any point in studing mandarin before coming to China?

[roddy]

I think, as icebear says, much of the 'start now' opinions have either missed the fact that this would involve passing on the second job, or, as I say, are superhumans who have forgotten mere mortals who are working second jobs are tired and won't have much energy for learning. Sure, you can maybe fit in some and that'd be great, but don't knock yourself out. You're as likely to end up failing to learn due to being exhausted and getting discouraged.

If you can get the second job, get it. Save more money. You'll be able to do more with the money in China, than you could with the time in the US (or wherever you are). If you're worried about hitting the ground with no Chinese: 1) It's not a problem. Thousands of people do it every year. 2) Use some of that money to have an easier arrival - arrange an airport pick-up, pay for a class+accommodation package for your first week or something.

[freshysauce]

Basically it is either working two jobs (about 70 hours per week) or just stay with my current job.

I hope that with working two jobs I could have enough money to come to China by summer.

Given the information above, I would suggest taking the second job. Your money will go much farther in China. To the extent possible, however, I would still urge you the learn the basics ASAP. Maybe you can quit the second job a few weeks before leaving.

Make sure you don't have the attitude that living in China is a "magic bullet" for learning Chinese. Lots of people back home say things like "Oh, you lived in China for a year, you must be fluent now". There are thousands of expats in China who know how wrong that statement is. You will not learn by osmosis. Do not go there to be taught; go there to learn. While living in China will provide the conditions for you to learn excellent chinese, the effort you put in is exponentially more important.

[abcdefg]

If you're worried about hitting the ground with no Chinese: 1) It's not a problem. Thousands of people do it every year.

I must remember that I was one of those thousands not very long ago.

[naked_seed]

hi,

i arrived in china one month ago with no chinese whatsoever....really decided i wanted to learn last year and decided to come over asap....i would recommend coming asap aswell, because when you're in your home country you're not really focused, but now i'm here and have committed to being here a while, i'm forced to learn and i guess its driving my hunger....obviously if i had taken the time to learn some stuff before coming here, that would of been handy but i kinda know my self and that wouldn't have happened as learning chinese wouldn't have been a priority....i was terrified before coming over, connecting flight was cancelled and i was stuck in shanghai, forced into a hard to communicate situation, great start....after a month i can still barely communicate, but am persevering...realizing its going to take alot of time of being here to get a decent grasp of the language....my school tee'd me up with a good agent who was really helpful in relocation...u only live once-just do it!!haha

[amandagmu]

I guess I didn't realize the choice either... I would still advocate getting the very basics down, which could be as easy as coming on here and reading about other people's experiences as you're currently doing. Before you go to China I would still familiarize yourself with the way the language works (characters, pinyin, tones) and how to use the Pleco dictionary. I would also learn a few phrases and/or how to structure some basic sentences. If you know someone near where you live who's Chinese you can meet with him or her a few times over coffee to go over some basics and so you can correctly say a few things (this is really important -- it's not like reading Spanish out of a phrase book). Or, what would be ideal and wouldn't take much time, if there ares short-term adult ed courses nearby sign up for one (e.g., cheap, usually 1.5 hours one evening per week x 6-8 weeks or two weekends of learning/4-8 hours total ETC). It won't take much time and there won't be out-of-class homework. I met a lot of people in your situation taking those when I lived in the DC area.

[zhongguo2020]

hello everyone,

Havent been online for a while - working like crazy. Took both jobs, pretty stressful, but its not so bad when you know you work towards something. Shelfed Chinese studies for a while (reading about China whenever have time though) and will get properly into it once there. Have to slowly start doing some research there. Hope to maybe get some advice then again

