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. Then what has made the learning of Chinese difficult?
在一些外国人的眼里，学习中文已成为他们最为头疼的事情。汉语的语调和字形似乎都是个难题。那么到底是什么原因使中文这么难学呢？
 
<img src="http://cache4.asset-cache.net/xt/82122620.jpg?v=1&g=IMG&s=1">Top 1 Because the writing system is ridiculous 书写体系难乎其难</STRONG>    
 
It is absolutely true that Chinese is hard because of the huge number of characters one has to learn.
要学的汉字实在太多，这是学习汉语的不争事实。
 
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.
还有，汉字的拼写方式也不是很规则，也就是说，如果从一个汉字的组合方式中得不到任何显而易见的语义提示，或者其中没有包含什么有用的偏旁部首，就会把一个汉字的写法忘得干干净净。
 
<img src="http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xt/81929505.jpg?v=1&g=PDI&s=1">Top 2 Because the language doesn't have the common sense to use an alphabet 汉语不能用通俗意义上的字母排列来表意</STRONG>
 
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.
英语之所以好学，就是因为掌握英语书写方法所需要的技能也就是26个字母而已，而且只要沿水平方向、从左到右、从页面的一边写到另一边就可以了。
 
In comparison, Chinese has nothing that corresponds to an alphabet, though there are recurring components that make up the characters.
相比之下，尽管中文也有组成汉字的那些共用的偏旁部首，却没有相应的字母。
 
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.
可以说，组成汉字的偏旁部首是按照两个方向来排列的，而不像字母那样只按一个方向排列，看起来很整洁。
 
<img src="http://cache3.asset-cache.net/xt/55974662.jpg?v=1&g=BLD&s=1">Top 3 Because even looking up a word in the dictionary is complicated 即使在字典中查汉字也非常复杂</STRONG>
 
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 阅读全文>>