CLD is awesome. Lots of cool people, office staff are super nice a real uni atmosphere. Campus is beautiful. My teacher last quarter was really committed we would go have class dinners and our teacher would be helping us with our chinese the whole time (she didn’t get paid for this). :discodance:
Hello,
Few years ago I’ve been to CLD to study mandarin.
I was extremely lucky to have both an excellent teacher, a very small class (6 students). I was the only man in this class.
I’ve been there in 2005 and the teaching hours was 2 hours a day, 5 days a week.
Missing a class can lead to a serious gap, especially at the begining where we try to learn as much as possible.
Later on, if you’d miss a class it was more acceptable as you had already more experience of chinese and so could easily fit the gap by discussing with your class mate and the locals.
I just subscribe to CLD and they changed their schedule to 3 hours a day.
I’ll keep you up to date on June as I’ll be starting on May 31st.
A very good point, CLD is a very reputed univerity who teach many fields.
For instance, as a CLD student you have access to the swimming pool, library, cine club, etc etc…
Why I didn’t choose Shida was simply because I tough it was too much oriented to foreign guy and the opportunities to speak chinese in the center seemed to be small.
I also had a few feedback which didn’t push me there. Many foreign person go there to obtain the VISA but are not really studying.
Because I’m quite open minded and curious I’ve been to Xi’an (main land China) for 8 months.
Because they use simplified caracters the studying process was way way faster. Also a good point. In Xi’an it’s useless to ask : 你會講英文嗎？ (can you speak english). 99% of the time you would have a NO (In chinese) as the only answer. Finaly, your speaking and listening abilities are really improving compared to what you can do in Big cities like Taipei.
Another good point is the CLD is the language center of Taida and not the chinese center. This means that you can meet a lot of Taiwanese people going there to study either english, spanish, etc etc…
Hope this information is still accurate.
Alex and his two cents. 
Does anyone know where I can find the application for NTU’s CLD. I cannot seem to locate it on the website.
There you go:
homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~cld222/en/language02.htm
Click on “Application Form” on that page.
Thank you for the help 
I tried both NTNU and am now at NTU.
NTNU was a drama experience that ended up in 3 months because i couldn’t stand nor keep up with their teaching speed and the method, simply wearing for the nervous system, especially if one also works. Another drawback was attitude not to listen to problems and try to bypass the issue persuading me that there wasn’t any problem. In short issues were as follows
- Teacher didnt’ speak one word of English (more or less), nor she was eager to use it. I didn’t speak nor knew one word of chinese. It goes alone the learning curve was extremely low since the beginning as it was even impossible to understand the meaning of many words/sentences, giving me the idea of being totally dull.
- The UNIVERSAL BOOK used in all Taiwan universities is extremely badly written and organized, with associated terms scattered all around the book or around multiple books. No way for my brain to adapt to that kind of illogic confusion, which caused more chaos in my mind.
- Being in class with Japanese/Korean students was the worst idea, as they learn quicker, much quicker than westerners, leaving you a deep sense of frustration that does nothing but growing daily as they advance while you involve lost in characters and patterns
- Classes are often over 10 people and 2 hours are not enough to take care of them all. The teacher will soon get tired of your rants and will eventually let you go, which will further slow the learning curve …
As a matter of fact, i didn’t even take the test at NTNU because i had learnt nothing. I didn’t see any positive point in NTNU except the huge amount of free extra lessons they provide, for which time is never enough given the huge amount of homeworks regularly given (often on the edge of the nervous breakdown), at least that’s my experience.
NTU
PROS
A totally different environment in all senses:
- Teachers are really committed to their job. Experienced or unexperienced they will run the extra mile to help you REALLY.
- Book is the same but teachers seem to be aware of its gaps so many try to provide reworked handout that help you a lot. (Changed two teachers till now and i loved both of them in terms of methods, character and approach)
- Environment inside uni is much better, which makes life a lot easier.
- Staff in the office. F A N T A S T I C - You name an issue, they will help. I have been a real bug to them and they always provided all help i required despite me being aware of pushing them a little bit sometimes. Again, expect them to go the extra mile if they realize you are in need and are not playing games.
CONS - That book to me is still a nightmare…terms are scattered all around. Grammar patterns are oddly explained with a poor english and with lots of strange sentences that often don’t make any sense (to me…the teacher says they do make sense LOL)
- Teaching speed: they don’t care too much if a lesson is more difficult than another. The speed is always the same, actually sometimes it increases. After book 3, due to more words to learn and more complicated patterns i couldn’t keep up (I still can’t). There is no way to slow them down, nor seems to exist a way to let them understand that i DO LEARN everything but also forget everything it immediately after because there isn’t time enough to fix concepts and really use the patterns/words they teach.
I don’t know how many students really think they are learning, but i work and study and really can’t keep up with them. I also see many students confused but a lot of them don’t seem too eager to admit it.
That’s the only real drawback. It applies to me but not necessarily to everybody else.
Nonetheless, NTU is much better than NTNU. I learned a lot of chinese at NTU, something that didn’t happen at NTNU.
A general comment about all the courses i have taken till now is that Taiwan universities don’t seem to have designed a good method for western learners of chinese, as it happens on mainland or Singapore, where reports are much more optimistic. In short they expect you to adapt to a method that’s designed for chinese brains and not for western brains with all what it implies in terms of learning curve, that slows down considerably. Of course EVENTUALLY we learn, but the learning curve is much slower than it would be adopting different books, different methods and a different speed. The other issue i have noticed they don’t seem to be aware of is that after a brain is saturated with notions/words/homeworks on a nonstop basis (weekend included), there is a point where it overheats and there is no more way to learn anything. This is regularly happening to me. Saturation is so high that my brain stops learning. I don’t understand what’s all this rush to teach chinese in one year when everyone by now knows it’s impossible. I have already repeated half book 2 twice (and am still confused because their speed is still too high and things are taught so quick your brain doesn’t really get grasp of it), just started book 3 and am more confused than before. I study, learn then two hours later it’s all gone. A slower speed and a more decent method would do.
