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You will be super glad to hear this isn't a generalisation when you watch the bit where I emphasise that everyone has their own language learning journey. That this isn't my pathway, nor will it be the viewers. That it's just a guide that pushes back against the over expectations I believe that exist, that lead to disappointment 👍
I've been living in China for 7 years, and I agree 100% with your opinions. That's the case for most of the people. I've encountered all kinds of foreigners studying Chinese, and from what I've observed: - If your mother tongue is similar to Chinese (mainly tonal languages or the ones which use characters), you can actually pass HSK6 in one year, I've seen that many times from Asian students, they pick it up real quick. - Having a good level of English can be a drawback in the beginning; since you still can't have a conversation in Chinese, you'd tend to rely on your English. - I've seen students who are in love with Chinese culture AND their majors are Chinese Language and Culture. They definitely don't need 10 years to be fluent not because all their classes are related to Chinese language, but because their passion IS Chinese, so they expose themselves all the time to it by consuming all they find interesting in Chinese. To this, I should add that there are people who are not Chinese Language students, but they love Chinese TV shows, TV shows, celebrities, etc.; they improve extremely fast. - I think learning Chinese is also, in part, helped by not just confidence but your ego. You'll get a lot of praising by Chinese people: If you hang out with people whose Chinese is worse than you, Chinese people will let you and the other person know, they'll ask you out and stuff. In Chinese college, you'll also get recognition by your teachers, and you'll be invited to be part of the international activities. The most important thing IMHO is to love the culture (Chinese language exams are full of it). If that's not your passion, I think there's a high chance you'll be falling into the description of this video, and that's absolutely fine. Everyone has its own pace (:
As a 50 + year old with Dyslexia I think it will take me another 20 years to learn 🥺but that dosn't put me off wanting to learn. I just wish I had started when my brain was younger. 🤯
Thank you for your video. I've been learning Chinese for 2.5 years and still feel like a beginner. Thank you for finally someone openly saying that it's normal not to master a language in 6 months. :)
@hayabusa1329 No, I live in Germany. I love to watch chinese historical dramas and fall in love with the culture and the language. It's more like a hobby, but I want to travel in China in the next years.
The best video yet on the truth of language learning. What most UA-cam "polyglots" do is a magic trick. Learn some basics, including everyday slang, get the accent down, and edit the crap out of your very short interactions to make it seem like you are fluent. Jack knows what he is talking about. I'm sure there are exceptions in the same way that some people are musical prodigies. But average folks like you and me take many years of very hard work to achieve an advanced level. Until we have Matrix-style language downloads into our brains, this will still be the case. Thanks, Jack for telling the truth. Great video!
Thank you, I am constantly having to remind myself of this very fact, that it's going to be a 1000 mile journey, and it begins beneath ones feet. Thanks! (subbed)
When I went to China, all the foreigners I had met that spoke great Chinese had been studying for 10-12 years. You could probably get to a high level in 3-5 years though if you really immerse yourself
This video is basically the story of my life. Ii have lived in China and Taiwan for nearly 30 years. I majored and mastered in Chinese; this has been a life-long journey for me. I made a choice decades ago to only work in jobs that require me to use Chinese. I have completed projects in education, construction, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and legal that have required vast amounts of documentation in both Chinese and English. Additionally, as Taiwan, Hong Kong and a few other places use the traditional version of Chinese Characters rather than Mainland's simplified system I have needed to spend a lot of time learning both. With all of this in my personal history, I still find myself learning new things every day. This is truly a life-long commitment. But, well worth it, and it has also been loads of fun at every phase.
There's another aspect that people don't consider, the languages you already know. Most videos I see are quite English centric (for obvious reasons since most people speak English) but when I was learning Japanese I picked up speaking insanely fast since I'm Indian and well I speak Hindi and Marathi. That's because Japanese can be literally translated word for word in most cases if you use Hindi or Marathi Similarly the intricacies of Chinese grammar are like Hindi/Marathi (adverbs, prepositions, time of occurrence, etc) but the overall structure is like English (SVO for the most part) Taking a very simple example English: The rice is on the table हिंदी: चावल टेबल पर है literally word for word: Rice table on is) मराठी: भात टेबलावर आहे. Literally: Rice Table on is (only difference is a bit of agglutination I guess because टेबल(table) + वर (up/top) = टेबलावर but we also say टेबलवर both work sometimes when you speak it's more like टेब्लावर.) Mandarin： 米饭在桌子上。 Literally: Rice exists/at table top. (Don't flame me if I'm wrong I'm only HSK 2) But yeah while learning Chinese I use a weird combo of English and one of my native languages and it just makes it so much easier for me.
I started learning Mandarin Chinese a little less than a year ago, and am barely able to scratch the surface. I joke that I'm on the 20 year plan to learn Mandarin. But for me it's about the journey, not the destination. I simply find Mandarin to be a fascinating language, and I enjoy studying it. If I never reach fluency (whatever that means), it's fine. Having fun along the way!
@@metalsmithnick8714 absolutely. English happens to be my second language, although I started learning it at age 8 and got to fluency by age 16 (long ago now!), and now live in an English-speaking country, so I use it every day, but it remains a lifelong journey. I also learned German in high school, although I would not call myself fully fluent, and I continue to work on it. Learning languages is a journey, and the key is to enjoy the ride!
There are a ton of factors that go into how long it takes to become fluent, such as what your native language is, how efficient your methods are, etc. But one of the biggest determining factors is simply how many hours you put in and how consistent you are putting them in. Using years as markers for how much time you’ve spent learning can sometimes be a bit vague. For example, someone who put in 2000 hours in a year vs. someone who put in 200 hours in a year is going to have progressed at a vastly different speeds. However long it will take you, that time is going to pass by whether you take advantage of it or not, so if you want it, go for it.
I'm not learning Chinese but I do love watching your videos and I also learn languages as a hobby. This video is one of the very few which gives a realistic take on what your expectations should be in relation to learning a language. 1'000s of vids out there giving you hacks, tips etc on how you can learn in X number of hours, only serve to frustrate and disappoint people when they aren't fluent in the their chosen language after 2 months. They then give up, thinking they're stupid or the language is too hard......when all it needs is to be realistic about what you can achieve in relation to the effort you put in regarding your learning. Anyway, I've never understood why there's this rush to achieve 'fluency'.....take your time, enjoy the journey and you'll absorb more of the language and the culture! Keep knocking the vids out mate 😁
Well said,Jack. I'm trying to learn Tagalog (unti-unti!) and people say "Oh man you're so good!". I'm like no man, I haven't even scratched the surface yet.
This is very accurate. I've "studied" Chinese for 16 years (beyond a certain point it's not study, you're just using it) and still, the deeper you get, the further down you realise the rabbit hole goes.
