Is chinese hard to learn?

There are many factors to consider when deciding whether or not Chinese is difficult to learn but if you are asking for a simple yes or no question, then I would say yes, especially for those who do not already speak an Asian language.

I think that the hardest part about learning Chinese is the writing. Chinese characters give no phonetic indication of pronunciation, and each word (or syllable... depending on the context) has its unique character which means that you would have to memorize around 2000-3000 characters in order to have proficient literacy. You would also have to consider which writing system to learn: simplified or traditional. Simplified is used in mainland China and in Singapore whereas traditional is used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Switching back and forth from these two writing systems is not necessarily easy like switching back and forth from American English spelling to British English spelling since some of the corresponding characters look completely different. Many people are able to read both systems with no problem, but writing usually presents a problem. For example, one of my parents' friends (who is from mainland China) moved to Hong Kong a few years ago and it took her two years to be able to proficiently write in traditional Chinese.

Another aspect of learning Chinese that is difficult is speaking and listening. In Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones (flat, rising, dipping, and descending) and in Cantonese Chinese I believe there are seven tones. Almost needless to say, those who are tone deaf have a very hard time learning these parts. As with all languages, however, listening to CD's and practicing your speaking is essential to learning Chinese. It's not impossible to master listening and speaking Chinese... it just takes more effort than most languages.

So here's some good news. Chinese grammar is easy! It's quite similar to that of English since it follows the Subject+Verb+Object order, it follows the same adjective rules, and there are no masculine or feminine infinitives (like in French or German). Also, in Chinese there are no such things as verb conjugations: all subjects use the same verb form and there are no past or future tenses. You would indicate past or future actions by saying, "yesterday", "tomorrow", etc.

I don't know if you are just curious or if you are serious about learning Chinese but I hope my answer was helpful. If you are thinking about learning Chinese, then you should definitely take the plunge and just go for it!

as a Chinese i think English is more difficult.....................

maybe the core problem is environment

hah, it's easy, if you are interested in it. we may be friend! i'm a Chinese girl, Mandy. nice to know you here. O(∩_∩)O~

Chinese is very easy

The easy side: Chinese grammar is easy to learn (Some people even said that Chinese doesn't have any grammar, not true, though); the difficult side: Chinese characters.

It is the most difficult language in the world i think.

China is a great natiol， Chinese is hard-working and love the peace！

Well it's complicated, but it all comes down to devotion. Cantonese is the harder to learn of the two most common Chinese. Mandarin is universal and will always be available everywhere Chinese, including the thousands of Chinatowns. There are also several other languages that are also Chinese, including Shanghainese, Fuzhouese, and other regional languages, like Tibetan. Lastly, is the nightmarish pronunciation system and writing. In Mandarin and most regional Chinese (they aren't dialects but separate languages with the same writing) there are five tones, straight, rising, dipping, descending, and unstressed. Also, if you want to read an unknown character, you have to learn the western style PinYin, which is basically letters with odd pronunciations. To read anything else you must memorize the pronunciation associated with a character, so that means choking down character after character of pronunciations. Lastly, the writing system. Most Chinese in the mainland is simplified, used by billions of people worldwide. Elsewhere (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, various Chinatowns) use traditional, used for thousand of years, and hideously more time consuming to write. Older generations will have total fluency in both systems, while the generations after the 90's will either have to learn the other system or add or subtract strokes. So it's up to you decide are you going to learn or if you accept the challenge, are you going to learn the modern or the historical.

speaking is easy but writing is DEATH

Hard !
It is really hard to learn Chinese
and
It won't have any shortcut to learn Chinese
if you do have no patience.

Even I was born in Taiwan and I has learned traditional Chinese for so many years it is not easy to me.

But
I have to say
There is something unique,
a magic power
in Chinese and its plentiful cultures
attracted me,
led me,

made me willing to follow it.

For each person, the degree of difficulty of a language depends on many factors. One factor is the learner’s original language, for example: a native English speaker will find that Spanish is much easier to learn than Mandarin, since English is more similar to Spanish than Chinese. Second, it depends on personal interest in learning the language. If you are very interested in a language, no matter how difficult it is, I believe that you can overcome it through your own efforts. If you think learning Chinese is difficult, I suggest you use one-on-one online Chinese learning, such as the site www.eChineselearning.com, to learn authentic Chinese pronunciation. One-on-one learning with experienced native Chinese teachers is a very efficient way to learn Chinese.

It depends if you are willing to..

