How many years would it take someone to learn any Chinese language?

8 Comments

1. CyRaX says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   you can learn alot in 1 year or less. it just depends how much you study or hang around the chinese speakers…
2. Andrei S says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   depends how fast of a learner you are?
3. Colin says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   Depends on how much time you spend on it. If you’re taking it as a school subject, then maybe 3-4 years when you get proficient and maybe fluent. But if you’re taking an intensive course, then maybe 1-2 years.
4. Boli Loquita says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   Why didn’t you just type all these into one question or post in the China section?

   Now it looks like you’re spamming.

   Anyways, when I started to learn Chinese I found it difficult. I’ve studied hanzi as long as I’ve studied Japanese, and trust me, I am far from proficient.
5. Hongjing L says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   It all depends. Generally speaking, it takes several years to have a masterly command of a language with painstaking hard work. There are different dialects in Chinese, so it is more difficult. If you are in a place where people speak these dialects, you can master the language more quickly.

   Answer from Jennifer Zhu, Professional Chinese Teacher from http://www.eChineseLearning.com
   Live Teachers from China!
6. Elena S says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   5,000 words — at least 5 years…
   two hundreds of phrases and a confident look can be obtained wothin a year…
7. HQ& says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   To master it? from what you describe I would give it 6 years. You’ll eventually have to immerse your self in the culture.
8. Kebab Chef says:

   October 22, 2009 at 4:43 pm

   When you say "learn", I’m assuming you’re wanting to have a good enough hold on Chinese to do better than just getting by. Being semi-fluent means you have a functional comprehension of at least 65% in the conventional range of that language, while fluent would be anything greater than 80%. If you don’t have the time to learn a language properly, and you’re after something quick and easy, then you’re probably headed towards disappointment. The best method to getting as far as you can get in the shortest period of time is called the “3 step”. The first step is to complete a FULL Pimsleur (MUST BE PIMSLEUR) course. Listen to each lesson at least 2 times, taking notes the first time with new vocabulary and studying before listening the second time. The 2nd step is to form a list of the 3,000 most commonly used words/vocabulary in English, to also include the eight parts of speech (verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections), which you can search the web for. Once you’ve formed the list, you need to find accurate generic-translations, which you can apply to most common case scenarios of that language(definatley the most challenging part of all this).Once that’s done, make flash cards or whichever method works best for you in memorizing vocabulary, but try to include each word in a sentence, in addition to just the new word and it’s meaning. After you’ve memorized all that, the 3rd step is to locate 4 movies that are preferably some kind of Disney movie, or anything of a slower pace. Childrens movies seem to work best for this. Watch the movie in the language you’re trying to learn with good, quality English subtitles. Watch ONLY these same 4 movies continuously as much as possible, to the point where you know what’s going to be said next. Try to plan completing each step in this order, exactly as described within a time-frame of about 8-10 months. When you’re done, you should be somewhere in the range of “semi-fluency”, at the point where learning after the “3 step” is quick and easy, and being close to fluent after 2 years of using it everyday, and learning at least an additional 100 new vocabulary words a month during that time. You’ll thank me when you’re done!