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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Questions about where to study Chinese
My Chinese is terrible and I have some money saved up, so in August I'm going to study Chinese for one academic year.
Question 1: What gets you more bang for your buck? Learning at a university or a language center?
Question 2: What are the best universities to study Chinese in Kunming?
Question 3: What are the best universities to study Chinese in Chengdu?
Quesetion 4: Is this a stupid thing that I'm doing? Shoud I just keep working?????
im sorry for the negative remark in advance, but i would not spend any money on chinese lessons in china, based on the education level of students i have witnessed first hand in many subjects, the cheating, the retaking of final exams, im just not sure anybody would trust your credentials for learning chinese in the west. for your own personal ability fine spend your money, but i would hire a chinese major for speaking from the university of wyoming before i would hire anyone from anywhere in china. i cant tell you how many students i have who cant right good english essays and then when i consult with the chinese teachers, dont worry that student cant write in chinese either, im thinking in the back of my devious head, and "who's fault is that" but i bite my tongue, TIC, this is china.
1). You'll get a proper education at a University
2) Ask this question on www.gokunming.com
3) Don't know
4) If you can afford it and want really improve your Chinese then go for it
5) Good luck
Gokunming is a fantastic website. I am not registered to post, but I read it all the time. Good posters on there.
I don't know if you are yhe real deal or not but I'll give you my two cents.
It depends what you want. Do you want to read a menu, a newspaper, philosophy in chinese? Or don't care because you just want to speak. I kmow people who have self studied and can read and write and some who know nothing. The same can be said for University.
If you just want to talk to people and read basic stuff do it yourself
Although University is like literally diving into a sea of hungry fiah
As iWolf writes - it depends pretty much on the purpose why you want to study Chinese.
Let me go shortly through the main possibilities:
1) You want to do Sinology and/or become translator/interpreter:
a) In such a case the best would be to study at the university
b) Preferably in the North because the Northern dialect is considered by Chinese as proper Mandarin (but avoid Dongbei as they also have strong accent and special selection of the words)
c) In this case I would recommend Beijing
2) You want to become fluent for the sake of social life and doing business in China
a) In this case studying at university may but does not have to be a good choice.
b) What I mean is that in case you do not have any basics of the language so you may consider to study a semester or two. You may also try the private schools but you shall be aware of the fact that most of them (universities as well as private institutions) are not really excellent at teaching language.
c) If you have already some basics (by this I do not mean that you can say Ni Hao, Xie Xie, Zai Jian and Duo Shao Qian..) I would recommend following system:
- every day 1-2 hours self study (writing characters, learning the new vocabulary, repeating the old one)
- everyday to spend at least 1-2 hours speaking with people (for me worked the best the stores selling tea leaves - their job is to attract new customers by offering to taste tea and getting involved in communication - especial in the initial phase your communication will be very broken but over the cup of tea it's not such a big problem)
- once a week have a regular lesson with a qualified teacher who shall identify your biggest problems, explain grammar and monitor your progress. Also correct your pronunciation and certain idioms (pls note that proper Mandarin is basically spoken just in TV news - even Beijing dialect differs slightly from proper Mandarin)
d) After three about years you shall reach a very decent level of fluency
e) Advantage of this system is that it will allow you still to do your job and the system is relatively cheap - just requires a lot of self discipline
3) You want to speak just kind of sort of, can order the food, tell the taxi driver where to go, be able to arrange the dry cleaning or buying the SIM card on your own but generally do not really intend to reach the level that you join a party where everyone speaks only Chinese and enjoy the discussion.
a) In such a case I would recommend just to study on your own and may be once a week or two times a month take a lesson to correct your pronunciation.
iWolf:
Having "learned" chinese via the immersion method ( basically just living here), my chinese is ok. Not good by any stretch of the imagination but good enough for most situations from restaurants to government issues. Discussions about geopolitics are out.
I have had no lessons but use pleco for some new vocab should the situation arise. My life is fine.
A Chinese wife is all but useless in every situation. It is (a) rolled eyes (b) the more common "I don't know" or (c) some convoluted insensible explanation
Foreign friends who speak some chinese are invaluable for explanations.
