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Fortigurn
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 390
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 Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:18 am Post subject: |
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| TaoyuanSteve wrote: |
| I think it's going to come down to a choice of priorities when you get here. You cannot work a metric ton of hours and expect to study. If you choose to work anything approaching 40 teaching hours a week, forget about Chinese lessons. You'll have neither the time in your day nor the energy for them. I see it all the time. People get here with the best of intentions. Then they get a morning job at a kindy and have no time or energy left for Mandarin study. 20-25 hours a week is a good target to shoot for if you want to study. If you work only cram school (afternoons and evenings), you'll have the time to attend Chinese classes in the mornings. |
I agree entirely. I keep myself to betweeen 20 and 25 hours a week, and take 6 hours of Chinese classes a week. Works very well. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:31 pm Post subject: |
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TaoyuanSteve, first I want to say that I do appreciate your help. Don't get me wrong. Maybe my comments seem like they have an insulting tone but you started down this path. I asked a simple question:
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| Also, can someone recommend a good place to learn Mandarin? I want to learn Mandarin while I am in Taiwan!!! |
And you replied:
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| I think it's going to come down to a choice of priorities when you get here. You cannot work a metric ton of hours and expect to study. If you choose to work anything approaching 40 teaching hours a week, forget about Chinese lessons. You'll have neither the time in your day nor the energy for them. I see it all the time. People get here with the best of intentions. Then they get a morning job at a kindy and have no time or energy left for Mandarin study. 20-25 hours a week is a good target to shoot for if you want to study. If you work only cram school (afternoons and evenings), you'll have the time to attend Chinese classes in the mornings. |
I asked you simply where I could learn Mandarin and you began by telling me it is not feasible. I did not ask you if I thought that it was possible. You started this tangent. You could have just named places where one can learn Mandarin and the conversation would not have went any further.
Furthermore (not counting the discussion about how many hours one can work) you seem to jump to conclusions quite easily. You stated:
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| and still manage to study the language efficiently |
I never said if I wanted to learn the language efficiently or not. Maybe I want to learn what I can in my free time and then go from there. (a hobby) I am aware that if I wanted to learn Mandarin well I should work less and study more but if I really wanted to learn Mandarin well I would move to a back water town in China where not many people know English, then I would have to learn as much Mandarin as I can.
Then you jump to two more conclusions:
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| As for your claims that you will be able to step off the plane here proficient in even the basics of the language after taking a couple courses ahead of your departure, all I can say is LOL! |
I stated:
Hey I might have the basics of Mandarin down by the time I arrive in Taiwan. I know that this would probably be hard if you only study Mandarin at a university but I will be spending three months in China this summer. I never claimed that I would be proficient in the basics. I thought that maybe I would have the basic grammar structure down before I come. Secondly, you think that I will only have a few classes. I will be in China this summer for three months. I will be studying Chinese several hours a day while I am in China.
But maybe it is partly my fault for not explaining everything completely. TaoyuanSteve, I hope that there are no hard feelings between us. I just think that you started this discussion about learning Mandarin down a negative path for no reason when I only asked where someone could study Mandarin. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Fortigurn, thank you for the advice. I think that I will work a lot for maybe two years and then I will try to concentrate on Chinese but I also want to try to learn a little at the begining, even if that is not the best situation. |
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Fortigurn
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 390
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| Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 3:28 pm Post subject: |
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| JZer wrote: |
| Fortigurn, thank you for the advice. I think that I will work a lot for maybe two years and then I will try to concentrate on Chinese but I also want to try to learn a little at the begining, even if that is not the best situation. |
You're welcome. I think it's a good idea to try to lean a little at the beginning. I did my best to learn what I could before coming to Taiwan, just in my spare time (which wasn't very plentiful).
I managed to get the tones down, and picked up about 100 words. It was a start, at least, and gave me a slight edge when I started learning Chinese over here. |
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JZer
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 3898
Location: Pittsburgh
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| Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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Fortigurn, can I ask how long you have been in Taiwan and how much Mandarin have you picked up?
How much Mandarin do you think that I could learn living in China for three months? I will try to take classes two hours a day.
I have only studied European languages so I cannot really guess how hard it is to learn Mandarin or how much time it takes. |
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Fortigurn
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
Posts: 390
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| Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:00 pm Post subject: |
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| JZer wrote: |
| Fortigurn, can I ask how long you have been in Taiwan and how much Mandarin have you picked up? |
I have lived in Taiwan for just under 7 months. I have completed an elementary course in Chinese, which ran for 48 hours over 8 weeks. I would consider this to be little more than a basic introduction to Chinese, which has given me the capacity to carry on basic conversations, and to purchase things from shops.
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| How much Mandarin do you think that I could learn living in China for three months? I will try to take classes two hours a day. |
That depends on your capacity for learning, the teaching course and method, and your opportunities to practice. The worst part of being an English teacher in Taiwan is that your opportunities to practice Chinese are limited - most of your time you are compelled to speak in English. |
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