Anyways, thanks for all the replies, it really helped

[moncrieffalgy]

i arrived in china one month ago with no chinese whatsoever....really decided i wanted to learn last year and decided to come over asap....i would recommend coming asap aswell, because when you're in your home country you're not really focused, but now i'm here and have committed to being here a while, i'm forced to learn and i guess its driving my hunger....obviously if i had taken the time to learn some stuff before coming here, that would of been handy but i kinda know my self and that wouldn't have happened as learning chinese wouldn't have been a priority....i was terrified before coming over, connecting flight was cancelled and i was stuck in shanghai, forced into a hard to communicate situation, great start....after a month i can still barely communicate, but am persevering...realizing its going to take alot of time of being here to get a decent grasp of the language....my school tee'd me up with a good agent who was really helpful in relocation...u only live once-just do it!!haha

This may come a little late, but I'm very much inclined to agree with what naked_seed says above. Full-on immersion when you're absolutely forced to speak Mandarin in order to get around makes for extremely rapid learning.

I'm a heritage Mandarin speaker but I come from an English-speaking household and use English as a mode of instruction, so I basically hardly speak even though I can listen and comprehend at a good level. (A more precise indication of my Mandarin level would be HSK Level 5 of the new HSK, with a possibility of HSK 6 though the summary portion looks pretty intimidating.) Even for a person for my background, jumping straight into China (I was there for two months) proved very helpful for fluency. It helped too that people expected me to speak Mandarin (because I'm ethnically Chinese) and gave me a derisive look when I couldn't respond fluently! THAT was motivation.

If the OP is a complete beginner, however, I would suggest that you at least know some guidebook-level Mandarin before you head to China. It's improved a lot since the Olympics, but a lot of people in China still don't speak English. You'll basically need enough Mandarin to get from the airport to your hostel (e.g. "where is my baggage?") and from your hostel to your school ("how much is the subway fare?" "please add RMB20 to my card"). Doesn't take too much time to learn (if necessary, read off the guidebook or show them the words...), and will save you from an ABSOLUTE nightmare at the airport/subway.

[Susu]

Hello,

I am not sure if I am too late and you are already in China. I went to China for 4 weeks to learn Mandarin without knowing anything in Chinese and I think I would have got a lot more out of the experience if I have learnt some of the basics in Mandarin.

Nothing prepares you for China - you will learn so much more in the country however I would recommend looking at the following in a textbook so you can hit the ground running when you are there:

1. Looking at pinyin and the 4 tones.You can then know where you have problems.

2. Look at some sentence structure and some simple characters (its different so you will not be in a shock). A lot of Chinese is taught in Chinese with no english translation.

I think I was busy and grappling with the theory and structure for the first week, when I could have been practising.

Good Luck!

[JayDee]

Hi, sorry for hijacking your thread OP, but where can I find those podcast for beginer? Im starting at BLCU in september and have 0 chinese exprerience. My objective is to study like 15 hours a week for the nest 8 week. Where should I start? I will continue to search on the forum.

Thanks.

[zhongguo2020]

I went ahead and got to China as quickly as possible, without studying beforehand (except a phrase book on the plane). I am here for a bit less than two months now and I think it was the right decision for me. I could not imagine how I could have learned tones by myself. But for me it was a bit of a trade off - come to China longer or study already at home and I think coming to China earlier was worth more.

However, during the first few days without any Chinese, it can be challenging. I had my school helping me with all the day-to-day stuff so it worked out fine for me. If anyone would come to Beijing without people helping, maybe studying beforehand makes sense to faciliate survival chances

@JayDee: dont know - maybe check another forum section?

[imron]

Thanks for the follow-up.

[abcdefg]

Glad you made it!

[Daniel Nalesnik]

中国2020,

Find a tutor or class now so you can master Chinese pronunciation - this takes only about ten classes (pinyin pronunciation, not tones - that will take longer).

Then figure out where you will go in China, what textbook you will be using, and use a flashcard program based on spaced-repetition (like ANKI) to start learning all the words from the first book. Any familiarity you have above being totally unfamiliar with new words will be useful. If you can spend time reciting the text while your classmates are memorizing words, you will be better off.

Start now! Start yesterday!

Good luck!

Dan

<admin edit: link to own homepage removed>

[gato]

Are you trying to advertise your site by digging up old threads? Should try to be a little more discreet.