Anyone studying Chinese up North? (England)

[Melanie1989]

With the London meet up today and meet-ups in Beijing, i'm curious to know if anyone's studying up north, maybe for possible meet-ups in future? I can't be the only one who's a little disappointed about not being able to go to either of these places. Nobody else i know is interested in China, so i don't really get a chance to chat to anybody else about it and i guess it's kinda lonely.

 

After 5 years of living in Doncaster, i still don't really know anybody i have anything in common with, so it would be nice to meet some of you who are in the North, even if it's North West, or wherever.

 

For anybody going to the London meet ups today, have fun.

[roddy]

Thanks for starting this, Melanie. I'm going to move it to where it'll get seen more, hopefully we'll turn up a few northerners...

 

Edit; Attaching a list of UK cities, in order of number of site visits by registered members. See any places nearby? 

UK cities.txt

[stelingo]

Hi. I live in Manchester, learning Chinese as a hobby. At the moment in China for 3 weeks travelling around.

[ChTTay]

I live in Beijing but will be in Leeds for 3 weeks as of next week visiting family. I'm from around those parts originally...

[philwhite]

Hi Melanie,

 

Since you are in Doncaster, you might consider some of the courses at the Sheffield Confucius Institute, when they re-start in the autumn. I haven't attended any of them.

[Krogulec]

Hello all. I live in Manchester, Bolton and I both want and need to learn Chinese Mandarin, frankly I have been to China town asking if there is a place to learn mandarin or help with practice, I have been told there are courses in the University of Manchester, but I am uncertain whether these are free and the information in scarce, even in the university itself. Then I was invited to pay a visit to the local Monastery but I do not want to burden the monks with my requests. I would really appreciate some information from either someone who knows anything about this sort of thing, if not perhaps a colleague to have a chat with and support in learning Mandarin. I am using Rosetta Stone as my main learning source which isn't bad but without some human interaction rather pointless. Please, do help me out.

[Shelley]

@Krogulec Welcome to the forum.

 

First I would strongly recommend not using Rosetta stone especially as you have no other teaching input from what you say. There is a very lively discussion about the pros and cons of it on these forums.

 

New Practical Chinese Reader is very popular, there are text books workbooks, audio and video on You Tube.

 

If you have a smart phone or tablet then I would recommend PLECO as a dictionary, flashcards, and reader and more.

 

I don't know of any universities that offer free courses, I am not sure why you didn't get much help there. Try the humanities dept, this is where  they usually have language courses. The University should have all its courses full and part time online for you to check out.

 

Have a search around the forums for info about courses.

[ChTTay]

The Confucius institute provides Chinese courses for students and non-students at the Univetsity of Manchester.

http://www.confuciusinstitute.manchester.ac.uk

Of course, they are not free.

[Krogulec]

Thank you ChTTay, it does not seem too expensive I am seriously considering doing this course. Are there any rewards for referring because I would be more than happy to thank for that.

[ChTTay]

You can up vote my comment using the little green arrow to the right of the comment.

 

I should find out if I can sneak in a 'buy me a drink' button in my signature or something :lol:

[AbbieLu]

I just came across this topic as I was curious to find out if there was anyone studying Chinese in Manchester too. I lived in China for a few years and now I study online with a tutor from italki. Still it's not the same as being in a class with a group of other people who are passionate about China and Chinese. There's a Chinese meetup group in Manchester, I've joined but never made it along to any of their events. I also worry that my level isn't going to be high enough to converse properly. 

[Shelley]

40 minutes ago, AbbieLu said:

I also worry that my level isn't going to be high enough to converse properly. 

Well you won't know unless you go. What is there to lose, go along, you may not go again but you might strike up a friendship with 1,2 or more of them to share learning with. If I had a chinese meetup group near me I would jump at the chance of meeting like minded people.

It might answer your question

43 minutes ago, AbbieLu said:

curious to find out if there was anyone studying Chinese in Manchester

 

Be nice to hear how you get on.

[LiMo]

You should go to the group. I've been to a few and, due to the nature of language learning, there's usually a glut of beginners and intermediates and seldom a high enough average level for things to proceed for very long in Chinese alone. A bit like with other forms of language exchange, the struggle for all is to use Chinese because the temptation to relax and get to know someone using English is very strong, you'll most likely meet some new people, go through the basic introductions in Chinese, and then default to English. If by some chance there's actually a lively fluent discussion of Chinese politics going on in Mandarin, it should be easy to snag a friendly person for a one on one conversation, we've all been there and most people are sympathetic to those just starting out.

 

加油！

[AbbieLu]

That's true, I guess I did answer my own question and I need to challenge myself to do more things to improve my level and confidence this year. 

[Flickserve]

On 03/03/2017 at 0:50 AM, AbbieLu said:

I also worry that my level isn't going to be high enough to converse properly. 

 

You already lived in China for a few years! Did you not use some basic Mandarin?

[AbbieLu]

I did, especially with my students. However compared to my experience learning other languages, for various reasons I just don't have the same level of confidence with Mandarin and tend to get quite tense when it comes to speaking. I have a great teacher now who is helping me to get over that. 

[Shelley]

1 hour ago, AbbieLu said:

tend to get quite tense when it comes to speaking

 

This I understand. if anyone has any ideas how to overcome the intense fear that can grip one as you try to string together a sentence that you can rattle off in practice to have turn into rubbish the minute you try to say it to a human being in conversation I would be willing to try them.

[Flickserve]

3 hours ago, AbbieLu said:

for various reasons I just don't have the same level of confidence with Mandarin

 

BBC or practically so? If so, yes, higher environmental expectations. I bet you are better than me. I keep repeating myself but practicing listening more really helps.