Is Chinese really difficult to learn?

It is often said that it is hard to learn Chinese, How am I supposed
to remember fifty to sixty thousand Chinese characters?
Is Chinese that hard? Not really!
In the =A1=B0the dictionary of Chinese characters=A1=B1 edited by LengYul=
ong
in 1994, there are over eighty five thousand characters. However, in
the =A1=B0Encyclopedia Britannica=A1=B1=A3=ACthere are over one million char=
acters .
In China, university students majored in science and engineering
only command two thousand characters with which they are able to read
books, newspapers or do the research.. but in the English-speaking
countries, a normal high school student has a vocabulary range from
three thousand to three point five thousand words. Those words are
enough for them to meet the needs for communication in daily life.
However, without those twenty thousand words, you cannot read books,
nor can you read periodicals without thirty thousand words. People who
have worked for ten years since graduation from university know about
eighty thousand words.
Different from English, the smallest unit of Chinese is a
character. It itself has a certain meaning besides its ability to
comprise words. That makes the comparative stability of the Chinese
characters. All the new words are comprised of the original
characters, therefore, people who understand Chinese can learn the
meaning of those new words as soon as they see them.=A1=A3On the contrary,
English words are formed by the random arrangement of letters, thereby
need efforts to be memorized.
There are some examples about cars listed as follows. Chinese
people will immediately know those words mean one kind of vehicle even
though they are semiiliterate.Even those words are not often seen in
our daily life, Chinese people still know their classifications and
the basic functions.
Cage =C9=FD=BD=B5=B3=B5 =3D =C9=FD up + =BD=B5 down + =B3=B5 vehicle
=A3=A8a kind of vehicle which can go both up and down=A3=A9
Barrow =C1=BD=C2=D6=CA=D6=CD=C6=B3=B5 =3D =C1=BD two + =C2=D6 wheel + =
=CA=D6 hand + =CD=C6 push + =B3=B5 vehicle
=A3=A8vehicles with two wheels and pushed by hands=A3=A9
Amtrac =CB=AE=C2=BD=C1=BD=D3=C3=B3=B5 =3D =CB=AE water + =C2=BD land + =
=C1=BD two + =D3=C3 use + =B3=B5 vehicle
=A3=A8vehicles which can be driven both on land and in the river.=A3=A9
Buckboard=CB=C4=C2=D6=C2=ED=B3=B5 =3D =CB=C4 four + =C2=D6 wheel + =C2=
=ED horse + =B3=B5 vehicle
=A3=A8a kind of vehicle with four wheels and pulled by horses=A3=A9
As a result, we know that Chinese is not that difficult. For
those foreigners learning Chinese, the most hardest is at the
beginning stage where they remember and master zero to one thousand
Chinese characters. However, when you have successfully passed this
stage, you can almost improve your Chinese by studying on your own..
The best way to learn Chinese is undoubtedly to come to China, but
that means a dramatic change in your life and expensive fee. But if
you want to learn Chinese in a local training class, it is very likely
that the teachers there are not the professional teachers. Not to
mention a great deal of time has to be wasted during the travel to the
class. But now there is fascinating news: www.ShareWe.com now has
supplied you with Chinese-learning online lessons which bring Chinese
professional teachers to you, therefore, you can learn the most native
Chinese with cheap fees at home. Isn=A1=AFt it amazing? Don=A1=AFt hesitate,=
go
to register and sign up!
On April.26th, ShareWe will provide you with the free trial of the
online class in the website. We sincerely hope you can join us.
Time for free trial (different time zone)
2008-4-26 21:00 ~22=A3=BA00(GMT -5:00 hours) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
2008-4-26 20:00 ~21=A3=BA00(GMT -6:00 hours) Central (US & Canada)
2008-4-26 19:00 ~20=A3=BA00(GMT -7:00 hours) Mountain Time (US & Canada)
2008-4-26 18:00 ~19=A3=BA00(GMT -8:00 hours) Pacific Time