Location, Location, Location

[ironbadger]

Hello all,

I'm studying Mandarin in Beijing at the moment and have about 9 months left of the year. I'm beginning to realise that just one year of Chinese study isn't going to get me that far and so I'd like to spend another year in China. I would however like to leave Beijing and see another part of China. Its not that Beijing isn't a great city but I've heard from all angles that its by no means a fair representation of China.

I realise that many local dialects bear little resemblence to Mandarin and so I'm trying to find a good University in a pleasant area, with a high population of mandarin speakers, that's more typical of China than Beijing or Shanghai. I know that this is getting into western daydream territory but if anyone has any ideas they'd be much appreciated.

Cheers

[roddy]

Choose any city north-east of Beijing. Simple

Roddy

[elisabeth_rb]

Or go to Taiwan and get a completely fresh view on the China question.=)

[roddy]

More constructively this time . . .

I'd head for any north-eastern city. You'll get a decent use of Mandarin (I think the prevalance of Mandarin in a city is over-rated as a criteria for selecting somewhere to live, but anyway . . .), a fun winter (-29 when I was in Harbin. My snot froze), great people (东北人 - as one of my colleagues once jokingly said, 'great people, shame about the brains') and a chance to see the run-down, state-sold-off enterprises on, hopefully, their way back up. All this, and coal dust too 大东北万岁！

Roddy

[Jamie]

Roddy, this is supposed to be a convincing recommendation?

[roddy]

Well, I spent a year in Harbin (teaching) and loved it. I spoke to foreign students at both Heilongjiang University and Harbin Institute of Technology and they all seemed happy enough. And to be honest, if you haven’t felt your nostrils go all crinkly inside as your snot freezes, you haven’t lived . . .

[ironbadger]

Hey, thanks for all the helpful info. The North certainly seems attractive especially as I'd rather a cold climate than a hot one. While the coal dust and frozen mucus of Harbin is undeniably alluring Jilin University in Changchun sounds interesting as does Dalian which seems to be a popular favourite. Is there anything else in favour of Harbin like a sulphur plant or a Leper colony perhaps?

If anyone has any knowledge of the North of China or indeed the correct spelling of Leper it would be much appreciated. Cheers

[Jive Turkey]

I'd have to recommend the exact opposite of what Roddy suggests. If you'll have already spent a year in Beijing, then it will be about time for you to hear how non-Beijingers and non-northerners actually speak Putonghua. After a year of study, you shouldn't have much to worry about as far as your own pronunciation and accent are concerned. Anywhere you go save Taiwan, you will almost surely be taught by northerners. If you stay in the northeast, a place that has relatively few non-locals, you are really only going to hear and speak to northerners. The materials used in your school will certainly be based on "native" Beijing Putonghua. You will have no chance to tune your ear to any other dialects of Putonghua.

I would recommend going south or west, but not too far. I'd go down to the Yangtze delta area to a city like Suzhou, Hangzhou or perhaps Nanjing. These are big cities with plenty of non-locals. The locals have their own dialect of Putonghua that's pretty clear to any Putonghua speaker, unlike many of the places further south or more rural. You won't hear perfect (by snobby Beijing standards) Putonghua on the street, but it shouldn't be so deviant that it will badly corrupt your speech, especially if you are studying full-time. You'll also run into plenty of people from all over, which will really build your ear.

Learning to speak standard (but what is standard?) Putonghua is important, but a student also needs to build an ear for the large varieties of Putonghua they will hear all over China. Despite what most Beijing teachers would like us all to believe, the majority of people in China do not speak Putonghua the way a Beijinger or northerner does. It is a mistake to only expose yourself to northern Putonghua.

Down south, I've met a few foreigners who've attained pretty high levels of proficiency while studying in Beijing. However, they are generally used to hearing only northern Putonghua. They don't have strong listening skills compared to people who've studied in a few different places (i.e., me). Get the hell out of the north. Build an ear for different dialects of Putonghua, and if you're really feeling like a rebel, do something those northerners would really frown upon: learn another Chinese language like Minnanhua or Cantonese.