Yi-Cheng
Professional Teacher
Speaking of learning Mandarin (or other languages), what's biggest struggle for you? I'm curios about your answers about these questions. Therefore, I made this survey with 3 questions.
ps.  If you're not talking about Mandarin, please mention which language you're talking about.  

Feel free to use English to respond. 

Q1. 对你来说,学中文最难的 "地方 / 点 / 部分" 是什么?
Duì nǐ lái shuō, xué zhōngwén zuì nán de dìfāng/ diǎn/ bùfèn shì shénme?
(As for you, what is the most difficult part of learning Mandarin?)

V-phrase + 最+ adj +的 地方 / 点 / 部分 + 是...
(the most adj part of doing this V-phrase is ....)

The meanings below are matching for this specific sentence. These words all have their other meanings.

地方 Dìfāng (an aspect; a respect; a part (of a plan, statement, theory, etc.))
点 Diǎn (an item or aspect (of an abstract entity such as doubt, suggestion, etc.))
部分 Bùfèn (a part)


Q2. 你觉得最好的解决办法/解决方法是什么?
Nǐ juédé zuì hǎo de jiějué bànfǎ/jiějué fāngfǎ shì shénme?
(What do you think is the best solution?)
=> according to Q1

解决办法/解决方法 Jiějué bànfǎ / jiějué fāngfǎ (lit. the method/way of solving.. -> solution)


Q3. 说到学中文,你最想学什么样的主题?   
Shuō dào xué zhōngwén, nǐ zuì xiǎng xué shénme yàng de zhǔtí?
 (Speaking of learning Mandarin, what kind of topics do you want to learn the most? )

-> For example, some people learn a specific language is because they're going to have a trip (or many trips) to the country in which people speak that language, and they want to be able to :...
1. ask direction 
2. order food in a store/restaurant
3. others

So, what's yours? 

说到 shuō dào / 谈到 tán dào (more formal) : (speaking of... / to mention; to talk about; to refer to)
主题 Zhǔtí (topics )



May 17, 2018 10:29 AM
Comments · 6
1
Hi, I always wanted to learn Mandarin but the biggest struggle for me is the pronunciation. I tried several times and I did work so hard to improve but I keep on making mistakes.
January 23, 2020
1
Hi Yi Cheng,
It's Helena Huang and I sent you a message and it looks like you responded to me but I can actually see what you wrote. Would it be possible for you to email me directly as I found this italki platform very hard to use. I'm at [email protected]. I'm looking for a weekly tutor but need the times to be around 5 pm in the evening EST and I'm not sure that will work for someone living in Taiwan. Please let me know and thanks! HH
January 23, 2020
Well, mainly it’s just that Chinese and Western languages are really different. One thing is when Chinese people write their names with no tone marks (or numbers). Since tones are as important in Chinese as vowels are in English, this is like an English speaker writing his name as “Tm” and expecting us to know if it’s “Tim” or “Tom”. Of course, it is true that English spelling doesn’t always indicate the actual pronunciation of the vowel, but still, some tone marks would be nice :)

January 23, 2020
Im learning german
Q1 geting the order right sometimes and finding someone too practice with
Q2 at this moment im using duolingo and after each lesson there's comments so I go through the comments if I get confused until I understand
Q3 I want to learn enough to visit on a food tour
January 23, 2020
@Helena Huang
Hi Helena! I sent you the message again through your email so that you can see my response! :)

@Florian K.
Hello Flo!
I agree the pronunciation is a big struggle for lots of Mandarin learners and other language learners!
Especially for people who mother tongue's pronunciation techniques are so different from the target language's.
The tongue placement, mouth shape, muscles which help making the sounds are just not used to the new ones.
I use some techniques I found throughout the teaching and re-learning process to my students.
I think as long as the learners are willing to be fully dedicated to learning it without confusing themselves with other methods, normally they would be able to reach a pretty good level of pronunciations. I don't think it needs to be 100% like native before moving on to learn more fun things of the target language :)
January 23, 2020
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