在一些外國人看來，學習中文已成為他們最為頭疼的事情。漢語的語調和漢字好像都是個難題。
In some foreigners eyes', the learning of Chinese has becomethe most difficult thing for them. T he tones of Chinese andChinese characters all seem to be a difficulty。
那么到底是什么原因使中文這么難學的呢？
Then what has made the learning of Chinese difficult?
原因一：書寫方法簡直是天方夜譚
Top 1 Because the writing system is ridiculous
漢語之所以難學，就是因為要學的漢字實在太多，這也是絕對的事實。
It is absolutely true that Chinese is hard because of the hugenumber of characters one has to learn。
還有，漢字的拼寫方式也不是很規則，也就是說，如果從一個漢字的組合方式中得不到任何顯而易見的語義提示，或者其中沒有包含什么有用的偏旁部首，就會把一個漢字的寫法忘得干干凈凈。
And Chinese is not very phonetic, which means that often youjust completely forget how to write a character, if there is noobvious semantic clue in the radical, and no helpful phoneticcomponent somewhere in the character。
原因二：漢語是不能用通俗意義上的字母排列來表意的
Top 2 Because the language doesn't have the common sense touse an alphabet
英語之所以好學，就是因為掌握英語書寫方法所需要的技能也就是26個字母而已，而且只要沿水平方向、從左到右、從頁面的一邊寫到另一邊就可以了。
The English is so easy because of the skills needed to masterthe writing system are 26 letters and they are written from left toright ,horizontally, across the page, with spaces to indicate wordboundaries。
相比之下，盡管中文也有組成漢字的那些共用的偏旁部首，卻沒有相應的字母。
In comparison, Chinese has nothing that corresponds to analphabet, though there are recurring components that make up thecharacters。
可以說，組成漢字的偏旁部首是按照兩個方向來排列的，而不象字母那樣只按一個方向排列，看起來很整潔。
It can be said that the components of Chinese characters arearrayed in two dimensions, rather than in the neat one-dimensionalrows of alphabetic writing。
原因三：即使在字典中查漢字也是非常復雜
Top 3 Because even looking up a word in the dictionary iscomplicated
學習漢語最莫名其妙的困難之一，就是即使僅僅學會怎么查字典，也要耗費一個秘書學校整個學期的學習時間。
One of the most unreasonably difficult things about learningChinese is that merely learning how to look up a word in thedictionary is about the equivalent of an entire semester ofsecretarial school
漢語一定是地球上最精于運用字典的語言了，因為各種各樣的字典實在太多。
Chinese must also be one of the most dictionary-intensivelanguages on earth for there are various dictionaries。
原因四：中文里面還有古漢語(文言文)
Top 4 Because there's classical Chinese (wenyanwen)
古漢語確實含有數千年來積累起來的各種宮廷秘聞，用詞簡潔扼要，簡直象某種密碼，只適合那些天生的知識精英，他們對文學的一切了然于心。
Classical Chinese really consists of several centuries ofesoteric anecdotes and in-jokes written in a kind of terse, miserlycode for dissemination among a small, elite group ofintellectually-inbred bookworms who already knew the wholeliterature backwards and forwards。
原因五：(羅馬式)拼音方案太多且都讓人精疲力盡
Top 5 Because there are too many romanization methods and theyall suck
也許聽起來有些刺耳，但漢語的拼音方案確實太多，而大多數的拼音方案不是什么文字委員會提倡的，就是語言學家提出來的，更糟糕的是由那些語言學家組成的文字委員會提出來的。
Perhaps that's too harsh, but it is true that there are toomany of them, and most of them were designed either by committee orby linguists, or -- even worse -- by a committee of linguists。
原因六：漢語語調稀奇古怪
Top 6 Because tonal languages are weird
在學漢語過程中，最容易聽到的抱怨正是這一點，西方人對漢語最害怕的也是這一點，簡直是婦孺皆知。
It's one of the most common complaints about learning Chinese,and it's also one of the aspects of the language that westernersare notoriously bad at。
如果不是從小就會說漢語，那你就等著不停地***記那些元音輔音吧。
As non-native speakers, you must memorize along with thevowels and consonants。
漢語的那些語調和強調習慣簡直是與生俱來的，根深蒂固的，簡直不可思議。
Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained andsecond-nature。
原因七：存在文化差異
Top 7 Because there is culture difference
東方、西方相互之間文化分隔的時間太長，這也是漢語對于西方人來說為何那么難學的主要原因。
One of the main reasons Chinese is so difficult for westernersis that the culture between the East and the West has been isolatedfor so long。
盡管在過去幾十年里中國和西方之間有了廣泛的接觸，然而，中國人的知識和思想浩瀚如海，西方人卻無緣享用。
China has had extensive contact with the West in the last fewdecades, but there is still a vast sea of knowledge and ideas thatis not shared by both cultures。
即使有朝一日西方人想和中國人融合成一體，其障礙往往也并非只是語言一個方面而已，最大的障礙是巨大的文化差異。
When westerners and Chinese get together, there is often notjust a language barrier, but an immense cultural barrier aswell。
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