How much should one know before studying abroad?

[masonman]

I'm in my third semester of Chinese classes at a small university, plus a bit of my own study alongside it. I'm nowhere near being able to hold even a basic conversation. Anyways, I will be able to do one semester abroad in china (I was looking at CIEE intensive language Beijing). Should I wait until I have learned more vocabulary, or just go next semester? I looked for similar questions on this forum and found nothing. Will I be wasting my time if I go there at a beginner level? I have asked several people and am getting mixed responses. Also has anybody here felt they went to study abroad too early?

[roddy]

Bump for this one, as I accidentally made it invisible for a week. 

 

Personally - go early, go often.

[Silent]

Language learning benefits from immersion at all levels. So I second Roddy, go often and start early. If you go only once the answer will be more tricky as it depends on a lot of factors. Provided you'll put your acquiered language skills to good use after your return I'ld definately say now is best to go. As the use afterwards would help you maintain and improve your language skills.

 

If your acquiered language skills would lay mostly dorment after your return later might be a better choice. If you come from an immersion environment it will be hard to maintain let alone improve you language skills with just a couple of hours study a week. Improving your base a little now and an immersion semester just before you get practical use for your Chinese might work better.

 

There really is no minimum level needed to benefit from immersion. A little knowledge won't hurt though and may help to pick up and expand your language skills. Essentially the trick is to get to a level where you have 'practical' use for the language after that you can improve by using it and it doesn't feel like real study anymore.  

[masonman]

Well considering there is quite a Chinese foreign community at my school here, and my girlfriend is Chinese, I don't think my Chinese will lay dormant unless I REALLY want it to.

[imron]

Or unless the Chinese people around you prefer to speak to you in English - which is a chicken/egg type problem, because this is likely to be true until you can speak quite fluently, which is not going to happen after only a single semester abroad.

 

So, don't rely on others to provide a language environment for you when you return because your Chinese will remain dormant unless you make a very determined effort.

Thankfully we have the Internet, so there's a huge amount of native content you can use to create a Chinese language environment for yourself.

[masonman]

So you don't think a semester (employed correctly) would be enough to do basic communication? They try to speak Chinese to me sometimes but I can't form more than like 5 sentences lol.

[Silent]

Yeah, a semester of immersion and intensive study would be plenty for basic communication (also depending on your definition of basic). But people tend to communicate in the least strenuous language. If both know reasonable English chances of using basic Chinese are small. Just a few sentences once in a while won't be a problem, extensive use is something different.

 

If you're strong minded possibilities may be there, but are you? Do you really want to stick to basic communication and consequently give up detailed/nuanced communication with your girlfriend? Are you willing to accept regular miscommunication due to limited language skills? And how do your friends feel about that? I guess your best bet would be to come to an agreement about language use and designate certain days or time frames as Chinese only.

[masonman]

I'd also like to point out I don't plan on only learning the remainder of my Chinese just around the Chinese I know here, I just don't know when I will get another chance to go to China after this trip. But the comments here changed my mind so I went in and talked to the necessarily people to get the process rolling (fast, as the deadlines are very soon).

[imron]

So you don't think a semester (employed correctly) would be enough to do basic communication?

As Silent mentioned above, I think a semester employed correctly would be enough for basic communication - asking directions, buying food in restaurants/markets, simple pleasantries and so on.

 

That being said, basic communication and meaningful conversations are completely different things.

 

The question is when you get back whether others will be happy to engage in prolonged bouts of basic communication with you.  My own experience with learning Chinese tells me the answer to this is most likely no, and you'll really need to have decent conversational Chinese before your friends will be able to help you naturally maintain your language skills.

 

Don't worry though, there are plenty of things you can do to stop your Chinese from becoming dormant when you return, but they will rely on your active effort.  Just don't expect it to happen naturally because you have a Chinese girlfriend and other Chinese friends.

 

Also keep in mind that all my comments are really only in direct response to your comment:

 

 

I don't think my Chinese will lay dormant unless I REALLY want it to.

 

I'm sure you'll be doing language learning other than this, I just wanted to make sure you didn't fall in to the trap of thinking things would magically maintain themselves.  Likewise when you're in China - don't expect simply being in the country to make a large difference unless you are out using the language.  If your circle of friends only contains other English speaking people (which is very easy to happen on a foreign exchange program), you'll make far less progress.

 

That's not to say don't have English speaking friends, just to make sure you also make an effort to interact with locals because it also won't happen automatically except for small handful of very limited situations.

[JustinJJ]

Just based on my experience I think that you should just come to China early, try really hard (don't expect to just pick it up by being in the country) and see how it goes. I suspect that you could learn really quickly and surprise your friends when you go back.

 

Something that worked for me was to find friends who spoke no English when I first came to China, then afterwards you can use Chinese to speak to other people (including those who also know English) as you will have acquired vocab, listening and speaking skills by then. I'd suggest trying to get a grip on tones early to make it easier for people to understand and thus more likely to converse in Chinese with you.

 

I didn't know my girlfriend spoke English until I had known her for about six months. I found out she can speak English at that point because my mother visited China and it was the only language they could communicate in, which was a real surprise for me. Her English is reasonable (has done CET6), but a bit on the slow side. I think if you put in a lot of effort you won't have a problem of having people speak to you in English instead of Chinese.