在一些外國(guó)人看來(lái)，學(xué)習(xí)中文已成為他們最為頭疼的事情。漢語(yǔ)的語(yǔ)調(diào)和漢字好像都是個(gè)難題。

　　In some foreigners eyes’, the learning of Chinese has become the most difficult thing for them. T he tones of Chinese and Chinese characters all seem to be a difficulty.

　　那么到底是什么原因使中文這么難學(xué)的呢?

　　Then what has made the learning of Chinese difficult?

　　原因一：書寫方法簡(jiǎn)直是天方夜譚

　　Top 1 Because the writing system is ridiculous

　　漢語(yǔ)之所以難學(xué)，就是因?yàn)橐獙W(xué)的漢字實(shí)在太多，這也是絕對(duì)的事實(shí)。

　　It is absolutely true that Chinese is hard because of the huge number of characters one has to learn.

　　還有，漢字的拼寫方式也不是很規(guī)則，也就是說(shuō)，如果從一個(gè)漢字的組合方式中得不到任何顯而易見(jiàn)的語(yǔ)義提示，或者其中沒(méi)有包含什么有用的偏旁部首，就會(huì)把一個(gè)漢字的寫法忘得干干凈凈。

　　And Chinese is not very phonetic, which means that often you just completely forget how to write a character, if there is no obvious semantic clue in the radical, and no helpful phonetic component somewhere in the character.

　　原因二：漢語(yǔ)是不能用通俗意義上的字母排列來(lái)表意的

　　Top 2 Because the language doesn’t have the common sense to use an alphabet

　　英語(yǔ)之所以好學(xué)，就是因?yàn)檎莆沼⒄Z(yǔ)書寫方法所需要的技能也就是26個(gè)字母而已，而且只要沿水平方向、從左到右、從頁(yè)面的一邊寫到另一邊就可以了。

　　The English is so easy because of the skills needed to master the writing system are 26 letters and they are written from left to right ,horizontally, across the page, with spaces to indicate word boundaries.

　　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(méi)有相應(yīng)的字母。

　　In comparison, Chinese has nothing that corresponds to an alphabet, though there are recurring components that make up the characters.

　　可以說(shuō)，組成漢字的偏旁部首是按照兩個(gè)方向來(lái)排列的，而不象字母那樣只按一個(gè)方向排列，看起來(lái)很整潔。

　　It can be said that the components of Chinese characters are arrayed in two dimensions, rather than in the neat one-dimensional rows of alphabetic writing.

　　原因三：即使在字典中查漢字也是非常復(fù)雜

　　Top 3 Because even looking up a word in the dictionary is complicated

　　學(xué)習(xí)漢語(yǔ)最莫名其妙的困難之一，就是即使僅僅學(xué)會(huì)怎么查字典，也要耗費(fèi)一個(gè)秘書學(xué)校整個(gè)學(xué)期的學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間。

　　One of the most unreasonably difficult things about learning Chinese is that merely learning how to look up a word in the dictionary is about the equivalent of an entire semester of secretarial school

　　漢語(yǔ)一定是地球上最精于運(yùn)用字典的語(yǔ)言了，因?yàn)楦鞣N各樣的字典實(shí)在太多。

　　Chinese must also be one of the most dictionary-intensive languages on earth for there are various dictionaries.

　　原因四：中文里面還有古漢語(yǔ)(文言文)

　　Top 4 Because there’s classical Chinese (wenyanwen)

　　古漢語(yǔ)確實(shí)含有數(shù)千年來(lái)積累起來(lái)的各種宮廷秘聞，用詞簡(jiǎn)潔扼要，簡(jiǎn)直象某種密碼，只適合那些天生的知識(shí)精英，他們對(duì)文學(xué)的一切了然于心。

　　Classical Chinese really consists of several centuries of esoteric anecdotes and in-jokes written in a kind of terse, miserly code for dissemination among a small, elite group of intellectually-inbred bookworms who already knew the whole literature 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 they all suck

　　也許聽(tīng)起來(lái)有些刺耳，但漢語(yǔ)的拼音方案確實(shí)太多，而大多數(shù)的拼音方案不是什么文字委員會(huì)提倡的，就是語(yǔ)言學(xué)家提出來(lái)的，更糟糕的是由那些語(yǔ)言學(xué)家組成的文字委員會(huì)提出來(lái)的。

　　Perhaps that’s too harsh, but it is true that there are too many of them, and most of them were designed either by committee or by linguists, or -- even worse -- by a committee of linguists.

　　原因六：漢語(yǔ)語(yǔ)調(diào)稀奇古怪

　　Top 6 Because tonal languages are weird

　　在學(xué)漢語(yǔ)過(guò)程中，最容易聽(tīng)到的抱怨正是這一點(diǎn)，西方人對(duì)漢語(yǔ)最害怕的也是這一點(diǎn)，簡(jiǎn)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 westerners are notoriously bad at.

　　如果不是從小就會(huì)說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)，那你就等著不停地去死記那些元音輔音吧。

　　As non-native speakers, you must memorize along with the vowels and consonants.

　　漢語(yǔ)的那些語(yǔ)調(diào)和強(qiáng)調(diào)習(xí)慣簡(jiǎn)直是與生俱來(lái)的，根深蒂固的，簡(jiǎn)直不可思議。

　　Intonation and stress habits are incredibly ingrained and second-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(shí)間太長(zhǎng)，這也是漢語(yǔ)對(duì)于西方人來(lái)說(shuō)為何那么難學(xué)的主要原因。

　　One of the main reasons Chinese is so difficult for westerners is that the culture between the East and the West has been isolated for so long.

　　盡管在過(guò)去幾十年里中國(guó)和西方之間有了廣泛的接觸，然而，中國(guó)人的知識(shí)和思想浩瀚如海，西方人卻無(wú)緣享用。

　　China has had extensive contact with the West in the last few decades, but there is still a vast sea of knowledge and ideas that is not shared by both cultures.

　　即使有朝一日西方人想和中國(guó)人融合成一體，其障礙往往也并非只是語(yǔ)言一個(gè)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 not just a language barrier, but an immense cultural barrier as well.