Janosik:
Yes, I forgot the most efficient (even though not necessarily the cheapest) way to learn decent spoken Chinese.
Find the Chinese girlfriend who cannot really speak good English (but if you cannot speak Chinese so shall speak some) and is too lazy to really learn it.
Daily speaking Chinese will accelerate the progress!
@iWolf
I agree with your remark that foreigners speaking Chinese can usually help you better than native Chinese - the reason is most probably the fact that they are experiencing (or were) the same, or very similar, problems like you.
Also their explanation will more fit your way of thinking.
In its funny ironical way you say exactly the same thing which I was trying to express in the another thread concerning foreign teachers of English in China.
They are certainly required, same like native Chinese when you learn Mandarin, but only from certain level up - no need to waste these resources on beginners and lower intermediates ...
im sorry for the negative remark in advance, but i would not spend any money on chinese lessons in china, based on the education level of students i have witnessed first hand in many subjects, the cheating, the retaking of final exams, im just not sure anybody would trust your credentials for learning chinese in the west. for your own personal ability fine spend your money, but i would hire a chinese major for speaking from the university of wyoming before i would hire anyone from anywhere in china. i cant tell you how many students i have who cant right good english essays and then when i consult with the chinese teachers, dont worry that student cant write in chinese either, im thinking in the back of my devious head, and "who's fault is that" but i bite my tongue, TIC, this is china.
i have been told by other foreigners that there are some chinese language classes taught at universities just for foreigners and supposedly these teachers have to pass some exam to be certified for these programs.
shandong normal has this program in jinan, 7000 rmb a semester the last time i read any information on the matter, but in a country where you can buy a fake certification from a phone number that is graffiti on the sidewalk, walls and roads of any city, i am a hopeless skeptic of what you may actually get from your pursuit of the matter.
I am starting to learn Chinese for the second time, first time I just got lazy and gave up. This time I am using a combination of a book with cd I bought in England, translators that I can put phrases into and the most important element is my Chinese teacher. She is a great teacher, quite prepared to change her teaching style to adapt to my learning style. She is a teacher of Chinese to low school children so she knows how to teach, much better than my wife, who means well, but just throws words at me and thinks that is teaching. If you can find a good teacher for private tuition it really is much better.
Wow. Genuinely helpful answers from ECC. Who would've thought? Thanks guys!
Whichever path you take, I think the best advice I can give is to make an effort to make some Chinese friends that you're comfortable trying out the things you learn with. When I was studying in Beijing, I improved much faster than my classmates because I had Chinese roommates.
Now I live in Shanghai, and I'm struggling to improve, because most of my friends are foreign, and my Chinese friends speak English very well. It's much easier to connect with the locals when you are both students IMO.
I would totally recommend taking a year off to focus on Chinese. I'm not the kind who can come home from a day of work, look at my PS4 and say, "Nah, I think I'll just study instead."
Janosik:
Not sure who downvoted you and why ... Nevermind.
I think taking a year break would not help if a person finds difficult to combine work and study of the language (provided you do not work 12+ hours a day of course).
Learning the language is all about discipline and there is no shortcut or 'funny/entertaining' way how to learn (even so called 'sleeping dictionary' as we call it will bring you not much if you will not study hard on your own).
I am however quite surprised by your statement that majority of your English speaking Chinese friends prefers to speak English with you.
My experience is different - I was many times wondering why basically all Chinese I know (many of them speak much better English than is my Chinese) still prefer to use Chinese when we interact.
I work for foreign company and everybody there speaks quite good English. Last time we had a meeting they asked if we shall speak English or Chinese - I told them to choose and they simply chose Chinese :-)
My English speaking Chinese friends explain it to me in a way that it's more natural for them to speak Chinese provided the counterpart does not have a big problems to understand.
What I want to say it's everybody's choice and not much dependent on the location ...
WooMow:
I think another part of it is that there are people in the circle who speak no Chinese, so it can come off as a little rude.
I also agree, there are no shortcuts. Maybe what i meant is that some people are able to do books on there own, while other benefit from a commitment and more structure with professional guidance. I'm the second kind of person.