Hey Guys,

anyone got any experience of intensive courses for learning Chinese?  

I know a few guys who are looking into taking a month or two off (considering it myself also) and going on a full-time residential course.
Learning a few hours a week just doesn't cut it, then you miss a few lessons, the homework doesn't get done, and you're back to square one again.  
Only way to do it is to make a full commitment, immerse 24x7, and reach the point at which you can use the language for day-to-day communication ...

So ... where's a good place to go?  Any suggestions?

Bejing - they have special languags schools there for foreigners ...
3 months there and you'll be so fluent you'll be able to sweet talk any girl !

plus - in those schools you'll be able to meet girls wanting to perfect their English !  



eh ... is this question going to be mongering related ? if not, I will move it to chat

[ Last edited by  twiceAweek at 7-9-2010 10:28 ]

Yes, as Twice mentioned, BJ is best place for a crash course in Mandarin. There are courses you can take at the universities in Beijing and there's plenty of scope to hook up with young Chinese female students. Check out this link:

http://www.studyinblcu.cn/lxs/_02001

Rosetta stone.. lol but really i think if you live in any country and put the effort into learning the language. especially using it 24/7 in a place where you have to, to survive. you can learn real quick!
or better live with someone that speaks it and you can speak with them all the time!

That's a good suggestion. Another way is to watch tv programs in Mandarin. I bet you can pick it up quick that way. That's if you don't have people to practice Mandarin with.

Which would bros recommend for a some-time monger to HK - Cantonese or Mandarin (mainly interested in HG's or walk-ups).

Is one any easier to learn than the other?

Honestly I can't see myself going to the effort, as I can get by on English and body language , but someday I might try to learn a little...

Taiwan! I know it's not "pure" Mandarin but seriously.. Taiwan VS BJ.. tough choice right? haha...

I went to inquire a few months ago and the YMCA in Taipei offers intensive courses. Might want to give that a google search.

It is a tough choice ...

except that learning to read and write is one of my objectives ... so PRC probably has to be the destination.

OF COURSE it's mongering related!!  

... but np moving to Chat ...

Dart, here's something to consider...

so you decide to go to Beijing, you are there for 3 months with the intention of totally immersing yourself in Manadrin. So far so good however...

you go to Maggie's Bar, fall deeply in love with a gorgeous Mongolian girl, find she speaks perfect English and miss almost all the classes returning to HK speaking even less Mandarin than when you left.

what do you think?

If your aim is to learn conversational mandarin then a short intensive course can work, particularly if you can combine this with a Chinese mistress from one of the local universities for that total immersion effect.

If your intending to learn Chinese characters as well you'll need a longer course, at least a year.

For HGs, most of them are mandarin speakers. If you want to learn from them... i think you need to visit them many many time - it is more expensive to find a teacher to teach you properly - although u can get something else from them at the same time, so i am not sure could you focus your mind to learn the language at that time.

Actually, you can learn how to read and write chinese in Taiwan too. In fact i think Taiwan's mandarin is better to listen, also i love taiwan gals more.

Cheers bro!

I would be looking at a short course of something simiilar, because when I am with an HG, then blood drains from my brains and heads... south!

HK is not really an issue, but based on some of the reports here, I can see myself heading into mainland China soon, where English may be a little more limited.

Out of interest, is Mandarin a tonal language like Thai or Vietnamese, where the same world can have many meanings depending on the speakers inflection? (If so, I will probably forget trying to learn it - just too hard for a hard headed English-speaker like me!) [AND I apologise for showing my immense ignorance!!!]

Used to be I would recommend Beijing but no longer as every foreigner goes there to learn Mandarin.  At the programs there, you can meet so many foreigners and locals who speak such good English that your Mandarin will never improve.  Plus university students bugging you to teach them English really does not help you as it wastes your time.

For example, friends who attend the Foreign Language Institute in Beijing took at least 6 months to achieve the same level of Mandarin that I achieved in 3 months also in Beijing.  In my school, 95% of my classmates could not speak English and because I am Asian, the local students never bothered to ask me to teach them English.  

Hence I would recommend you go to a 2nd tier city like Dalian, Qingdao, Chengdu or Kunming where there are not so many foreigners.

Ideally if you have time, 6 months of intensive learning is enough to get decent fluency.  If you don't have time, then 3 months or so until you can achieve a decent listen capability then return to HK and find yourself a Mandarin tutor.  There are a lot of very good Mandarin tutors in HK and they are great for expanding on the foundation you would have picked up in China.

I understand Taiwan uses traditional characters

I prefer to learn simplified ... or can they teach simplified there?

Yes, Mandarin is Tonal, it has 4 tones (contrasted with 9 in Cantonese!).  

I do know Thai and Vietnamese are tonal but don't know how many tones ...

unlikely that many places would teach in simplified in Taiwan.  In fact, it'll probably be hard to find any place in Taiwan that would teach with Pinyin - most will teach in Zhuyin.  Both (Simplified Chinese and Pinyin) are China products and Taiwan is pretty nationalistic when it comes to this.

Bugger!

From memory Thai has five - high, low, medium, rising and falling.

9 tones for Cantonese! - definately out for me!!

Since you want to learn the characters as well. I can very much recommend Kunming, I have contacts if you want to go.

I attended the chinese language class at the main university in Kunming in 2005 and then a chinese language school again in Kunming in 2008. The problem I found in both situations was the textbooks and the need to learn chinese characters. If you just want to learn to speak mandarin and some pinyin as I did then there is nothing in Kunming that will suit, in spite of what they'll tell you at the schools to get your money. The textbooks are rather dry and there's no way of progressing unless you learn the characters at the same time. On the plus side there are far fewer english speakers than you would expect to find in other larger cities, the climate is mild, the people are for the most part friendly and the cost of living is far cheaper than any other capital city in China.