If the mainland borders remain closed to students...

[Curious]

Taiwan is already open for people who want to study Chinese. You can ask the admissions about the process. Of course, be ready for the additional requirements like taking an RT PCR test 2 days before your flight to taiwan and doing quarantine for 7 days then another 7 days for self-management. ?

[zhouhaochen]

On 5/20/2022 at 9:05 PM, Curious said:

Taiwan is already open for people who want to study Chinese

That is not fully the case yet. However its looking good and I personally think we should be able to have students study in Taipei again within the next few months.

But then, I have been wrong quite a few times with my predictions in the last two years....

[roddy]

Could we not have the unnecessary keyword-spam links to your own site? Looks tacky for everyone and calls into question your motivation for posting.

[Guest]

Erase personal profile and all posts.

[abcdefg]

@Miko869-- I respect your opinion but have had a different reaction to recent events. 

 

On 5/23/2022 at 3:25 AM, Miko869 said:

>>"A closed China for me means more mystery, more appeal, in the end more incentives to learn the language."

------------------------------------- 

The main appeal of China for me was in living there, getting to know the people, going to interesting places, doing interesting activities, learning about the food and the tea in a hands-on, participatory manner. So a closed China, one that necessitated my hasty retreat to the US was not at all welcome. And the prolonged border closure which followed was equally disappointing. My "China Life" crumbled. I now have much less incentive to learn the language. 

 

I studied Chinese history and culture as a way to better understand the land and its peoples. It also gave me some common ground when making friends. It wasn't something abstract. I had a very dear girfriend for 5 or 6 years. She couldn't leave the country with me. I miss her terribly and we have by now drifted apart. I've had to release her and urge her to go on with her life, since it's doubtful I will ever be able to return. It would be unfair to ask her to wait for me. 

 

All of which underscores the well-known fact that all of us are different. I wish you the best in your language and culture pursuits. I have been in mourning, and am just barely becoming optimistic about life again, as China fades into the rear view mirror. 

[alantin]

A lot of what @Miko869 wrote resonated with me. In the beginning I got mildly interested in China when I began working for a partly Chinese owned company and got to more or less frequently interact with people in our Chinese office. When I had a chance to visit our office there for ten days a few years ago, I thought the people were great and that it would be fun and useful to learn the language along with more about the country ,expecting more visits soon. Having previously learned Japanese to more or less fluent, with virtually zero benefit in professional life, I expected Chinese to be something different. Now I'm still on that path, having been waiting for the next chance to visit Shanghai since Covid began, but getting more and more disillusioned and beginning to struggle liking China.

 

What began as a curious different approach to handling the pandemic, has now suddenly turned into also giving me personal grief at work, which itself is nothing compared to watching literally everyone I care about over there getting their lives turned upside down in a senseless, completely avoidable, debacle with no end in sight.

 

In short, I'm getting numb and cynical, just like the third Chinese person within the last couple of weeks to tell me today that they had stopped watching news and waiting for things to get better. Now I'm not just rethinking my relationship with China, but also my whole career path, since I realize that one big reason for me to stay in my current job for the last couple of years has been the promised future projects in China. But I'm not willing (or of the opinion that it is even possible) to do them remotely from here or to wait for China to maybe open in the next five years. Maybe I'll take on another interesting opportunity (not involving China), that I've been putting off in order to go to Shanghai, keep studying Chinese on the side, and go spend some time in Taiwan next year. Maybe that will lead to new work opportunities involving the language sometime in the future too.

 

I can't keep waiting for China forever. Have to move on.

[Jan Finster]

On 5/23/2022 at 10:13 PM, alantin said:

In short, I'm getting numb and cynical, just like the third Chinese person within the last couple of weeks to tell me today that they had stopped watching news and waiting for things to get better. Now I'm not just rethinking my relationship with China, but also my whole career path, since I realize that one big reason for me to stay in my current job for the last couple of years has been the promised future projects in China. But I'm not willing (or of the opinion that it is even possible) to do them remotely from here or to wait for China to maybe open in the next five years. Maybe I'll take on another interesting opportunity (not involving China), that I've been putting off in order to go to Shanghai, keep studying Chinese on the side, and go spend some time in Taiwan next year. Maybe that will lead to new work opportunities involving the language sometime in the future too.

 

I can't keep waiting for China forever. Have to move on.

 

I am not sure I fully understand your post.

Are you upset/disillusioned with your company, with China or both?[later on you mention opportunities "not involving China", but still hoping you can go to Shanghai... (?) Are you implying going there as a tourist?

 

It seems COVID and ensuing policies has really shattered many ideas we had about China. Yesterday I spoke to a Chinese friend, who works here in Germany. He said he was ashamed of his nation for the current situation in "Shanghai". 

 

COVID and Chinese policies challenged many learners' motivation about Chinese. It also meant cancelled gap years or business trips to China. I am in the same boat. I used to visit China 3 times per year to conduct seminars, enjoy good food and explore new cities. I personally travelled to Taiwan for culture, food and language. Personally, my motivation has not faded away even though I am realistic enough to know I may not set foot into China before 2024. I guess it is a bit like investing in the stock market. Currently, my stocks have taken a major hit,  but I am in it for the long run. So, I am still holding them optimistically hoping things will improve. Similarly, with China I am in it for the long run. I still think China is a major part of the future. Also, whenever I hear Chinese tourists abroard and I am able to understand some of their conversation, I feel an inner joy.

[alantin]

Disillusioned with China opening up soon. It’s the third year I’m waiting for it to open up “next year”. I’d say I’m in it for the long term too, so now I’m basically thinking about doing something else for a while, that should offer better learning opportunities than my current work does, and then see what opportunities come up when China eventually does open up some day. My current job is ok, but I feel it doesn’t offer as much learning opportunities any more as it once did and staying just for the hope of doing something with Chinese people someday isn’t a good reason anymore not to take other opportunities (even if they don’t have connections to China) if they offer other more tangible benefits. 

[carlo]

On 5/23/2022 at 4:45 PM, abcdefg said:

I have been in mourning, and am just barely becoming optimistic about life again, as China fades into the rear view mirror. 

I lost my wife to a terminal disease a year before Covid began. As a consequence of border closures, I've not been able to visit my in-laws or take our son with me to see his grandparents, for over three years now. Even if the borders were to reopen tomorrow, I'd still be wary of visiting in case we can't get out.

 

We used to travel back and forth multiple times a year, and were a very close family, with my career implicitly depending on China becoming more connected with the rest of the world, which is something I also thought was fundamentally unstoppable. I'm aware I was very lucky to get involved with China when I did, in a different era, which made it possible to have experiences that this generation of students may never know.

 

These days I live a bit like a Chinese expat, watching the news, reading books and cooking Chinese food for myself. Even my work experience has become somewhat less relevant as the consensus view is becoming that China might be "uninvestable". I don't mind reinventing myself, it's just that it sometimes feels like the past has been a dream, and I'm the last person on Earth who remembers it for what it was.

 

Not sure what I'd do if I were a student now: given I also find most of the enjoyment in actually talking to people, I might pick another one.