假如有个美国人在学中文，中国人对此会表示欣赏还是觉得受到了冒犯？ [美国媒体]

Do-Chinese-people-appreciate-an-American-who-is-learning-Chinese-or-do-they-find-it-offensive

假如有个美国人在学中文，中国人对此会表示欣赏还是觉得受到了冒犯？




Bruce Sweigert
I have found that knowledge of the language is almost universally positively accepted. 
The Chinese are incredibly proud of their culture, and for a big part in history they have been expected to learn English (or other foreign language) in order to succeed in a modern, globalized world. The fact that foreigners are now making the effort to learn their language is really satisfying to them because it shows that both China has become a true world power, and also that the speaker has taken the time and effort to learn the Chinese language - kind of a leveling of the playing field if you will.
In my case, I have been studying Mandarin on and off for an extended period over 25 years, including 3 years formal education in an American university, 2 years graduate study, and 1.5 years abroad in immersion training, in practical use in various parts of my career and also in private study. You can say that I have put in a significant amount of effort, and people that I speak to can detect it, even though my fluency has varied over time as I constantly seem to be in a stage of "recovery" based on my cycle of usage. 
In practical situations, it can really be helpful to ease the tension. Taxi drivers, waiters, and store clerks often get nervous when a foreigner approaches them. Speak a little Chinese, and they are relieved that the burden is off of them, and often its very easy to engage in small talk - especially taxi drivers want to know your whole life story and how and why you came to learn the language. I even had one case where a taxi driver refused taking the fare from me because he enjoyed chatting with me so much!
In a business situation, knowing Chinese is golden. Even if you don't use it for business discussions, if you can let loose during the social situations that are always a part of doing business in China, its really the chance to get a closer bond with your business partners than would be impossible otherwise.  You can come close to being "one of us" rather than just another foreigner. They really respect the effort that one takes to learn their language - from basic to advanced.
If you plan to spend time in China for an extended period, or plan to do business there in the long run, investing the time to learn the language can really pay off. You just have to understand that getting the tonal component is absolutely fundamental. I am lucky in that in my first year in university, in the introductory course we spent 80% of the time in tonal recognition before we were allowed to make a complete sentence. It was painful, but the reward was a solid foundation. If you can say just a little, and in the right tones, you will be much better off than saying a lot without the right tones! Using the wrong tones you sound like a foreign idiot, or worse you say something completely different. My first teacher was a former opera singer and she taught me to over-emphasize the tones and drag them out in a comical fashion by moving your head in the direction of the tone at first (picture second tone as moving your head to look up at the sky to your right). This is the secret.

我认为学习语言的行为是被普遍欢迎的。

中国人对自己的文化感到无比自豪。在历史上的很大一部分时间，他们都被期望能学好英语或其他外语，以便在一个现代全球化的世界中取得成功。现在外国人正在努力学习他们的语言的事实，令中国人很满意,因为它不仅表明中国已经成为真正的世界强国,而且说明中国已经开始有话语权。

就我个人而言,我不间断的学习普通话的时间已经超过二十五年了,包括三年在美国一所大学受到的正规教育,两年的研究生学习,和一年半的海外实践,再加上实际应用中文到我职业生涯的各个部分以及我个人的研究中。你可以说，我付出了大量的努力，而我与交谈的人可以察觉到，我的流利程度随着时间的推移而变化，因为我似乎一直处于“循环往复”的阶段，因为这是基于我的使用周期。

在实际情况中，掌握语言对缓解紧张很有帮助。当一个外国人接近他们时，出租车司机、服务员和店员常常会感到紧张。说一点汉语，他们会松一口气，他们的心里负担减轻之后，通常很容易就能展开闲聊——尤其是出租车司机，他们很想知道你的整个人生故事，以及你是如何以及为什么来学习这门语言的。我甚至遇到过一个例子，一个出租车司机拒绝从我这里拿走车费，因为他很喜欢和我聊天！