Excellent video and one of the best you have made .. OK your question of how long does it take to become fluent in mandarin... well it obviously depends on how much study time you put in ... also you should mention a person's age - when you are in your 40's - plus it gets harder ! I met my Chinese wife 20 years ago and I have tried to understand the language. I can get by .. I can talk basic sentences to her parents and aunties but I am still not fluent ... the main issue, that you might want to mention... is that you can study standard Mandarin but ... local dialect might not be standard Putonghua. This has added years on to my strudy - It is like having to learn 2 Chinese languages.
This was a very interesting video. And what you said will be most likely the reality for many students. Chinese is in my future list of languages. I have polished my language learning methodology a lot over the years. And I believe that I can reach to B2 level in 3 years in Chinese, you just need to know what to do and how to do it the right way. After watching your video, I am actually going to monitor my language learning journey when I start learning Chinese. Let's see how long it takes to reach B2 level.
Final the first person to tell the truth. Thank you.I just want to learn mandarin enough to make a 15 min conversation and to understand 60 percent of music and movies.
Jack! This is wild… it’s Will who you may remember from my brief stint at Zhejiang back in 2014. Scrolling through UA-cam and seeing your face pop up was surreal. Hope you’re keeping well mate and great to see you’re still smashing Mandarin! 😁
Yes of course matey! A brief but enjoyable stint! Great to hear from you, loved that time in Zhejiang, with yourself, George, Chris and Fred! Hope you are well also!
study Chinese for about 3 years but still is at basic conversation. If there are complexity in sentences, I feel no hope to deal with. So there is a long way to run. JIEYOU
From my experience with great motivation and even greater friends, you can learn chinese to 抖音 conversation / comment level in about 10 months. No way will you be fluent but you will understand nearly all content and can read comments with quessing few hanzi here and there.
Taking the first year to dissect the language will help to become fluent more easily. There is a logic to it that you have to discover on your own. I date the language 24/7.
The issue at 3:45 is my main stumbling block when it comes to investing enough time to become fluent. So many friends and clients speak English well enough that it's significantly easier to have a conversation in English. In fact, most prefer to practice their English in the presence of a native speaker and they'll have side conversations with others in the group in Chinese. So there really hasn't been a strong incentive to learn Chinese. That said, I've noticed a bit of an anti-English backlash within the government that may cause future issues as far as future generations of Chinese learning English. In the past couple of years, a boat load of native English speakers left China, English schools shut down, and a significant number of the teachers now teaching English are not native speakers and their English is fairly poor by comparison. So, I may find it more difficult to communicate over the next 20 years if I don't make the investment and learn the language.
The mistake, i find is the "need" (or ultimate goal of becoming fluent). As a person that speaks multiple languages, the level of "total" fluency expected is rarely attained unless you use it in your everyday life. As a native french (🇲🇶)/Wyandot (Iroquoian language) speaker born and raised in 🇨🇦, my English has evolved due to the constant pressure exerted by the predominance of anglophones surrounding our "distinct" nation. What most people need to remember is fluency deals with the smoothness of one's speech (native like) and also "mastering" the reading and written aspect, while proficiency pertains to the ability to communicate accurately. I myself are fluent in 3 but proficient in 2 and have advanced "skills"😅🤣 in 2 others. Time, dedication, passion and goal will determine your success. Learning for learning vs job (potential relocation or opportunity) generally take longer. 我們都受限於我們是凡人這一事實，但我們可以通過學習一些新的和令人興奮的東西來增強自己的經驗。
Which language you speak to someone with two or more languages in common is often decided by which language you start with. I was part of a debate/discussion club a while back, and since it was very international and English was the only language everyone had in common, that was what we used. I'm Swedish and there was another Swedish person there. Not going to that club anymore, but I still see her occasionally. We still converse in English.
Very informative! There is too many misleading video titles out there... I also appreciate your dedication towards chinese, and I hope you're not gonna become another fake polyglot channel!
It's indeed a journey Jack! I'm a Brit living in Thailand and learning Thai is also quite a journey, but without learning how to read and write and remember thousands of Chinese characters 😂 . Been over 10 yrs and fluent in Thai also according to my Mum😂 still searching for that native speaker level finnish line 😠😕 might have a dabble at Mandarin next. Love ya channel mate
Not any language mate, mandarin IS among the hardest languages. I'm french and I'm fairly confident that if I put in the same efforts (re)learning spanish as I do for mandarin, I'd be fluent in less than a year and pretty much native-level within 2 or 3 years... while studying from France. I assume minimum 5 to 10 years of immersion in China would be needed for the same fluency and a lifetime of studying chinese outside China wouldn't be enough, at least for the average Joe.
Hi BrishJack, very truthful video but there are ways to speed up the process. I have been learning for a year a half and reached intermediate level. Although during the first year, I studied every day and had classes once a week. I also try to do conversational practice as much as possible. At this point, I watch chinese dramas and reality shows without any english subtitles, but I do still need to rely on Chinese subtitles.
@@Temanku.Arielhn For me the first year was mostly using textbooks to learn vocabulary and grammar. Also would recommend learning characters right at the start, it really speeds up the process if you can read Chinese characters. Nowadays I mostly learn by consuming content in Chinese. So basically learn chinese with chinese.
Some TV personalities know how to speak 2 or more languages. The ones who meet a foreign actor for 1 movie role like Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan in Rish Hour or Jayden Smith & Jackie Chan in Karatie Kid 2 there is no incentive to learn a foreign language even in the native environment like China. Learning grammar & vocab. in a language is easier than getting rid of your foreign accent and be able to disguise yourself as a native speaker. Some people moved to a foreign country for many years but still maintain traces of the language(s) they grew up speaking.
Unless you are genius, AND, do the necessary work you might be fluent in 2 years. Most normal people, 4 years, and you must put in 2 hours, pretty intensive, every day, and master the material. Fool me, fool everybody, else, but please don't fool yourself.
I agree, i did three chinese papers at uni and reached the beginning of hsk3 after a year and a half. Studied in china for a month which helped a lot but as i dont live in china and use it everyday will never get fluent. After a 10 year break ive started studying again and am back at the beginning of hsk 3 again and still cant watch a chinese childrens cartoon without subtitles and looking up words!
Most people with a B2 level in English are not able to watch cartoons without subtitles, so it’s pretty normal that neither can you, since HSK3 level isn’t even equivalent to a B1 level in Chinese.
