Looking for Sanda school and Chinese tutoring

[MoTzu]

Hi, I have recently (about 9 days ago now) moved to Harbin from Australia.

I'm looking for a Sanda class in Harbin that either has experience teaching westerners or someone that is understanding of the fact that I don't speak/understand Chinese and be patient with me while I try and pick it up.

I learned a little Wing Chun back in Australia and most classes were taught in Cantonese, while I still dont speak cantonese it didn't take long to start recognising what they were telling me to do

 

Secondly I'm interested in some private Chinese tutoring, learning Chinese is my main priority to help me get settled in here a little easier so I'm hoping to start learning asap. Yes I know there are mandarin schools in town but nearly every foreigner here I've spoken to has tried them and found private classes to be much more effective in conversational chinese whereas the schools first force you to learn reading as their text books are in chinese

 

my email is motzu at inbox dot LV

or my wechat is lostintranslation80

[Shelley]

Welcome to the forum,

 

I am not in a position to help with your problem, but I just wanted to check with you that you are aware that your email and wechat details will seen by the general public as you don't have to log in to read posts just reply etc.

 

So as long as you happy with that, I hope it goes well. If not you can remove them by using the Edit button.

[MoTzu]

I assumed the way I typed my email address should keep it from the spam bots.

I'm new to wechat but again my assumption was the worst anyone can do with it really is spam me.

As long as my assumptions are reasonably accurate I'm happy for the information to stay there

[SiMaKe]

MoTzu, 

 

Add my welcome.

 

In case you may have not seen it, a seach box is located on the upper right side of the page. Entering Sanda will give you a list (albeit sparse) about any previous discussions concerning this art form. Since there doesn't appear to be much, I hope someone on here can provide some useful information to you.

 

In that regard, we don't usually post email addresses and wechat handles as the nature of the forum is exchange and discussion as opposed to a bulletin board where the conversation becomes a two-party affair. The exchange and discussion format allows others who might be interested to learn as well.

 

Hope you stick around and share your experiences in Ha'erbin. 

[abcdefg]

This is worth a look:

 

http://www.1to1mandarinworkshop.com/index.html

[kdavid]

You can likely find an undergraduate student to tutor you in Mandarin.

 

If you have a Chinese friend, have them call whichever university you live closest to. They should have a registrar of students who work part-time as tutors. While they won't be experts, all you really need is someone with a little English to speak with.

 

A university student will be much cheaper than any company. I bet you can find one for 25 RMB/hour; maybe 40 for 90 minutes.

 

This is what I did way back in my early Harbin days.

[James3]

abcdefg mentioned the 1to1MandarinWorkshop site. I've not actually been to Harbin yet, but I was impressed by what I read here so I contacted them to check it out. They've really been nice to answer all my detailed questions, as I plan a trip from the U.S. to Harbin to study Chinese.

 

I have to say their patient attitude in answering all my questions has impressed me. Not sure this type of school is what you're looking for or not, but I can vouch for the Vice Principal I've been communicating with, named Ma Chao. He's bent over backwards to try and accomodate me. I've been delayed in actually visiting Harbin yet, but I know where I'll be studying Chinese once I finally make it.

[grawrt]

I'm currently a student at 1to1mandarinworkshop so I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any.

They're a good school, and since it's 1 on 1 teaching the pacing of the class is based on you, same with the direction. If you only want to learn how to speak Chinese, no one's going to force you to learn writing and reading or worse, useless school-centered vocabulary.

I don't know much about sanda so I can't help you there. In Harbin there aren't many English speakers so it might be a bit hard to find someone that will explain things in English. But I noticed most the people in Harbin are understanding if westerners don't understand them, some are patient some aren't. it depends on who you're talking with. The last place I ate at had very friendly talkative owners, the wife was a bit hard to understand but patient and willing to repeat herself but the husband just didn't like to repeat himself, and figured I didn't understand him if I asked.
 

[MoTzu]

Yeah I hear a lot of good stories on the internet about 1to1, I have spoken to Chao by email and he seems extremely helpful and friendly.

The 2 reasons I'm keeping it are my last resort is #1 the price, he is 100/hour where most of the other schools are around the 60-70/hour. #2 I know multiple english teachers here who started doing classes with 1to1 when they first arrived then swapped to private tutors for literally half the price and found their chinese improved dramatically much faster because it was real world (going to dinner with your tutor and ordering the food in chinese etc) learning, as opposed to text book drills and memorisation.

