Job Discussion Forums

hfpardue · Joined: 12 Mar 2005 Posts: 19

I am looking for a way to learn Chinese fluently (writing and speaking). I want to be a transator. Would it be a good idea to go to China and work as an FT and try to pick up the language by talking with people and experiencing the country, or does someone know a better way? I would just go to a language school in China, but I need to be able to support myself.

Thanks

togusa · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 22

You will need to go to a school. If your goal is to be translator it will take you about ten years before you can speak well enough....in Beijing there are plenty of langauge schools for only 500 RMB a month. Find a job for about 5000 a month teaching maybe 12 hours a week and you can more than support yourself.

tarzaninchina · Joined: 16 Aug 2004 Posts: 348 Location: World

If you need to support yourself, then teaching over here would probably be the way to do so long as your not terrible in the classroom and can deal with the BS heaped your way.

Some colleges might let you take classes in the Chinese department for free. You can exchange English and Chinese lessons with students. You could hire someone to teach you and there are specific certifications for teaching Chinese to foreigners BTW.

It will be time-consuming, but that depends on what your teaching schedule would be like. Also plan on staying more than a year. Seriously.

joe greene · Joined: 21 Mar 2004 Posts: 200

Do you plan on taking the HSK?

Babala · Joined: 28 Jan 2005 Posts: 1303 Location: Henan

My friend went to uni here to study Chinese. Her classes were all in the morning Mon - Fri, so she was able to teach part-time with no problems. She lived at the uni and the housing was really cheap. I think one sememster cost 5000RMB and the housing was about an extra 1500RMB.

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

"Fluently learning Chinese" or "learning to communicate in Chinese fluently"?
Anyway, it's not a good idea to acquire the foundation of your Chinese in China! You had better enrol for some quality Mandarin classes back home and come here to immerse yourself at a higher level.
Listening to the regular chit-chat of Chinese won't really make you fluent in the lingo. And the local Chinese teaching techniques are not very sophisticated.

moderntime · Joined: 27 Mar 2005 Posts: 26 Location: Changchun, China

I had a really good experience with Nanjing University (Nan Da) in the summer of 2001. The program was affiliated with NYU's Nanjing Study Abroad, but open to others who were not enrolled with NYU. Although I was only in the intermediate course, I found that much of what I was learning had immediate practical use living in Nanjing.

My teachers were hardcore with their teaching and extremely rigorous. They taught both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, depending on what you preferred, which may be unusual. The class ran M-F 8:00 am - 12:00 pm, so you will have time to do other things with that particular program.

NorbertRadd · Posted: Wed May 25, 2005 3:53 am Post subject: good school's in Shenzhen?

20 hours a week in the classroom will give anyone an improvement!
My coworker told me how they taught Chinese to non-Chinese in Wuhan and it sounded very boring.
My school gives me no lessons and book 2 arrived and nowadays I'm trying to get my reading fluency up to par so I can read it.