I’m Not Just a Whiny Wuss
(Chinese [language] kicks my arse)
The Asia Society report says it takes “an educated English speaker 1,300 hours to achieve the native-proficiency of an educated native speaker of Chinese, while it would only take about 480 hours to achieve the same level in French or Spanish.” In Sunday’s edition of The Washington Post Magazine, my Post colleague Elizabeth Chang quotes another source saying that it actually takes 2,200 class hours to achieve full proficiency.
…Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean each takes 2,200 class hours — or about four years even if you attended a very tough school that had you in language class three hours a day every weekday for nine months a year.
from a Washington Post Article by Jay Matthews
October 31st, 2007 at 2:26 PM
I went to China last year for three weeks, and we learned quite a few words and I started recognising a few characters. Random characters like ‘lamb’, and ‘people’ and occasionally I could figure out a sign. Even those in ‘English’! Hehehe. Anyway, I was an awe of my friend and her Chinese ability… after 18 months she could hold conversations, but that was after living in the language for quite a while. No you aren’t a wuss! All the best for your project.