Learning Chinese

[Niko]

Improving Chinese when living in China

On my last trip to China, I decided that once and for all, I had to do something about my Chinese. After living in America for 5 years, I found myself straining to remember words and expressions I once knew. Not that my Chinese was ever any good.

When I first moved to China, my wife told me that if I really wanted to become fluent, I'd needed to get a job where nobody spoke English.

"Like where?" I'd ask, wondering who'd ever hire me. "You could always work at McDonald's".

But I've never worked at McDonald's. Instead I fell into a line of employment common to many foreigners: the English-teaching trap. You know how it goes. You are approached to teach a class by a friend of a friend, and no amount of "sorry, not interested" is going to stop them. Instead, they keep offering you more and more money, the unspoken assumption being that everybody has a price.

Before you know it, you're fielding questions on present continuous tense, split infinitives and gerunds. Soon word has gotten around that you are an English teacher, and you are approached to teach another class, then another and still another.

Although you go to Chinese lessons twice a week, you realize that your wife was right. You need to be surrounded by people yelling Big Mac, French Fries and Coca Cola all day if you truly want to become fluent in Chinese.

Ricardo Sweeney
(English Teacher - Beijing, China)

[adam molon]

Hi,

My name is Adam. I am an English teacher in Beijing. I think your wife is right. We need do practice to improve the spoken. And your experience is interesting.

My major was about the Asia culture when I was in university. So I come to China this year to know some Chinese culture. Firstly, I want to learn some Chinese, because the Chinese is a part of Chinese culture, and I think it’s very useful in my daily life.

Do you know something about Beijing Mandarin School? I find this school which is near in Guomao. And it offers the group class and private class. I want to take private class, because my schedule is not stable. By the way, I need the professional teacher. Can you give me some advice about learning Chinese in Beijing?

Best wishes,
Adam

[Niko]

There's no quick way about learning Chinese, nor for that fact, any language. The only real way to do it is dedicate at least 3 hours a week (bare minimum). Go get yourself a private tutor for 1.5 hours a week who also assigns you homework. Make sure the homework is no walk in the park. My homework takes about 3 hours a week to do. So total I study about 4.5 hours a week from a text book. The rest is practice when I speak to the locals etc.

Unfortunatley nowadays we have so many distractions and reasons to justify why we cannot devote time today to studying.

[kdavid]

Like the realty and marketing campaigners will tell you: location, location, location.

If you move to a city where many people can speak English (e.g. Beijing, Shanghai) then it'll be difficult to get yourself off the ground. However, if you live in a city where NO ONE, and I mean NO ONE, speaks English, you'll be forced to learn to survive.

I myself am an English teacher here in Harbin. I teach 22 hours a week, and those are the ONLY 22 hours a week I speak English. I'm in and out. The other 146 hours a week are entirely in Chinese.

Realistically, it comes down to goals. I came to China first and foremost to learn Mandarin. Therefore, I chose to live in a place where my exposure to English would be limited.

You also have to choose your friends. English teachers can choose A: to hang out only with other foreigners, or B: to hang out only with Chinese (there is, of course, C: a little of both). Personally, I chose 'B' and the only contact I have with my colleages is in the office or at meetings. This has obviously had a profound influence on my Chinese learning.

[marie lee]

Hi Adam,

I finished my Chinese class from Beijing Mandarin School two weeks ago. This school has 10 years history in Chinese teaching, and their teacher are professional. I took the private lesson. The teacher is very kindly and patient. She accurate me and gave me more time to do practice when I had some problems of the pronunciation. The book is tailor made. It is matched the pinyin from text to practice. I think it’s convenient to do practice by yourself. I paid 4800rmb for 60hrs. They have Chinese corner every week. ( It is free ). You can join it, and make friend with other people. You can sent email or call them 010-65081026.

beijingmandarinschool@yahoo.com.cn

I hope those information can help you.

Best wishes

[kdavid]

Awfully convenient that marie lee happened to have all of the contact information right on hand.

Marie lee, what country are you from originally?

[adam molon]

Hi marie,
Thank you for your information. It's very useful. I went to Beijing Mandarin School last week. It's not difficult to find. The price is same 4800rmb/60hrs. And I try the Chinese lesson for one hour. I think its ok. I can cancel the class if I have other things, and the class just postpones. So, I decide to take the Chinese class in this school.

Thank you very much.

Best wishes

[waixingren]

I've been trying to learn Chinese for two years now. What I know, I know well. But I don't know all that much (about 300 characters and combinations of them). I've used a variety of resources... chinesepod.com is always a good one. Or you could just find some friends who don't speak too much English to help you along--and that's what I really need to find since my reading is now better than my speaking.