self-study Chinese

[huaqiao06]

anyone else done a term of language study at a Chinese university and decided you can learn faster on your own?

I'm thinking of dropping my second semester - assuming I can get most of my money back and sort out the visa problem - and going solo with private tutors & HSK prep classes. I have conversational mandarin, can read most of a newspaper and compose basic essays.

hope people can share their experiences of studying without the structure & discipline of formal classes

[trevelyan]

You can. The big risk in leaving is motivational (will you continue to learn) and environmental (are you in a situation where you can readily engage in conversations with fellow students). The bigger risk in staying is complacency, and the assumption the university knows what it is doing and can actually teach effectively. You might want to try and find a part-time job in a Chinese speaking environment.

[rezaf]

I really prefer to study on my own but I need a student visa and it is not that bad to attend classes sometimes. Anyway if you ask me the method that most of the Chinese universities use is bad and boring and a waste of time and money.

[kdavid]

I've never attended a class and I'm fluent.

I agree 100% with trevelyan. Motivation and self-discipline will be key. It helps that you are, or will be, in China. Otherwise you'd need the group environment.

Where you're going will also be a key factor. If you're in a city that has lots of foreigners, you may find that you're surrounding yourself with other foreigners and therefore not practicing your Chinese. Also, the chances that the local population will speak English is higher. That, however, is easily avoidable by just replying in Chinese that you're from xyz European country and don't speak English.

Good luck with your studies!

[huaqiao06]

the university is BNU. I may have talked it down more than it deserves, but they do use the usual suite of questionable techniques:

- discussing each word on the chapter vocab list (when a glance at the dictionary would do);

- listening to classmates read chunks of text;

- discussions with classmates whose Chinese has the same limitations as yours;

- exercises like matching phrases, fill-the-gap with words from the vocab list etc;

- tingli class. Is this any substitute for, say, listening to news reports with a native speaker and having them explain the bits you don't understand?

in general, the value-adding aspects of the classes (e.g. sentence construction) can be more efficiently done with a private tutor.

[Houzi88]

I prefer to teach myself Chinese. I have never had a teacher of Chinese and speak it pretty well. I can communicate with people and not really have any trouble. I can even tell where they're from just by their accent. (they always get so impressed by this)

The only way I've been studying is from Books and Chinese Pod. I didn't like Pimsleurs or any other Chinese audio learning. I learn a lot from seeing it. (just how I learn) Watching movies in Mandarin is awesome cause I seriously LOVE Chinese movies.

Also teaching yourself Chinese proves to yourself how badly you want to learn the language and how dedicated you are. Relying on someone else to teach you puts you in the wrong mind set and you start to think that THEY are the ones to make you speak it, when in reality YOU"RE the one that has to remember how to speak it. (this is how I imagine how it is learning from someone)

[yersi]

.

[anonymoose]

anyone else done a term of language study at a Chinese university and decided you can learn faster on your own?

Whether or not you can learn faster on your own really depends on how much time and effort you're willing to put into it. Even if you attend classes, you will need to put in time outside of class to consolidate what you've learnt. If you can devote as much time to self study, then it should be possible to learn well without classes.

I've been self-learning for about 8 years, and just for the last term and a half have attended university classes. I've never found motivation to be an issue, though I recognise for some people, having regular classes might help in this respect. However, there seems also to be a fair number of people enrolled in classes, but who don't turn up to many of them, so I guess motivation is an problem for some people, regardless of whether they are enrolled in classes or not.

In terms of effectiveness of teaching, I'd say that classes don't offer an awful lot that you couldn't get on your own, but of course this also depends on your ability to teach yourself, and find answers to your own questions. Getting a private tutor is potentially a good idea, providing you can find someone who can actually teach. I think this last point is a critical factor - having conversations with native speakers is always useful, but many of them cannot explain even simple linguistic phenomena when asked, let alone proactively offering them. You need to find someone who will actually be willing to point out your mistakes and be able to analyse them, otherwise you might as well just go and chat to your 门卫 for free.

[HashiriKata]

Since we're all different, I can only say what (I think) works for me:

I can study Chinese anytime and anywhere, with and without language classes. However, since I'm good on my own, I can do even better with classes.

PS: The above is in the context I'm in a non-Chinese environment. If I'm in China, it may be different.

Edited May 3, 2009 at 10:35 AM by HashiriKata

[calibre2001]

If you think you can hack it on your own, go for it. Just be sure to get constant, honest feedback from your tutors on how you're doing, so you don't end up thinking your level is higher than it really is (common auto-didact problem).

I agree with this. This is a very good reason to get a private tutor. From the threadstarter's post, I think he/she should start working on composition skills to a native level then.

[Liyisi]

i manage quite well whit studying chinese by myself, I have one english-chinese dictionary and a Chinese for Foreigners book which has helped me a lot plus i use music which help me how to pronounce words correctly.

But I also use my spare time an weekends so i can always get better

[chrix]

so how do people practice composition by themselves? I'd really be curious to know what methods people use for that.. thanks..