I think 4 months is nothing, and you shouldn't base your Chinese on whether a taxi driver can understand you. I have been studying on/off for the last 8 years, and I often get things repeated back to me by taxi drivers. You have to understand that China is a HUGE country with many accents, and sometimes people don't understand you. I often throw out my Taiwanese accent to taxi drivers just to confuse them for fun

Also, don't feel pressure from your Chinese friends......study at your own pace

I think you are probably where you should be after 4 months and that you are tired from working and studying plus getting used to a new place and different culture.
I've been learning Chinese twice a week for over a year and often wonder if it is worth continuing as I don't seem to "get it." I thought I was good at languages before I came here and I feel like a complete dope in my lesson sometimes and that it's really hard to get the lesson to "stick."
It gets incredibly frustrating but the point does come when someone talks to you and you actually understand what they say.
I have also become more tolerant of people who don't speak English well.

a bit of positive reinforcement goes a long way! unfortunately, in Beijing, so many laowais speak Chinese that it's taken for granted to some locals (in some cases).
My Chinese is not crap but I always feel that it is less than adequate in Beijing.

However, as soon as I leave this city and go somewhere where laowais are the exception, not the norm, the locals shower my crappy chinese with praise and it makes me feel quite a bit better about it... nice little confidence boost!

Also, keep in mind that not everyone in Beijing speaks standard Mandarin and a lot of people here are from other places in China... in those cases, a lot of times, the problem is not what you said or the tone you used. It's more psychosomatic... just look at the number of times locals repeat things when talking to each other...

keep up the good work... it'll come slowly but surely

Right. To calibrate how much progress you *should* get, talk to and listen to a usual Chinese college student speaking English. Is his/her English broken and horrible to you? That is what they get after 6-10 years of English classes. You should expect about the same rate of progress in learning Chinese as a English speaker. It's that hard.

Of course you could argue that you are learning a foreign language where it is spoken while the Chinese students are not. Let's say you get yourself a factor of five boost because of that. Then you realize you shouldn't expect to speak Chinese better than most Chinese college student speak English even if you have studied for 1-2 years.

ben....

I went through a thing with a taxi driver a couple of days ago.

shi men
shi mur

... bloody Beijinghua!!!

East gate.

A$$hole wouldn't take me until I said it 'right'.

He's lucky it was a hot day and he had the air-con on full.

HH Did you mean West gate? Ximen?

glender

Don't even sweat it. When I first came to China and was studying at BLCU 5 years ago it was a serious blow to my self esteem. I have always had a propensity for languages, Chinese completly devastated me.

However I didn't quit.

You learn from your mistakes more from your succeses. I know that is cliche, truth most times is. Just think of all the Chinese who study English for years and years but make no progress because they are afraid to make mistakes, afraid of being laughed at.

Screw that.

And if they laugh at you, just speak more. Maybe you can exact some revenge by giving them a headache.

I could go on but wouldn't want to be accused of being negative. :roll: :roll: :twisted: :twisted:

pls forget the haircut boy and his stupid mock. u know what? a lot of Chinese cant pronounce madarine Chinese correctly because there are so many dialects in China.however,dont worry about it.

if i am allowed i have to say the place u want to go is not "sanlintun",it's "sanlitun".maybe it's not the problem of ur pronunciation but that someone had told u a wrong name or u remembered the name in a wrong way beacuse of carelessness.maybe the drive is new and not familiar with the famous place of Beijing.in fact, even though u pronounce"sanlitun"far far away from the correct tones,an experienced driver can catch what u want to be.so, u see, it's his problem!then, why punish yourself for other person's mistake??

pls do hold on and i believe u can get a lot of fun.be brave to practise it with Chinese people and u must ask ur tutor to be serious in correcting ur pronunciation,it's very important to get a good pronunciation at the very beginning.wish u a good time in studying our language

Totally!!

What does 'jia you' mean?

Don't get upset by what some idiot at the hair dresser says. Most people that have cut my hair in beijing couldn't speak mandarin properly.
It's a shame but chinese people regularly mock the way others speak if they don't sound exactly like them. I have seen my wife laugh and mock wait staff in front of her family and friends if they speak with an accent.
She even has a go at me if i say something in-correctly, saying I spoke like someone from guangdong or hebei.
It's just there narrow mindedness they think if some one sounds different to them that they say are uneducated or lower class, It's just a shame we foreigners who can't sound like them get caught up in there social prejudice.

Also you said at one point you wanted to cry being 31yrs old the days of crying should be 29yrs behind you. You have to toughen up or you will be constantly crying when you can understand what people are saying about you.

I was at the visa office and the woman processing my application turned to the woman next to her and said look how fat this foreigner is she was referring to me i was sitting directly in front of her face to face. I admit i was fat i have since lost 20kg but still she could wait till i am out of ear shot.

Jia you (加油） literally means "add oil/fuel" and is used as a phrase of encouragement. Much like Americans and Europeans might shout slogans of encouragement to sports teams, Chinese use this as an all-purpose phrase of general encouragement and support.

I just think of it as "Go for it!"

Me getting into a taxi in Beijing.

driver; chu naaaaarrr?

me; fu xing men

driver; naaaarrrr?

me; fu......xing.......men

driver with mouth open, blank stare;.................

me; fu xing meeeeeeerrrrr

driver; ah, dui, dui, wo zhi dao

Beijingers tend to be very inflexible. I find Tianjiners to be much more friendlier and flexible.

@OP, are you sure your recent problems don't have anything to do with culture shock? 4 months is around the time you get the second one. Take a weeks break and relax. Then when you go back to studying, it might be better.

Hi all,I am a Mandarine teacher,from my teahing experience, i think pronunciation is very important, even though you had mastered the grammar well, you could organize sentences well, it's still hard to make yourself understood if the pronunciation is confusing. so my suggestion is that try to pronunce as clear as possible, don't be afraid of speaking slowly,at least it makes ppl know what you are saying, isn't it?