My family and I are FINALLY being transfered to Taiwan this Summer.
We can live and study anywhere we like. The only requirement is that we learn to speak and read/write Chinese to the best of our ability over the next 24 +/- months.
What program is hands down the best Chinese Language program?
and
Where is the best all around place to live and study in Taiwan?
Yes indeed these are very open and subjective questions but your opinions are very much respected and appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!
My family and I are FINALLY being transfered to Taiwan this Summer.
We can live and study anywhere we like. The only requirement is that we learn to speak and read/write Chinese to the best of our ability over the next 24 +/- months.
What program is hands down the best Chinese Language program?
and
Where is the best all around place to live and study in Taiwan?
Yes indeed these are very open and subjective questions but your opinions are very much respected and appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!
Sincerely,
Estebe Verde and Family[/quote]
There is no hands down best program. They all pretty much use the same books and the same methods.
My family and I are FINALLY being transfered to Taiwan this Summer.
We can live and study anywhere we like. The only requirement is that we learn to speak and read/write Chinese to the best of our ability over the next 24 +/- months.
What program is hands down the best Chinese Language program?
and
Where is the best all around place to live and study in Taiwan?
Yes indeed these are very open and subjective questions but your opinions are very much respected and appreciated.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration!
Sincerely,
Estebe Verde and Family[/quote]
If you have young children you will have better results if you get them into activities with only local Taiwanese. Then they can not only make friends but learn Mandarin like any child would. If they haven’t reached the critical period yet they can learn to speak Mandarin like a local.
I am sure that others will chime in but I would say that others will also tell you that most Chinese programs in Taiwan are similar. Furthermore most people only ever attend one school so they cannot really compare which Mandarin program is better.
If cost is not a factor, consider ICLP: iclp.ntu.edu.tw/ which is said to be significantly better than anything else. (It is also about four times more expensive than Shida, and programs at other universities will be even cheaper.)
I don’t have first-hand experience with it, but my former classmate from Shida moved there about 1-2 months ago and so far seems to be very satisfied.
All other programs use the same textbooks and methodology, so what you learn mainly depends on the teacher, and to some extent also on the attitude of other students in your class. From my experience, about half of the teachers at Shida can be considered “good,” the rest will just waste your time, so if you choose Shida, it is essential to quickly switch classes if you realize the teacher is bad (which might not be immediately obvious). While you can switch classes from the second day of the term until somewhere in the second week, places with better teachers fill up quickly, so you need to act fast.
I don’t know anything about other language centers, but I imagine the situation will be similar, as it seems the teachers at Shida are paid the most in Taiwan (except ICLP), which defines the teacher migration direction.
One more vote. The only program here that is different from the rest -meaning not using the same books, ugh- is National Taiwan University’s ICLP. It is expensive, but worth it. Here: ntulcoffice.liberal.ntu.edu.tw/center-1-eng.htm
As a current ICLP student, I can tell you that the ICLP program really is as good as the above posters have said. It is the best Chinese language program in not only Taiwan but maybe all of “Greater China.”
I’m nearly finished with my first round of beginner courses at TLI (Taiwan Language Institute) and am curious has any direct experience with the NTU vs TLI curriculum for comparison. Looking at the NTU textbook list it appears the “實用視聽華語(一) Practical Audio-Visual Chinese I” book is fairly similar in content to the TLI beginner textbook that covers a twelve week course. One exception being the NTU book is more intensive with character recognition and reading while TLI stays mostly with pinyin. If a person takes the initiative at TLI and studies the characters throughout the course, I’m guessing a person would have roughly the same reading comprehension.
The TLI group classes five days a week with three one hour classes each day. We have a different teacher for each of the three classes which is helpful in maintaining focus and gaining a slightly different perspective from each teacher. I’ve also been very happy with the teachers who are very motivated and helpful.
Still, I’m always interested in finding the most effective courses. If NTU was much more intensive than TLI (which I’ve heard more than once to be true) it might not work out for me, being a busy adult with two small children.