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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Do you need a Chinese teacher?
i am a university student, my major is International Chinese Language Teacher, now, i am looking for some foreign friends who are learning Chinese, so i can help them, at the same time they help me. because this is my last year, i want to know more about different cultures, and learn some other language.
do you guys know some website which people are learning different languages?
thx for your help, a lot.
9 years 26 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Seems you will have hard future .
To be in the last year, where your major is to teach foreigners to talk/write Chinese, and yet not meet one foreigner, sounds to me as BS. You can go anytime on NanJing east road in SH or Sanlitun in BJ and pick your victim anytime ...
Try Focus English:
http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html
http://www.openculture.com/freelanguagelessons
or Yahoo-gle 'learning foreign languages online' for more web links.
Check 'Rosseta Stone' and 'Pimsleur' websites per pay.
If you live in Suzhou, New Concept Mandarin is trying hard to recruit people to teach Mandarin to foreigners. It might be true in other cities (they have a lot of branches across China). You will be able to learn about others cultures, and getting paid for it They can hire full-time or part-time, so that sounds quite compatible with being a student.
[PS]
Hello Ouyangwenting ? Why posting as anonymous ?
Many expats have little interest in learning Chinese, because locals are unpleasant. If you can communicate with them, they have more options to trick and scam you. There was one time, just one, in the years I've been in China, where I wished I spoke better Chinese. A job for foreign greeters in a 5-star hotel close by. 4 expats who spoke decent Chinese got the jobs, and I was disappointed.
a month later, my interviewer tells me he's back in the USA, because the hotel fired all the foreign staff after 2 weeks, no reason given. My guess? The hotel was next to a university. The guys probably attracted interest from some uni girls, they smiled back at the girls, and bossman felt a sudden urge to kick them to the curb.
Chinese speaking is disadvantageous for expats, not to mention difficult to learn. Economists also discourage businessmen from wasting efforts on the language, even if they're heavily invested in China. Zhongwen is for the Chinese people. Chinese-speaking "laowai" are an unwelcome challenge to established stereotypes, a danger to China's sense of different-ness, an invasion of privacy (the irony) for locals who want to insult foreigners right in front of their faces, and a far-too-eligible bachelor for *their* women to resist. Stay out of trouble: don't learn Chinese!
xinjiangren:
This is the worst advice ever, and one of the most paranoid things I've ever read. For anybody planning to spend any considerable amount of time in China, u certainly need to know some Chinese. I'm far from being fluent, but I'm at least able to take care of myself on a daily basis. As a grown ass man, I wouldn't want to rely on others for the simplest of tasks.
coineineagh:
WTF are you blabbing about? I also have a vocabulary of a few hundred words myself, though some locals never seem to understand my pronunciation - it may be a xenophobia thing, where they can't get their heads around an alien speaking words in their language, or simply pretend not to understand. Anyway, you should definitely learn some words for everyday interactions. But I was replying to someone who was offering full-on Putonghua courses, like X hours per week pronunciation practice, additional vocabulary, and perhaps even learning the hieroglyphics. Now *that* is a waste of time as most expats will agree. You really don't want to hear every little remark locals make in your presence, as your reactions are likely to get you into trouble. And expats get a lot of opportunities from kind English-speaking locals already; there will be little more gained from being able to converse with the hicks, pricks and Red Guards. Many Chinese-speaking expats have already confirmed this online; my anecdote is not an exception. I compare it to learning Durtch in my home country the Netherlands. Holland has a reputation of being the most anti-immigration country in Europe, always shocking other EU members with the civil rights violations they want to pass in EU parliament. I wouldn't advise my wife to attempt learning Dutch, because it's quite a difficult language to master, and it will get her only token appreciation from locals who will judge her by her background rather than her actions.
psiconauta_retro:
I see your comment with horror as I have been investing a HUGE amount of time trying to learn Chinese. Of course I am very far away from mastering it, and your words make me doubt. I have a serious interest of learning more about this subject and the base of your opinions. Could you direct me to some of those posts or comments from other expats telling similar stories about the negative side of getting THAT deep into the Chinese culture?
Thank you in advance!
read books many books and start using YouTube which is blocked but a proxy can solve the issue, download the proxy from dynaweb, use that one.must read and listen something about different accent of English speaking countries. you never know whom you are going to teach Chinese in future, American, Caucasians, Japanese, south Asians , middle east Asian, Africans. they all possess their own accent so better concentrate on that. get attached to English teaching academies try your luck their if you can get the job.