Being an Indian, wondering for the time taken to learn the Chinese language, then check out this article
Chinese is a group of various regional languages and dialects. Almost 1.4 billion people speak some form of Chinese, making it the most widespread of all the Chinese languages. There are several different dialects, and varieties spoken in China. Cantonese is the most popular subdialect of Chinese. It is an important language spoken across southeastern China and Hong Kong across the planet. The Chinese language is the formal tongue of the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan, also the official language in Singapore and the United Nations.
Now let us see the time taken by the Indian students to learn Chinese
According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) scale, it will take 2200 hours of active learning to reach bilingual Chinese proficiency.
Chinese is one of the 5 languages which is most challenging to learn for native Indian speakers. If you spend your time for 15-20 hours per week, then you can achieve your fluency level in the Chinese language. You may think that it looks a lot to learn the language, but doing good things always takes time.
Other speakers
But the Japanese and Korean speakers may have an advantage here because these languages evolved around each other also both are character-based languages. But no other native speaker has a big advantage in learning the Chinese language as even speakers of other Asian or character-based languages will have to spend many hours to learn the Chinese language.
Based on individuals
Learning the Chinese language is different from person to person. There are people who naturally improve to learn foreign languages sooner than others. Based on the many factors this learning time may vary. The Chinese Proficiency Test provides you a basis for how long it takes for you to learn the Chinese language.
Proficiency Test
HSK is an international standardization test of Chinese language proficiency. This test assesses Indian and other language speaker abilities for the Chinese language in their daily, academic, and also in their professional lives. HSK test consists of six levels.
Time is taken to reach levels
Usually, one will study the Chinese language after one year and can reach HSK 4 level certificate. But if you go to classes every day and spend your time in 4 to 5 hours studying, then you can reach HSK 5 level. So it takes for you to reach a year and a half to reach HSK 6 level because the period between HSK 5 and 6 is big.
Learning the Chinese language and reaching the fluent level is one of the most challenging skills for Indian students.
The estimated time that you will need to know is around 2000-3000 Chinese characters to read average Chinese. If you need to read a newspaper then the number of characters you need to know is also even higher. To improve your Chinese language ability try taking an online class and take a one-to-one class so that the teacher can help you. Other online learning options are registering your class with Multibhashi and attending free demo online classes. All the best!!!