Chinese heritage student planning to study in Shanghai for 2 months ... need help!

[rockandrolla]

Hi everyone,

I'm a heritage student, I lived all my life in europe but my parents are chinese, who knows understands and knows how to speak chinese but is unable to write or read the characters. I really like my chinese background thus I have decided to study chinese this summer for 2 months in Shanghai.

My problem starts here, I was looking at universities and language schools that specializes in teaching chinese but the courses they offer are not suitable for me. Those courses are well rounded but I only need to concentrate on reading and writing.

Does anyone know courses that specializes only on writing an reading? Or I should consider other options, like 1-on-1 tutor or something? If you have any other suggestion on what I should do I would appreciate it!

Thanks everyone!

[anonymoose]

1-on-1 tutoring is probably the best option, but frankly, if you can already speak chinese fluently, I think you should be able to teach yourself to read and write. There are many websites (such as nciku) that you can look at for stroke order animations. Other than that, it is just a question of memorising characters. I think classes or a tutor would be of limited value. Get yourself a few kids books with pinyin above the characters if need be, and just read through them, memorising as you go. It will be a boring process, but at least it should be relatively quick (compared with learners who don't have a chinese background).

[renzhe]

Honestly, with a good flashcard program (google anki, mnemosyne and supermemo), you should be able to learn 2000 characters in a year. Arm yourself with a good book to work through once you have more than a thousand characters under your belt, and you'll go from illiterate to a decent level, on your own, with 30 minutes or less per day.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't go to Shanghai and learn more, as it's a great opportunity, but learning on your own for a year will likely help you 10x more than a 2-month course.