Learn Hardcore Chinese: xué zhōngwén xūyào hěnduō nàixīn. - Learning Chinese requires a lot of patience.

我学中文需要很多耐心。 – When I learn Chinese, I need a lot of patience.
他学中文需要很多耐心。 – When he learns Chinese, he needs a lot of patience.
学中文(这件事)需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese (as an activity) requires a lot of patience.

In English, we normally must say I, you, people, etc. In Chinese, it is very common and natural to leave the subject unspoken if it is clear or if you are making a general statement.

Is 学 here more like to learn or to study? And can I say 学习中文 instead of 学中文?

学 by itself can mean both to learn and to study, depending on context. In 学中文, you can understand it as either:

to learn Chinese (focus on acquiring the language)
to study Chinese (focus on the ongoing activity)

You can also say:

学习中文需要很多耐心。

This is also correct and natural. The difference is stylistic:

学中文 – a bit shorter, more colloquial and common in everyday speech.
学习中文 – slightly more formal or bookish, though still common in speech.

Both are perfectly fine; 学中文需要很多耐心。 is very natural.

What is the difference between 中文, 汉语, and 普通话? Can I replace 中文 here?

All three are related but not identical:

中文
Literally Chinese (written) language, but in everyday use it often just means Chinese language in general. It can refer to:
- the language (spoken or written), or
- the subject Chinese (like in school).
汉语
Literally the Han language, i.e. the language of the Han ethnic majority. Usually means the Chinese language, often in a slightly more formal or linguistic context.
普通话
Literally common speech, i.e. Mandarin Chinese, the standard official spoken language of mainland China.

In your sentence:

学中文需要很多耐心。 – Very natural, broad: learning Chinese (often understood as Mandarin in context).
学汉语需要很多耐心。 – Also correct; sounds a bit more like a textbook sentence or formal talk about the Chinese language as a foreign language.
学普通话需要很多耐心。 – More specific: learning Mandarin (as opposed to some other dialect or language).

All three can fit, but 学中文需要很多耐心。 is the most commonly heard in everyday conversation.

What exactly does 需要 mean here? Can I just use 要 instead, like 学中文要很多耐心?

需要 means to need / to require. In this sentence:

学中文需要很多耐心。
= Learning Chinese requires a lot of patience.
= You need a lot of patience to learn Chinese.

You can replace it with 要:

学中文要很多耐心。

This is also natural. Differences:

需要 – slightly more formal, neutral, explicit need / requirement.
要 – a bit more colloquial; can mean:
- need, as in this sentence, or
- will / be going to / want, in other contexts.

Here, 需要 and 要 are basically interchangeable in meaning, with a tiny nuance of 需要 sounding a bit more careful or formal.

Why is it 很多耐心 and not something like 很耐心? How does 很多 work here?

很多 = a lot of / many / much.

In 很多耐心, 很多 is acting like a quantifier:

很多耐心 = a lot of patience (patience as a noun).

If you said 很耐心, 耐心 would be functioning as an adjective:

他很耐心。 – He is very patient.

So:

需要很多耐心。 – need a lot of patience (noun phrase).
他很耐心。 – he is very patient (adjective describing a person).

In your sentence, the activity 学中文 needs a lot of patience, so 很多耐心 (noun meaning) is correct and natural.
学中文很耐心 is wrong, because 学中文 is not a person that can be patient; it is an activity that requires patience.

Why is there no measure word before 耐心 or 中文? Aren’t measure words required in Chinese?

Measure words are required when you specify a number or a specific unit of a countable noun.

Examples:

一本书 – one book
三个人 – three people

In your sentence:

中文 (Chinese language) is treated as an uncountable concept, like English in English.
耐心 (patience) is also uncountable, like water, patience, love in English.

We do not say:

✗ 一中文 ✗ one Chinese
✗ 一个耐心 ✗ one patience

Instead, we use quantifiers like:

一点儿耐心 – a bit of patience
很多耐心 – a lot of patience

Here, 很多 already plays the role of a quantity word, so you do not insert an extra measure word between 很多 and 耐心.

Can I change the word order? For example, can I say 需要很多耐心学中文 or 学中文很需要耐心?

Word order is somewhat flexible, but not all variations are natural.

