Where do i go in China to learn intensively Mandarin?

[pdsola]

I have been studying mandarin with a tutor 3 hours a week for a year now (She is chinese and speaks english "OK" so ive been getting a good idea of the language). Im intending to go to China beginings of next year to study the language. With the basic idea i have of the language Id like to chose the city/program that suits the correct enviroment to learn as fast as posible. I understand that it depends on my effort and how much time Im gonna dedicate to the program and Im fully compromised to do what is necesary. I wanna chose a city with the least foreigners to avoid talking english or spanish as much as posible. I have two years to learn as much as i can and i want to make them count.

So with these objectives i have in mind wich would be the right place to go? Please tell me about your experiences and what level and can hope to get from dedicating myself 100% to studying the 2 years.

[littleknight23]

I am a native Chinese. I have a friend who comes from Sweden, he is studying Chinese in Chengdu. He says there are only two Swedes, including himself, in his school so he has little chances to speak Swedish, then both of his English and Chinese are improving quickly.

Many foreigners come to Beijing to study mandarin Chinese. If you do not want to go to a city where there are too many foreigners, you do need to cancel Beijing from your list.

Shanghai is another large city of China. For the same reason, you had better ignore it.

Xian is another major city of China. It’s also time-honored. There must be few foreigners there.

Guangzhou is also one of the largest cities of China, but I won’t suggest you go there for your study. As most of the local people speak Cantonese in daily life—even though you can not understand it! Cantonese is the dialect of Chinese spoken in Canton and neighboring provinces and in Hong Kong and elsewhere outside China. Most of our Chinese form other provinces can not understand it. It won’t be helpful for your mandarin Chinese studying.

Suzhou won’t be a nice choice. As there are many foreigners there.

It seems Chengdu will be a better place. The foreigners living/studying in Xian must be more that those living/studying in Chengdu.

Maybe Jinan is also a nice choice.

Sorry for my poor English. But I am sure that you can get me.

If any other questions you can also contact me at my email and MSN

MSN: littleknight23@hotmail.com

Email: littleknight23@163.com

[gougou]

If any other questions you can also contact me at my email and MSN

Or preferably, here in the forums, so others can benefit from your responses as well!

[simonlaing]

I would go to a small city in the northeast. or a nanjing.

You need a place with good tones, and one with few enough westerners that you really can concerntrate on the language.

You will need to fight the urge to learn Bar Chinese every night or earn money through part time English teaching jobs.

Look for an established program with decent rankings from ex students and national level.

Be ready to work hard. "Learning Chinese is a 5 year lesson in patience." At the end of 5 years you still haven't completely learned Chinese but you know patience.

Roddy is in Dalian, I have heard it is pretty and the people's speech is very standard. Though it is cold in the winter. If you want a warmer place I advise my city of Nanjing to Study, which altough having some wind chill in the winter and a bit of humidity in the summer is a fairly mild city.

If you are truly passionate about it, it won't matter which good university you go to.

have fun,

Simon:)

[Jamoldo]

Dalian is actually pretty nice given the sea breeze, far more mild than Beijing, I would say. But that's just what I've heard, considering I was only in Dalian for the summer. But it's what people have told me.

Dalian is fantastic. I'd suggest it for numerous reasons I've posted elsewhere (do a search on my posts and you'll see it). Chengdu will have a bit of Sichuan-hua, though I've heard great things about the city. Xi'an is a great place for culture and history.

[PHILIP-LI]

I'm quite agree with Jamoldo. Dalian is an romantic city. I have studied here for 5 years.(I'm a chinese student) Dalian is not too hot in summer and too cold in winter.there're lots of good universities here.iIf you're interested in Dalian,I will tell you more!

[pdsola]

I checked out Dalian and it seems like a very good option. One thing Im curious about though is the accent, is it like the one from Beijing? cause ive heard of some cities that you will get a particular accent that isnt common. My tutor is from Tianjin and she only recommends Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. She is very stubborn and every time i mention another city she says something like "they have a funny accent or its too far away or something of sorts..." I value her recommendations but i rather take some from people who have studied and lived it.

Another thing, what University or Program you recommend in Dalian? The smaller the group in the class the better i think, and what are the chances of living with a Chinese family? I think living with chinese will accelerate my understanding of the language. Please give any suggestions in the matter, Thanks

[Suvlaco]

You might also like to look into Xi'an. It's a relatively large city with very few foreigners.

Having lived there for 5 months, I didn't meet any foreigners that lived there, and I went out to public bars, clubs, uni's and parks a lot. I met several who were on holiday, but none living there.

I'm going there to learn Chinese soon, starting uni on March 1 but arriving Dec 12. If you want any more info let me know.

[simonlaing]

The northeast has it's own local dialect language but most of the people I met from there it doesn't affect their language.

In fact their tones and speaking might be better than beijing and Tianjin because those places like to add er to the ends of most words.

Xian I have not spent much time but like Sichuan and other western provinces it probably has more dialect affect on their mandarin speaking. Although as said before capital cities of provinces this is less of a problem, I still think the northeast is the place to go. Also Beijing and Shanghai you can be easily distracted by western food and western bar activities.