在商业环境中，了解就相当于金钱。即使你不把它运用于商业讨论，但如果你能在社会环境中游刃有余地使用，这也会加很多分。这是在中国做生意的一部分，它的确有机会让你和你的商业伙伴建立更紧密的联系，这是可能性很高的事件。你更可能成为“我们中的一员”，而不仅仅是一个外国人。他们真心很尊重外国人学习他们的语言而作出的努力——不管是流利与否。

如果你打算在中国呆上一段时间，或者计划在长期内做生意，花时间学习语言真的会大有回报。另外你需要明白，学会声调是绝对必要的。我很幸运，在我上大学的第一年，在入门课程中，我们花了80%的时间在声调识别上，然后才被允许说一个完整的句子。这是痛苦的，但回报是客观的。即使你只能用正确的语调说一点中文，也会比没有用正确的音调说很多话要好得多！用错误的声调说中文，听起来像一个外国白痴。或者更糟的是，你说的完全是风马牛不相及的东西。我的第一个老师是前歌剧歌手,用歌剧的方式来教学发音。这可是个秘决。

Chris Anderson
Chinese people appreciate people that learn Chinese. Given your question, I presume that you've either experienced some pushback for learning Chinese or have heard stories. Off the top of my head, there are four situations that might make you think Chinese don't appreciate you learning Manadarin.
Excessive Praise
Social acquaintances and strangers, in my experience, tend to overly praise small achievements. Are they being sarcastic? Do they just have low expectations? Why aren't they offering constructive criticism? It does leave you wondering.
Tone Troubles
If your tone are out of whack, you might think you're speaking Chinese, but you aren't. A lot of the times, people can work out your meaning from context, especially fellow foreigners. Sometimes, however, if your tones are wrong a Chinese person, particularly someone who hasn't dealt with a lot of foreigners, will have no idea what you want. From your perspective, this can come across as hostility. It isn't.
Demanding Teachers
Chances are your Chinese teacher and you have very different takes on pedagogy. Chinese teachers will grade their own language, making it easier for you to understand. But a lot of teachers will snowball you with instant feedback.
Your pronunciation is wrong! 
In addition, and this will be a bit controversial, for a lot of westerners Chinese lessons involve a role reversal. A lot of expats, particularly professionals, come to China with superiority complexes. They get used to treating Chinese people as the help or subordinates. That attitude makes anything more than dilettantism difficult for them.
A Chance to Practice English
A lot of people will opt to engage with you in English. There are plenty of people in China that can only engage with you in Chinsee, but given your circumstances, you'll likely be surrounded by Chinese people that can and want to communicate with you in English. Deal with it. Deal with it gracefully.
I know, you want to practice your Chinese. Fine. Plenty of opportunities to do that. You can deign to have an interaction in English. 
Innumerable times I've seen Chinese people aid clueless foreigners only to be mocked after the fact for their trouble. Try not to be like that.
In sum, if people are giving you grief for speaking their language, chances are you're being a schmuck.

中国人喜欢努力学习汉语的人。考虑到你的问题，我认为你要么经历过学习中文的阻力，要么是听过以讹传讹的故事。在我的脑海中，有四种情况可能会让你觉得中国人不喜欢你学习普通话。在我的经历中，社会上的熟人和陌生人往往会过分赞扬人们小小的成就。他们是担心被讽刺吗?他们只是对外国人有较低的期望吗？他们为什么不提供建设性的批评呢？这让你感到疑惑。

如果你的语气不正常，你可能会认为你说的是中文，但你不是。很多时候，人们可以前言后语中猜出你的意思，尤其是对外国人。然而，有时候，如果你的语气是错误的，对于一个中国人，尤其是那些没有和很多外国人打交道的中国人，会不知道你想要表达什么。从你的角度来看，这可能会被视为敌意。然而事实并不是如此。

