Numbers

To me this is one of the hardest parts of Chinese. The numbers always seem to throw me off. I can say the 1-20 usually pretty quickly or with minimal thought.
The problem is with the big numbers. Essentially, from 1 – 9,999 the numbers are read similar to those in English. But it is at 10,000 where the problems start for me. There is a special word in Chinese for 10,000 (simplified Chinese is 万 and traditional Chinese is 萬).

For example, we read 20,000 as twenty thousand. Chinese and Taiwanese people read it as two ten-thousands. One million is read in Chinese as one hundred ten-thousands. 50 million would be read as five thousand ten-thousands.

This continues until you hit 100 million. In Chinese 100 million has a special word too (simplified Chinese is 亿 and traditional Chinese is 億). So 300 million is three hundred-millions.

In theory, all of this should not be overly difficult. My problem comes from meetings. For my work the smallest shipment we will send out is 100 ten thousands (1 million) but sometimes we send out quantities 250 ten thousands (2.5 million). At a quick pace in meetings, or in other settings too, it takes me a few seconds to process the amount or reply to it. When several large numbers like that are read back to back then I am usually done after the first 2 or 3.

One of the hard things about learning this language, I guess.