Also, for the merriment of all of us who have just started on this journey, the word requirement for the New HSK1 has more than tripled - 500 instead of the previous 150. I can already tell it's going to be so much fun! 🤣
I appreciate your frank honesty in this video! I'm also curious you're opinion on Mandarin Blueprint. As someone who owns the blueprint, I do find the way they encourage you to learn characters helpful and I think they are generally pretty practical in that learning Chinese, like any langauage, is a lifelong journey. I will admit they do tend to amp up the "speed" they claim it will take to learn characters and words, especially when promoting their course. If you've tried the blueprint at all, I'd be really interested in your honest opinion on it, much like you give here. 谢谢 :)
I have never used Mandarin Blueprint, but have watched their videos. Their Chinese seems EXCEPTIONAL (much better than mine), and I very much warm to their personalities. Their videos are really nicely edited as well which I have big respect for. I reference them simply as an example of somewhat distorted expectations, as in my opinion there is no blueprint, its just a sexy marketing title. BUT but but, no hate on them for this, as I explained in the video, they are just existing in the world we live in. But yeah overall they seem great, I just have no experience of their product.
Awesome video! Extremely helpful perspective. Any advice for those of us who share the same goal of becoming fluent in Mandarin but don't have the opportunity to live in China? I live in the US and have used assorted means to learn enough characters and words to be able to express most things in Mandarin and Chinese people can generally understand me, but when they respond, it's just too fast and I have great difficulty understanding everything. Thanks!
I’ve been trying to learn Thai and it’s been about 10 years. I can read it better than I can speak it. Unfortunately I wasn’t consistent so I’m still at the starting gate.
When i started learning japanese i actually thought that around the 6 month mark i would be able to watch anime with japanese dialog and subs and follow along somewhat decently. Safe to say that that is not how it went, but im having a good time studying anyway here over 2 years later.
haha yes my friend! when i first started chinese i SOOO overestimated where I would be haha! although i guess theres nothing wrong with aiming for the stars
I am native Chinese, and studied Japanese casually for about 17 years. I stull cannot follow tv and animes. Reading is at a relatively high level but cannot do any output(speaking and writing)
Really appreciate an honest video like this that talks about the massive amount of studying and exposure that it takes to learn a language. Personally, I usually prefer to measure language study in hours studied rather than years. I'm studying a bit more than the person in the example and after 2-3,000 hours I'm around the HSK 5-6 level, but find that I am more situationally fluent and situationally literate. Looking forward to many, many more years of learning.
If you are learning like its a full time job in China, maybe 3-4 years. 1 class a week? Never. 2-3 classes a week? Never. I knew about 100 words when I arrived in China. The first 6 months I was taking 5 classes a week with a teacher, and self studying a minimum of 30 minutes every day for years. I slowly dropped the classes after I had a local gf. I was socially fluent after about 5 years, but never progressed past that. Without living in China would be almost impossible.
I had this issue with that FrankieLight guy saying he's been learning Chinese for 1 year when there is footage of him speaking it 6 years before. I think people like that lie for the reaction. "WOW you speak this good after only 1 year!" I think it's a bit irresponsible to pretend you can reach this level after 1 year because for ALL those people who are still not very good after a year they are more likely to quit, thinking they just don't have an aptitude for it.
I'm not really sure who that is? Can you fill me in on him? But yeah it's perfectly possible people do fib about how long they have been practicing. As I said in the vid there may be a very rare outlier that smashes it. Generally speaking though, rule of thumb is for most people it takes years and years of grinding
@@BritishJackTalks This guy : com/watch?v=R-7MHgwS6To&ab_channel=FrankieLight I wasn't even talking to him but he got pretty upset when I tried telling people that some of these UA-cam polyglots are at best exaggerating, or at worst perpetrating a fraud (I know a lot of these guys have "courses" they are trying to sell people).
I'm sorry, but although I agree that it might take 10+ years to the average Joe who's not interested in learning the language and only practices Mandarin 1-2 h/d. But in general it DOES NOT take that long to reach "fluency" in Chinese. HSK5 in 5 years means studying at a pace of a little more than 1 word/day, but most people learning a foreign language generally manage 5-20+ words/day, even in "harder" languages (eg. Japanese, Korean etc). I understand that most people coming to Chinese will be scared off by characters, and I'm not trying to say that characters aren't a challenge. Heck, they may very well be the biggest challenge of all, but as anything else in life, every problem has his own solution. In this case, Heisig (or Tuttle, or HanziHero, or Skritter, or any other program focusing on mnemonics and effective study techniques). Couple it with an SRS like anki or Quizlet and with just 1h/d you can easily digest the top 3000 characters (99.7% of the characters by frequency) in a mere 6 months at a pace of 15 characters/day (or even less if you're willing to put in more time). And once you've memorized the meaning of those characters, it becomes pretty easy to memorize that a FIRE (火) MOUNTAIN (山) is a VOLCANO (火山). That the thing that has NOT YET (未) COME (来) is the FUTURE (未来). And the beauty of it is that 80+% of the language is like this: ELECTRIC + TALK = TELEPHONE (电话), ELECTRIC + SHADOW = MOVIE (电影), FIRE + CAR = TRAIN (火车), FLY + MACHINE = AIRPLANE (飞机), HAVE + MONEY + PERSON = RICH PERSON (有钱人), LEARN THEORY + PRACTICE = STUDY (学习), SPEAK + making it CLEAR = EXPLAIN (说明), etc etc etc. Chinese grammar isn't particularly difficult either, although it may take a little longer to get used to. My advice? Read as many graded readers (and then slowly move to more difficult content until you reach native content) and you'll find out how intuitive and elegant Chinese grammar can be. Also, spend maybe a month or two at the very beginning working on your pronunciation and as soon as possible start practicing shadowing starting with single sentences and then moving on to longer and longer text and you'll develop a pretty accurate accent without even noticing it. Last but not least, immerse from day 1, try to listen as much as possible starting from the easiest, most baby-like material (when you begin learning a new language you're pretty much a baby in that language anyway). And always remember, the only way to learn a language is to get exposed to comprehensible messages as much as possible. Think about it (if 30+ years of academic research was not enough of a proof), hundreds of thousands of people around the globe immersed in the language for thousands of hours and reached advanced fluency in 2-3 years (some moved abroad, others met their significant other, others simply got bit by the "language bug" 😂 and whatnot) while millions keep miserably failing at learning beginner Spanish after spending years "memorizing" grammar tables and attending classes that are only as fast as their slowest student, all of this while teachers mostly "read" the textbook and waste precious class time forcing individual silent fill in the blank exercises (which you could do at home anyway) and waste the rest of the class over analyzing each sentences to the point it stops being a Chinese course and starts looking more like an advanced linguistics college course. Classes are great, don't get me wrong. Teachers study for decades to be able to teach their subject, but most of the time they're forced to comply with the fact that not every student is equally motivated and not everyone is willing to put in the hours. Even worse, most languages courses feature not-so professional native teachers who, instead of learning how to properly teach adult students, will simply reiterate what they remember going through in childhood, most won't correct your pronunciation cause they simply don't know how to explain phonetics (most teachers aren't even aware of things like the IPA and will inevitably resort to useless techniques like parroting). And because it took them years to master the characters by rote learning, they'll inevitably fall into the trap of thinking that their method is the best one because even a 6 yo can use it... yeah, right. At this point, one could argue that since a 6 yo can't understand calculus maths ends with elementary level algebra. Have a clear plan, have clear achievable goals, be consistent, and learn from the thousands of polyglots around the world ... and try to enjoy the journey. Ps. Check out Livakivi's channel if you're curious 😊
Mad respect for writing such a long reply brother! And I can see you have a really successful channel on learning Japanese yourself. I would say though, advanced fluency in 2-3 years is probably not achievable for most people. I think you might be one of the for aforementioned outliers 🤣🙏
@@BritishJackTalks I'd like to thank you for your kind response, you're a great guy whose doing an amazing job by sharing your personal story and experience (although our respective opinions on how to learn a language do diverge at times). It's only after watching it a second time that I realized how some people might feel overwhelmed and demoralized after watching all those hyperpolyglots' videos saying how "easy" it is. And the true value of this video lies in the fact that there are people out there who might end up thinking they don't have what it takes, but thanks to this video they might decide to give it a try after all and they might find out it's actually possible for them to learn Chinese after all. I apologize for how I initially wrote my comment, I wrote it in the heat of the moment and didn't realize how angry it sounded until I re-read it. I've rewritten the first part to reflect what I really think. I'm definitely not one of those outliers though (I wish ahaha). I'll do my best to learn both Chinese and Japanese in the future, but admittedly it's easier said than done.