可能你很难接受你中文老师的教学方式。中国的老师会尽可能简化自己的语言，让你更容易理解。但是很多老师也会给你即时反馈。
你的发音也可能是错误的! 他们不会过多的关心保护你的自尊心。
我第一个为期六个月的教程学完之后就不再上课了。去年我们有18名员工开始上了中文课，在第一节课结束后，很自然地只有两名工作人员想继续学习。毫无疑问的是，不管你学到的第一个中文字是什么。请正确面对它，好好消化。

此外，这也会引起一些争议，因为很多西方人的中文课都涉及角色转换。许多外籍人士，尤其是专业人士，来到中国，自认为自己拥有优越性。他们习惯于把中国人当作附属品或下属对待。这种态度使他们的生活变得更加困难。

很多人会选择用英语与你交流。在中国，有很多人只能用中文和你打交道。但是考虑到你的情况，你也很可能会被中国人包围，他们可以并且想用英语与你交流。请正确并优雅地对待此事。我知道，你想练习你的中文，这很好。有很多机会可以做到这一点。比如你可以用教对方英语的方式来练习你的中文 。。

无数次，我看到中国人努力帮助那些毫无头绪的外国人，却因为他们的手忙脚乱而被嘲笑。请尽量不要这样。
总而言之，如果有人因为学习外国的语言而被嘲笑，那么这个人很有可能是一个笨蛋。

Tony Divito
They generally appreciate it.Dont worry about it .

他们通常会对此很赞赏的，不用担心。

Greg Blandino
You will get an embarrassing amount of superficial  praise for what is your very basic, very simple Chinese at the beginning.  People are very willing to engage you in conversation up to the point that you can no longer continue, not until you start to make errors, which is very helpful from a language acquisition standpoint (and a totally opposite experience from learning German where at the first sign of having nonstandard German the native speaker switched directly to English as a rule).
When your level has improved to a point where you are conversational or even better, people find that an impressive feat and will let you know it.  At no point have I ever experienced someone who felt that a foreigner learning Chinese was offensive, in fact generally quite the opposite.

在开始的时候，你会因为自己学会的非常基本且简单的中文，而得到一个令人尴尬而肤浅的赞美。人们非常愿意与你继续交谈,直到你开始犯错误,从语言习得角度来看，这是非常有用的学习方式。当你的水平提高到可以更流利的沟通交流的时候，人们会觉得很不可思议。我从来没有遇到过这样的情况，没人觉得一个外国人学习中文是令人厌恶的，事实上实际反而是与之相反的。

Andrew Hor 
"Offensive" is never the right word to describe it, but "appreciative" isn't exactly either. It mostly makes them feel three things: impressed, prideful, and nationalistic. 
Impressed that you can use they're language correctly in the ways that you speak it correctly--unless of course you're pronunciation is 100% awful. 
Prideful that someone would take all the time and energy to learn their language.
Sometimes, but not always, they will also start to feel nationalistic. They will ask you if it is hard to learn Chinese, and if you say yes then they often tell you that other languages are not so hard. This is wrapped up in the idea that "complicated" is more "cultured" than things that are "simple." So people who go down this route are often more likely to imply that in some inherent and unchangable way their culture and country is inherently better than yours.
Note: I live in Tianjin where there are few foreigners. I highly suspect that the reactions I get are strong influenced by the city I live in and not by the temperament of Chinese people or China as a whole.

“冒犯”从来都不是一个来形容这种行为的恰当的词，但“欣赏”也不是完全正确的。这会让他们有三种感觉：印象深刻、傲慢和民族主义。印象深刻的原因是，你可以正确地使用他们的语言——除非你的发音是百分百惨不忍睹的。值得骄傲的原因是，有人会花费大把的时间和精力去学习他们的语言。
但是有时，情况并非总是如此，他们也会开始感到民族主义。他们会问你是否很难学 ，如果你说“是”，他们会经常告诉你，其他语言并不难。这是一种理念，即“复杂的东西”比“简单的东西”更“有文化”。因此，沿着这条路走到黑的人，往往更倾向于暗示，他们的文化和国家天生就比你们国家的好，这是一种固有的、不可改变的方式。

补充说明：我住在天津，这里外国人很少。我高度怀疑，我所得到的回馈，受到了我所居住的城市的强烈影响，这不是中国人民或整个中国人的态度。

Baowen Pan 
Ivanka Trump is popular in China not because she’s a hot blonde or because she’s the daughter of the President of USA,but due to the fact that she has a daughter who can sing Chinese songs and can write some Chinese characters.
If you are Caucasian and happen to speak some basic Chinese,then congratulations!YOU will be a superstar in your company or community.

