高级汉语 Advanced Chinese Classes

[jobm]

Hello everyone. I would just like to ask which universities in China offer a number of classes for advanced learners? It seems that most universities offer classes up to the HSK 6 level only and I think those are not enough if I would like to become equally proficient in the language as native speakers. I am planning to take a Master's program in Chinese and I think my Chinese is not enough to do that, though I could read newspapers right now and watch dramas in Chinese. I also have studied in China for a year and attended advanced Chinese classes,I was at the 高级一班. Some of my classmates were preparing for their graduate programs in Chinese and now, they tell me, they are struggling in their grad courses because the level of Chinese is so high eventhough they have attended advanced Chinese classes in the university.

P.S. You can also recommend programs in Taiwan if you know some.

[dementior]

Hi there!

If you have passed HSK6 without problems and are comfortable with the language, why do you think you still need to attend classes? You can just listen to podcasts, media and read novels by yourself and hire a tutor for any doubts that you might stumble upon. That being said, in 北师大, for example, the levels 301,302,401,402 are the advanced ones. Each one is one term. Between 301 and 302 you should be able to pass HSK6 if you have studied properly, which means 401 and 402 are actually beyond HSK6.

 

Plus there are optional courses: 

经贸活动案例分析-301年级以上

中国经济概况-301年级以上

高级汉语阅读-301年级以上

中国古代文学1-301年级以上

 

Then you mention proficient in the language as native speakers... The courses mentioned above will never get you to "native speaker" level when it comes to speaking. For that, there are programs Chinese people, coming from other regions, come to Beijing to attend. One year of intensive 标准普通话 reciting all day long 绕口令... This kind of program focus exclusively on speaking the most standard Chinese you can get, but assumes you are a native for other aspects (reading, listening...)

 

There are plenty of options don't worry...

[jobm]

WOW, 好赞! Thank you~

I think HSK 6 is still very far from being functional in the language in the sense that I could write and do researches in Chinese without any difficulty~ Do you know what books do they use

in the 401 and 402 classes?

I guess those are the programs for the Standard Chinese Proficiency Test for native speakers~

[edelweis]

There are courses like IUP and ICLP and CET Harbin, aimed at improving your Chinese for academic pursuits. Expensive, though.

Edit: also, these programs might not be suitable as preparation to hard science masters. What specialty would you study?

[jh17710]

Different academic pursuits have their own, special, vocabularies and different ways of writing reports in Chinese language. There are courses to meet that purpose.

However, like dementior said, 'The courses mentioned above will never get you to "native speaker" level when it comes to speaking.' Besides the activities he suggested above, I think you may like to focus on the "tones". The reason is that, there are three major difficulties for an adult to speak Chinese, the tones, the "zh, ch, sh, r" and the "ai, ei. ao. ou". But the "ai.ei.ao.ou" is easy, just remember "There is no diphthong in Chinese", while the "zh, ch, sh, r" is just a matter of time; you do need a tool to handle the tones. Here is my suggestion:

You may try to pronounce the five tones by matching the pitches in music like:

First tone: Mi

Second tone: ReMi

Third tone: Do

Fourth tone: MiDo (with very short period for Mi)

Fifth tone: Do#

Or, when you speak or say it seriously, the five tones could be So, MiSo, Do, SoDo (with a very short So) and Re.

If you practice the five tones in this way, your Mandarin will be more native, I hope.

[Shelley]

I like your idea of learning tones by matching pitches, but what are they relative to? Is the 3rd tone Do higher or lower than the 2nd tone ReMi? What is Do#?

 

I can not sing, I can't carry a tune in a bucket, so this sort of thing is lost on me, but it may help others.

[imron]

'Advanced' classes at university are not really advanced in terms of the type of content you will be able to understand, but advanced in terms of 'this is the most advanced course we offer'.  Even Pimsleur has an 'advanced' level, despite the fact that after finishing it you will not have anything like advanced Chinese.

 

Dementior is right, once you get to a certain point you just need to start consuming native content.  If you need the structure of a class, then private lessons are probably going to be your best bet as they can be tailored to your needs.  Either that, or as edelweis mentioned, the IUP and ICLP have good reputations for being able to push your Chinese to a high level.