2

1

Yes and no. like asterisk said, if you're tone deaf , forget it. learn Arabic .

It can be but it depends on you. If you’re interested in learning Chinese, I strongly suggest you work with a qualified teacher. A teacher will be able to help you make the most of your studies in a way that studying on your own is hard to imitate. And since going to China isn’t realistic for everyone, you can simulate a Chinese learning environment at home when you work with a native speaker.

Chinese is considered one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn for a variety of reasons. Yet, many have conquered this language, and so can you. Here are some of the reasons learning Chinese is difficult. Keep in mind that a teacher would be able to assist you with handling each of these points.

Tones
Unlike languages like English, in Chinese how you pronounce a sound dictates what that sound means. This would be something similar to where you place the stress on a word in English changing its meaning. For this reason, Chinese is considered a tonal language. Standard Chinese recognizes four tones: high, rising, falling-rising and falling. It is a little like singing while speaking. For most, mastering the tones takes years of trial and error. Why? Well, there are just certain sounds that exist in Chinese that don’t exist in other languages.

Characters
The Chinese script is among the world’s most recognized. In fact, it’s one of the reasons many are initially drawn to learning the language. But written Chinese is far different than languages that make use of a romanized alphabet system. Written Chinese is made up of thousands of characters, each having their own meaning and pronunciation. In order to survive, you’ll need to know somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 different characters.
It’s often said that each character represents an idea. This actually isn’t true. Characters have a variety of functions, and when strung together to form words their meanings can change drastically. Characters also shouldn’t be viewed as puzzles. Characters can be broken down into individual pieces, but there’s no guarantee that those individual pieces will reveal what that character truly means.

Dialects
What many don’t realize is that even though Chinese has standardized rules of pronunciation, most people in China speak a regional dialect. In fact, most Chinese people learn their regional dialect before learning standard Mandarin. Regional dialects often sound wildly different from what you’ll be taught in a classroom. Luckily, most educated Chinese have no problem switching to standard Mandarin. Communicating with the average local might be a bit more challenging, but as you learn you will get used to hearing different accents. And remember if you signed up for Chinese, you’re probably ready for the challenges!

Just make sure you learn in the most effective manner—work with a teacher!

If you just determined to understand this well-known language Mandarin why don’t you learn at the most well-liked on-line course

In fact, it's not very difficult like people always think, because there are common characters among languages. Like English and Korean. The main point is that you should find a good way to learn it

Hard? I don't think so. These are lots of people know Chinese well,but they aren't native speaker. Just like study any language, you need to talk to Chinese, watch Chinese TV program and read Chinese book. These are many resources to learn Chinese in the website: http://www.echineselearning.com/resources/chinese-materials/learn-chinese-online.html
I hope it can help you learn Chinese easily.

一点儿都不难，你可以找个中国人聊天，聊着聊着就会了~

whatever language you learn, the most important point is find the suitable way. TalkingLearn -- Learn Chinese app software takes a functional approach to teaching Chinese through using commonly used phrases and dialogues. Get TalkingLearn -- Learn Chinese in http://www.talkinglearn.com/ for free.

maybe hard for most foreigners,while you can learn it well if you really mean to learn

If you're not native Chinese, then it should be VERY difficult.

And it's hard to speak fluent Chinese, and you'll have to have to know how to write the characters. The characters are very different from English, however, and I suggest that if you don't really want to learn it, don't. But of course if you truly have a passion for it, then go on! Try your best.

Yes, difficult to remember saying all the right tones and have to learn 50,000 Chinese characters like that can take years.

only characters is hard

一点都不难

It really depends on the dialect you choose to learn as there is no such language called Chinese. I speak both Cantonese and Mandarin dialect. Cantonese would be a lot more difficult than Mandarin to learn because of the huge difference between conversational and written Cantonese. In contrast, conversational Mandarin is very similar to the way people write it. There are also a few more tones in Cantonese.

In general, if you want to learn Mandarin it is not a very hard language to pick up but a difficult one to master because simply memorizing the Chinese characters would take a considerably long time. Nevertheless, if you are very committed to it I think you will do fine.

To be honest, Chinese is very difficult for the Westerners to learn. However if you are Korean or Japanese, it would be quite easy.

I'm from China,but I think Chinese is the most difficult language to learn.The meaning of each character is different.But if you can practice them everyday,you can find it is easy to under stand.
The grammar of Chinese Language is very difficult,I can give you some nature speakers' sentence for example If you want.

never learn chinese

no chinese easy or your mattress is freeeeee