Study Chinese in a small city with few foreigners: suggestions?

[cecilia.ch]

Good evening everybody!

For 2013 I'd like to spend max. 3 months in China, to improve my currently terrible Mandarin. Since I've already been to China a couple of times (Beijing, Wuhan), this time I'd really enjoy an experience in a smaller city, far away from the "laowai circuit" (pivotal!). Any suggestions or experiences?

Thank you!

C.

[abcdefg]

The trick will be to find a smaller, out of the way place, that offers Mandarin instruction in a private school setting. I've looked for such situations without much success. Twice I've been able to hire teachers who taught Chinese to Chinese students in middle school or high school. But I found them during their summer vacations. Once I found a university teacher who was willing to take me on, again during her summer vacation.

If you were to stay for a year, or even half a year, you could probably find a Chinese university teacher to tutor you on the side one-to-one after hours. Middle school and High school teachers are usually too busy to do this during the school year; they must put in long hours on their main job.

The teachers you find this way probably will speak minimal English, but if you Chinese level is suitable, that's not really a drawback. The other issue which can be problematic, is pedagogical method. They will generally not have embraced more modern techniques and will require you to to follow traditional methods such as lots of repetition and memorization. You may be fortunate, and find someone with more imagination; but best not to count on it.

You will most likely have to do more "hunting" and "arranging" on your own than you would if you were in a place where teaching foreigners Chinese was a more common task. Need to be sure you are willing to invest that extra effort. I'm not saying it can't be done; just that it will require more personal initiative.

[msittig]

Also, think about what visa you will need to carry this out. If you are on a typical tourist visa you will be renewing it twice over the course of those three months. Probably best not to be out in the boonies or the trips to the provincial capital will wear you out.

[fanglu]

If you are on a typical tourist visa you will be renewing it twice over the course of those three months

Not necessarily. I had a 90 day tourist visa at the start of the year.

[liuzhou]

If you are on a typical tourist visa you will be renewing it twice over the course of those three months. Probably best not to be out in the boonies or the trips to the provincial capital will wear you out.

Nor is it always necessary to go the provinial capital to renew a visa.

[kdavid]

Check out Bincai in Harbin.

[ChTTay]

Yinchuan, Capital Ningxia Province. 1.7 million people (small in China) but has enough about it to stop you being bored. I found it quite cosey to be honest.

I know a few people who could teach you too.

It's definately not on the tourist trail but there are some foreigners there should you wish to be social.

In the 10 months that I was there is probably saw 15 foriegners who I didn't already know. If you want to be the only 外国人 then it's not too hard.

The city is actually split into the "old" city and the "new" city. The University is on one side and does have Chinese Language classes and there are foreign students there. However, I lived on the opposite side and didn't really come across any of them. Mostly I met other teachers.

It used to be the case that you could pay for tuition by the week / month. You could always attend classes and see what they're like while also working with a 1on1 tutor.

Thats my 2 pence.

[WestTexas]

Consider a medium-sized city in the northeast. Jilin City has a few foreigners and possibly the most standard Mandarin outside of Harbin.

Do people speak normal Mandarin or Northwest dialect in Ningxia? I was in Gansu this summer and the locals speak really funky NW Mandarin to each other. In Xining it's even worse. Some of them can't speak standard mandarin at all.

[Bobble]

I live in Tieling in Liaoning Province (North-east of Beijing). Tieling is about 90 minutes by bus from the regional capital (Shenyang). I have only met one other foreigner in my time there. It is a small quiet city with a small-town feel to it.

On the down side, I have not found anyone to help me learn Chinese. I have picked up most of what I know from a combination of my wife, the local shop-owners, and the taxi drivers.

On the subject of accents, every city I have been in has its own dialect, and if you want to travel around you have to get used to adapting. It is much the same in England; even native English speakers have trouble with language in some places in the UK!

[Tianjin42]

This depends a lot on you.

I would agree it is better to be away from the “laowai circuit” as you suggest but it depends how much you choose to engage with the local community and with the expat community.

As an example – my first year was spent in Tianjin (as my user name suggests) but I wasn’t near the universities or expat community and I could easily have spent the vast majority of time in a 100% Chinese environment. As it happens I did venture to expat spots now and then to watch some football (soccer). Other friends live on the very outer reaches of the Beijing subway and live in a similar situation to the one I had, even that close to the international scene.

I liked Tianjin a lot and went back there but I was well up on learning Chinese and trusted myself not to spend too much time with fellow foreign friends on that occasion.

Incidentally – I would agree with some of the feeling here that a non-English speaking tutor is a bonus.

[ChTTay]

Yinchuan accent never caused me any real problems. I didn't end up speaking with their accent and didn't have any problems understanding them because of how they spoke. At least, when they spoke to me or my Chinese friends. Sometimes with each other they took the strength of the accent to a whole new level.

My vote in Yinchuan. As long as you don't mind very cold, dry winters.

[frankwall]

Yes definitely consider a more medium sized city. Nothing worse than being stranded in a village bored all the time. It might be an advantage having foreigners around incase anything goes wrong and your limited Mandarin doesn't suffice.

[daofeishi]

Yinchuan, Capital Ningxia Province. 1.7 million people (small in China) but has enough about it to stop you being bored. I found it quite cosey to be honest.

I worked in Yinchuan for a year between 2007 and 2008. It offers all the amenities you need (well, unless you absolutely need your starbucks), it is a melting pot of different cultures left alone by most tourists, and has a wonderful scenery if you venture into the desert or up into the mountains. It is one of my absolute favorite places in China, and I can't wait to get the chance to return.

[ChTTay]

Since 2007/2008 Yinchuan has developed a lot. A friend has lived there 7 years and told me it just keeps getting "easier" to live there ... in terms of amenities.

There are rumours of Starbucks but nothing was happening before I left!

[mudhead]

I have been living almost 4 years in Neijiang (Sichuan). It's a busy small city of about 750 000, 3 hours bus ride from Chengdu and Chongqing (in opposite directions). There is a KFC and a McDonalds, but no Starbucks. There is a teacher's college, Neijiang Normal University, with 16000 students, of whom I think 2000 are English majors. Many of the English majors tutor kids or others in English, and you would have no trouble finding a teacher. There are fewer than 12 foreigners living here, of whom 7 or so are foreign teachers at NJNU - the others are engineers or the like, working in local industries. It is not a tourist destination, but there is lots of beautiful scenery nearby, including the Bamboo Sea near Yibin. The people are uniformly friendly, and my students (both girls and boys) are lovely people. Weather is mostly overcast and humid, hot in summer (up to 35 degrees), cold in winter (10-15 degrees, and often the same indoors) but no snow. I recommend it!