Learning Mandarin in China

I studied Mandarin in London with one lecturer from Beijing and the other from Taipei and we learned both simplified and traditional Chinese, to read and write, speak and translate. Of course they both spoke excellent English.

I followed that by studying at the Mandarin Training Center (National Taiwan Normal University) in Taipei and many of the teachers didn't speak English at all. However, in my group most of us were already proficient at speaking Mandarin so no issues. I think for the basic levels the teachers could speak some English.

One of my friends who was at one time country director of the British Council in China was very fluent in Mandarin but he also learned at the Mandarin Training Center in Taipei.

I think for learning Mandarin it was hugely beneficial to have began in the UK. Half the class dropped out as it was so intensive, but we learned very fast. In the third trimester we were doing newspaper and scientific article translations.

My recommendation is to try not to hang out with other foreign students but with local Chinese people so that you are really thrown in at the deep end. When in Taiwan I also lived with a Taiwanese family so spoke Mandarin at home all the time.

I did enroll to learn Mandarin at a university in Sichuan, China, for a couple of semesters and I immensely enjoyed it. It was a lot better than I was expecting and it’s the quickest I made progress since the 3.5 years I’ve been here. My Chinese has faltered since.

I went to a ‘Normal’ university which means the university trains students to be teachers, so at the international language school where I went, I usually had experienced teachers mixed with younger teachers still learning their trade. I actually enjoyed most lessons, but no doubt the experienced teachers were much better, and more students actually turned up to the lessons with the experienced teachers.

I also had roughly about 3.5. hours of lessons a day, usually between Monday and Friday. I had a comprehensive Chinese lessons, conversational, and writing during my two semesters.

My teachers also spoke limited English, some teachers I feel their English is actually a lot better but I didn’t hear it a lot, especially with the experienced teachers, they liked to use mostly Mandarin. But I was fine with that and it I thought it worked extremely well to have this sort of language and teaching environment.

The curriculum I was on followed a certain textbook, I forgotten the name of it, something like Elementary Chinese or something. So I felt it was actually well structured, paced and was heading somewhere.

It’s a shame as since I’ve stopped attending the lessons at the university I feel my Chinese has slipped somewhat. So recently as I am working now, I’ve turned to some online Chinese lessons. I’ve signed up for the one at Instant Mandarin

Does anyone else have any experience with online learning as an alternative to in-person classes?