So a person is basically spending an insane amount of money for something they could do on their own? :ohreally:[/quote]
Well, you cannot get university credits on your own Education is business, and when private, is always overpriced.
Honestly, I think getting a good tutor, provided that one is organized, is a good idea. This allows one to optimize oneās learning as the tutor will be only doing the stuff one cannot do on oneās own. Iāve been tutoring math (OK, I know thatās different, but stillā¦) for many years, and thatās they way I always went: instead of going through all the material and solving things randomly, the student should do most he can on his own and then we go over the stuff he didāt get together and I explain it thoroughlyā¦
Has anyone notice something weird about the lesson hours?! Each program states that they teach 15 hours/week (3 hours/day), but thatās not true. Itās 2,5 hours/day instead of 3. If thereās a break in each lesson, then its even less than 2,5 hours.
What do you all think about this?
15 hours is the currently visa requirement. The universities in Taiwan need to claim that students are in class 15 hours a week so that the students can get a visa.
thanks for the insights. i am studying at shida also, right now at level 1. i find i spend a majority of my time learning how to handwrite characters, which to me, i think is significantly slowing down my spoken progress. the only thing i can actually say with any confidence at this point is the cop out to politely induce english: å°äøčµ·, ęēäøęäø儽. My pronunciation is so bad that the cashier kid I befriended and talk to everyday at the FamilyMart responded to me saying āMy pronunciation is bad.ā With āI know.ā
BTW, I typed the Chinese using the built-in Pinyin to Traditional IME in Win7 and did it about 10 times faster than I can handwrite the characters. My colleagues wonder why I am spending time learning to handwrite when most people donāt even use paper anymore except for writing stuff down like äøäŗäøåäŗå äøå «ä¹åē¾åč¬ (and for the real ballers å), their name, address and phone number. this is true in pretty much any language.
granted, learning to write the characters means i really recognize them, but i still donāt feel this is a good allocation of time, especially since i donāt plan on becoming an author or calligrapher. i just want to speak well, read most stuff, type Chinese when needed and write my name, address and phone number. at some point, i want to be able to do business development tasks on my own in Chinese.
i am sponsored so no need for any visa from the schools. thinking about switching schools to something that will help me speak faster, or figure out a way to make shida work for my goals.
another situation is that i am getting the impression that my teacher authored a lot of the content, so i need to tread lightly on that front, but i want to let her know my gripes.
I realize this has been posted before, and I have read most of those threads, however, everyones needs are different.
I have been taking Mandarin for two semester at my university and I am looking at applying for the LEP program for the Taiwan Scholarship. I plan on going to study political science at NTU afterwords, taught in Mandarin.
Let me introduce you to a famous saying in Chinese.
大åå°ē°
Pick whichever one seems the most convenient, is nearest to your friendās address, or is cheapest. All language centers in Taiwan teach basically the same way and use essentially the same materials. Itās up to you what you get out of your time there.
You are unlikely to advance meaningfully enough to handle a university program taught all in Mandarin within a year at any program. However, the Taiwanese Government believes you can. They actually think that people can go from zero Mandarin to university-level fluency in a yearās time. Possible, but very difficult, and unlikely for most.
Iām looking for a top notch school with great teachers but not NTU. Itās too expensive. Does anyone know what the teachers are like at Shida? Iāve studied before at TLI at the Roosevelt location and found them to be great. What about Shilin? Any other suggestions for consideration?
This thread has been an interesting read so far. So I have arrived in Taipei a week ago, and will start teaching English for 20hrs a week at my school in about 3 weeks time. I was wondering about NTNU, as I live practically next door to them.
Can I ask or change classes that will suit my teaching hours ? For example I do not want to enroll and pay then find out their classes are during the afternoon and evenings, when I will be most likley teaching then.
Any advice for teaching English and learning chinese, except for the obvious get a local gf ? LOL
ICLP (NTU): Intensive training geared towards formal communication, especially reading/writing. Teaches traditional characters.
CLD (NTU): Intensive training with excellent staff. Teaches simplified characters.
MTC (NTTU): Highly intensive training leaving little time for extracurricular activities. Bitchy admin. Teaches traditional characters.
MLC (CCU): Relatively slow-paced instruction with plenty of optional courses to allow for more immersion. However, lacking in traditional campus facilities e.g. gym? Due to the composition of the students, the lingua franca tends to be Mandarin. Teaches simplified characters and pinyin.
For me, simplified script, pinyin and most importantly, more opportunities to practice spoken Mandarin has pointed me in the direction of MLC.
Iām not positive but I think Sun Yat Sen (Jhongshan) in Kaohsiung teaches bopomofo.
Iām not very far along in my Chinese studies but I spent my time outside of class learning the characters (a lot of time). And for a lot of characters once youāve learned the traditional itās not that much more difficult to also learn the simplified.
The best way for immersion is not the optional courses but getting out and exploring Taiwan and making Chinese speaking friends. And thatās free. But youāll have to sign up for the optional courses at any university if you need a student visa.
[quote=āAbacusā]Iām not positive but I think Sun Yat Sen (Jhongshan) in Kaohsiung teaches bopomofo.
Iām not very far along in my Chinese studies but I spent my time outside of class learning the characters (a lot of time). [color=#FF0000]And for a lot of characters once youāve learned the traditional itās not that much more difficult to also learn the simplified. [/color]
The best way for immersion is not the optional courses but getting out and exploring Taiwan and making Chinese speaking friends. And thatās free. But youāll have to sign up for the optional courses at any university if you need a student visa.[/quote]
Agreed. Learning simplified seems like a waste of time and money. I can read and understand simplified, although Iāve never actually studied them, because I know the traditionalā¦
If a uni in Taiwan was trying to flog simplified to me Iād laugh at them.
Hi there, thanks for the replies (and merging threads ā sorry about posting a new topic).
Itās good to hear that pinyin is almost universally used. I will try to learn Traditional, but I was just pointing out those institutes that do teach simplified as well (as far as my research went anyway). So, between NTU (CLD) and CCU, what are your recommendations???
[quote=āHellstormā][quote=āi_speak_engrishā]Hi there, thanks for the replies (and merging threads ā sorry about posting a new topic).
Itās good to hear that pinyin is almost universally used.
[/quote]
Why are you so afraid of Bopomofo? You can learn that in half a day and then you know some Pīnyīn, which the locals actually use.
If you learned Japanese or Korean, you would also have to learn some kind of new script for the pronounciation.[/quote]
I agree. Zhuyin is very easy to learn, and once you know it thereās mountains of books available in Taiwan that have Zhuyin with the characters for pronunciation purposes.
[quote=āi_speak_engrishā]Iāve never learned Zhuyin. Itās one more obstacle to overcomeā¦ Sure, I could probably learn it in a few hours, åÆęÆęäøä¼å¦å°ć
Still waiting for a NTU vs CCU debate to spark up [/quote]
I taught myself Zhuyin in an afternoon, mate. If I can do it, so can you! Jiayou!
[quote=ābismarckā][quote=āi_speak_engrishā]Iāve never learned Zhuyin. Itās one more obstacle to overcomeā¦ Sure, I could probably learn it in a few hours, åÆęÆęäøä¼å¦å°ć
Still waiting for a NTU vs CCU debate to spark up [/quote]
I taught myself Zhuyin in an afternoon, mate. If I can do it, so can you! Jiayou![/quote]
I always wonder why people give up learning Zhuyin already before starting it, just when they hear it.
They want to master 3000-4000 Hanzi, but donāt want to learn 30 or 40 simple letters
Education is business, and when private, is always overpriced.
