Job Discussion Forums

[TaoyuanSteve]

I've been working pretty hard on my Mandarin lately. I'm wondering if anyone would like to share their experiences with the language, their prefered way of learning it, whether or not they view learning it as important, or anything else concerning Mandarin learning....

[Taylor]

Dear Readers,

If we are talking about using Chinese in the classroom (as a foreign English teacher), then you will certainly feel closer to your students. However, if you have lots of students that might become emotionally burdensome.

Also, it may cause excessive confusion if they all start talking in Chinese during class. You might miss a lot of what they try to share with you, which is frustrating. For example, I lived in Taiwan over 7 years, but I still cannot follow what 5th graders are saying to each other. Is my problem a lack of vocabulary???

Moreover, if you understand Chinese you will be expected to acknowledge and respond to your students' concerns (usually complaints).

Schools typically discourage the use of foreigners speaking Chinese in class.

Oh well, I guess I have gone beyond giving my 2 cents' worth. Let us know more about your motivations, etc.

Best wishes,

Taylor

[MTurton]

[Richard]

I really wish the language came more easily to me than it does; my most well-used phrase is still qing shuo man yidian to get people to go slow and enunciate. Regular speaking speed quickly drowns any comprehension that I manage, and then I just catch stray nouns and verbs and numbers out of context. I imagine it will be some time before I'm down with some idioms or humour, but those are always the last to come and it's a work in progess.

I've taken group classes off and on, and last year I had a private tutor for a few months. For the private lessons no English was permitted during class time, and this of course helped immensely. One of my older students suggested something that actually worked really well - she gave me a bunch of Mandarin pop songs on cassette, which I played over and over until I knew them by heart and could sing along - even though I didn't know what I was singing. Then we went through them together and she translated for me. Simplistic sentence structure for the most part, but it's a good way to become more familiar with phrasing and rhythm of the language. (and to realize that the content of cheesy pop songs is universal everywhere.)

I agree that Mandarin is important. If you teach, being placed on the other side of the language looking glass enhances your ability as a teacher, because it helps you to see things from your students' perspective - you can spot stumbling blocks much more easily. It endears you to bosses and co-workers and locals in general - they love the role reversal of being on firm ground for once while YOU strain and stuttter for the correct phrase.

And on a more basic level, I think bilingualism in any other language is just plain cool. I'm always envious when I meet people who can switch seamlessly back and forth between two.

[mjed9]

Hi Steve

I too have recently been studying comparatively harder than I have done previously. I am currently at TLI doing morning group classes. While I have noticed some increase in my fluency I still have major problems with my listening comprehension. My Problem is that I try to transalte every word as it is said to me and end up losing the battle by about the third word uttered ... I might try Richard's "listening to music" tip in the above post and I wholeheartedly agree that it increases your teaching skills by providing you with an invaluable insight into what your students feel.

In particular my workplace uses a lot of drill work for the students (I say something, they have to say it back slightly differently - using a different grammar point). My Chinese teacher does the same. It has given me a whole new appreciation and level of sympathy for my students.

For the last point, I am learning Chinese for many reasons, not least of which is financial motivation. However I also have a strong belief that most xi1 fang1 ren2 are incredibly lazy when it comes to learning a language (for obvious reasons) so I want to personally make amends. (I have known people who have been here for a number of years and can still only just manage basic phrases ni2 hao3 / xie4 xie4 etc.)

James

PS It is a great feeling when you get to the stage where you realise you have to (and can) rely more on your Chinese than your target's English.

[brian]

I am not a very motivated student and as such I need real structure to a course. I can recommend the university courses if you really want to get ahead. Regular tests, Chinese only instruction, and heaps of homework is the only way that I could progress. I chose a uni that was relatively unknown and was rewarded by being the only westerner there at the time. As no one else really spoke English, Chinese became essential. We would have social gatherings with Koreans, Japanese, Cambodians, Thais etc, but no bloody English which was great.

I remember at change of semesters one time we had a new teacher take us on. She saw my white face in the classroom and proceeded to ask me in very broken English where I was from. Much to the surprise of my classmates who all knew where I was from, I replied in Chinese that I was Russian and that I didn't speak English very well. She accepted this and conversed with me in Chinese from there on.

If you are really serious and can afford the time, go for a uni course, two hours a day, five days a week. It's tough but worth it.

[matchstick_man]

I took one-on-one lessons at TLI for six months five hours a week after living in mostly small town Taiwan for two and a half years(which was a mixed blessing). However I left the island for six months and am currently studying in a goup class with three others once a week as we are at different levels. I'd prefer to do go back to the private lessons but right now that is not a possibility for me. My original ambition was to get a higher paying job but it's helped out in other circumstances as I have been able to use mandarin with a Vietnamese who needed to communicate with an English speaker needed visa application help.

The listening to music also worked to me as I am now surprised sometimes at sometimes how much I can understand. I prefer not to let my students or their parents know that I can speak basic Chinese but sometimes I can't help myself.

I also need structure as the discipline factor is important.

[TaoyuanSteve]

Hmmm. The pop music study option is appealing. It might be fun. When I've tuned in to MTV over here I notice that most videos display the words on the bottom of screen as their being sung. My reading is so-so. I can get a friend to help me with words I don't know. I can try to read along if I bought a vcd.

I also take morning classes 5 days a week(one of the nice benefits of working in a cram school is the free-time it allows). I need the structure as well as the regular, everyday exposure to help me progress.

Yeah, kids really have their own language. One kid jokingly called me a "ji che" (motorcycle) lately. I knew the literal meaning of what he said, but not the slang meaning among kids (something like an idiot or a difficult person). Speed also definitely trips me up as does the amount of words I still don't know. The irony is, because I work on character recognition as well, my reading is better than my listening comprehension.

I agree that it's important to learn Mandarin. It makes life here a million times easier. Also, I want my time here to give me something besides money.

[mjed9]

"jiche" is the slang for annoying/annoyed.

[wood]

[TaoyuanSteve]

It's a good point you make about "annoying" not fully capturing the defintion of the term "ji che." The meaning is really hard to nail down. Kids, as in English, have their own language. Annoying is helpful as a guide, though. Anyone heard "ah lu ba!"? It supposedly describes the condition that arrises when you take a blow to the crotch.

[mjed9]

"jiche" can also mean "annoyed" ... "Wo hen jiche" means "I am annoyed" but it can also be used to mean "You are very nasty" or maybe "you are nastily annoying" if I say "ni hen jiche"... this is all according to my girlfriend who uses this phrase a lot

[mjed9]

Apparently "a lu ba" is a game that "boys" play whereby they try to hurt someone in the private parts by picking them up and running them into an object (like a pillar or post) ... nice

[TaoyuanSteve]

Anyone been called a "pao che" (sports car)? Apparently, according to the logic of one of my kids, it's a step above "ji che" because it's faster. You can see I spend alot of time trading mock insults with my students. But I never do it during class time. Scouts honor!

[mjed9]

Hey Steve

I guess that is "pao" as in "run", right? third tone?

Ta

J