Hello Guys,
I have read many posts of people outside high-school or young University students who are coming to Taiwan to study Chinese at one of those institutions who have 1-year programs to learn the language, such as Shida, ICLP, etc…
My background is a bit different, but the goal is similar.
I am 29 years old, I come from Europe, but I have been living in Asia for the last 5/6 years, between Singapore and Hong Kong.
Living here, I managed to learn some basic Mandarin, pretty much by myself.
From an HSK perspective I am probably between 2 and 3, but I know enough words to be on a 4.
Basically:
- Listening and speaking: around HSK2
- Reading/Writing: HSK2/3
- Character recognition: 4 (I know about 1,500 characters, I am not able to write them by hand).
I work in IT as a Technical Sales, and I would really want to improve and learn better Mandarin to be able to:
- Write email in Chinese about my field;
- Be able to do a presentation in Chinese about my field (Data Centre)
- Have upper-intermediate conversation on day to day topic
I was thinking about coming to Taiwan from September, and spend 10-12 months in there.
I do not need to work, and I have enough funds to sustain myself without any issue fortunately, however I wanted to understand what is the best approach.
The department of admissions in ICLP has mentioned they are accepting students from the Fall quarter, starting in September. However ICLP seems more suited for who wants to continue their education in a Chinese speaking institution, and there is a strong focus on writing.
I read about TLI and Shida.
What would you recommend for me to be able to come out of this 1 year period with the highest level possible of Chinese?
I would say I can invest up to (around) 12,000-15,000USD for the school fees/lessons, but I am happy to know if there is anything cheaper.
It does not have to be Taipei, however ideally since I won’t be working for a year I would like to have a full life where I can at least do some sports with friends (once or twice a week) and maybe go out once a week to a bar or a club or anything like that.
Thanks guys!