[General] Wow, you have an ability for learning Chinese

[Silverobama]

I met a young man from Korea and he speaks no Chinese. I then said to him "I can teach you some sentences" and I taught him. He learned quickly and said those sentences naturally. I then said to him "Wow, you have an ability for learning Chinese".

Is the italic sentence natural?

 

[emsr2d2]

I met a young man from Korea and, at the time, he [STRIKE]speaks[/STRIKE] spoke no Chinese. I [STRIKE]then[/STRIKE] said to him "I can teach you some sentences" and I [STRIKE]taught him[/STRIKE] did. He learned quickly and said those sentences naturally. I then said to him "Wow, you have [STRIKE]an ability[/STRIKE] a real talent for learning Chinese".

Is the italic sentence natural?

Now it is.

 

[alexanderfinn]

Now it is.

I think you could use the word 'aptitude' here, which suggests a kind of talent that makes things easy.

'You have an aptitude for Chinese' or 'You have a natural aptitude for Chinese'.

 

[emsr2d2]

I think you could use the word 'aptitude' here, which suggests a kind of talent that makes things easy.

'You have an aptitude for Chinese' or 'You have a natural aptitude for Chinese'.

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

"Aptitude" is a great suggestion. Note that I've added the missing punctuation to your post above.

 

[GoesStation]

Note that I've added the missing punctuation to your post above.

We're punctilious about punctuation here.

Welcome, alexanderfinn.

 

[Silverobama]

Is the following sentence also natural?

You have a gift for Chinese.

 

[tedmc]

Is the following sentence also natural?

You have a gift for Chinese.

I think "flair" would be better.

 

[Silverobama]

I still think mine in #6 is natural and good English. Let's wait for some native speakers to help.

 

[GoesStation]

I still think mine in #6 is natural and good English. Let's wait for some native speakers to help.

I think it's okay.

 

[tedmc]

I thought saying one is "gifted" is more common than "have a gift".

 

[alexanderfinn]

'You have a gift for Chinese' is a perfectly good sentence and doesn't need to be altered. In my experience, 'to be gifted' is a more general expression and doesn't require further description.

For example: 'Mozart was gifted.'

'Mozart had a gift for music.'

 

[jutfrank]

I think gift is just about okay, but I'll second tedmc's suggestion of flair, which is better.

A gift is something that is innate. It's hard to imagine how someone could have an innate ability specifically with Chinese. Languages in general, yes, but Chinese specifically, no. I don't think flair has such a general sense of innateness, and so lends itself better to the special case of expressing oneself in the Chinese language.