I am a native Chinese man, but as you see, I also know English -- not good but I can use it for my works.
I am writing this post, because I want to share my experiences on learning language.
I had spent many years to learn English but could not handle it, untill I read a article called "Learning English As a Baby". Then I undertood, I was learning a subject called "Translation", but not real English. I have changed my way to learn English, it is even not called learning, but to accept English as a bady who doesn't know Chinese or any other language.
Now I am learning French, and it is much faster than learing English, because I got the key. I have wasted more than 10 years to get this key.
So the key is, forgetting your mother tongue, you have just new borned, you know nothing about the world, now you are learing everything new with Chinese. You don't know "sugar" and "sweet", but this is táng, and it is tían.
Please think about what I said for a few minutes, than continue to read.
You may ask, yes, sweet is "tían", but field is also "tían", how I know what you are saying?!
This is the difference from Chinese to other alphabetic writing languages. In English, you know how to speak a word, then you can know how the spelling looks like. Because the writings are from speakings. But Chinese is different, maybe thousands years before, the Chinese people also called the field with many syllables, but after creating the characters, all the people called the field with one syllable.
You don't need to think this is good or bad, because you are a baby/kid, you are accepting everything without any condition.
Your father and your teacher told you the meaning of 田, and teach you how to write.
This is same in English, but problem is on speaking.
In the different places and different time of China, the sounds of 田 are different. I know you are learing Mandarins, only one kind of sound. But there are Cantonese, Hakka....the 田 have hundreads speaking ways in China. And they are all Chinese.
I am not telling you that you have to learn hundreads speaking ways of one charater in Chinese. There are thousands languages in China, in the south of China, people and people can not understand each other even they are only 20 kilometer far. And it is not everyone in China speak Mandarins well.
So how they communicate?
Using Chinese characters!
Please image, a English, a Portuguese and a Spanish meet, how they communicate? They have to both learn one same language. But if using Chinese characters, you can still saying "field", he can still saying "campo", but you both write them to be 田. You dont know need to learn Spanish, French...but every people speaking different languages in Europe are using the same writing, is that convenient?
Actually, in Ancient China, there are many countries, they spoke different like Europe. Chinese characters were international.
Believe me, Chinese people is not stupid, we created characters are not for making ourselves difficult, but convenient.
You have your owning language like many Chinese people, only yours is called English, mine is Cantonese. You don't have to learn Mandarin, only you need.
Many Chinese people feel hard to learn English, because they use the way of learning Chinese, they alway write and write, but don't open their mouth.
So learning Chinese is reversed, please write, please use your mind, your eyes and your nose to feel every character.
Please learning Chinese from classical Chinese, from the aticles which were by the ancient Chinese people. Like 《The Thousand Character Classic》, Chinese people were learning Characters from these, you too.
天地玄黄，宇宙洪荒。日月盈昃，辰宿列张。
Read them, you will get the meanings.
Dont hear about grammars of modern Chinese language at beging, you will lose the way.
Chinese has no grammar.
In modern Chinese language, you can not use noun to be verb, but in classical Chinese, you can.
For example, wearing cloth, in modern Chinese language, you have to say, 我在穿衣服，我穿衣服，我在给他穿衣服。
But in classical Chinese, it is very simple, you can write (yes, only write.): 我衣，衣我，衣之。
Another example, 驴不胜怒，蹄之 ----word by word: The donkey can not bear the anger, hoof it.
See, you don't need to learn a word of "kick", but hoof is enough.
Yes, these are dead, no longer use. But please learn Chinese from the morning of this culture, you will not confuse.
You won't think what grammar cause "写黑板" is right. Don't think.
Read more ancient Chinese poems.
床前明月光
Bed, front, bright, moon, light.
This is already a sentence in Chinese.
There is no "there is", there is no "in", there is no verb, there is no possessive case, you don't need to know when it happened, who is there.
Here is no grammar. It is a opened language, every people can build them like toy blocks.
You may say, OK OK, I understand you, but why if I say "我水, I water" my teacher say I am wrong.
Because you need to use modern Chinese to say.
Modern Chinese has Europeanized grammar, to make the modern Chinese organized. It is closed to English, so it is simple.
But why you will be confused, even you know English very well? Because Chinese people use modern Chinese and ancient Chinese both. And you have not learned ancient Chinese.
Yes, you will mainly use modern Chinese, but please learn it later.
Learn Chinese from original, from thousands year ago. You will deeply understand Chinese.
Forget the grammar, learning Chinese from
天地玄黄，宇宙洪荒。日月盈昃，辰宿列张……
床前明月光……
枯藤老树昏鸦，小桥流水人家，古道西风瘦马……
Please, relax yourslef, to enjoy learning Chinese characters. They are international, they are not only for Chinese, they are for every people, don't scare them, they are very friendly. You can call the fields to be fields, but write it 田， you can call the birds to be birds, but write it 鸟。
I am writing this post, because I want to share my experiences on learning language.