学中文需要很多耐心。
– Base sentence. Very natural.
学中文很需要耐心。
– Also natural.
Here 很需要 adds emphasis: Learning Chinese really needs patience.
It sounds like you are stressing how necessary patience is.
需要很多耐心学中文。
– This is not natural in standard Mandarin.
It sounds like you are trying to say To need a lot of patience to learn Chinese, but in Chinese you don’t normally place the verb phrase 学中文 after 耐心 in this way.

More natural variations include:

学中文真的需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese really requires a lot of patience.
学中文非常需要耐心。 – Learning Chinese really very much requires patience.

So: 学中文需要很多耐心。 and 学中文很需要耐心。 are good; 需要很多耐心学中文。 is awkward.

Is 耐心 a noun or an adjective? How do I say be patient versus have patience?

耐心 can be both:

Noun: patience
- 我没有耐心。 – I don’t have patience.
- 学中文需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese needs a lot of patience.
Adjective: patient
- 他很耐心。 – He is very patient.
- 老师对学生很耐心。 – The teacher is very patient with the students.

Key patterns:

have (no) patience
- 有耐心 / 没有耐心
- 我有耐心。 – I am patient / I have patience.
- 我对孩子不太有耐心。 – I’m not very patient with children.
be patient
- 很耐心 (describing a person’s quality)
- 请耐心一点儿。 – Please be a bit more patient.

In 学中文需要很多耐心。, 耐心 is a noun: a lot of patience.

How should I pronounce the tones in 学中文需要很多耐心? Is there any tone change (tone sandhi) I should know?

Tones (with numbers):

学 – xué (2nd tone)
中 – zhōng (1st tone)
文 – wén (2nd tone)
需 – xū (1st tone)
要 – yào (4th tone)
很 – hěn (3rd tone)
多 – duō (1st tone)
耐 – nài (4th tone)
心 – xīn (1st tone)

Main tone-sandhi point:

很 is 3rd tone before a non-3rd-tone syllable, so in 很多 (hěn + duō), it is pronounced with the low 3rd-tone contour, not changed to 2nd. There is no 3rd+3rd combination here, so no 3rd-tone-to-2nd-tone sandhi.

So you can say it smoothly as:

xué zhōngwén xūyào hěn duō nàixīn

No special tone changes beyond the ordinary 3rd tone contour for 很.

How would I negate this sentence? Is it 不需要很多耐心 or something else?

To negate 需要, use 不 in general statements:

学中文不需要很多耐心。
Learning Chinese does not require a lot of patience.

You can also vary the meaning:

学中文不需要很多耐心，但是需要坚持。
Learning Chinese does not require a lot of patience, but it does require persistence.

If you want to say I have no patience (for learning Chinese):

我学中文没有耐心。 – I have no patience when I study Chinese.
我对学中文没有耐心。 – I have no patience for learning Chinese.

So:

Negating need: 不需要
Saying no patience: 没有耐心

How can I make the sentence sound stronger or softer in Chinese?

You can add adverbs or particles to adjust the tone.

Stronger / more emphatic:

学中文真的需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese really needs a lot of patience.
学中文非常需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese very much needs a lot of patience.
学中文特别需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese especially requires a lot of patience.
学中文确实需要很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese indeed requires a lot of patience.

Softer / more moderate:

学中文需要不少耐心。 – Learning Chinese needs quite a bit of patience.
学中文还是需要很多耐心的。 – Learning Chinese does after all need a lot of patience (the 的 here softens and adds a reflective tone).
学中文需要一定的耐心。 – Learning Chinese requires a certain amount of patience.

All of these keep the same core idea but convey different attitudes or degrees of emphasis.

How could I say It takes time and patience to learn Chinese using a similar structure?

You can extend the original pattern:

学中文需要时间和耐心。
Learning Chinese requires time and patience.

If you want to emphasize a lot of:

学中文需要很多时间和很多耐心。 – Learning Chinese requires a lot of time and a lot of patience.
学中文需要很多时间和耐心。 – Learning Chinese requires a lot of time and patience (很多 can also be understood as applying to both).

This reuses the same verb 需要 and the same noun 耐心, so it is consistent with your original sentence.