| Learning Chinese - Taiwan or China? | |
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| Dec 11, 2007 21:07 |   |
 | Where do you think is better to learn Chinese? Some people say China because China is a rapidly-progressing country and you get to learn their culture as well as the language. Some people say Taiwan because the Taiwanese teachers have more experience (in some schools) and better equipment. What do you guys think? - moondollars faithvine.com |
| Dec 12, 2007 01:59 | #1 |
| This was a serious question I asked myself a few years ago. There seemed to be so many options for studying in Taiwan, whereas studying on the mainland presented more limited (and generally more expensive) options. In the end I chose to come to the mainland and take up the offer of free lessons while I worked at a school. It was by no means as good as some of the work-study options offered in Taiwan, but I decided that the benefit to me of immersing myself in the mainland culture out-weighed the attractiveness of the Taiwan packages. I have long-term career aspirations focussed on the mainland, so it made sense to choose to come here, rather than to Taiwan, to learn Chinese. |
| Dec 12, 2007 12:45 | #2 |
| Thanks TOMSPENCER - May I ask what are some of the options that you considered? For example, advantages/disadvantages of studying in Taiwan and the same for China? What program did you decide on and what came of it? - moondollars faithvine.com |
| Dec 12, 2007 17:50 | #3 |
| Hi. maybe i can share my knowledge with you. There is a good Mandarin institute in Taipei called the Taiwan Normal University (ShiDa) and their Mandarin Language Institute. I visited their school and it's pretty good, and some news agencies like AP send their reporters there for Mandarin training. You can take classes in traditional characters and/or simplified characters, therein might be the advantage of studying in Taiwan versus studying in mainland China. I think it's more difficult to study the traditional characters first but it is an advantage to learn them first, then to learn simplified. You can deduce the simplified from the traditional, and unfortunately, its not possible the other way around. If you are a current university student (undergrad or graduate), I hear that Taiwan Normal University offers generous scholarships for Mandarin studies at their institute. They have maybe 200+ students there each term on scholarships, I think, from the Taiwan national government. They include a stipend and cover tuition fees. In mainland China, I don't think they offer as many scholarships, and the BLCU / Peking University courses are just the same price as Western tuition at a Western university. Not cheap. If you are really poor, you might want to go to a place like Guizhou and study at Guizhou University. Rent is cheap, tuition is cheap, as well as in places in Yunnan Normal University etc. Just my opinion, I don't think it's important to learn Beijing pronunciation as it's not considered "standard" everywhere in the Chinese speaking world. It sounds funny to some people, actually, even though Beijing people say they have *standard* pronunciation. Probably Liaoning (i.e. Dalian, or Jilin University are good places to study Mandarin because they have standard pronunciation w/o the strong Beijing accent). Anyhow. Another comment from my POV. People have said that Taiwan has retained a lot of traditional Chinese culture that mainland China has lost during the cultural revolution. Yes, this is true, most importantly they use traditional characters everywhere. *However* Taiwan has a strong Japanese flavour. It has so much Japanese culture, businesses, and to me it looks like Korea and Japan in their urban design. You can imagine this because it was a colony of Japan for 50 years. So... it's really up to you where you want to study. If I could go anywhere to study CHinese, I would go to Liaoning Normal University in Dalian or to Jilin University because those have pretty good reputations and are in fairly nice cities. And I heard that Guizhou is a nice cheap place to study too with a lot of local culture, even though it's a poor part of China. But if you go to a poor place, you'll avoid the capitalism and see more of the local traditional culture. Good luck. I |
| Dec 12, 2007 17:53 | #4 |
| sorry, that's NTNU Mandarin Training Center in Taipei |
| Dec 12, 2007 18:24 | #5 |
| Hey ChynaGirl -- That's really good advice! Thank you. Many people give me typical advice I already know, but this is really good information. I'm graduating next May and really am not looking to spend money as I don't know where or when in China I will have a job as I'm learning Chinese. I have family in Taiwan, but I want to be in China. I've been to Taiwan several times and even interned there this past summer. Taiwan is too familiar to me; I want to try something different. My dad is very against me going to China all by myself, but....ha, I'm young and rebellious, I guess. My grandfather's cousin lives in Guiling as the mayor of tourism. My next question would be: are the Mandarin classes in Guizhou or Guiling nearly as good as those in Beijing or Shanghai for heritage speakers and advanced readers? Thanks for your help -- - moondollars faithvine.com |
| Dec 13, 2007 11:28 | #6 |
| GUEST53254 | nonono,i hope u can go to China.think it:to learn a language is to leare a culture.my english is bad ,but i want to say a few word:go there!! u will kown what CHINA is! tai wan,is there anyone who can speak good Mandarin? dont waete your time ,believe me! |
| Dec 15, 2007 16:43 | #7 |
| GUEST21125 | Hmm... I know a guy who studied heritage Mandarin in U.S. during university, and after graduation he spent two years studying Mandarin at Guizhou University. Lots of Korean students there too supposedly. At the university, the teachers probably teach *standard* Mandarin. He said he had a great time... The other thing is you need to travel in China to understand Chinese culture. It's the motherland. I'm sorry to contradict some people. Taiwan is a very small island, whereas if you go to China I'm sure you will travel all over the place and get a much better idea of what being Chinese is all about. It's a complicated and big place, even though a lot of people try to make simplifications about it. Have a good time |
| Dec 17, 2007 14:49 | #8 |
| Hi Guest21125 -- North Korea is actually bordering Liaoning so that could be why lots of South Koreans go there and Guizhou as well! Chynagyrl's suggestion about going to Liaoning University sounds like a great idea to me. I looked up the tuition information and Liaoning tuition fee is half the price of Peking University's price! Not only that, it's probably a nicer place since it's away from the city but close enough to the city that there aren't any distractions. I'm sure I can meet a lot of students that way and learn lots of things besides the usual "touristy" places foreigners go to. Great! This sounds like a great suggestion. Thanks for the suggestions everyone! - moondollars faithvine.com |
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