Best way to learn Mandarin in China

[dik_15]

So glad have found you guys,

Im taking a year out of university so I can learn to speak Mandarin fluently! Ive already been learning it at uni in open units. Ive been looking into a few different schools in China. Not too fussy where but...

Where is the best place to learn Mandarin? Ive looked into Beijing University, but would a small private school be better? Im going out there on my own, with only a few contacts out there, so would probably benefit from having a decent community of people that I would get at a university.

Thanks for your help

[kdavid]

I'd come to Harbin. Check out Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT).

Where you ultimately end up, however, should depend on what type of person you are. If you need a strong social circle of (foreigner) peers (which wouldn't be good for studying, but might help you keep your sanity) Beijing would be best. If you're a loner who doesn't mind the cold, come to Harbin (you'll get more done here being away from the temptations of the west).

[dik_15]

im 19, would deff like lots of westerners around, at the start anyway

im interested in hearing where people in a similar situation have gone to learn chinese and their experience?

[Mugi]

In the mid 90s I studied at what was then a small university (its grown since) in Beijing where although there were about 100 foreign students, there were only a handful of native English speakers (half the foreign population were Japanese, the remainder made up of Koreans, Russians and various other Europeans). In my opinion, there were just enough foreigners to keep one's sanity and go out with for a good time now and again, but not so many that you never interacted with Chinese. I knew quite a number of other foreigners who had the same background (i.e. 3 years of Chinese in their home country) but ended up studying a year at some of the bigger places - 北大、人大、北外、二外 etc - we progressed much faster than they did. Some of it I think had to do with course structure (北大 wasn't very good at the time), but for the people at 二外 in particular, there were just way too many foreigners - they never spoke Chinese (or if they did it was with other foreigners ) and they never seemed to study outside of class - too many distractions.

After I had been in Beijing for several months I travelled up to Harbin for the ice festival and immediately thought if I had to do it again and was only considering language acquisition, I would choose Harbin for the reasons that kdavid mentioned, as well as the fact that the local dialect is much closer to Modern Standard Chinese (普通话) than what 北京话 is.

Having said that, getting to know Beijing has its benefits if you ever plan to work in or do business with China in the future. And someone who has studied in Beijing usually has little trouble understanding other northern accents, which is not usually true of people who study in other places, such as Harbin. You also get complimented on your accent whereever you go (even Taiwan!).

One thing I wouldn't do though is go to a non-Mandarin speaking area if you only have one year. The reasons should be obvious. If you end up staying a second year or even longer, then I would recommend heading south to see a totally different China.

[mpallard]

I like your enthusiasm but there is no way you are going to be fluent in Chinese in a year.

[kdavid]

It depends where your head is at and how bad you want it. Though I agree you won't be a native speaker after a year, you could achieve a reasonable amount of "fluency" in that time. However, this would basically require no social life whatsoever (myself being a good example).

You're young, this might be your first time away from home, and you want to have fun. Beijing would be a good place for this. There are a ton of foreigners, lots of culture and a decent nightlife (from what I hear).

If, however, the language is your #1 priority and you're willing to make some sacrifices, suck it up in near-Siberia for a couple of years and move on.

Wherever you choose to go, have fun. Life is short.

[<<恒心>>]

I studied at both Nankai Daxue in Tianjin and Beida, and I can recommend them both. If it's foreigners you want to hang with, then Beida or BLCU is your place. If you want *some* foreigners for company, then Nankai might be better. If you just want to focus on your studies and don't want distractions, then Tianjin is perfect since the foreign population is much smaller than in Beijing-- yet Beijing is only 90 miles away, about 1-1/2 hours by train. So how much foreign contact/party/play time would be totally yours to control.

The accent in Tianjin is called "嘛话" where they throw in "嘛" whenever possible, but other than that it is very close to the Beijing accent, upon which the national standard is based. So that can't hurt. But be warned, Tianjin is not nearly as exciting/interesting as Beijing... it's pretty sleepy in many ways. That can be a very good thing if that's what you're looking for.

One other thing to consider: Beida is not only an excellent school, but it's very famous as well. Even when you are back home, if you mentioned that you studied at Beida, the Chinese people will likely be impressed and *may* take your efforts to study more seriously. No guarantees, but it might even open some doors for you. That shouldn't be your #1 reason to go there, of course, but if you are considering the overall value of of a program/degree, that might be a factor worth thinking about.

Finally, if you just want to hang out and have fun, I'd suggest BLCU. The Wudaokou area is full of fun distractions and plenty of foreigners. But wherever you go, you'll get out of it what you put into it, so your seriousness/dedication is the key to everything.

[london82]

Hiya,

I came to China in September and studied in Wudaokou in Beijing at University of International Relations (UIR). I wanted an intense experience so I did the intensive course and stayed with a homestay all arranged by the International Students Centre (ISC). I think the city, the university and the homestay were wrong decisions. The homestay wanted to speak English all the time and I found the cultural differences too intrusive in a home. The university was a joke. My afternoon teacher was great and all the others were terrible although I don't blame them as the students were 'on the whole' in Beijing, courtesy of their parents and not interested in studying. I worked out that most of the class had averaged learning 10 characters a month since they got there nearly a year before. I also found Wudaokou not an easy place to stick to speaking Chinese, given the huge amount of foreigners and most of the shops and restaurants have menus etc in english. I felt in London when I was making decisions that the internet information sources for the universties was not great so I went through ISC, which was a complete rip off and I thoroughly recommend you do it independently if you got to Beijing as everyone speaks english in BLCU and UIR at least.