I had spent many years to learn English but could not handle it, untill I read a article called "Learning English As a Baby". Then I undertood, I was learning a subject called "Translation", but not real English. I have changed my way to learn English, it is even not called learning, but to accept English as a bady who doesn't know Chinese or any other language.
Now I am learning French, and it is much faster than learing English, because I got the key. I have wasted more than 10 years to get this key.
So the key is, forgetting your mother tongue, you have just new borned, you know nothing about the world, now you are learing everything new with Chinese. You don't know "sugar" and "sweet", but this is táng, and it is tían.
Please think about what I said for a few minutes, than continue to read.
You may ask, yes, sweet is "tían", but field is also "tían", how I know what you are saying?!
This is the difference from Chinese to other alphabetic writing languages. In English, you know how to speak a word, then you can know how the spelling looks like. Because the writings are from speakings. But Chinese is different, maybe thousands years before, the Chinese people also called the field with many syllables, but after creating the characters, all the people called the field with one syllable.
You don't need to think this is good or bad, because you are a baby/kid, you are accepting everything without any condition.
Your father and your teacher told you the meaning of 田, and teach you how to write.
This is same in English, but problem is on speaking.
In the different places and different time of China, the sounds of 田 are different. I know you are learing Mandarins, only one kind of sound. But there are Cantonese, Hakka....the 田 have hundreads speaking ways in China. And they are all Chinese.
I am not telling you that you have to learn hundreads speaking ways of one charater in Chinese. There are thousands languages in China, in the south of China, people and people can not understand each other even they are only 20 kilometer far. And it is not everyone in China speak Mandarins well.
So how they communicate?
Using Chinese characters!
Please image, a English, a Portuguese and a Spanish meet, how they communicate? They have to both learn one same language. But if using Chinese characters, you can still saying "field", he can still saying "campo", but you both write them to be 田. You dont know need to learn Spanish, French...but every people speaking different languages in Europe are using the same writing, is that convenient?
Actually, in Ancient China, there are many countries, they spoke different like Europe. Chinese characters were international.
Believe me, Chinese people is not stupid, we created characters are not for making ourselves difficult, but convenient.
You have your owning language like many Chinese people, only yours is called English, mine is Cantonese. You don't have to learn Mandarin, only you need.
Many Chinese people feel hard to learn English, because they use the way of learning Chinese, they alway write and write, but don't open their mouth.
So learning Chinese is reversed, please write, please use your mind, your eyes and your nose to feel every character.
Please learning Chinese from classical Chinese, from the aticles which were by the ancient Chinese people. Like 《The Thousand Character Classic》, Chinese people were learning Characters from these, you too.
天地玄黄，宇宙洪荒。日月盈昃，辰宿列张。
Read them, you will get the meanings.
Dont hear about grammars of modern Chinese language at beging, you will lose the way.
Chinese has no grammar.
In modern Chinese language, you can not use noun to be verb, but in classical Chinese, you can.
For example, wearing cloth, in modern Chinese language, you have to say, 我在穿衣服，我穿衣服，我在给他穿衣服。
But in classical Chinese, it is very simple, you can write (yes, only write.): 我衣，衣我，衣之。
Another example, 驴不胜怒，蹄之 ----word by word: The donkey can not bear the anger, hoof it.
See, you don't need to learn a word of "kick", but hoof is enough.
Yes, these are dead, no longer use. But please learn Chinese from the morning of this culture, you will not confuse.
You won't think what grammar cause "写黑板" is right. Don't think.
Read more ancient Chinese poems.
床前明月光
Bed, front, bright, moon, light.
This is already a sentence in Chinese.
There is no "there is", there is no "in", there is no verb, there is no possessive case, you don't need to know when it happened, who is there.
Here is no grammar. It is a opened language, every people can build them like toy blocks.
You may say, OK OK, I understand you, but why if I say "我水, I water" my teacher say I am wrong.
Because you need to use modern Chinese to say.
Modern Chinese has Europeanized grammar, to make the modern Chinese organized. It is closed to English, so it is simple.
But why you will be confused, even you know English very well? Because Chinese people use modern Chinese and ancient Chinese both. And you have not learned ancient Chinese.
Yes, you will mainly use modern Chinese, but please learn it later.
Learn Chinese from original, from thousands year ago. You will deeply understand Chinese.
Forget the grammar, learning Chinese from
天地玄黄，宇宙洪荒。日月盈昃，辰宿列张……
床前明月光……
枯藤老树昏鸦，小桥流水人家，古道西风瘦马……
Please, relax yourslef, to enjoy learning Chinese characters. They are international, they are not only for Chinese, they are for every people, don't scare them, they are very friendly. You can call the fields to be fields, but write it 田， you can call the birds to be birds, but write it 鸟。
Nice to have Chinese person onboard.