Amazing video! I personally think it's possible to reach a very high level in just 2 years with methods that arent just classes once a week. Just wondering, have you ever seen 何威 or 马斯瑞？ I would love to see what you think about them and their interviews on Rita Mandarin Chinese. these kinds of videos got me to hsk 4 in a bit less than a year, so i also would like to know what you think about these kinds of videos as well. Keep up the great work!
I think I have a level of comprehension and speaking (not writing and reading characters) of HSK 3 within 8 months. So it‘s definitely possible to be faster than in the video but still a long journey to go and a lot of hard work. But if you learn 10 words a day, you learn 3650 a year. This is in theory so amazing.
when you're talking about HSK, are you referring to the old HSK system or the new one (after 2021 i believe)? the new one is quite different, i believe hsk 3 now requires 2200+ words, almost the same as HSK 5 in the previous version
It does take an awful long time to learn foreign languages. Many more people should consider learning Esperanto which can be done much faster and is now used much more widely than many people assume.
@@BritishJackTalks Watch the interviews by an Esperantist from China "Trezoro Huang Yinbao". He has just made very short interviews with Esperanto speakers from different countries he met last month at the World Esperanto conference. It is in Esperanto, but with Chinese subtitles.
I think it’s a bit exaggerated. I mean, getting a Chinese gf/bf would make you fluent in like two years of living with them imho. I got fluent in French in two years by living with French people. I don’t think Chinese is any different. Like you probably won’t know all the characters perfectly to the point of being able to read anything but your speaking and listening abilities would be considered very good. I mean Chinese is harder than French so it might take 3 years but still, if you are interested and motivated, no way it’s gonna take you more than 5 years. I could be wrong though, that’s just some thought of mine. Anyways, thanks for the video, that was quite entertaining
Respect for your progress in French, but I think Chinese is more difficult. As such it makes it hard to compare progress timetables. Thanks for enjoying the video though brother
My wife is chinese and is fluent in English after living overseas for 20 years, she has just started learning French and said knowing English first and then learning French is easy.
it takes a few thousand hours to become fluent in Mandarin, and it only depends on you how you will spend your time and how many hours a day you spend learning lol. 9-10 years😂😂 fml
im so glad someone said it, i see a lot of videos of people WHO ARE NOT NATIVE IN THAT LANGUAGE talking about how it speak it in 30 days, its so bs because people get false expectations
Fake click bait titles and manipulation of the audience is nEcESsArY nowadays, I'm just following orders. I'm just following orders. I'm just following orders.
Saying 10 years is what it takes a regular and dedicated person that have all the resources to go to China and live there for years is a bad take in every regard and is discouraging a massive amount of real ordinary people to even think to start learning Chinese. Very bad take. Poor video.
Thanks for your feedback. I'm sad to think people would be discouraged watching this and I'll make a new video about how.learning Chinese is amazing to balance it out. I am still glad I made this video though as I'd rather be truthful about the honest challenge it takes to learn Chinese. I think more people get discouraged by the warped expectations that lead them to believe doing a weekly course/video series/ will lead them to fluency in whatever short time frame is chosen.
Did you enjoy this content and want to support me to make future videos just like it? then if possible please help out by joining my patreon www.patreon.com/BritishJackTalks
So why are you generalizing this exactly? Everyone have a different way of study, natural abilities, social behavior, type of personality....
You will be super glad to hear this isn't a generalisation when you watch the bit where I emphasise that everyone has their own language learning journey. That this isn't my pathway, nor will it be the viewers. That it's just a guide that pushes back against the over expectations I believe that exist, that lead to disappointment 👍
@@AwytooWatch to the end 😊
The best time to start learning a language? 10+ years ago.
The second best time? Now!
The second best time? 9 years and 364 days ago
FIRST person I've seen tell the truth about the length of time required! Thank you!
Thankyou kind sir
I've been living in China for 7 years, and I agree 100% with your opinions. That's the case for most of the people. I've encountered all kinds of foreigners studying Chinese, and from what I've observed:
- If your mother tongue is similar to Chinese (mainly tonal languages or the ones which use characters), you can actually pass HSK6 in one year, I've seen that many times from Asian students, they pick it up real quick.
- Having a good level of English can be a drawback in the beginning; since you still can't have a conversation in Chinese, you'd tend to rely on your English.
- I've seen students who are in love with Chinese culture AND their majors are Chinese Language and Culture. They definitely don't need 10 years to be fluent not because all their classes are related to Chinese language, but because their passion IS Chinese, so they expose themselves all the time to it by consuming all they find interesting in Chinese. To this, I should add that there are people who are not Chinese Language students, but they love Chinese TV shows, TV shows, celebrities, etc.; they improve extremely fast.
- I think learning Chinese is also, in part, helped by not just confidence but your ego. You'll get a lot of praising by Chinese people: If you hang out with people whose Chinese is worse than you, Chinese people will let you and the other person know, they'll ask you out and stuff. In Chinese college, you'll also get recognition by your teachers, and you'll be invited to be part of the international activities.
The most important thing IMHO is to love the culture (Chinese language exams are full of it). If that's not your passion, I think there's a high chance you'll be falling into the description of this video, and that's absolutely fine. Everyone has its own pace (:
As a 50 + year old with Dyslexia I think it will take me another 20 years to learn 🥺but that dosn't put me off wanting to learn. I just wish I had started when my brain was younger. 🤯
Thank you for your video. I've been learning Chinese for 2.5 years and still feel like a beginner. Thank you for finally someone openly saying that it's normal not to master a language in 6 months. :)
Why are you learning Chinese? You plan to live on China or Taiwan?