 

There is a girl in town that all the English teachers recommend named Fay who is 100/2 hours but unfortunately she's gone away for the summer vacation and I can't reach her, I was hoping to get some lessons while I'm on vacation and have more spare time.

 

As for the Sanda, this place (http://www.at0086.com/STHWS/) seems to be regarded fairly well by a few web sites I saw it mentioned on but I can't seem to find an address anywhere on their website. I've filled out their contact form and asked them to contact me with an address twice now but no luck. Does anyone here know where they are located?

[roddy]

Is that this school? The Chinese and English names match up, at least. 

 

It'd be appreciated if any 1to1 discussion could go in the topic James3 links to - will make it a lot easier for future students to find. 

 

Welcome to the site, MoTzu!

 

PS And oh yes, our old friends At0086. Old-timers will recall this, sadly the images are no longer on my server so it doesn't work so well. They've still got my content up there though. They must owe me thousands by now. 

[MoTzu]

Thanks Roddy I believe that may be exactly the place I was looking for.

They still don't list their address on the site other than "6km away from national highway 102" lol but there's a phone number at least.

I'll get a local to ring them for me and get an address, thank you for that

 

Actually on a second inspection they do give some directions on how to get there but I'd rather just have a street address so I can jump in a taxi. I'm useless at catching public transport even in my home country, I haven't caught a bus since I finished school nearly 20 years ago

[roddy]

I think that probably is the address. It'll be one big school on a big road of other big schools, and it'll have its name written really big out the front. The Chinese address, 黑龙江省哈尔滨102国道6公里处, makes me think it's at Km 6 ON G102, not 6 km AWAY form G102. 

 

Do let us know how you get on - looks like a fun place to visit, even if you don't study there. 

[MoTzu]

You're a legend, I'll scribble that down for a taxi driver and see where I end up. I'll give an update once I've checked it out and confirmed that's the place and maybe try to get some pricing information to put up here for others interested. I've got a bit on tomorrow morning and I'll probably be a bit tired so on the weekend is my best bet.

 

Off topic slightly holy crap the smog is bad today. Worst I've ever seen, was up to 545 pm2.5 earlier this afternoon. I live on the 16th floor 2 streets from Zhongyang Dajie and I can barely seen the neon signs through the smog right now

[roddy]

Map, bottom of page. 

[MoTzu]

Yeah I saw the map but to someone who speaks no chinese that looks more like a map of the school grounds than a street map. Thank you so much for the help, the info you've given would have taken me days to piece together myself. All my chinese friends have gone away for the vacation but the police still have my passport for visa processing so I'm stuck here while my friends are all in Beijing, Thailand and USA for their vacation haha. I feel so completely useless here with no Chinese, I knew I was getting taken for a ride by the taxi driver this morning when what's usually a 12-14 yuan trip got up over 25 and we still weren't there but I was completely powerless to even tell the guy I knew he was taking advantage of me and by that stage it was probably cheaper to just go with it than to get him to let me out so I could get another taxi. The other teachers are telling me to take some time to get used to the place before I start taking Chinese lessons, but personally I feel rude living in a country and not learning the language asap hence looking for a tutor. I speak to English teachers here on a daily basis who have been here for years and still speak no Chinese just get around with pointing and grunting. That's fine for a tourist but staying here years and still doing that is just plain rude I think.

[roddy]

Sounds like you've got the right attitude, and Harbin's a great city to learn in (if not to breathe in). Add your thoughts to our Why Chinese and Aims and Objectives topics and we'll keep you on the path to excellence in Chinese. 

[kdavid]

100/hour is highway robbery. I'd be helpful and accommodating as well if I was generating 80% profit off foreigners.

 

I bet those teachers aren't making any more than 20-30/hour.

 

In fact, I bet you could get them to do outside tutoring for much less if you had established a rapport and they trusted you.

 

I have friends who have used Fay and they were very happy with her. 100/2 hours isn't bad, but you can do better. Depending on your age, finding a university student tutor may be good to make friends as well.

 

My .02.

[grawrt]

@kdavid

 

Uhm...

All of the teachers at the school have been teaching for years and hold degrees and certification in teaching foreigners. They're not just university students if that's the assumption we're going off of?

I'm not going to pretend the rates aren't high but I think it's a little uncalled for to make them seem like they're ripping people off.
 

[MoTzu]

I agree, I was in no way implying they were robbery prices. For a well established school with a good reputation I think it's fair they would charge more than other schools. I am still considering learning there myself, I am just shopping around to see what else is available first.