I learned a few languages in school: French, Afrikaans, Xhosa, South Sotho. Been learning Mandarin on my own over the past year (using Pimsleur). The main diff

I learned a few languages in school: French, Afrikaans, Xhosa, South Sotho. Been learning Mandarin on my own over the past year (using Pimsleur). The main difference is the tonal system, reading it it sounds easy, but training your ear to pick it up takes time. It's hard to follow an audio when you're not picking up the nuances of the tones in context. The language structure is kinda logical, so far. I haven't reached tenses or multiple clauses yet. I found some pronunciation similar to French, for me ren (Zh: people) is similar sounding to rien (Fr: nothing)