Translation of the sentence 我向我的女朋友学习

Question

I wanted to say, I've been learning (Chinese) from my girlfriend.

I thought it would be something like: 我在学习从我的奴朋友 (Pinyin: Wǒ zài xuéxí cóng wǒ de nú péngyǒu)

Which Google Translate funnily translates as: I'm learning from my slave girlfriend. Probably because of tone-confusion on nú.

But Google translated it as: 我向我的女朋友学习。 (Pinyin: Wǒ xiàng wǒ de nǚ péngyǒu xuéxí.)

Obviously 向 is different usage from 想, but from the Zhongwen browser app I don't see any definition that relates to learning or anything. And I thought I would need to add 在 to represent learning in the present tense, as it is in my intended sentence.

Answer 1

For some reason, 从[person] is considered a grammar error in Chinese (this grammar point often arises as an exam question). My understanding is that after 从 we should add a place, not a person (despite being able to say e.g. "learned that from you" in English). So afterwards we add a 那儿 or 那里 or something similar:

我从朋友那儿听说你通过了考试。
I heard from a friend you passed the test.

我从女朋友那里学到了这个词汇。
I learned that word from my girlfriend.

(And 奴 [part of 奴隶 = "slave"] is a typo for 女.)

For the desired expression ("I've been learning (Chinese) from my Girlfriend"), I'd suggest something like:

最近我女朋友帮我学中文。
Recently, my girlfriend has been helping me learn Chinese.

In regards to using 向……学习, the Chinese Grammar Wiki writes about this:

Whereas in English we would say "learn from someone," in Chinese this would be expressed as "learn toward someone," as in the following example (and famous propaganda slogan):

向雷锋同志学习！
Learn from Comrade Lei Feng!

The relevant definition for 向 is "towards", and it's used as a preposition, but since we don't use "towards" like that in English grammar (although it's used literally, like in "Muslims pray towards the Kaaba"), it won't appear in English translations. Another example is:

我应该向你道歉。
I should apologize to you.

In this example, we couldn't use "towards" in English.

The Google Translate sentence

我向我的女朋友学习。

would probably be interpret as habitual, not just a once-off. You can likely infer from context that it's referring to the recent time period, and it's ongoing.

Answer 2

奴 means slave. If you want to type 女, you should type 'nv' in Chinese input method program.

In my opinion, 'I've been learning (Chinese) from my Girlfriend' should be translated as '我已经在向我的女朋友学（中文）了'.

'向' means 'from', '已经在' means 'have been doing', '学（中文）' means 'learn (Chinese)'.

Answer 3

I've been learning (Chinese) from my Girlfriend.

To reflect the "present perfect continuous tense", I propose the following sentences:

• 1. 我一直從我女朋友那裡學英文. [一直 - all along; all the way; continuously. 從..那裡 - from (someone) there] -
• 2. 我一直(在)向/跟我的女朋友學英文. [here, (在)向 and (在)跟 both mean "from"]

Answer 4

In my opinion, 我向我的女朋友學習 would be considered that I have actively learned something from my girl-friend and maybe have a passion for it and have asked her lots of questions about it, which is more active than 我從我的女朋友學習 as I have learned something from her, maybe passively or occasionally learned. Meanwhile, 我從書本學習 would be more usual than 我向書本學習 for I cannot ask the book any question.