Quote: (10-06-2014 02:52 AM)ball dont lie Wrote:
I think language is mostly about effort. Trying hard goes a long way. On the other hand, I've lived in China for 10 years and speak at a near native level, read the newspaper, 600 page novels, etc... I want to temper people's idea of sucess. No one is going to have "great" Chinese in 12 months unless they go native, never speak their first language, demand perfection from themselves. To get decent at Chinese takes a few years unless you are a full-time student and give it 100% all day, every day.
It took my about 3-5 years before I would say I was really good, living a mostly Chinese life, studying 5 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Again, I agree its mostly hard work. Chinese is not Spanish. Or even Russian. Its a slow going effort.
10 years... Goddamn. Are you a masochist? Or ABC or something? I know the girls aren't worth 10 years of staying for, lol.
Anyway, have you noticed any major benefits to being fluent on the native level, other than the obvious: being able to get around the country, doing business, knowing when you're getting ripped off and being able to confront them, etc?
Also, I'm not sure if it's the same with Mandarin, but I've heard lots of foreign guys who become fluent in Japanese end up sounding and talking like Japanese women, because they mainly only talk to Japanese women or learn from a Japanese girlfriend. Have you experienced something similar? Like picking up Chinese girl lingo or vocab and being called out for it by Chinese guys, or did you mainly learn by studying and talking to anyone and everyone in China?