<p>Does anyone here study Chinese (Mandarin) in an an academic way, like through school, etc? Friends of mine at school do, but they are all asian and have some sort of family background in the language.</p>
<p>I am intimidated by the different alphabet, but I still really want to achieve some degree of competence in the language. Can this be done by studying it and getting a minor? Also, does Chinese take up so much time learning it that it would be difficult to major elsewhere, like Econ/Math?</p>
<p>Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Arabic are all "Catagory 4" languages...i.e. the most difficult to learn.</p>
<p>There is a difference between written Chinese and spoken Chinese and of the spoken chinese there are many differenct dillects. I've been told that a huge part of Chinese is the emphasis you place on a word...ex. they have one word that has 4 completely different meanings, how your emphasize the word determines its meaning to the listener.</p>
<p>Not to mention the fact that written Chinese is not based on letters the way Arabic or English is...its based on ideograms and thus there are litterally thousands and thousands of them that you have to learn. Just imagine if we had a picture for every single word, indeed every single thought, in the English language...THAT'S CHINESE!!!</p>
<p>Its extremely difficult but if your passionate about learning it, it should be no trouble. My professor said it took her 10 years just to be able to read a newspaper in Japanese but we all learn at different paces.</p>
<p>I'm trying to transfer to Georgetown so that I can major in Arabic...HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE and maybe we can teach each other!</p>
<p>I have no experience with Chinese, but I took Japanese in high school and will continue it through college courses next year, and probably at Georgetown if i get in this fall! Don't let the difficulty of the language deter you from learning. My experience with Japanese is that... since the structure and writing systems are so different, you'll begin to learn that first and therefore end up learning at a somewhat slower pace than say, taking German or Spanish.</p>
<p>But if learning Chinese is what you want to do, I'd say go for it and study hard. If you're really serious about it then your goal can be accomplished. =D</p>
<p>Yes, there are four accents per word, each resulting in four different meanings.</p>
<p>There are two styles: the old and the simplified. Most universities today teach the simplified version, but stress on recognizing the older characters. However, the language is unified and is universal (meaning that all literate in Chinese should recognized them, regardless of dialect).</p>
<p>Mandarin is the "universal" form of Chinese in that it unifies the system allowing those in Fuchien to speak to those in Beijing. However, a popular dialect is also Cantonnese, spoken mostly by those from the Guangzhou (Guandong) and Hong Kong area.</p>
<p>In general, learning a language requires full immersion in it, meaning that you must live in the country where it's spoken.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I am intimidated by the different alphabet
[/quote]
Sorry to be nitpicky, but it's technically not an "alphabet" at all (it's logographic, not alphabetic).
Actually learning the actual characters is the easiest part. Learning enough characters to be fluent, however, takes a rather long time. Getting familiar with the tones, etc. is a challenge at first, but the grammar is relatively formulaic.
I would agree with eiffelguy that immersion would be necessary for true fluency.</p>
<p>Great thing about Chinese is that there aren't any tenses. No past tense, future tense, subjunctive tense, past perfect tense, etc. Non of the stuff that you run into in the Romantic languages. You identify past/future action with time.</p>
<p>from what it sounds like, it is pretty much a must to go travel abroad (at least within SFS, where language proficiency is a requirement)...</p>
<p>as far as the question about it interfering with a major (I don't remember who asked it)...I've done quite a bit of research because now that I'm approaching fluency in Spanish I'm having a bit of trouble convincing myself to let go of it 100% (learning a language doesn't actually get fun until you realize you can easily communicate and aprpeciate things like literature)...this is what I've found.</p>
<p>If you take Chinese @ Georgetown, you are pretty much expected to save room for it every single semester. My Admissions Ambassador also said those classes are pretty much guaranteed to be intensive, meaning you will take fewer units and therefore fewer electives in order to learn. </p>
<p>Either way, to be fluent in any language you pretty much have to be immersed, so don't let that deter you.</p>