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DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 days agoI’m a native Cantonese and Mandarin speaker and I’ll be brutally honest, you need a huge motivation, or else you will struggle to be fluent.
Not just because you like the aesthetics, or like the idea of being bilingual…
What are you gonna even use the language for.
For example, you might wanna learn Japanese for better experience enjoying Anime…
My parents came to the US as adults.
My dad has been in the US for… 16 years… still a non citizen and never really learned English
Meanwhile, mom needs it to do bussiness… investments… and stuff… so she has to learn it… She knows enough to become a citizen…
The biggest thing is IMMERSION. Even then, dad never learner it…
My parents barely understand me lol. Since I only know 2nd grade level of Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin share similar vocaublary)… despite being a native speaker.
A westerner is gonna struggle a lot with the tones…
I was “luckly” enough to be just at the perfect time of 8 years old so I know enough basics of Chinese before emigraring… so my brain is in between two worlds.
If I was born in the US, idk if I could manage to learn it.
IMO Mandarin is gonna be tough since Chinese shows are sooo boring… soo cliche… predictable story is gonna kill the will to learn… (unless you love bad tv drama lol)
Ask your self: What are you gonna use Mandarin for? (Also: do you also wanna learn the writing too? Since its logographics, much harder.) Just as a trophy? Or actually gonna regularly have a use for it?
Jax@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
Well, to answer your primary question — many of the people on the team I work with speak… it’s either Cantonese or Mandarin, I think they told me Mandarin but I’m not entirely sure. It isn’t something that would necessarily help me on a professional level, but it would help me on a personal level with many of them.
That’s genuinely my motivation, I don’t really care about ‘seeming’ bilingual — this is mostly to bring me closer to people who have helped me at work.
DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
I mean the best way to achieve your goal of personal connection is just asking them to teach you.
Jax@sh.itjust.works 6 days ago
I guess that’s true, I have actually mentioned it to a few of my coworkers – they all had a reaction that more or less spoke ‘there simply isn’t enough time for that’ lol.
Tangentially, there’s also this bilibili show called ling long reincarnation that, whether I’m stupid for liking it or not, is awesome. The thing about it is that I’ve always felt like there’s something lost in translation about the show, or there are themese that I’m simply unaware of due to… well an overall lack of knowledge about Chinese language and culture, I suppose.
Idk, full immersion would be best like you said — I just have no idea where I’d find that in California. I’m sure there are places, but then there’s the extra layer of somehow finding enough time to actually absorb the language through immersion. Perhaps I’ll just take up Spanish lol, I always did well in it in school and it’s close enough to English. I think it would probably be much easier to find people who speak Spanish here.