Going in China to learn Chinese

[pikachu]

Hello everybody,

I am a French student from Paris, I am 22.

I will be graduate from "Sorbonne university" at the end of the year,indeed 4 years of business administration after high school.

I am actually in Sweden, university of Stockholm, through an exchange program.

I want to go in China next year to learn Mandarin, I think for 2 years.

I will go in an university, I don't yet know which one.

I would like to ask you if you had advice to give me :idea: ?

And, even this claim has been treated , which town do you recommend for a student, Shangai or Beijing ?

Thank you very much.

Pikachu

"Europa, you are both my dream and my country."

[Tsunku]

I wouldn't limit yourself to Shanghai or Beijing unless you're really drawn to one of those places for some reason.

What I did was research China and chose a place that seemed intriguing to me. I ended up studying Kunming. Each place has its own strengths and weaknesses. If you're going to be in a place for two years though, make sure its a place that you're drawn to. There are excellent cities to study Chinese in all over the country. I don't really feel like my Chinese has suffered because I went to Kunming instead of Beijing, and I enjoyed living there immensely. I picked up some local speech, but that didn't hinder my Mandarin, if anything I feel lucky that I picked up a bit of Kunming-hua.

I think there can be a tendancy to think that you're limited to Shanghai or Beijing, but do a lot of reseach before you decide and make sure that you really want to be in one of those cities. Any respectable university in a decent sized Chinese city will have a program for foreign students. If you're drawn to Shanghai or Beijing, then by all means go for it, but you do have more choices than those two (I'd go for Beijing over Shanghai, but both cities have their fans).

[Guest lazybutbusy]

Hi, Kunming is good tourism site, but i don't think u can promote ur Mandarin well.Bcoz there is no good language-learnning enviroment, the local people there don't speak Mandarin though they can speak it.(the same as Shanghai)So if u come to Beijing or some north of China, Mandian may come to easy for u if u have not known anything about Mandarin. And i can recommed u a school for learning Chinese http://www.erwai.edu.cn/#

[pikachu]

The page doesn t display in English !

So it will be hard....

You said that in Shangai they don t speak Mandarin , is it true ?

Because I heard that Beijing was not very a city for students, for example for the student life, night life.....I am wrong ?

Thank you !

[Guest Anonymous]

Bcoz there is no good language-learnning enviroment, the local people there don't speak Mandarin though they can speak it.(the same as Shanghai)

To say that Chinese people outside of Northern China don't speak Mandarin (even though they could) is an over generalization. I've lived in Shanghai for over a month and stayed in Kunming for over a week. I've also travelled to many other cities in Southern China such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Althoguh it's obvious that one wouldn't hear Mandarin spoken nearly as often as one would in Northern China, but people still speak it, especially among the younger generation. However, it is true that many people prefer to speak their own dialect when speaking to other locals because they feel more comfortable.

To answer Pikachu's questions:

1.) I haven't met a single person from Shanghai who can't speak Mandarin. Although it's true that when Shanghai people get together, they would more likely speak Shanghaihua rather than Mandarin. One it's because Shanghai people are extremely proud (or conceited, depends on how you look at it) and also they just feel comfortable speaking their own dialect with each other. But if you approach them with Mandarin, they will definitely respond in Mandarin. All public announcements, TV broadcasts and radio are also in Mandarin, since it is the national language.

2.) Beijing has an awesome nightlife. There are clubs and bars scattered throughout the city. When I was in Beijing during the summer of 2002, they had a rave in a water theme park near the airport and another on the Great Wall. There was also a fetish party (for mainly foreigners) but I didn't go since I'm not into that kind of stuff.

[Tsunku]

I don't think you should let local dialect get in the way of your choice. No, I probably wouldn't choose to study Mandarin in say, Xinjiang, but you'd be find in Shanghai, or Yunnan. In Kunming, the local language is pretty radically different from Beijing Mandarin, but you can get used to it and understand it with a solid Mandarin background. No one at all expects foreigners to speak it though, so people will talk to you in Mandarin. Pretty much everyone in any good sized city will understand putonghua. Its what's taught in schools and spoken on radio and television, as kulong said.

I stand by my statement that you shouldn't choose a location just for the "purity" of the language. You'll find that anywhere you go in China, there are going to be local variations in speech, and if you plan to spend any amount of time outside of N. China, you'll have to adjust to it sooner or later. Choose a city that you're attracted to, whether it be Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Kunming, Nanjing . . . I don't think your Chinese would have to suffer.

I was going to say something about how I think that learning a bit of non-standard Chinese can actually be useful, but I think that's venturing a bit off topic. Anyhow, I wouldn't let the dialect play too large a role in your decision either way. There are pros and cons for both.

[ChouDoufu]

Because I heard that Beijing was not very a city for students' date=' for example for the student life, night life.....I am wrong ?

Thank you ![/quote']

I'm not sure what you mean about not good for students. there are quite a lot of students in BJ. It has it's benefits and it's drawbacks. The drawback being you could end up hanging out with your countrymen instead of practicing chinese.

if you know you're going to be in China for two years, you could also split your time between two places. I'd recommend going to Beijing first so that you get to hear standard mandarin, but once ou have a grasp of the language, you can study anywhere you'd want and it wouldn't make a big impact if they spoke a different local dialect...

[wix]

I'd recommend going to Beijing first so that you get to hear standard mandarin,

I don't think there is any reason to get too obsessed with Beijing. In many places in the north of China Mandarin is spoken with a standard accent.

[Quest]

beijing locals' mandarin is slightly different from the "standard".

[Guest Wang Ke Zhou]

Well, I love Shanghai but there *are* people here who can not speak mandarin. Mostly very old grannies (you speak better mandarin then my mother / grand mother! is something i get often). You also will run into some cab drivers who *barely* speak mandarin.

This is not to say that Shanghai isn't a great place to study, I am merely being pendantic.