For real. I’m only early-mid intermediate after 4 or 5 years.
@@OneDerscoreOneder you suck kid. Why not just speak English?
我母语中文，我学习英语1年😁我发现中文的语法相比英语简单多了。不过汉字非常难，如果小时候我爸爸不逼我学，我也不能认识很多字。
@hayabusa1329 No, I live in Germany. I love to watch chinese historical dramas and fall in love with the culture and the language. It's more like a hobby, but I want to travel in China in the next years.
Tbh even in one's own native tongue there is always more to learn, more words to learn to express new concepts.
True dat
We took English in school EVERY YEAR before we graduated high school in the US.
i feel like most people who are actually really good have studied for over 10 years
I agree.
The best video yet on the truth of language learning. What most UA-cam "polyglots" do is a magic trick. Learn some basics, including everyday slang, get the accent down, and edit the crap out of your very short interactions to make it seem like you are fluent. Jack knows what he is talking about. I'm sure there are exceptions in the same way that some people are musical prodigies. But average folks like you and me take many years of very hard work to achieve an advanced level. Until we have Matrix-style language downloads into our brains, this will still be the case. Thanks, Jack for telling the truth. Great video!
Thank you, I am constantly having to remind myself of this very fact, that it's going to be a 1000 mile journey, and it begins beneath ones feet. Thanks! (subbed)
It's does indeed my friend 👍
When I went to China, all the foreigners I had met that spoke great Chinese had been studying for 10-12 years. You could probably get to a high level in 3-5 years though if you really immerse yourself
This video is basically the story of my life. Ii have lived in China and Taiwan for nearly 30 years. I majored and mastered in Chinese; this has been a life-long journey for me. I made a choice decades ago to only work in jobs that require me to use Chinese. I have completed projects in education, construction, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and legal that have required vast amounts of documentation in both Chinese and English. Additionally, as Taiwan, Hong Kong and a few other places use the traditional version of Chinese Characters rather than Mainland's simplified system I have needed to spend a lot of time learning both. With all of this in my personal history, I still find myself learning new things every day. This is truly a life-long commitment. But, well worth it, and it has also been loads of fun at every phase.
Wow I can't believe this video didn't show up till now. You should definitely make more videos like this Jack
There's another aspect that people don't consider, the languages you already know.
Most videos I see are quite English centric (for obvious reasons since most people speak English) but when I was learning Japanese I picked up speaking insanely fast since I'm Indian and well I speak Hindi and Marathi. That's because Japanese can be literally translated word for word in most cases if you use Hindi or Marathi
Similarly the intricacies of Chinese grammar are like Hindi/Marathi (adverbs, prepositions, time of occurrence, etc) but the overall structure is like English (SVO for the most part)
Taking a very simple example
English: The rice is on the table
हिंदी: चावल टेबल पर है
literally word for word: Rice table on is)
मराठी: भात टेबलावर आहे.
Literally: Rice Table on is (only difference is a bit of agglutination I guess because टेबल(table) + वर (up/top) = टेबलावर but we also say टेबलवर both work sometimes when you speak it's more like टेब्लावर.)
Mandarin： 米饭在桌子上。
Literally: Rice exists/at table top. (Don't flame me if I'm wrong I'm only HSK 2)
But yeah while learning Chinese I use a weird combo of English and one of my native languages and it just makes it so much easier for me.
Very real & informative video, much respect Jack - as always, you’re the man!
I started learning Mandarin Chinese a little less than a year ago, and am barely able to scratch the surface. I joke that I'm on the 20 year plan to learn Mandarin. But for me it's about the journey, not the destination. I simply find Mandarin to be a fascinating language, and I enjoy studying it. If I never reach fluency (whatever that means), it's fine. Having fun along the way!
If you reflect, we continue to learn English even to this day so it makes sense to do it for life
@@metalsmithnick8714 absolutely. English happens to be my second language, although I started learning it at age 8 and got to fluency by age 16 (long ago now!), and now live in an English-speaking country, so I use it every day, but it remains a lifelong journey. I also learned German in high school, although I would not call myself fully fluent, and I continue to work on it. Learning languages is a journey, and the key is to enjoy the ride!
There are a ton of factors that go into how long it takes to become fluent, such as what your native language is, how efficient your methods are, etc. But one of the biggest determining factors is simply how many hours you put in and how consistent you are putting them in. Using years as markers for how much time you’ve spent learning can sometimes be a bit vague. For example, someone who put in 2000 hours in a year vs. someone who put in 200 hours in a year is going to have progressed at a vastly different speeds. However long it will take you, that time is going to pass by whether you take advantage of it or not, so if you want it, go for it.
People admire determination and dedication. Thank you for reminding the hard work needed for this ethic.
I'm not learning Chinese but I do love watching your videos and I also learn languages as a hobby. This video is one of the very few which gives a realistic take on what your expectations should be in relation to learning a language. 1'000s of vids out there giving you hacks, tips etc on how you can learn in X number of hours, only serve to frustrate and disappoint people when they aren't fluent in the their chosen language after 2 months. They then give up, thinking they're stupid or the language is too hard......when all it needs is to be realistic about what you can achieve in relation to the effort you put in regarding your learning. Anyway, I've never understood why there's this rush to achieve 'fluency'.....take your time, enjoy the journey and you'll absorb more of the language and the culture! Keep knocking the vids out mate 😁
Exactly my friend. Couldn't have put it better myself
Well said,Jack. I'm trying to learn Tagalog (unti-unti!) and people say "Oh man you're so good!". I'm like no man, I haven't even scratched the surface yet.
This is very accurate. I've "studied" Chinese for 16 years (beyond a certain point it's not study, you're just using it) and still, the deeper you get, the further down you realise the rabbit hole goes.
"consistent but manageable amounts of effort across a long time period" is the real key to learning anything.
Well done! A good encouragement video as well as reality check.
Excellent video and one of the best you have made .. OK your question of how long does it take to become fluent in mandarin... well it obviously depends on how much study time you put in ... also you should mention a person's age - when you are in your 40's - plus it gets harder ! I met my Chinese wife 20 years ago and I have tried to understand the language. I can get by .. I can talk basic sentences to her parents and aunties but I am still not fluent ... the main issue, that you might want to mention... is that you can study standard Mandarin but ... local dialect might not be standard Putonghua. This has added years on to my strudy - It is like having to learn 2 Chinese languages.
