characters. However, there are a few things that can help. Firstly, try and connect with a teacher or tutor who corrects your speech and is strict about it. iTalki is great for finding a teacher. Secondly, engage heavily in native content (TV, movies, music, etc.) and pay attention to the tones of the characters you are hearing. The Heavenly Path is a great resource for this.