How good would your Chinese be after a year full-time studying in Taiwan?

Language Learning Chinese
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Sorry, I know this is a “How long is a piece of string?” style question with numerous variables, such as individual dedication, quality of the institution, etc., but I really need a general idea.

I’m in my 30s and soon I’ll be between jobs, so I’ve been thinking a lot about taking a year out. I was mostly thinking about doing a master’s here in the UK, but it occurred to me that it would cost me a lot less to study Chinese full-time in a remote part of Taiwan and I’d definitely have a better experience doing that. That said, a master’s (in a STEM field) would probably set me up better to find a “good job”, in both the UK and Taiwan, and I’m not actually sure that one year’s full-time Chinese study would really get me to a level that it would help me to find a job at all.

Because I haven’t lived in Taiwan for so long and have barely used my Chinese in that time (and was never that good to begin with), I would need to start from scratch. So, I’m looking to get an idea about following the basic full-time university curriculum (which I think is the same throughout Taiwan) for a solid year, living in a more remote part of the country where I’d be forced to use it.

So, in principal, going from zero (or “sort of” zero) and studying full-time for one year, what kind of level could I expect to be at by the end?

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How forced will you be to use Chinese?

1 year isn’t a long time and without forcing, you won’t learn much.

With forcing like have to write Chinese despite no ability to do so, you’ll learn fast, but it will suck.

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It’s hard to say, but I would want to study in a remote mountainy area, not in a big city, so I imagine I’d feel quite a bit of pressure in that sense.

Also, I’m not a 21 year old on a scholarship. I’d be using a significant chunk of my life savings to do this and, I imagine, that would motivate the hell out of me to get the most out of it.

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Why not try for a scholarship for a STEM masters at National Chi Nan University in Nantou?

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Forced means no foreigners to help you, no one will speak any language other than Chinese. Means you can’t even do even the most basic thing without Chinese.

You’ll learn very fast, but it will suck.

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Don’t forget to work on your English too. :slightly_smiling_face:

But seriously, I think a STEM master’s would give you much more bang for your buck. If you’re going to be in Taiwan long-term at some point, you can pick up Mandarin on your own if you’re disciplined and motivated.

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Calling @ironlady and her genius methods for Chinese language instruction. TPRS works. Mindless memorization of vocab and grammar patterns is a legitimate waste of your life once you’ve learned that way.

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Do you know of any self learning TPRS courses?

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I feel like TPRS really requires interaction (and, honestly, a large group of other students) to work.

TPRS is sort of “group story building” (“story asking” as Terry Waltz says in her book). The instructor starts with a sentence like “there is a boy”. They then do what’s called “circling”. This means they ask questions about the sentence that allow a one word response from the class, and then repeat the whole sentence. For example, “is there a boy?” (Class = “yes”, instructor = “yes (class), there is a boy”), “Is there a girl?” (“No, there is not a girl. There is a boy”), “is there a boy or a girl?” (“There is a boy”). After enough repetition, the teacher can directly ask a specific student to answer with a complete sentence. This is called triangling. Once that pattern has been established, you can add a detail either using that same pattern (“There is a girl”) or a new one (“the boy is John”) and repeat the process of circling and triangling (“is the boy John or Bill?”, “Is the boy Bill?”, etc.)

I’ve seen some “TPRS” and “comprehensible Chinese” videos on YouTube, but they are boring as heck, often use wildly uncommon language, never repeat the new language nearly enough times, and rely on gestures instead of direct translation of meaning. So I would say…find a TPRS teacher!

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Any suggestions? In Hsinchu or Taichung.

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I haven’t been able to find an English-medium master’s degree in Taiwan that I’d want to do. The fact that it’s two years instead of the UK’s one year is off-putting too. That said, I just assumed I was too old to apply for those kinds of scholarships, so I’ll look into it!

