'Learn Chinese in China' ↓

I only started to appreciate the beauty of ipod days ago when I was given the gadget as a present. I love it, laragely because I can listen to podcasts, and have found some interesting podcasts to listen to.

As a result, I discover a podcast for learning Chinese: chinesepod.com.

The podcasts are daily and each podcast about 10 minutes long. They have won very good reviews from users.

Not many podcasts are updated on a regular basis, not to mention on a daily basis. Chinesepod.com podcasts are able to deliver daily broadcasting and that is great for language learning.

In the apple podcast directory, I’ve found at least four or five other podcasts teaching Mandarin. Haven’t screened all of them yet. It appears that podcasts are opening up a new front for learning Chinese.

The article ”Empire of Signs”  engages me - it was written by Guardian’s China correspondent in February 2006. The observations and comments made on Chinese language and China are both interesting and insightful. Here’s a quote:

Given that studying the basics of Chinese identity is likely to take up so much of the curriculum, it is easier to understand why so many people here are so nationalistic: they simply do not have much time to study the outside world.

The article gives you a lot of ideas about what it is like learning the language, and what the language is like actually. It would be interesting to those wanting to study Chinese or studying Chinese.

Go to the article here. 

The quality of mandarin Chinese textbooks on the mainland is still quite poor, though in the past few years more books of better quality have popped up. The conversations produced and texts chosen/written in the books often frustrate me. They are dull, uninteresting and stiff, among other things. The grammer explanations are usually overloaded and too much.

I take notice that mandarin Chinese textbooks produced outside of Chinese are of better quality and can better meet the needs of international students. Go to www.amazon.com and search for mandarin Chinese textbooks and you will find loads of information there. Look out for the reviews - they are very helpful. Students who have used the books make comments, providing very useful tips on which books are good, which not.

It is obvious why the textbooks produced outside of China are of better quality. The authors are usually linguists who have lived overseas for a long time, and they teach Chinese to international students in universities/colleges. As a result, they know the learning needs of international students and can author the book in a way that suits their needs.

“Teach Yourself Chinese Complete Course” by Liz Scurfield, “Basic Chinese” and “Intermediate Chinese” by Yip Po-Ching and others, “Beginner’s Chinese” by Yong He, “Schaum’s Outline of Chinese Grammer”, etc. have gained good reviews.

Hong Kong publishers also have Mandarin Chinese textbooks on offer. Peggy Wang’s “100 Putonghua Situations” is my favourite, good for learninng spoken Chinese and beginners. I am afraid books like this you cannot find over amazon. Try this big publisher in Hong Kong www.cp1897.com and you can search in English.

I would suggest you take one-on-one lessons if you come to China to study mandarin just for a short period of time. The reason? Quality of group class teaching is not guaranteed, and one-one-one lesson is not expensive.

With one-on-one lessons, you can control the pace and focus of your learning and your tutor has to listen to your need. With Mandarin House in Shanghai,  the fee is 130-170 yuan per hour. This charging scheme is at the high end. If you look for private tutor yourself, you can easily find one who charges about 50-60 yuan per hour. This seems to me the average price, and a fair price.

In Beijing, diqiucun (global village), a language school near BLCU, is quite popular because of its low pricing - about 20-30 yuan per hour for one-on-one lessons. And you can try your first three lessons with three different teachers to find the one that suits you most.  

This price is way too attractive compared to the price of one-on-one lessons you have to pay to learn, say spanish in Spain. Why bother to take group lessons?

Of course there is upside to learning in a group. I shouldn’t be too judgemental on this. But what I want to say is, if you think one-on-one lessons are all you need, why don’t you go for it? It is so cheap in China. And the result is usually guaranteed.

Some former Mandarin teachers from Zhejiang University want to give Mandarin lessons in August in Hangzhou. Please see here.

Well, I don’t know how they are going to organize it. The former teacher of Zhejiang University at the forum said it is a simple plan. Yet, they plan to teach drama, intensive Chinese, etc. It cannot be too simple a plan, right?

Hangzhou seems all of a sudden to be a popular place for learning Mandarin. Friends of mine set the trend and started Manda School of Chinese, and then comes Tefl Academy, and now the former teachers of Zhejiang University. A flurry of activities. Well, good for those wanting to learn Chinese in Hangzhou, who have more choices now.  

If you are an English native speaker and want to learn Chinese in China, consider staying with a Chinese family. There is a Chinese language school in Beijing which has been in existence for some years, specializing in offering home stay to students. It charges hefty fees and I wonder why people are willing to pay the price. In fact, if you are a native English speaker, you can easily get free accomodation in exchange for teaching English. There is no need for you to pay a high price for a host family.

The Chinese would like their children to learn English so they would give you free accommodation just to get you to speak English to their kids.

Post on expatriate websites in beijing or shanghai, e.g www.thatbj.com, and I am sure you will find a lot of responses. But make sure that you have a clear deal with the parents that while you talk to their kids in English, you will also need to talk to them in Chinese during the stay, because you come to China to learn Chinese!

I’ve highlighted one issue in my previous discussions about learning Mandarin in China: quality of teaching, and would like to dwell on this topic a little more in this post.

If you have ever read recruitment advertisements of mandarin teachers posted by language schools or institutions in China, you may find one thing quite weird or absurd. You don’t need to be a graduate in Chinese language or teaching Chinese to foreigners to be qualified for the post. All you need is possession of a degree in English or being fluent in English. The rationale: the foreign students have to have an English-speaking teacher for them to understand the lessons.

It is an obvious sign of ignorance on the part of school/university management and poor standard of teaching. Given this, how much hope will you have of good teaching in store for you? Their logic goes something like this: teaching Chinese is not a professional job. Every educated Chinese can teach Chinese, as long as you can speak good English.

I was once involved in the Chinese language school business in China and was asked numerous times questions like ”Can your teachers speak English?” “Can your teachers speak Japanese?” Then I would start my rantings and ask them to ask themselves a simple question: If you go overseas to study English, would you expect the teacher to be able to speak Chinese to teach you English?!

The fact is, Chinese schools in China simply ask English teachers to teach Chinese to international students. And they will hide the fact from you, telling you that they are experienced teachers.  I know cases likes this personally.

So one pointer to good Chinese language schools/institutions: their teacher ads don’t require the potential candidates to speak good excellent English. If you don’t get the chance to see their ads, which you most likely don’t, ask them who their teachers are. If they say they are university graduates of English majors, forget them!

But please be warned that there are many lies around, and be smart enough to do more research and ask for the former students’ contact for information before you jump into the boat!