Chinese classes resume

Ni hao. Wo xue Han Wu. Han Zi nan.

I think this says: "Hello. I'm studying Chinese. Chinese characters are difficult."

Tonight was the first Chinese class after a long break (4 months). I've been trying to keep my Chinese current with a language partner, and I think it has paid off. I stepped into class without feeling that I've lost much and have added a few words of my own.

If there is a more difficult language to learn for an English speaker, I don't want to know it. I have my hands full because I have 4 things to learn for a word, unlike a standard 2 for European language. There is still the verbal understanding (what it sounds like with consonants and vowels) and the phonetic representation (pinyin alphabet), but I have to create an extra space in my brain for the tone and the seemingly unrelated character. Since it is 4 things instead of 2, it should only be twice as hard to learn.

No, it is 4 times as hard to learn because it grows exponentially. Learning just one extra (tone or character) would make it twice as hard as learning other languages, but learning both means twice that again.

It is a slow, arduous process. I hope to make it to (close to) fluent someday.

At least before I retire.