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[ftftim]

Is there anyone on this board who arrived in China to teach, but did not speak a word of Chinese when they showed up?
I currently live and teach in Japan. I have studied japanese for quite some time and I am fully enjoying my time away from Canada. My japanese visa will soon expire. I want to teach in somewhere China next, but I dont speak a single word of Chinese (though, I am eager to learn), nor do I really know much about China.
Does anyone have advice about comming to China for the first time? or any advice about living in China without understanding Chinese?
Thank you for reading this.... I would be grateful for any responses.
TIM

[NateM]

It seems to me that the vast majority of people who come to China don't "know a single word of Chinese", and I probably have to count myself in that category. I've been learning bits and pieces here and there, and what I don't know myself I'm usually able to get by using a simple travel phrasebook. Of course, I would like to know more, as I'm guessing you probably do as well, but I think you'll probably be fine.

[Redfivestandingby]

I second the above. Most come here AND leave without learning the language. Of course, you'll learn basics and you have a heads up since you've learned a little bit of another Asian language. Although pronunciation and grammar are totally different you may recognize basic characters between Chinese and Japanese.

It all helps. Don't worry. Anyway, they're too anxious to practice their English than to help you with your Chinese.

[struelle]

For teaching itself you'll have no problems only using English. But I find that learning some Chinese helps immensely with day-to-day tasks. For the most part, the locals don't speak English and they use full-on Mandarin when they speak to foreigners without batting an eye.

This shouldn't be intimidating, but a basic knowledge of the language and an attempt to speak it goes a long way. If they see you trying it, they'll be more than helpful.

Steve

[Radhagrrl]

I studied Japanese for about 2 years before I came to China, so I had to shift from Japanese to Chinese, too. I tried my best to learn some conversational phrases before I came, but it just doesn't prepare you. Don't worry, you pick up the easy and most common words (shui, xie xie, ni hao, duibuqi). The most helpful oral Chinese to learn - NUMBERS. Department stores and grocery stores prices posted, but if you go to a vegetable market or go to small shops, it's about a 100% chance that they will just speak the price. Most shopkeepers keep a calculator on hand, so they can punch in the numbers and show you, but it's still been incredibly helpful to just know them off the top of my head. Helps negotiating prices, too.

[quanxie]

The students here are VERY helpful and you can easily get by without speaking any Chinese as some teachers do. You can easily arrange to have many things done for you. After two years of being here and self-study of the language, I can acquire most things necessary for daily life by myself with few problems. Traveling without Chinese can be a little rough the first few times (unless you go to hongkong).
Since you have the desire to learn you will easily pickup the basics. But really learning to speak Chinese is not an easy task.

Good luck and welcome to China
Phil

[David Bowles]

Don't forget that they don't just 'speak full-on Manadarin', there's also a chance they'll be speaking 'random full-on dialect that's just different enough to confuse you'.
Sorry, just trying to scare you. Young-to-middle-aged people will almost certainly be fluent in standard Mandarin, it's just that when you run into people who aren't it's confusing fun all round.

[Tamil_Tiger]

I didn't speak a word of Chinese when I showed up 2 weeks ago. I mean, I guess I bought one of those language tape series, but I was really busy and only listened to it a few times in the car. I have been actively trying to use putonghua though in the 2 weeks I have been here and have picked up some basic things like numbers, relations, greetings, goodbye, thank you, how much is this, food products, and other random words depending on the subjects discussed. The tones are difficult. I think you can learn a decent amount of Chinese if you are here without previous knowledge. What you may consider bringing (I kick myself for not having brought one) is an unabridged English-Pinyin dictionary with a (this is the more important part) pinyin english part too. This way you can find the word for lawnmower, or sodium hydroxide if you need to say these things. I hate being restricted by the damn college editions of dictionaries.

I find that people find language exchanges to be reasonable, and many people are interested that I want to learn Chinese and are always throwing new words at me and writing them down for me so I can remember them. I find the Chinese to be quite helpful in this regard. Also, invariably as people will hang out with you to practice their english, its only fair that you throw out some chinese sentences here and there. I have hung out with a few people wanting to practice english, and I do a fair amount of trying new sentence constructions in Chinese myself, so its not a completely one way learning experience.

Language aids are helpful though. I'd stock up on character flashcards, basic books, character writing workbooks, and all of that kind of stuff before arriving. I'm in a really small town and that stuff is tough to find. Maybe in Guangzhou or another big city they'll have stuff of this sort, and if you're in hong kong, they have this stuff for sure, though the prices in HK are quite high for english language books. I for one can't remember things when they're completely given in an oral format. I prefer to write down things.

You can get by without knowing a lick of chinese, but why? I personally feel like some kind of invalid having to recruit the help of other teachers to help me do things. Not to mention finding a roll of toilet paper becomes like some elaborate affair having to call people over and all.

I would prefer to be a bit more connected to life here too, and I think that's hard without chinese language skills. I mean there's not really a whole hell of a lot of anything to do here that doesn't involve contact with other people here. I kind of want to get in on some of those mahjong games and play chinese checkers and ping pong against local players. There's also much to be learned here if you can communicate. I mean there are some really cool folk arts that are still practiced here that you can learn if you can only speak a fair bit. Not to mention, if you speak chinese, you can hit people up for cooking lessons, and learn to turn out a bowl of dumplings like a pro. I feel like China is like a gilded cage otherwise. I mean sure you can afford a lot of things, but life is meaningless without human contact and the joy that comes from interaction with other people. This is why I am trying my damnedest to pick up as much chinese as possible, so I can feel more at home here and have the cross-cultural interactions with the Chinese. I mean, isn't this the real draw for me of going overseas to live for a while. It's like you experience your life for a year or longer under a whole different way of living which isn't always comfortable but which is at least eye opening in a way.