Good luck,

Simon:)

[muyongshi]

I disagree on Xian. I know a few people that are from Xian and I find them to have one of the better mandarin accents. Not heavily polluted by the er sound, but definitely no a southern style of speaking like in Sichuan. And also I have been told that most people in Xian look down on anyone who uses a dialect because they are "farmers".

[Przemek]

What about the Hainan Island? What is the Mandarin accent there? I guess there should be lots of people from other parts of China living permanently in Hainan, so the local lingo shouldn't be too polluted by dialects. Am I right?

[Suvlaco]

Having lived in Xi'an but also travelled around China, the accent in Xi'an doesn't seem as strong as the other cities I visited. Well worth looking at.

[muyongshi]

What about the Hainan Island? What is the Mandarin accent there?

It's not bad. Pretty neutral. If you stick to Haikou or Sanya the mix of people is quite good and they have imported so many 东北人 for the purpose of tourism so there is also a ton of jiaozi restaurants.

But still I would recommend Xian. Hainan has way to many tourists (especially of the Russian persuasion). And it is really expensive to live in Sanya now and haikou doesn't really have great programs that I know of.

[jacob8chao]

Taiyuan is a good choice. It has a long history, the most attractive point is that it located in north-middle of China. Most people speak standard Mandarin. And Shanxi University is a good university. There are little foreigners in the backland city.

I am a Junior student of Taiyuan university of tecnology.

[fireball9261]

I don't think Hainan is a good place either - too expensive, and I don't think there are good programs there. I would say Dalien or Xian or Taiyuan could be good enough and away from major western distractions. Their accents would not influence their Mandarin as much as the people in the Southern China.

[bearbrick]

i am totally flummoxed by this need for the "perfect " chinese accent .....chinese is chinese , period.

its like english.....english spolen in scotland is diifferent from wales which is different from england and even within england there are varying "accents " of thr language ...the cockney in london vs the liverpudlian english.....

i can say the same about the USA .....new york vs californian vs texan.

so guys , lets not be too hung up about the varying chinese accents.....i have listen to the mandarin in guangzhou and in xingjiang , also from xian , then from heilongjiang and of course beijing...its universal ....little intonations and perhaps some venacular regional peculiarities.may occur and IMO.....all the better for it ... chinese is chinese is chinese . period. and thank goodness for that:mrgreen:

[fireball9261]

Well, I translated a taxi driver's Mandarin for two Chinese girls in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang. The Mandarin maybe Mandarin, but whether you could get others to understand you is quite different. When you learn Mandarin with very minimum local accent, others will always understand you. When you learn Mandarin with certain thick accent that distort your Mandarin, no one else except for the local people could understand you. Therefore, all of us suggested you to go to a Northern place for your learning because their accents affect Mandarin a lot less than the Southern ones. The differences between a Californian's English and a New Yorker's English are much less than a Xiaoshan Chinese' Mandarin and a Shandong Chinese' Mandarin. I know because I have heard all 4 ways of speaking.

[bearbrick]

please dont get too hung up on such trivial spliiting of hairs .

chinese is chinese is chinese.

and i would be very curious if you can understand ghetto english [ as created by black culture ] as easily as you would californian valley talk .

similarly deep caledonian accents need translation too when spoken in the south of the UK......

i could go on.....and on....and SO ?

i have been travelling throughout china North and South , East and West ......well enough cities anywhay to hve an idea that save for some regional variations ......mandarin is mandarin

and my point here is DONT GET TOO HUNG up on it . period.

[simonlaing]

I think there are differences chinese spoken by educated people (passed high school) and chinese that that is spoken by people who haven't had a chance to go to school.

I agree, in most cities the educated class who have been to university and learned to speak Chinese to be understood in the standard style are close "enough" to standard chinese to be spoken.

If you want to interact with local uneducated people, the local baozi guy, random people playing soccer, the type of local dialect might negatively affect your studying the standard Chinese.

If you not in China to learn Chinese, just trade or teach english, these distinctions are irrelevant of course.

Also I think UK english accents vary much more than US english accents.

Can you see my reasoning?

thanks,

Simon:)

[fireball9261]

I do understand black English and Irish English as well as Scottish English and British English. I love many of British movies with those accents. I also like rap songs. Many of my husband's cousins live in the Valley, and I could also fake a pretty good Valley accent. In addition, I could understand Sichuan Mandarin, Shaaxi/Shanxi Mandarin, Shandong Mandarin, Henan Mandarin, Hunan Mandarin, Canton Mandarin, Jiangsu Mandarin, Zhejiang Mandarin, Fujian Mandarin and some of the oversea Chinese accents (like Indonesian Mandarin) because of my environment where I grew up. I have a lot of contacts with all of those people from all of those places. However, not that many Chinese in mainland China would be in contact of such variety of people from all over China speaking with all of those accented Mandarin. My point is just that: If you want every one who has some learning (from very little to very much) of Mandarin from every where of China to understand your Mandarin, you need to speak the standard Mandarin with as little accent as possible.

Btw, in my experience, the differences of Mandarin with strong local accents are much greater than English with strong regional accents, except for the ghetto English which has the similar effect.