I am a native English-speaker studying Mandarin Chinese. I am interested in getting feedback from native English-speakers who have successfully become fluent in Mandarin Chinese: 1) From the time you began studying Mandarin Chinese, approximately how long did it take you to actually become fluent in the language? (i.e. able to communicate all of your ideas and interests to a native Mandarin-speaker, and also able to understand 80% of what they say) 2) Approximately how much time did you spend studying Mandarin Chinese each day in order to reach fluency? What type of schooling/classes did you take, if any? 3) Which books, online resources, audio books, ect. Do you recommended to facilitate learning Mandarin Chinese? 4) What did you find to be the most beneficial and helpful things that you did as you progressed toward Mandarin Chinese fluency? 5) How important do you think it is to study simplified/traditional Chinese characters concurrently while learning the spoken language?

I can speak fluent English and Dutch h at the moment. I am going in the army soon for Military and at some point I will have to take a language course. And so I either want to Mandarin Chinese or Japanese which one easier to pick up for a beginner in eastern languages? If you learn one is it easier to learn another one or different ?for example French and Spanish are two different languages but I you are a native English speaker once you learn one the other is slightly easier because you get familiar with female/male words, with these two or completely different? I heard that China is rising to power and would be a good language to learn for upcoming business wise but Japanese seems better for business what are your view points on this? Thank you for your time Note spellchecker just messing up what I wrote forgive me for my spelling

I've heard something along the lines of "Kai-Halla," but I'm not sure. I would like just a basic phonetic pronunciation of 53 in Chinese, please.

There are tall mountains as well as plateaus in Yunnan. Therefore, geographical conditions differ greatly. Everywhere the landscape is very beautiful. In many places, it's neither too cold nor too hot no matter when you go. It is very suitable for tourism.

I am getting a ring for my g/f this Christmas, (she is Chinese) and obviously I cannot understand the language (I am a white guy from Alabama). Does anyone know how to say "you are amazing and beautiful" Chinese (western lettering)? Perhaps in Mandarin or something Fujainese people would understand? Any help would be GREAT!

I would like to write a formal thank-you letter to my Chinese teacher for my last year of Chinese at school, but I'm terrified of making a mistake! Could someone please _roughly_ translate the following into Chinese for me? [NO ONLINE TRANSLATIONS!!!] ----- Dear 萧老师， I am writing to thank you for being such an outstanding teacher of Chinese this year. Thanks to your tireless assistance, I now feel a lot more confident in speaking, reading and writing Chinese. I particularly appreciated all the support you gave me in preparing for the oral examination. No matter what grade I get at the end of the year, I feel I have done my best thanks to your teaching. I hope that you and your family have happy New Year. Hopefully we can stay in touch. Yours sincerely, ZZZ

Here is the pinyin, what do these statements mean in English? 1. ni sheng bing le ma? 2. ni dui shen me guo ming? 3. ni dui shen me yao guo ming? 4. ni kan yi sheng le ma? 5. ni chi yao le ma? 6. Wo mei you guo min. If you can help me with any of the 6 that would be great!

Is this originally a Chinese expression?

我 的 家 我 叫 木可思。 我 的 家 有 四 个 人。 我 有 爸爸， 妈妈，和 孪生妹 。 我 家 在 __________。我 的 爸爸 名字 是 _____，和 我 的 妈妈 名字 是 ______。 今 年 我 的 爸爸 和 妈妈 是 五十五 岁。我 的 孪生妹 名字 是 _______，还 是 木可灯。 今 年 我 的 孪生妹 和 我 是 十九 岁。 我 会 先 介绍 我 的 妈妈。 她 美 和谦虚。 她 是 个 很 好 的 艺术家。 我 的 孪生妹 在 是 大学生。她比我一分年轻。 她 在 _______ 大学 工作 在 Rec。 barn。 去年 她 工作 在 中国餐馆，叫 幸运的龙。她 周末 在 幸运的 龙 工作。她 常常 加班。她 常常 忙。她 一月 和 二月 在 New York City 会 工 作 。 I haven't learned past tense yet, and it's hard to describe my sister's work without it. Also, 木可思 is my name in Chinese class and 木可灯 is my sister's.

Doing a mandarin project, in which I have to describe my house.

Hello! I will begin to learn Chinese (Mandarin and maybe Cantonese or Hokkien dialect I think) next year, and I am excited and curious to know...what my name is like...in Chinese! :) I know that my name cannot be translated directly to Chinese since my name is in roman alphabet letters, so I would like to ask if it is not too much trouble, if I give the meaning of my names will someone help me and translate please? :) My family name's meaning is "new town" or "new city" and my given name's meaning is "beloved" or "love" but it is a very simple name. If it cannot be done though, I understand. So I hope it's okay! Thank you very much!! Thank you for answering though! the "bu" is pronounced more like "beh" though. Sorry I am so inconsistent! lol

I know Mandarin and Cantonese are both dialects of Chinese but do they use different characters and is the sound very different from each other?

any proverbs about family for a Christmas card for grandparents.

It is more like I want to say that I don't have a living room for my (non existent) sofa to be in. (Before I wrote about having a sofa and big white cat that slept on it. But, I don't have the sofa. I don't have a cat.). I don’t know whether the Chinese grammar in this sentence is right or not. I need someone who is really good at Chinese grammar to answer my question.

I am studying Chinese and writing; do ALL Chinese words; ie., ai or ang all have five different meanings depending on the stroke 1,2,3,4, (5) over them. I have of a listing of about 400 words; (Dolch words in Chinese ;) but if each has 5 tone marks HELP It gets harder and harder to learn Chinese. Does anyone have some good ways to learn Chinese?

A: Do you know the art of chopsticks? B: Could you teach me how to use chopsticks?

I'm kind of confused about these terms. So please help me understand them well enough. What is Mandarin/Mandarin Chinese or Chinese Mandarin? (Are they any different at all?) Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese Cantonese Han Chinese Hanyu(or is it Han Yu?) that's all. I just need some simple explanations for each. Thanks so much in advance.