There’s a slim outside chance that I could be picked up for a language program for the Navy. I scored well on the language aptitude test, so I could be sent to learn Arabic, Korean, or Mandarin, among other possibilities. Anyone learn Mandarin (i.e. not a native speaker)? How difficult? Is it something you can reasonably learn to read, write, and speak without years of immersion?
I have a few friends who went through DLI for various languages. They have all told me Mandarin is the toughest. Are you going to Monterey?
I dont speak Mandarin but I also have a number of non-native mandarin speaking friends. It is meant to be a difficult language to learn, mainly because it’s a tonal language (the same sound can have 4 different meanings depending on the tone) which requires some adjustment for English speakers. If I was given the options you were given though, I would choose Mandarin every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
As China rises Mandarin is going to be an increasingly important language and compare the number of Mandarin speakers to Korean? If you ever want to go into business you can’t know a better language than Mandarin IMO. I don’t have any children yet but when I do they will all be learning Mandarin as a second language.
"Are you going to Monterey? "
It’s a possibility. I won’t know for several months, but I scored well enough on the DLAB to qualify for any language, so I thought I’d ask.
Anyone speak Mandarin?
Yes, about a billion people…I think. ; ^ )
Do you know how they would teach you Mandarin? Does the Navy use a program like Rosetta Stone?
"Do you know how they would teach you Mandarin? Does the Navy use a program like Rosetta Stone? "
I would go to the Defense Language Institute. My understanding is that it is an immersion style course that focuses first on real life competence, and then moves into more detailed language skills. The basic Mandarin course is 63 weeks long, and if they sent me to Basic and Internmediate, that would add another 47 weeks. Then another 47 weeks for Advanced. I would probably just do the basic course, I would guess.
My 2-year old is learning it from her nanny, but that probably doesn’t help you. From my brother’s experience trying to learn Cantonese - tonal languages are tough. Not only is it difficult to properly make some of the sounds, but -hearing- them is hard too. Not to say it can’t be done without years of immersion, but I would be surprised if it came easily.
My sister-in-law works for the State Department. She’s fluent in about 8 or 9 languages and says Arabic was the hardest thing she’d ever learned in her life…until Mandarin.
"She’s fluent in about 8 or 9 languages and says Arabic was the hardest thing she’d ever learned in her life…until Mandarin. "
Awesome. Great news. 
I’ve been learning Mandarin in university for the past 3 years and in a month I’ll be flying over to live in Beijing for the rest of the year (at least) to immerse myself in the language. What other people have said here is true, phonetically it’s a disaster because of the tones, but if you enter a well designed and thought-out language program and stick through what will be some very frustrating moments, you’ll be fine. Character learning is also very challenging and time-consuming, but if you learn to enjoy it as I have you’ll have a much easier time.
All the advice I have is to find a way to love the learning process, be persistent, and make it a part of your daily routine (podcasts, flashcards, music, movies with subtitles are all great).
And just so you don’t feel it’s ALL hard, the grammar is actually very simple so one less thing for you to worry about.
good luck!
I speak Mandarin.
Even if you learn the vocab, you will never get the intonations unless you were to live in that environment for a few years. One word said in different tones, typically has several totally unrelated meanings. Same with all Chinese dilects. You can try to learn but you’ll still end up sounding like a funny “Guay Low - Sha Qua”.
In Cantonese the word “tiu” can mean throw in one tone and fuck in another. Also for the figure 4 a slightly different tone means death or to die. Hence the Chinese dislike of the number 4 and their obsession in avoiding it.
I speak Malay and Indonesian fluently too, the language of SE Asian Muslims. And some Vietnamese as well. Resident back and forth one month in one month out of Hochiminh for 5 years in the latter 90s.
I lived in Hong Kong growing up and spent about five minutes (metaphorically, of course) trying to learn Cantonese before switching to French (useless language IMHO – sorry Frenchies:). Like everyone’s said, the tonal issues are the most difficult and I would imagine it’s the same for Mandarin. It’s not impossible, just really hard.
I have two kids and starting in middle school, “Chinese” is offered. It grates my nerves when schools say they’re going to teach the kids “Chinese” – what, Mandarin, Cantonese, etc. Makes me think they have no idea there are dialects. I also think it’s completely unrealistic to think they’ll be able to teach Douglas County, Colorado kids a language that takes years to master and requires immersion.
I personally think the most useful language for a kid to learn in school is Spanish. There are parts of the United States where Spanish is spoken almost exclusively (Miami!) and it’s kind of like English in that a lot of people around the world know it. The Chinese dialects are really only spoken in China and unless you plan to live there, don’t have much application outside of China. Yes, there are a lot of people in China and China will always be a major world economy. But, many Chinese – especially in commercial centers like Beijing and Shanghai – are taught English as a second language and I would put their ESL skills up against middle/high school-school taught Mandarin any day of the week.
Spanish is easy to learn and the chances that kids will have an opportunity to actually use it in everyday life here are high.
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