Job Discussion Forums

[rockinrobin714]

I know every situation is different, but I was just wondering...

I am a Spanish major in college (I graduate in a week and a half!) and am on my way to Taiwan to teach English.

I literally know one word in Chinese.
I will, obviously, learn some basic phrases before I go (in July/August). However, I will be far from fluent.

How difficult is it to learn Chinese, if I already have experience learning a language?

How expensive are formal Mandarin courses? I feel as if this would be the best way to learn the language, for me anyway.

How easy it is to get by with limited knowledge of Chinese?

Thanks!

[JZer]

It would be helpful if you stated what city you plan to live in.

You can take a basic Mandarin class at TLI in Taipei or Kaohsiung for 10,000NT for three months. It is a cheap way to get your feet wet and learn the basics. If you become more serious about learning Mandarin you can study at Chinese Cultural University.

I hope that helps.

[markcmc]

If all you want to do it get by, then you don't need to speak any Chinese. Most expats in Taiwan do not learn more than a very little Chinese. Even those who have been in the country for 15 or 20 years.

However, if you want to, there are plenty of opportunities. Lot's of universities offer courses, as do many private language schools. As JZer said, TLI has classes in a few cities. A language exchange can help, as well as the formal classes.

There are also some quite good online resources for learning Chinese.

[Rooster_2006]

[yamahuh]

Personally speaking I found the first things I picked up when I was in China were the social niceties - saying 'please' 'thank you' etc. The stuff you would normally try to learn before visiting a foreign county so as not to appear like an ignorant oaf.

After some basic phrases the next most important thing to learn - from my perspective anyway - were the numbers and counting. It sucks to have to carry around a calculator all the time so that people can show you how much something is and it's nice to know how much things cost.

Check out Chinesepod.com for free, topic centred, conversation lessons.
Very useful.

[JZer]

[zipper]

OP: If you know a second language already, then I feel that it would be easier for you to pick up a third language; even if it has a totally different grammar structure, tone and writing system. Chinese is based on tone and characters. Learning enough to get around in Taiwan and China won�t take you too long. I have been here for many years, but I only speak enough to order food, shop, travel, ask for directions, light conversation and etc, and that�s because I don�t need to know much Chinese to live in Taiwan. I am not advocating that it is a good thing to be lazy like me, but I wouldn�t sweat it out worrying about it. I really wish that back in my school days that schools required us to learn a second language like Spanish, but they didn�t. It would be a good idea for you to learn some phrases, and you could do this by looking up Chinese online classes such as: http://www.rocketlanguages.com/chinese/ or you could go to Youtube where there are some actual videos on Chinese language teaching and learning.

As the other posters pointed up, there are credited Chinese courses you could take at Taiwan Universities or through private institutes for a nominal fee. Another words it�s doable, you just need to have a positive and energetic disposition.

[steve_c]

First, congratulations on your upcoming graduation and move to Taiwan!

With regard to learning Chinese, I can only give you my experience and observations. I've always loved languages; I studied Spanish for 5 years, French for 2 years, and Japanese for 1 year while in high school and college. With this background, I assumed that learning Chinese would be a similar experience. In fact, since I knew I'd be immersed in the language once I came to Taiwan, I thought it would come easier.

I was humbled.

As Rooster explained, Chinese is vastly different in many respects, each making it that much more difficult to learn. This is no way meant to be discouraging, just some things to think about.

Vocabulary: There is no shared vocabulary to fall back on, as is the case with romance languages. Even Japanese has tons of English loan words.

Pronunciation/Listening comprehension: Tone is essential to meaning in Chinese, and this concept is very foreign to speakers of Western languages.

Writing/Reading: No need to explain the difficulties here.

Practice: If you're teaching English, you'll be immersed in English for the majority of your day, NOT Chinese as you would imagine. After a hard day's work you may not feel like taxing your brain further with speaking Chinese. Also, if you jump into heavy duty Chinese classes at the beginning, while trying to adjust to your new job and life in Taiwan, you may get burnt out and your Chinese studies will go by the wayside.

That being said, it's certainly not impossible, as many foreigners have learned the language to varying degrees. If you're up for the challenge, learning Chinese is fun and rewarding (in my opinion).

As others have mentioned, learn basic greetings and numbers in the beginning. Since you must eat everyday, I'd suggest learning food/eating vocabulary soon. Direction/location words such as 'left', 'right', 'straight', 'near', 'next to', etc. will also prove useful.

Lesson for today: Jiā y�u! (加油!) It's like 'good luck' or 'go for it'...an encouragement for you

[JZer]

[Jamer]

Studying Chinese as I am writing this.

It really amazes me how many people say Chinese is quite difficult and it is sad because I think it scares people away from staking a stab at learning it. Yes it is true most white dudes know only 你好 and 厕所在那, however, I have met plenty of white dudes in my 5 years in Taiwan that speak very good Chinese, so good that many if you just heard their voice you would assume they were Taiwanese and others who did graduate school work in Taiwan taking courses only taught in Chinese.

Chinese is like any skill, just takes hard work and discipline. And the ones who don't speak Chinese probably didn't spend too much time studying.

My Chinese is not too bad, me and my GF use Chinese only to communicate and I conduct nearly all my affairs in Chinese, however, just today I called Microsoft in Taiwan about my Xbox red-ringing and I had no clue what the service person was saying since I am clueless about this type of vocabulary. I will always be learning.

As for my advice on learning- really work your pronunciation, spend an hour everyday just going over the words and dialogues, noting all tones and do your best to mimic how native speakers speak the words-Chinese teacher is very handy here.

With learning characters, relax and just go over them over and over like tones, but don't stress if you can't memorize each one right then and there, just let them flow into your mind by spending lots of time at it.

In Conversation, get some thick skin because you will be sounding like an idiot for a very long time, people sometimes think Chinese people sound funny when they speak bad English but man when non-native speakers speak bad Chinese it sound 10 times more odd (myself included here). If you are too thin skinned find a GF who will really want to actually speak Chinese with you since you will be spending a lot of time with that person, thus more conversation practice (however be aware they are not teachers and wont correct you often if you make mistakes).


In general, my good buddy who did an MBA in Taiwan (all in Chinese) said treat learning Chinese like a marathon not a sprint. I wholeheartedly agree.

[JZer]

[rockinrobin714]

Wow thanks for all the advice!

I know I'm in for a challenge... but I would like to be able to converse in Mandarin eventually. I know learning the strokes and all the symbols is going to be a huge difficulty... especially since I was pampered with the almost 100% phonetic Spanish.

Another question - how common is pinyin? This is the "phonetic" way of writing out words using the same letters we use in English, right?

[steve_c]

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[steve_c]