Michael Phelps of the United States smiles during the awarding ceremony of the Men's 4X100M Medlay Relay final at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games in the National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube in Beijing, China, Aug. 17, 2008. Phelps won his eighth gold medal at the Beijing Olympics swimming events on Sunday, breaking Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals won at a single Games in 1972.

BEIJING, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The American superfish Michael Phelps who took eight golds at the Olympics has said it is harder for him to learn the Chinese language than to win gold medals, the English newspaper China Daily said on Wednesday.

"Learning Mandarin is even harder than winning eight gold medals in the pool," the 23-year-old American was quoted by the daily as saying. "It is the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life."

Phelps took French and German courses when he was in primary school, but the swimming ace said Chinese is much harder to learn.

"The language is so tough," he said. "I started taking some Chinese lessons after learning French and German. After a while I could speak a little and understand a little. But all the words, characters and pronunciations in Mandarin are so different. All of them are hard to manage."

Asked to speak some Mandarin during the interview, Phelps laughed and said: "My accent is not good. I don't want to embarrass myself."

Phelps will be back for the 2012 London Games, where he says he wants to train for some new events to try to vary his repertoire. His next major competition will be the World Championships in Rome in 2009.

But right now, he says, the thing he needs most after his record medal haul is a nice long break.

"I will take a vacation of my own next," he said. "I have been longing for it for a very long time."

Phelps overtook compatriot Mark Spitz, whose seven swimming golds at Munich in 1972, to become the Olympian who won the most gold medals at a single Games.