This was a very interesting video. And what you said will be most likely the reality for many students. Chinese is in my future list of languages. I have polished my language learning methodology a lot over the years. And I believe that I can reach to B2 level in 3 years in Chinese, you just need to know what to do and how to do it the right way. After watching your video, I am actually going to monitor my language learning journey when I start learning Chinese. Let's see how long it takes to reach B2 level.
Final the first person to tell the truth. Thank you.I just want to learn mandarin enough to make a 15 min conversation and to understand 60 percent of music and movies.
Jack! This is wild… it’s Will who you may remember from my brief stint at Zhejiang back in 2014. Scrolling through UA-cam and seeing your face pop up was surreal. Hope you’re keeping well mate and great to see you’re still smashing Mandarin! 😁
Yes of course matey! A brief but enjoyable stint! Great to hear from you, loved that time in Zhejiang, with yourself, George, Chris and Fred! Hope you are well also!
study Chinese for about 3 years but still is at basic conversation. If there are complexity in sentences, I feel no hope to deal with. So there is a long way to run. JIEYOU
3.5 years studying chinese and 1 yr in shenzhen. But I'm Still not fluent! 🤣
From my experience with great motivation and even greater friends, you can learn chinese to 抖音 conversation / comment level in about 10 months. No way will you be fluent but you will understand nearly all content and can read comments with quessing few hanzi here and there.
Jack, I really hope you find a way to get more subs without selling out. Really enjoy your content, you deserve more.
really I love your videos and I can’t wait for your conversation videos ❤❤
Taking the first year to dissect the language will help to become fluent more easily. There is a logic to it that you have to discover on your own. I date the language 24/7.
The issue at 3:45 is my main stumbling block when it comes to investing enough time to become fluent. So many friends and clients speak English well enough that it's significantly easier to have a conversation in English. In fact, most prefer to practice their English in the presence of a native speaker and they'll have side conversations with others in the group in Chinese. So there really hasn't been a strong incentive to learn Chinese.
That said, I've noticed a bit of an anti-English backlash within the government that may cause future issues as far as future generations of Chinese learning English. In the past couple of years, a boat load of native English speakers left China, English schools shut down, and a significant number of the teachers now teaching English are not native speakers and their English is fairly poor by comparison. So, I may find it more difficult to communicate over the next 20 years if I don't make the investment and learn the language.
The mistake, i find is the "need" (or ultimate goal of becoming fluent). As a person that speaks multiple languages, the level of "total" fluency expected is rarely attained unless you use it in your everyday life. As a native french (🇲🇶)/Wyandot (Iroquoian language) speaker born and raised in 🇨🇦, my English has evolved due to the constant pressure exerted by the predominance of anglophones surrounding our "distinct" nation.
What most people need to remember is fluency deals with the smoothness of one's speech (native like) and also "mastering" the reading and written aspect, while proficiency pertains to the ability to communicate accurately.
I myself are fluent in 3 but proficient in 2 and have advanced "skills"😅🤣 in 2 others.
Time, dedication, passion and goal will determine your success. Learning for learning vs job (potential relocation or opportunity) generally take longer.
我們都受限於我們是凡人這一事實，但我們可以通過學習一些新的和令人興奮的東西來增強自己的經驗。
I like the way you present your ideas, having this set up first then the main point at the end, you lead me on in the beginning hahaha
真的你说的对🥳👍 十年and alot longer.
Which language you speak to someone with two or more languages in common is often decided by which language you start with. I was part of a debate/discussion club a while back, and since it was very international and English was the only language everyone had in common, that was what we used. I'm Swedish and there was another Swedish person there. Not going to that club anymore, but I still see her occasionally. We still converse in English.
The Mandarin Blueprint is awesome. I have found their method very innovative and fun.
Great to hear!
Very informative! There is too many misleading video titles out there... I also appreciate your dedication towards chinese, and I hope you're not gonna become another fake polyglot channel!
the 少林足球 clips hahahhahaha nice!
Glad you noticed 😃
It's indeed a journey Jack!
I'm a Brit living in Thailand and learning Thai is also quite a journey, but without learning how to read and write and remember thousands of Chinese characters 😂 . Been over 10 yrs and fluent in Thai also according to my Mum😂 still searching for that native speaker level finnish line 😠😕 might have a dabble at Mandarin next. Love ya channel mate
7:30 The Kevin Rudd "This bloody language!" stage. 😁
Yeah I agree with you that it takes about a decade to learn any language including Mandarin anyway.
Not any language mate, mandarin IS among the hardest languages. I'm french and I'm fairly confident that if I put in the same efforts (re)learning spanish as I do for mandarin, I'd be fluent in less than a year and pretty much native-level within 2 or 3 years... while studying from France. I assume minimum 5 to 10 years of immersion in China would be needed for the same fluency and a lifetime of studying chinese outside China wouldn't be enough, at least for the average Joe.
All so true.
Love your videos jack
@@TheNicetoon64 thanks 🙏
Hi BrishJack, very truthful video but there are ways to speed up the process. I have been learning for a year a half and reached intermediate level. Although during the first year, I studied every day and had classes once a week. I also try to do conversational practice as much as possible. At this point, I watch chinese dramas and reality shows without any english subtitles, but I do still need to rely on Chinese subtitles.
My dear... what are those methods that you use to help you to speed up your process of learning Chinese???
@@Temanku.Arielhn For me the first year was mostly using textbooks to learn vocabulary and grammar. Also would recommend learning characters right at the start, it really speeds up the process if you can read Chinese characters. Nowadays I mostly learn by consuming content in Chinese. So basically learn chinese with chinese.
Some TV personalities know how to speak 2 or more languages. The ones who meet a foreign actor for 1 movie role like Chris Tucker & Jackie Chan in Rish Hour or Jayden Smith & Jackie Chan in Karatie Kid 2 there is no incentive to learn a foreign language even in the native environment like China.
Learning grammar & vocab. in a language is easier than getting rid of your foreign accent and be able to disguise yourself as a native speaker. Some people moved to a foreign country for many years but still maintain traces of the language(s) they grew up speaking.
Unless you are genius, AND, do the necessary work you might be fluent in 2 years. Most normal people, 4 years, and you must put in 2 hours, pretty intensive, every day, and master the material. Fool me, fool everybody, else, but please don't fool yourself.
I agree, i did three chinese papers at uni and reached the beginning of hsk3 after a year and a half. Studied in china for a month which helped a lot but as i dont live in china and use it everyday will never get fluent. After a 10 year break ive started studying again and am back at the beginning of hsk 3 again and still cant watch a chinese childrens cartoon without subtitles and looking up words!
Most people with a B2 level in English are not able to watch cartoons without subtitles, so it’s pretty normal that neither can you, since HSK3 level isn’t even equivalent to a B1 level in Chinese.
Also, for the merriment of all of us who have just started on this journey, the word requirement for the New HSK1 has more than tripled - 500 instead of the previous 150.
