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Kevin Munns |
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Chinese And my advice about it for what it¡¯s worth... |
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So after surfing the web looking for local Chinese classes, I came across the website for SOAS University in London. I decided that this was my chance, and signed up for beginners Chinese for people who knew nothing. I went up once a week, starting in September 2006. |
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At SAOS I had some good luck and some bad luck. On the bad side, there were 2 classes of 12 students. At the end of term 1 there were 7 left from both classes. At the end of term two, there was me and another guy left in. So, I had to either change day to do term 3, or make alternative arrangements. On the plus side, my teacher at SOAS was the best, most experienced teacher I have probably ever met, so when the SOAS course collapsed it was obvious I should go to one of her classes outside SOAS. After a term with her, it was time for me to go on my long-planned trip around Asia. When I came back for Christmas 2007/08, I had some one-to-one lessons with her, and then changed my year off in order to take the plunge and go to Beijing for a semester of full time study. |
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OK, so I¡¯m only an intermediate. But anyway, I thought it was about time I banged on about learning Chinese, I mean, I¡¯ve banged on about most other things, so why not¡ |
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So my one stroke of luck in London was coming across the amazing Hu and Su Laoshi (Weisan Hu and David Su). David Su runs an excellent school called the Meridian Chinese Studies Centre, which has a great way to introduce the seemingly incomprehensible in a logical way. Top tip if you are in London. |
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After travelling round East Asia in the Autumn of 2007, I decided to cancel the rest of my year off, and continue it instead by studying full time at the Beijing Language and Culture University. This was another great experience, although I would say not for the faint hearted, given the 8am timetable, daily dictation tests, not to mention the mid-term and end-of-term exams. To give more of an idea about it, I have written a separate page on my experience of BLCU. Feel free to have a look. |
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A couple of these to start the day off. |
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Back in England after being in Beijing, I got ready for some self study. Here I do my morning¡¯s character writing. |
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Heavy study. I spent serious hours at this desk in Beijing. |
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So after a lot of thinking, I decided to come back to China, teach English, and learn Chinese in my spare time. After a few months of working at a company in Chengdu, Sichuan, I decided to do things properly, and I came back to the UK to do the CELTA course, and when I went back to China after Christmas I enrolled at Sichuan University to study Chinese full time. However, full time in Sichuan isn¡¯t quite the pace of BLCU in Beijing, and I manage to teach a little in my spare time. Not much, obviously, as that would be illegal :-) |
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Evening Class in London |
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In at the Deep End - Six Months in Beijing |
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Recovery and a new Life Plan - Six Months of Self Study |
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Back to the grindstone - Enrolling at Sichuan University |
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A chance for me to bang on a bit about learning Chinese |
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Let¡¯s face it, one of the reasons I write a website is because I can give out some advice and pretend that someone might read it. Anyway, it makes me feel better. Here¡¯s some advice about learning Chinese, if you are thinking about it... |
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Yes, it¡¯s hard work. When I went over to check that she hadn¡¯t collapsed, Elaine said that she was reciting the passage from the book, and hadn¡¯t fallen asleep. Yeah, right¡ the pattern from my clothes often appears on my forehead when I¡¯m thinking too... |
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OK so it¡¯s not easy learning Chinese. But why not? Here¡¯s a few thoughts about it that you might want to bear in mind if you are thinking of starting: ¡¤ Chinese characters are difficult. There are three possible ways to approach the problem: 1. Hard work 2. Only learn to speak but not read or write 3. Give up ¡¤ Given that Chinese is quite hard, a number of people do opt for leaving out the writing and only learn oral Chinese with the help of ¡®pinyin¡¯, the English-letter pronunciation guide. However, there is obviously a huge disadvantage in being completely illiterate in any language, and I would guess is only useful for learning some phrases for going on holiday. I have been asked before if there is any sign that the Chinese are about to give up the character writing system and switch to pinyin, and the answer is definitely no. Actually the Communists tried it once before and it failed. I can guess why though, this semester I got a new textbook, and some of the texts are written all in pinyin. Believe it or not, even for a native English speaker, it takes me sooooo long to read, because the characters have a lot more information than the sounds alone, and you can pick up the meaning at a glance from them. So don¡¯t hold out for a revolution, you¡¯ll be dead long before that¡ ¡¤ The reality is, most people end up going for number 3. When I went to SOAS for beginners classes, there were two classes of 12 on at the same time. After two semesters, me and one other guy signed up for term 3, after 22 people dropped out. Nuff said.
So what¡¯s the key to success? Unfortunately I think there is only one answer¡ you have to practice writing Chinese every single day. ¡¤ Many people, including Chinese, say that you only need to be able to recognise Chinese characters, not to be able to write them. I certainly think it¡¯s true that there will always be a bank of vocabulary that you can use orally but that you can¡¯t write, as that¡¯s also true for Chinese people, but realistically, if you are going to remember all the small differences between characters, then it¡¯s necessary to be able to write a good few of them. ¡¤ Last but not least, most Westerners find the four tones of Chinese quite difficult to pronounce. That also needs a lot of attention, and takes practice. However, unless someone has no talent at all for pronunciation then I think people can overcome it. Of course, people with poor oral skills who study other languages might usually take to literature and read famous or historic texts instead. Now you know why there are so few Westerners who are good at Chinese¡
I hope that doesn¡¯t make you feel too bad! But remember that there are only 60 million British English speakers, and 250 million American English speakers, and 1.3 billion Chinese speakers. So if you ever make it, it should be worth it. Right?.... |
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Learning Chinese |
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Sichuan University has proved really great so far. I have a separate page on what it¡¯s been like there, and when I get a chance I¡¯ll put up some more about what we actually study, if anyone is interested. Anyway, for now I¡¯m just about on course to complete the undergraduate program in 2012. We¡¯ll have to see how that goes! |
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Learning Chinese |
