Chinese practise in Beijing

[johnmck]

In a couple of months time I am planning to go to Beijing on a business trip. I'm currently negotiating with my boss to get them to pay for me to go out five days early so that I can practise my Chinese (if I stay the Saturday night the reduction in the airfare should pay for the extra nights in the hotel). Currently I know about 1000 words and rarely get a chance to speak Chinese (my spoken Chinese is poor).

I want to start practising my Chinese immediately upon arrival and get as much Chinese practise in over the 4-5 days before I visit my customer (my customer can speak English so I do not have to go from beginner to business Chinese in 5 days:D ). I do not want to spend the five days just walking around Beijing looking at all the sites and only using Chinese to order food. What is the best way to practise my Chinese in Beijing?

[Shadowdh]

Walking around Beijing looking at all the sites and ordering food... sorry couldnt resist... I found that by just walking through the parks people were ok speaking with me and I could get alot of practice in asking questions (you know the basic ones... whats that, how do you say this... and point at something)... ordering food was another good way to practice as you can point at the pictures and again ask how do you say... also go to the markets, I found that after the initial hard sell tactic some of the stall keepers were happy enough to chat to you and help out...

[calibre2001]

Make new friends...mandarin speaking only friends !

[roddy]

If you just want to walk around speaking to random people, try parks like Shadowdh suggests - especially early in the morning when you get all the old folks out doing their morning exercises / singing / etc. Give 'em a smile and before you know it you'll be getting more questions than you know what to do with. University campuses also, although there's a much higher chance of running into people that want to speak English. Sit around with a Chinese textbook, look friendly and ask random passers by if they can just show you how to pronounce this character here. Try also taking taxis round and round the ring roads.

Don't be surprised if you attract a small crowd.

Roddy

[onebir]

If you only have 5 days, it's probably worth hiring a 1-1 tutor - & probably worth getting one via a school, so that you get a bit of variety &/can change easily if you need to.

Chatting with people is great as a longer term strategy, but over a few days an experienced tutor is probably worth it. Most people won't try to correct your pronounciation or grammar, guess the word that's on the tip of your tongue, or help you eke out sentences that are on the edge of your abilities - a good tutor will do this & can help you make rapid progress.

Taipei language institute (which has 2 branches in Beijing) is specifically set up for this & has good materials, but it's expensive. There are other schools that are cheaper, but their teachers are probably less experienced teaching 1-1. (There could be exceptions, so it might be worth asking if you decide to go down the tutor route.)

[wrbt]

Make sure you have your luggage and wander near big tourist areas looking somewhat lost... in no time you'll have two young people approach and you can practice Chinese at their traditional style tea ceremony or art gallery.

Actually try going to sit at a cafe with locals (if you can stand the smoke) they'll be curious and if you make the first move I'm thinking you'll have some conversation practice in no time.

[wrbt]

Also - We had some great talky talks with hotel staff, specifically the ones standing out front bored after main dinner hour has passed.

[johnmck]

Thank you all for your answers. It looks like getting practise should be a lot easier than I had thought. I guess I will not have the same problem as when I moved to France, everyone was very helpful and kept answering me in English:)

[kudra]

I'm not affiliated with it, but you might find out if the 1-month Chinese school would customize a 5 day intensive course for you. Program directors, if you're listening, that might be a good niche for people on business trips like that.

[roddy]

Pretty much any Chinese school will customize a course for you if you offer them cash.

Another idea - temples. They always have a few folk sitting around to make sure people don't take photos where they aren't meant to, or set fire to stuff with their incense, and they're generally bored and happy to chat.

[Shadowdh]

John... you shouldnt have a problem with people speaking english with you... I found that there werent as many as you would think who can speak english... the temples are a really good idea... I spoke to a few Daoist monks at the white cloud temple and they were great...

[onebir]

I guess I will not have the same problem as when I moved to France, everyone was very helpful and kept answering me in English

You might get that with isolated individuals, but it won't be common - except maybe on wangfujing. But the english speakers there usually lose interest if you reply in chinese for some reason (anyone know why? :s)

The temple idea's good. One of the monks at the white cloud was very chatty - even though my chinese was really ropey when I went there. And I've met some friendly attendants at other places.