After saying all that, I do belive I have found a solution to all of these problems. I am now in a small city in the very north east of China, Jiamusi. The quality of the language teaching here is perfect. The teachers are good, clear and very strict with homework etc. There are lots of classes to choose from to get your level right and every afternoon they have great, structured, free electives such as Chinese business, Chinese history and chinese culture. They also have HSK specific classes, also included in the price. I think it's safe to say that the classes are only Korean students and Russians, the vast majority of which don't speak english. Apparently there is a Canadian student although I have never met him and I am English. My classes are completely Korean students and they are really friendly to me and we always talk in Chinese and they really want to talk to me as most of them have never met and Englsh person before. My room mate speaks some English and she is Russian, however I am thinking of moving into a room with a Korean girl who speaks no English. I have lots of language partners, many of which speak absolutely no english and I am starting from the alpahbet when teaching them. I haven't met chinese university students studying english yet as I haven't tried because I found in Beijing their english was better than my chinese so english was always the default language. I have met my language partners on the bus, working in shops and in hairdressers. I think I'm quite shy but this has been easy as everyone wants to talk to me due to the sheer lack of white people here.

As for the city, you won't find much about it on the net. I think the population is around 800,000, so small by chinese standards but still feels pretty big. The weather is terrible but the student accomodation is in the same building as your halls and all your amenities are close so it really wasn't too much of an issue for me. The halls are simple and fine and very warm. There are lots of bars and Karaoke bars, etc here due to the large student population. Also lots of restaurants. It is no Beijing obviously but depends what you are looking for.

And finally, I think it would be difficult to get here without an agency even if you speak a little Chinese, so I thoroughly recommend the agency I came through. HYCC at: http://www.hyccchina.com/english/araq/index.htm they helped arrange my application, visa documents, accomodation and the problems I had at the beginning. They also got me a computer for rent so I don't have to use the net cafe. They are very easy to get hold of and very reasonably priced and made my transition very smooth.

Sorry for the very long post, hope its useful.

[xianu]

If you are interested primarily in language, there are 2 language schools (one in Beijing and one in Taipei) that are probably among the best in the world, that is the IUB (Inter-university board) program in Beijing at Qinghua, and the ICLP (International Chinese Language Program) in Taiwan at Taida. I have recently heard of another one, the Language Center in Beijing that seems to run by some of the same principals, but not having attended or spoken with people who have attended personally, can't say anything about it. THe students at both IUB and ICLP are there to sutdy Chinese. Some are undergraduate students, but many are graduates and graduate students, whose main aim is attaining real fluency in the language for work or research. Classes are very small - I think 1 to 4 in most cases, and usually with at least one 1 on 1 tutorial/drill class. the teachers are well-trained, and the curriculum is excellent, and accepted by Chinese programs in the US as rigorous. Usually students take 3 classes, 5 hours a week each, plus 5 hours a week tutorials, so a total of 20 hours each week. Many of our teachers went to ICLP in Taiwan (when it used to be the IUB center), way back when, and China researchers will often go back to either place to conduct research and get extra specialized help on some of their materials.

[mikesp]

Thanks for all the great info, but I have a few questions, if I may...

I'm planning to take a year off from school, to learn Chinese. That being my top priority, I won't be going to Beijing. I've been looking into Harbin and Jiamusi, and I wouldn't mind the absence of foreigners, but I would mind the cold...

What other places have you heard of? I'm guessing you wouldn't recommend studying in any area outside the 'northern mandarin' dialect. Would you be able to recommend any other places, with good quality teaching, reasonable costs and lack of foreigners, preferably more south?

A question for london82, what makes the services of HYCC so irreplaceable? From what I've looked into, getting a Visa shouldn't be a problem, and as for the transportation, well, can't one get from the airport to Jiamusi, and to the university?

Thanks so much guys, right now I need some encouragement and information...

[KaiMcCoy]

In reply to mpallard's comment, it really depends on the individual person. If he picks things up easily and puts in the necessary hours, then it is very possible he could do it in a year. I worked with this one guy who earnt Japanese in 8 months, both oral and characters and when we moved to China, he already knew the characters from what he learnt in Japan, and he picked up Mandarin in the first 5 months of us being there... he didn't study at all, we just heard Mandarin everyday and he continuously asked "What's that mean?" and "What tone is that?"... and now he's fluent. That's just him... but from that I know it is possible.

So to the OP, go for it man... but the others are right, the environment will also have a dramatic change on your outcome. If you have other foreigners around who aren't as serious as you, then that might rub off on you. Well, for what it's worth, Good Luck.

[redmini]

while you can learn a great deal from textbooks etc, i do find that the majority of what you learn is outside of the classroom. if you force yourself to stray from your comfort zone, hang out with locals who you can only communicate in chinese to, then the more you listen and try speak to them, the faster it will one day 'click' and mandarin becomes second nature.

but that said, definitely still study your butt off and commit to memory all that vocab you learn in class. dont be afraid or ashamed of your 'lack of' mandarin speaking skills in the beginning!! just try anyway.

so, in that regard, between choosing a private school or university, the only major difference is class size. i personally love blcu for its diversity of students and proximity to wudaokou..