Well, it wouldn’t be as forced as that for sure. Part of why I want to do this is to have an enjoyable and fulfilling year out. The level of forced you’re asking about doesn’t sound like fun…

This would be the most sensible approach on the surface, but I honestly think at this point that if I spend a year studying a STEM master’s in the UK, I just don’t see myself ever getting to an advanced Chinese level. On the other hand, if I study Chinese for a year, I can absolutely see myself continuing to hone my tech skills doing short courses. In both cases, it’s more about doing something challenging and fulfilling for a year, while I still can, than it is about getting the actual qualification, though I still want it to lead to something tangible (hence I’m not seriously considering taking a humanities master’s, even though I’d definitely enjoy it).

This sounds good! I’d be curious if a list of such language centres in Taiwan exists.

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Based on my own experience, it will be crap.

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If you want fun, then be content having low level Chinese skill and taking much longer to master the language. Learning new language, especially something as hard as Chinese, is never fun.

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I’m looking for “challenging” and “fulfilling”. I don’t expect a STEM master’s or intensive language study to be primarily fun, though I enjoy being a student. I just don’t want to spend so much money to make myself miserable for a year.

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Currently the Government is hatching a plan to pay for qualified individuals education in STEM as long as they give Taiwan two years of work.

So in exchange for the 2 year scholarship you’ll get a 2 year guaranteed job.

So, if you have the background already, I’d say the odds are good.

Four years sounds about right to get your footing around in Chinese.

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One year is not enough, I agree. Basic courses would take about 3 years, IMHO.

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It really depends on you. You have studied a little bit up to this point, so you wouldn’t be going in completely blind, which helps.

I will give you my experience, and you can make your own decisions based on that. I studied 3/4 years of Chinese in Canada before coming to Taiwan. I was ok at reading, a bit less than ok with writing, and I thought ok with speaking and listening (I was not). However, University study in another country is in no way the same as studying a language in the home country.

I arrived at the Shida language centre, very full of myself, for the intake/placement exam. I thought I did ok with the reading/writing, but I barely understood anything said to me in the listening/speaking exam.

After getting my results, I was shocked! I was to be placed in Book One, Lesson 12. I had to eat my pride, and almost start from scratch.

However, it was a blessing in disguise. I had a great teacher in my first class who let us do a fair amount of free (albeit structured) talk in class after we covered the textbook materials. This, combined with hanging out with the good friends I made in class (who mostly couldn’t speak English, so we talked in Chinese), led to my speaking and listening level developing very quickly. However, I was also a dedicated student overall, and memorized my characters before the lesson started that week (some of which I already knew), and spent the entire week focusing on using the new vocabulary in speaking, reading , and writing.

My class in the following semester was the total opposite. The teacher was much more strict, and very into closely following the textbook, and bringing in a ton of additional writing work. Although I was not a fan at first, in retrospect it was great for my reading and writing. So now most of my skills were beginning to become a intermediate level.

I stayed with the language centre for just shy of a year, and by the end of it I had achieved a solid intermediate level. After that I studied mostly on my own for a year more, and I was able to enter a MA in Chinese Language in Canada with no real issues. Hint: Once you get to a decent level, talk with everyone you can, especially cab drivers!

Ultimately, you need to go into this wanting to really learn, and take it from there. You will get out what you put in. My experience was great, and it has ultimately has a lot with who I am today. However, you know you best.

I hope this gives you some insight into what a year can do with focused study and effort.

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And

I feel like there might be ten people on the planet that teach Chinese with TPRS? But online there is Online Language Classes – Squid For Brains: Comprehended Input (@ironlady should start paying me for promoting her classes, research, and general knowledge :joy:)

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The best way to learn Chinese is to ditch the classroom and go out on the streets with an articulate Mandarin speaker and learn to speak using the "Street Chinese"™ method.

Your teacher will walk thru what you need to say to deal with each random situation you encounter. You’ll video record everything you ad lib for later review.

Only rule is no English.

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Well, I came to Taiwan with an advanced level of Chinese. I would say some conversational stuff got better but I plateaued quite quickly by “just talking to people”. And translation aids with comprehension. Its a stupid waste of time to “just think about what it might mean” when you can just know what it means and move on.

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