I can already tell it's going to be so much fun! 🤣
Joy toooo the world 😅
Cool video thanks 谢谢 👍
I appreciate your frank honesty in this video! I'm also curious you're opinion on Mandarin Blueprint. As someone who owns the blueprint, I do find the way they encourage you to learn characters helpful and I think they are generally pretty practical in that learning Chinese, like any langauage, is a lifelong journey. I will admit they do tend to amp up the "speed" they claim it will take to learn characters and words, especially when promoting their course. If you've tried the blueprint at all, I'd be really interested in your honest opinion on it, much like you give here. 谢谢 :)
I have never used Mandarin Blueprint, but have watched their videos. Their Chinese seems EXCEPTIONAL (much better than mine), and I very much warm to their personalities. Their videos are really nicely edited as well which I have big respect for. I reference them simply as an example of somewhat distorted expectations, as in my opinion there is no blueprint, its just a sexy marketing title. BUT but but, no hate on them for this, as I explained in the video, they are just existing in the world we live in. But yeah overall they seem great, I just have no experience of their product.
Awesome video! Extremely helpful perspective. Any advice for those of us who share the same goal of becoming fluent in Mandarin but don't have the opportunity to live in China? I live in the US and have used assorted means to learn enough characters and words to be able to express most things in Mandarin and Chinese people can generally understand me, but when they respond, it's just too fast and I have great difficulty understanding everything. Thanks!
Learning a language is like doing a degree, or possibly a degree plus masters for trickier languages
Hahaha, there's also the process of going from "dabbling" to "actually seriously studying".
I’ve been trying to learn Thai and it’s been about 10 years. I can read it better than I can speak it. Unfortunately I wasn’t consistent so I’m still at the starting gate.
When i started learning japanese i actually thought that around the 6 month mark i would be able to watch anime with japanese dialog and subs and follow along somewhat decently. Safe to say that that is not how it went, but im having a good time studying anyway here over 2 years later.
haha yes my friend! when i first started chinese i SOOO overestimated where I would be haha! although i guess theres nothing wrong with aiming for the stars
I am native Chinese, and studied Japanese casually for about 17 years. I stull cannot follow tv and animes. Reading is at a relatively high level but cannot do any output(speaking and writing)
Well i been living in China for over 6 years now and still only know a few words and sentences, then again im older and dis like studying
This in a sense is sort of demotivating, but actually idk what I was going to say
Top vid, BJ 👍🏻
02:42 Brooo lmao :D
fluent doesn't mean, like, native-level with a residual accent.
How long do you think it takes to learn Chinese fluently?
A heck of a long time! 😂
Really appreciate an honest video like this that talks about the massive amount of studying and exposure that it takes to learn a language. Personally, I usually prefer to measure language study in hours studied rather than years. I'm studying a bit more than the person in the example and after 2-3,000 hours I'm around the HSK 5-6 level, but find that I am more situationally fluent and situationally literate. Looking forward to many, many more years of learning.
Minimum 2 years
If you are learning like its a full time job in China, maybe 3-4 years. 1 class a week? Never. 2-3 classes a week? Never. I knew about 100 words when I arrived in China. The first 6 months I was taking 5 classes a week with a teacher, and self studying a minimum of 30 minutes every day for years. I slowly dropped the classes after I had a local gf. I was socially fluent after about 5 years, but never progressed past that. Without living in China would be almost impossible.
For a native english speaker, i would say 8-10 years, four or five years to be conversacional, depending on your consistency
I had this issue with that FrankieLight guy saying he's been learning Chinese for 1 year when there is footage of him speaking it 6 years before. I think people like that lie for the reaction. "WOW you speak this good after only 1 year!" I think it's a bit irresponsible to pretend you can reach this level after 1 year because for ALL those people who are still not very good after a year they are more likely to quit, thinking they just don't have an aptitude for it.
I'm not really sure who that is? Can you fill me in on him? But yeah it's perfectly possible people do fib about how long they have been practicing. As I said in the vid there may be a very rare outlier that smashes it. Generally speaking though, rule of thumb is for most people it takes years and years of grinding
@@BritishJackTalks This guy : com/watch?v=R-7MHgwS6To&ab_channel=FrankieLight
I wasn't even talking to him but he got pretty upset when I tried telling people that some of these UA-cam polyglots are at best exaggerating, or at worst perpetrating a fraud (I know a lot of these guys have "courses" they are trying to sell people).
University level btw, in a fraction of the time... bruh
I've been learning English, although it is not easy for me. This guy learns Chinese by himself. XD
So, I'm not fluent in english? haha
I'm sorry, but although I agree that it might take 10+ years to the average Joe who's not interested in learning the language and only practices Mandarin 1-2 h/d. But in general it DOES NOT take that long to reach "fluency" in Chinese. HSK5 in 5 years means studying at a pace of a little more than 1 word/day, but most people learning a foreign language generally manage 5-20+ words/day, even in "harder" languages (eg. Japanese, Korean etc).
I understand that most people coming to Chinese will be scared off by characters, and I'm not trying to say that characters aren't a challenge. Heck, they may very well be the biggest challenge of all, but as anything else in life, every problem has his own solution. In this case, Heisig (or Tuttle, or HanziHero, or Skritter, or any other program focusing on mnemonics and effective study techniques). Couple it with an SRS like anki or Quizlet and with just 1h/d you can easily digest the top 3000 characters (99.7% of the characters by frequency) in a mere 6 months at a pace of 15 characters/day (or even less if you're willing to put in more time).
And once you've memorized the meaning of those characters, it becomes pretty easy to memorize that a FIRE (火) MOUNTAIN (山) is a VOLCANO (火山). That the thing that has NOT YET (未) COME (来) is the FUTURE (未来). And the beauty of it is that 80+% of the language is like this: ELECTRIC + TALK = TELEPHONE (电话), ELECTRIC + SHADOW = MOVIE (电影), FIRE + CAR = TRAIN (火车), FLY + MACHINE = AIRPLANE (飞机), HAVE + MONEY + PERSON = RICH PERSON (有钱人), LEARN THEORY + PRACTICE = STUDY (学习), SPEAK + making it CLEAR = EXPLAIN (说明), etc etc etc.
Chinese grammar isn't particularly difficult either, although it may take a little longer to get used to. My advice? Read as many graded readers (and then slowly move to more difficult content until you reach native content) and you'll find out how intuitive and elegant Chinese grammar can be.
Also, spend maybe a month or two at the very beginning working on your pronunciation and as soon as possible start practicing shadowing starting with single sentences and then moving on to longer and longer text and you'll develop a pretty accurate accent without even noticing it.