伊万卡特朗普在中国很受欢迎，不仅仅是因为她是一个性感的金发女郎，也不是因为她是美国总统的女儿，而是因为她有一个女儿，她可以唱中文歌，还可以写一些汉字。
如果你是白种人，碰巧会说一些基本的汉语，那么恭喜你！你将成为你公司或社区的超级明星。

Aldo Edward 
I've traveled in the PRC and Taiwan on many occasions. With one exception* my ratty, practically incomprehensible attempts at speaking Chinese has won me friends, fellowship, invitations to gatherings and events, and even shopping "discounts" when haggling in the fakes markets of Shanghai and Hong Kong.  The key for me has been to approach my deficiencies with humility and a smile. Ultimately, we communicate and there is appreciation at my efforts to do so on their terms.
The one exception: I was invited to dinner by lovely couple who were Chinese grad students at my university. As the husband and wife were encouraging me and praising my talents with their native tongue, their four year-old son approached, pointed at me, and asked, "Why does he talk like a baby?" lol

我曾多次在中华人民共和国和台湾旅行过。有一个例外，我蹩脚的几乎是难以理解的说中文尝试，为我赢得了朋友、团契、聚会和活动的邀请，甚至在上海和香港的假货市场讨价还价时，也赢得了“折扣”。对我来说，关键是要以谦逊和微笑来对待我的缺点。最终，我们沟通中，他们赞赏我学着用他们的方式来行事。

唯一的例外是：我被邀请，到我大学的中国研究生朋友那去吃晚饭。当这对夫妻交口称赞我的中文口音时，他们那四岁的儿子走过来，指着我，问道：“为什么他说起话来像个婴儿？”哈哈

Mikel Guembe Eizaguirre 
Chinese appreciate every foreigner that makes the effort to learn mandarin. As soon as you learn how to say ni hao they will start praising your Chinese.
Story goes a different way if you’re American born Chinese or westerner with Chinese descent.

中国人欣赏每一个努力学习普通话的外国人。一旦你学会了如何说“你好”，他们就会开始表扬你 。
如果你是美国出生的中国人或华裔美国人，那么故事就会有不同的剧情了。

Janelle Alicia Monroy 
I believe so. 
As long as your interest is genuine and show improvement through hard work and time, most people would probably not find it offensive. If you skim the surface for random or stereotypical linguistic and cultural traits in order to get by in China, or for any other reason, then you might have good reason to believe you could be acting in a way which is offensive.

我相信他们会表示欣赏。
只要你是真的热爱，并且通过努力学习和时间来显示进步，大多数人可能不会觉得它很无礼。如果你为了获得认可或者其他原因，只是断章取义或随意用一些谚语，那么你确实有理由觉得自己是在以一种冒犯性的方式行事。

Kel Squire 
Absolutely appreciate it and will compliment you even if you only know a couple of sentences! Where on Earth would you get the idea that people could find it offensive?
The only examples of small ethnic minority groups complaining about the use of their culture or language being used are the Inuits of Canada and the Maori of New Zealand where it seems someone expects to get some financial gain from it. The rest of the world seems to be quite proud that others take an interest in their language or culture.

绝对会对你赞赏有加的哦，即使你只会说几句最简单的话。你怎么会觉得人们会认为这很无礼呢？

唯一的例外是，加拿大的爱斯基摩人和新西兰的毛利人，会觉得学习使用他们的文化或语言是无礼的，特别是当这些人似乎希望从中获得一些经济利益的时候。世界上的其他国家，似乎都为其他人对他们的语言或文化感兴趣而感到自豪。