Except the useless stress they cause me due to rush though i still love NTU. Of course, could i, i’d go for one to one lessons at my own pace, since i can’t really stand that speed.
Thanks for the information everyone. My goal is to attend ICLP/NTU for the 2011-2012 year.
I will have a year of Chinese study before then. I start my first class in 3 days; 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. The book we are using is Chinese Link w/ traditional characters by Prentice Hall. Anyone have experience with this book?
Besides class work, listening to videos helps a lot. There are lots of videos presented using simple Chinese. Maybe you can learn some new words or phrases.
For example:
做饅頭
Making steamed bread. Come fare il pane cinese al vapore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaOLF1kRZGk
這是什麼？這叫什麼名字？
What is this? What is this called?
Cos’è questo? Come si chiama questo?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp4IGgQoVQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypGBLO965CU
唐人街
Chinatown. La comunità cinese. El Barrio Chino.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8crJIpPwc0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95v1BM0hU1o
Beginner’s Guide to the Mac
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17uItW7DfQ
For the more advanced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwtTCvsjtCA
Good luck.
I am intending on studying Chinese in Taiwan and at the moment leaning towards the CLD course at NTU. I am a complete beginner and my objective in taking the course is to get up to speed in basic “survival” stuff as quickly as possible i.e. ordering a meal in a restaurant, recognising some basic things on the menu, asking for directions etc.
The big criticism I have heard regarding CLD is that they don’t focus on this sort of stuff but rather more on reading / writing / grammar - anyone have any thoughts or experiences they could share?
^ I think I’m just like you. I didn’t know any chinese at all before coming here and our class at CLD started with numbers! Talk about kindergarten all over again.
I agree that most of the stuff we learned in the beginning isn’t very applicable to real life. But over the last 2 months I realize it’s a very good foundation to learn other things and build upon it. I now know how to roughly express myself with the words/vocab I’ve learned. Sure food is still a challenge, but I take it upon myself to learn the more common characters. The teachers (well, mine at least) are also very supportive and if you ask them to teach you extra stuff about food and basic survival they’ll be more than happy to.
I think if you’re intending on learning the basic survival stuff, it’s not in the course to teach you. For that you need to find a language exchange buddy… you’ll learn chinese quickest that way.
Otherwise, I fully recommend the CLD program at NTU. Our class is only 5 ppl … but in our class it’s really only 3 ppl who actually pay attention so we get to practice lots in class.
So, it sounds like the CLD program is the same amount of class time as the “intensive” MTC program, but perhaps with better, or at least more patient, teachers?
I have lurked about these forums for a long time and have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about CLD. Plenty of rants about MTC, though.
I am not a beginner, however; my level is “intermediate” (which of course means I am still light-years away from anything approaching fluency). I studied last summer at Middlebury in the US, which is pretty intensive - certainly 5-6 hours of homework every night, on top of 4 hours of class. I learned to speak, read, write and listen, though! I guess I’m looking for the same sort of experience in Taiwan, but I don’t have a full year to give up to ICLP. I’ve visited the country before and done many of the tourist things, so I don’t need to have weekends off to go down the coast or whatever. Just looking for an intensive language immersion experience.
That said, is there any advantage to paying slightly more to attend CLD at the intermediate level? Hearing that Shi-Da’s class sizes are on the high side turns me off a bit, but is that true only for the beginner classes, or does it hold true for intermediate as well? If anyone is reading this thread and could help out, thanks!
[quote=“shaokai”]So, it sounds like the CLD program is the same amount of class time as the “intensive” MTC program, but perhaps with better, or at least more patient, teachers?
I have lurked about these forums for a long time and have yet to hear anyone say anything bad about CLD. Plenty of rants about MTC, though.
I am not a beginner, however; my level is “intermediate” (which of course means I am still light-years away from anything approaching fluency). I studied last summer at Middlebury in the US, which is pretty intensive - certainly 5-6 hours of homework every night, on top of 4 hours of class. I learned to speak, read, write and listen, though! I guess I’m looking for the same sort of experience in Taiwan, but I don’t have a full year to give up to ICLP. I’ve visited the country before and done many of the tourist things, so I don’t need to have weekends off to go down the coast or whatever. Just looking for an intensive language immersion experience.
That said, is there any advantage to paying slightly more to attend CLD at the intermediate level? Hearing that Shi-Da’s class sizes are on the high side turns me off a bit, but is that true only for the beginner classes, or does it hold true for intermediate as well? If anyone is reading this thread and could help out, thanks![/quote]
How do you know you are intermediate? have you sat a proficiency test?
CLD class sizes are not big, regardless of your level. Max of 6 per class. I remember my first semester there was only myself and 3 others. I have had experience with NTNU they are rather disorganised, and overcrowded. For me it was definitely worth the extra mulla. Nice environment, great people not crowded.
Here you go 10 years later Another one who’s looking for information about CLD. Anybody who went to the program want to update future student on their experience? As for now the biggest difference for me seems size class, and that CLD still uses PAV and MTC uses Course of Contemporary Chinese, I’ve been using Course of Contemporary Chinese already and I love it, how’s PAV? There’s been a lot around the teachers at MTC not being as consistent as CLD, how did you enjoy your teachers and class experience at CLD?
Thanks for helping out!