Last but not least, immerse from day 1, try to listen as much as possible starting from the easiest, most baby-like material (when you begin learning a new language you're pretty much a baby in that language anyway). And always remember, the only way to learn a language is to get exposed to comprehensible messages as much as possible. Think about it (if 30+ years of academic research was not enough of a proof), hundreds of thousands of people around the globe immersed in the language for thousands of hours and reached advanced fluency in 2-3 years (some moved abroad, others met their significant other, others simply got bit by the "language bug" 😂 and whatnot) while millions keep miserably failing at learning beginner Spanish after spending years "memorizing" grammar tables and attending classes that are only as fast as their slowest student, all of this while teachers mostly "read" the textbook and waste precious class time forcing individual silent fill in the blank exercises (which you could do at home anyway) and waste the rest of the class over analyzing each sentences to the point it stops being a Chinese course and starts looking more like an advanced linguistics college course. Classes are great, don't get me wrong. Teachers study for decades to be able to teach their subject, but most of the time they're forced to comply with the fact that not every student is equally motivated and not everyone is willing to put in the hours. Even worse, most languages courses feature not-so professional native teachers who, instead of learning how to properly teach adult students, will simply reiterate what they remember going through in childhood, most won't correct your pronunciation cause they simply don't know how to explain phonetics (most teachers aren't even aware of things like the IPA and will inevitably resort to useless techniques like parroting). And because it took them years to master the characters by rote learning, they'll inevitably fall into the trap of thinking that their method is the best one because even a 6 yo can use it... yeah, right. At this point, one could argue that since a 6 yo can't understand calculus maths ends with elementary level algebra.
Have a clear plan, have clear achievable goals, be consistent, and learn from the thousands of polyglots around the world ... and try to enjoy the journey.
Ps. Check out Livakivi's channel if you're curious 😊
Mad respect for writing such a long reply brother! And I can see you have a really successful channel on learning Japanese yourself. I would say though, advanced fluency in 2-3 years is probably not achievable for most people. I think you might be one of the for aforementioned outliers 🤣🙏
@@BritishJackTalks I'd like to thank you for your kind response, you're a great guy whose doing an amazing job by sharing your personal story and experience (although our respective opinions on how to learn a language do diverge at times). It's only after watching it a second time that I realized how some people might feel overwhelmed and demoralized after watching all those hyperpolyglots' videos saying how "easy" it is. And the true value of this video lies in the fact that there are people out there who might end up thinking they don't have what it takes, but thanks to this video they might decide to give it a try after all and they might find out it's actually possible for them to learn Chinese after all. I apologize for how I initially wrote my comment, I wrote it in the heat of the moment and didn't realize how angry it sounded until I re-read it. I've rewritten the first part to reflect what I really think. I'm definitely not one of those outliers though (I wish ahaha). I'll do my best to learn both Chinese and Japanese in the future, but admittedly it's easier said than done.
Amazing video! I personally think it's possible to reach a very high level in just 2 years with methods that arent just classes once a week. Just wondering, have you ever seen 何威 or 马斯瑞？ I would love to see what you think about them and their interviews on Rita Mandarin Chinese. these kinds of videos got me to hsk 4 in a bit less than a year, so i also would like to know what you think about these kinds of videos as well. Keep up the great work!
I think I have a level of comprehension and speaking (not writing and reading characters) of HSK 3 within 8 months. So it‘s definitely possible to be faster than in the video but still a long journey to go and a lot of hard work. But if you learn 10 words a day, you learn 3650 a year. This is in theory so amazing.
But still thanks for the great video
Im him tho. I became fluent in 2 years
Ive been learning almost daily albeit in small bits for 2 years. I have basics but conversation? Nope 🤣
English is the easiest language because its unavoidable. Mandarin Chinese is considered one of the hardest language to learn behind Japanese.
when you're talking about HSK, are you referring to the old HSK system or the new one (after 2021 i believe)?
the new one is quite different, i believe hsk 3 now requires 2200+ words, almost the same as HSK 5 in the previous version
Old one!
It does take an awful long time to learn foreign languages. Many more people should consider learning Esperanto which can be done much faster and is now used much more widely than many people assume.
Is it? I don't think I've ever met someone who uses it?
@@BritishJackTalks Watch the interviews by an Esperantist from China "Trezoro Huang Yinbao". He has just made very short interviews with Esperanto speakers from different countries he met last month at the World Esperanto conference. It is in Esperanto, but with Chinese subtitles.
@@Kanguruo ok brother, thanks for the info, I will give it a watch 👍
Hello
I think it’s a bit exaggerated. I mean, getting a Chinese gf/bf would make you fluent in like two years of living with them imho. I got fluent in French in two years by living with French people. I don’t think Chinese is any different. Like you probably won’t know all the characters perfectly to the point of being able to read anything but your speaking and listening abilities would be considered very good. I mean Chinese is harder than French so it might take 3 years but still, if you are interested and motivated, no way it’s gonna take you more than 5 years.
I could be wrong though, that’s just some thought of mine. Anyways, thanks for the video, that was quite entertaining
Respect for your progress in French, but I think Chinese is more difficult. As such it makes it hard to compare progress timetables. Thanks for enjoying the video though brother
My wife is chinese and is fluent in English after living overseas for 20 years, she has just started learning French and said knowing English first and then learning French is easy.
9:43
"Supportative"?
😉
I'm doomed! 🤣🤣🤣
it takes a few thousand hours to become fluent in Mandarin, and it only depends on you how you will spend your time and how many hours a day you spend learning lol. 9-10 years😂😂 fml
You won't be fluent after 3000 hours. You'll just appear to be fluent 👍
I don’t want to watch the video…can some just tell me the answer?
3 minutes and 18 second
@@BritishJackTalks thanks
OMG! How utterly discouraging! I think I'll give up trying.
Haha! I didn't say they weren't an enjoyable 10 years!
im so glad someone said it, i see a lot of videos of people WHO ARE NOT NATIVE IN THAT LANGUAGE talking about how it speak it in 30 days, its so bs because people get false expectations
Unfortunately clickbait gets views so don't expect a drop off in the speak any language in one day nonsense...55
Shouldn't this be quantitified in hours rather than years?
Although the picture of the Queen on the wall made me sick, I have to agree with what you've said. It takes a long time.
Fake click bait titles and manipulation of the audience is nEcESsArY nowadays, I'm just following orders. I'm just following orders. I'm just following orders.
Saying 10 years is what it takes a regular and dedicated person that have all the resources to go to China and live there for years is a bad take in every regard and is discouraging a massive amount of real ordinary people to even think to start learning Chinese. Very bad take. Poor video.
Thanks for your feedback. I'm sad to think people would be discouraged watching this and I'll make a new video about how.learning Chinese is amazing to balance it out. I am still glad I made this video though as I'd rather be truthful about the honest challenge it takes to learn Chinese. I think more people get discouraged by the warped expectations that lead them to believe doing a weekly course/video series/ will lead them to fluency in whatever short time frame is chosen.