Learning Mandarin in Wuhan

[cliveloughlin]

Hi All

I'm coming to Wuhan in November to teach English at TDM Language College (Hankou) for a year.

I would like to find a beginners Chinese class in Wuhan...does anyone have any recommendations? (I would like to do HSK before I leave).

Thanks a lot!

Cj

[leilei81]

hi there, u can try this

http://www.fses.whu.edu.cn/

hope it works and enjoy your time in china:)

[Pengyou]

Woooooaaaah! Doing the HSK is a rather vaguely defined goal because there are different levels. First of all, you will be an English teacher. Usually that means 15-20 hours of class a week with who knows how much preparation (if you are going to do a good job of teaching). Your school will probably also have additional responsibilities for you - English corners, holiday celebrations, etc. Most first year folks usually find that they need a little more time to unwind than they did back in their home country...bottom line is you may find that you will be busting your butt to get 2 hours of studying done per day. If you are a person who is gifted with the ability to learn languages that might be enough to give you pretty good progress, but only 5-10% of all people are blessed with this gift, the rest of us have to work harder or really hard.

I just finished studying 2 years of Chinese full time and have made good progress. I was an English teacher before that and found that, because I was spending so much time working with English in the class, I was getting too much interference from English to be able to make any progress in Chinese.

My point: you might want to make sure your expectations are set clearly before you set foot on the plane and are reasonable. I have found personally and from observing others that the most likely thing to bitter people on life in China is that their expectations were not set properly when they came.

[mpallard]

Not to be a poor sport and maybe you're really gifted at learning languages but the idea that you can teach 15-20 hours a week and write the HSK (beyond the most basic of levels) in only a year sounds like a pretty lofty goal.

My first year in Taiwan I did nothing but study Chinese, didn't teach, and had a girlfriend that spoke Chinese to me all the time and after a year I still sucked (even though I thought I was wicked at the time).

[roddy]

I disagree.

Unfortunately you can never prove me wrong, because if he doesn't get an 8 I can just claim he didn't study hard enough.

[Pengyou]

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that it is impossible but I think you have to have a good plan in place before you get there so you can hit the ground running. I have known people that also seemed to absorb the language the way I can drink milkshakes ;) I don't have the URL's around but it might be worth while to google to find some surveys to see what your prospects are as a language student. If you set reasonable expectations - which seems to be a very rare thing - you can accomplish a great deal. If your expectations are way too high you are in for frustration.

You can help the whole process by using your time at home wisely. I would suggest buying the Lonely Planet phrase book - I think it has a cassette with it also - and learning every word in every page of that book (I think there are about 650 words in it, along with simple, useful grammar). That will give you an oral foundation so that when you get to China you can being having conversations right away and not only practice the new words you are have learned from LP but integrate the new words from your lessons - you will find your results much more enjoyable. Also, grab a book and begin learning to read/write.

One other thing that might help, especially if you have not taught English before. There are one month courses offered by Cambridge University to certify you as an English teacher. They will make your teaching in Chinese much better but also, for your sake, much easier because you will have to spend a lot less time preparing for your classes. The cheapest one month courses I have found are in Thailand - so you would get a nice little vacation in Thailand as well. Tuition is about US$ 1,800 plus another US$ 500 for room and board. The Cambridge certification is (to my knowledge) the only certification that is recognized world wide, so if you wanted to go to some other place after your teaching in China you would find it useful. You would also learn some things that would help you learn Chinese.

Good luck and have fun!

[mlomker]

I read some depressing websites today...saying that it takes 7-8 years to achieve any reasonable level of fluency and basically dissuading anyone from studying Mandarin. lol. I'd like to think that the truth is somewhat less lofty, but everyone is different (of course).

[davemc]

Hi,

I am looking for advice as to good schools to study Chinese, realistic time frame, etc. Has anyone used Sinoculture (http://www.sinoculture.com/learnchinese/) ? I have read some of the posts about teaching english while studying and it sounds like it would interfere (15-20 hours doesn't sound like much..but...). To be honest I am worried about spending the money on a scam and would greatly appreciate some insight.

Thanks.

Dave

[mlomker]

Davemc, it depends upon the school. 15-20 hours doesn't include: commute time, split shifts, or preparation time (office hours). 20 hours can turn easily turn into 30+ hours if you aren't careful with your employer/contract. Teaching can also be more emotionally draining than a lot of other fields...but maybe you are already an educator.

In any case, the program that you link to seems rather expensive to me...unless you know someone that can vouch for the quality. The name-brand schools in Beijing are in the US $2200 range, so anything beyond that had better be of high quality. Some private schools are worth the premium and others are just making money at your expense.

[davemc]

Thanks mlomker. I have googled some schools and the prices vary considerably...so am still unsure. I am hoping someone who has studied in China can recommend a school. Do you have any personal experience or know of someone who does? There have been a couple that touted what I thought were very important aspects with regards to learning the language...however I am not willing to go hungry nor give up my first born They are cashing in on the learn Chinese craze which is understandable. Anyway if anyone out there has personal recommendations I would be grateful to hear them. Thanks again mlomker...$2200 a year is more reasonable. I guess with living and school a reasonable amount of money to have would be about $7,000 a year? (not staying at the Hyatt of course ;-) )

Thanks!

Dave

[stephanhodges]

Perhaps MrToga knows something about this area and will comment. In any case, I've found his web site at www.hyccchina.com to be one of the most complete for information on paperwork, dorm quality, etc. for Northern China uni's.

[mlomker]

$2200 a year is more reasonable. I guess with living and school a reasonable amount of money to have would be about $7,000 a year?

That sound quite doable, but you've got to make some choices first...

The public schools in Beijing are in the $2200-range and the ones in Harbin are $1500. Private schools (TLI, Bridge, Fluency) can go as high as $7500/yr but that's private tutoring versus a classroom with 30 students sharing one teacher. Which you choose will depend a whole lot on your finances and time commitment.

Living accomodations run from $4.50-10/day on campus. I've heard of decent apartments in Beijing at $200/month but if I were to keep the quality of what I have in the US it'd be at least $400.

My recommendation on finding first-hand accounts is to pick a city and school and then Google for blogs. Very few people attend more than one school, so finding comparisons is next to impossible...