Best Cities for learning Mandarin

[simonlaing]

Don't forget Nanjing,

It's not half as cold as Dalian or Beijing in the winter, though the heaters are not that strong.

The streets have big french oak trees and there is a big lake and mountain smack in the middle of the city. The people here are generally quite friendly because we helped them in WW2 and because it has many univerisities. Think Boston in the US, though there are a significant number of koreans here as well.

Accent wise the north east has the best standard chinese, Beijing is ok but can get dusty and take sometime getting around the sprawling crowded city.

Pay attention to crjcrj's post as choosing the kind of school may be more important than the location.

Tutors and Nanny's are relatively cheap here as well. so keep that in mind.

Good luck,

SImoN:)

[BrandeX]

Heh, I think that's sufficient info for "jimndeb" according to their account they came here only once over a month ago to make that post, and never logged in since. May be worth waiting for them to reply first.

[ibowfornoman]

Hi folks!

The swede here! Living in Sweden now, but want to move to Harbin in the spring for one term. The one and only reason why i want to go to China is to study Chinese, THE HARDCORE WAY!

Beijing is to expensive, and i got some good contacts i Harbin. But the most important thing is that i want to study A LOT!

Anyone from Harbin that can help me set up at study schedule on how to get the utmost of my term in Harbin?

[abcdefg]

Hello Swede,

I lived and studied in Harbin this past Summer. It's a good place to practice your Putonghua. However, I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you clarify what it is that you want to know?

Edited October 31, 2008 at 04:42 PM by abcdefg
improve clarity

[ibowfornoman]

"I'm not sure I understand your question. Can you clarify what it is that you want to know?"

I just want to study really hard from the moment i arrive there. I don´t want to lose anytime on paper work to get in to a university, or teachers that don´t know how to teach to foreigners and so on.

I´ve heard about this "Korean school" that seems nice. The discipline on the school seems nice. But they only have like 2 hours everyday. That´s not very much.

Maybe i can do a combination of different things to get the most out of it, maybe i can apply for the university at the same time, and have one on one tutors with different teachers.

I don´t know! Can someone give me suggestion how to do this in Harbin?

Thanks!

[abcdefg]

I studied 4 hours a day 5 days a week one on one with an excellent tutor in Harbin this past Summer. You might want to give my teacher a call. He's a Harbin native plus is skilled and experienced in teaching foreigners. His name is Eric Ma and his website is:

http://www.1to1mandarinworkshop.com. If you need his phone number, PM me.

[ibowfornoman]

Thanks for the reply!

That sounds great! But i see i need a lot of money, so if i turn up with a scholarship of some kind this might be a great idea. Thanks!

[doraemon]

Good cities for learning Mandarin(not in any order):

-Beijing (duh!)

-Changchun

-Harbin

-Shenyang

-Dalian

Basically, any north-eastern Chinese city would be good for learning Mandarin (not sure about Tianjin though...). I personally think all cities have their different accents(although the difference can sometimes be very subtle), but the ones spoken in Beijing and the north-eastern provinces sound the closest to standard Mandarin, and they sound the best as well. Living in southern Chinese city will most likely give you a southern accent (sorry, that was kind of an obvious statement:oops:)

[paike]

I live in Shenyang, not a bad place to learn chinese and live.

Big, 7 million or so? Hard to know what figured to trust. Most western things you'd want, you can get. Its relatively small in the city center, no more than 15yuan taxi, most of the time 10-12 yuan. Close.

I love it, and the only reason I may leave is a girl. I make more money here teaching english than I would in America, etc.

[atitarev]

Mandarin Chinese (官话 Guānhuà), including standard Mandarin (普通话 Pǔtōnghuà) in China is spoken by 885 mln people as the first language, according to the latest available statistics.

Here's a map of Mandarin dialects.

Mandarin dialects

[Ed Log]

I guess it must be part of the taxi driving exam that your putonghau skills are not too hot

[Valeria]

what about qingdao? since it's in the north-east area I suppose it's ok...isn't it?

[WestTexas]

Mandarin Chinese (官话 Guānhuà), including standard Mandarin (普通话 Pǔtōnghuà) in China is spoken by 885 mln people as the first language, according to the latest available statistics.

An extremely misleading statistic. By some criteria different branches of Mandarin could be considered different languages. Someone from the northeast would not be able to understand someone speaking in a thick Sichuan dialect for example. I've had students from Shenyang who say they can't understand the taxi drivers in Dalian. There are few people who speak very standard Putonghua on the street or with their own families. Many of these people have strong accents even why trying to speak standardly.