[jobm]

Thank you, guys! I see.  I should check whether private lessons would suit me or not. I first checked on universities because of the possibility of getting a scholarship .

[jh17710]

Hi Shelley,

You may find a piano or a keyboard and if you play the key marked with "C" you get the pitch for "Do", then the key marked with "C#" is for the pitch of "Do#". The rest are "D" for "Re", "E" for "Mi", "G" for "Fa", "A" for "So". The best part of this tool is that you could keep the tones in a whole sentence very consistent.

The consistency of tone levels in a whole sentence is very easy to do for a native Chinese speaker, but, with current standard instruction of how you handle tones by "relative", not "precise", pitch levels; an adult learner does have difficulty to keep the "Third tone" be pronounced consistently.

The standard instruction for the First, Second, and Fourth tone are matching "So", "MiSo" and "SoDo" but the "Third tone" is more like "ReDoFa". To me, that standard instruction for the "Third tone" was a mistake by defining it within "sentences". In most sentences, the character (or word) before a "Third tone" or after a "Third tone" is a higher tone, that means a simple "low tone" like the "Third tone" will be recorded as a tone of "dropping then rising". Whoever define the "Third tone" made that mistake for Chinese people and now that mistake is causing trouble for language learning to people who like to know some of Chinese cultures.

I do have a proof for my view point. When you say a sentence clearly or seriously, you will find out the "Second tone" costs longest time to say, then, it is the "Fourth tone", while the "First tone" and the "Third tone" cost quite the same shortest time period. Just try any Chinese sentence for yourself. That result means the "Third tone" is actually an one pitch tone, "Do".

About the "Fifth tone", you may use "Re" (or "Do#" when you talk normally or secretly) to pronounce it. Actually, speak lightly is not the real reason when the "Fifth tone" was designed; it meant to be "free", just liked its second name, a "toneless tone". However, in the real world, most "Fifth tone" are pronounced at the pitch level "Re" (or "Do#). Just try some sentences for yourself so that you will feel comfortable to apply my idea.

I do have a theory to explain the "Fifth tone". If you have the book "A Grammar of Spoken Chinese" by Yuen Ren Chao, published by The Regents of the University of California, 1968, or the Chinese edition, ISBN # 962-996-058-3, 1980 / 2002, published by the Chinese University of Hong Kong; you may check into the section 1.3.4 which talked about tones, especially regarding tone sandhi due to natural result of each type of special combinations of same or different tones, or due to different speeds or even purposes. You will see how complicated the tones can be changed in the real world. Now, comes my theory, to get freedom from the binding of different "tones", people tends to avoid the high pitches or low pitches, so, the best choices for that purpose are Re, Mi and Fa. It is easier to pronounce a lower tone, cost less energy, so, "Re" is the most adopted "Fifth tone". Please try it for yourself.

[Shelley]

@jh17710 Thank you for your explanation, I learnt to play the piano, so I know about middle c and scales and so on. it just doesn't help because personally I am tone deaf. The best I can do is determine the if the note is higher or lower in pitch than the previous one, but I can't tell what note it is.

 

I have decided not to try to learn tones separately, as far as I am concerned a character has a certain noise, that is its pronunciation and its tone for me its a whole package that I just mimic and learn by rote.

[jh17710]

@Shelley, how about the Third tone in a sentence? Did you try to compare the time period you spent for the Second tone and the Fourth tone? Did you find out the First tone and the Third tone are taking shortest time period? If you did, then your Third tone can be kept at that consistent pitch level and be used as the lowest pitch in your Chinese tones.

With that lowest base line, you could easily keep all your tone-levels a kind of very precise in a whole sentence.

[Shelley]

Sounds easy when you put it like that, thanks for trying to help but really I am a lost cause when it comes to me having "precise" tones.

[dementior]

Hi jobm!

I konw its already probably too late but anyway...

 

I think HSK 6 is still very far from being functional in the language in the sense that I could write and do researches in Chinese without any difficulty~ Do you know what books do they use 
in the 401 and 402 classes?

 

I finally got the chance to go to the bookshop and ask for the book list used for these 2 classes... Well, no books used, I mean, no specific 教材. It will be articles, novels, whatever the teacher considers relevant...

[jobm]

Ow I see. Thank you very much for your effort! 麻烦你了~ @dementior