Hi. im selo.
i am going to study in Taiwan in February next year. i am so glad that i can finally back to Taiwan
i want to ask your opinion about taking Mandarin course in NTNU or Wenhua…Which one is better?
i already explored the websites --look like WenHua a lot cheaper that NTNU, but many people say Wenhua also a good place to learn, that’s why it make me confuse why is it so much cheaper
then i need references for long term place to stay, i heard about Hsiu-Chi House,
anybody know how much the rates for 1 month rent? (i emailed them bu noone reply )
and any advices for another place are so welcome
Chinese Culture University is up on a mountain. It’s not too far from the city, but when you are feeling lazy you’ll probably not want to take the 20-or-so minute bus ride just to grab lunch. There’s not much up there. That’s about all I know about it.
NTNU is very, very central, though I have noticed a lot of students from other countries (Japan, Korea, South America, etc.) who go study there end up improving their English faster than their Chinese.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]Chinese Culture University is up on a mountain. It’s not too far from the city, but when you are feeling lazy you’ll probably not want to take the 20-or-so minute bus ride just to grab lunch. There’s not much up there. That’s about all I know about it.
NTNU is very, very central, though I have noticed a lot of students from other countries (Japan, Korea, South America, etc.) who go study there end up improving their English faster than their Chinese.[/quote]
I think the mandarin classes of the culture university is given in its Daan campus on Heping East Road? So that’s pretty central too.
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]Chinese Culture University is up on a mountain. It’s not too far from the city, but when you are feeling lazy you’ll probably not want to take the 20-or-so minute bus ride just to grab lunch. There’s not much up there. That’s about all I know about it.
NTNU is very, very central, though I have noticed a lot of students from other countries (Japan, Korea, South America, etc.) who go study there end up improving their English faster than their Chinese.[/quote]
thanks for reply, i really appreciate it!
then do you know any places to stay in long term? i’m so blind about it, if you have any references please tell me
[quote=“Hokwongwei”]Chinese Culture University is up on a mountain. It’s not too far from the city, but when you are feeling lazy you’ll probably not want to take the 20-or-so minute bus ride just to grab lunch. There’s not much up there. That’s about all I know about it.
NTNU is very, very central, though I have noticed a lot of students from other countries (Japan, Korea, South America, etc.) who go study there end up improving their English faster than their Chinese.[/quote]
No, it’s not … its mandarin learning center is smack bang in the middle of the city … next to daan park … more modern facilities than NTNU and a fresher approach according to some students that studied at both …
I’ve been at Wenhua for two cycles of 3 months … full time 3 hours/day, 5 days a week.
I did a 3-month intensive course at Wenhua (in Da-An campus), 3 hours a day, monday to friday, and I was very satisfied with it. I’m planning on going back there when I have the time to do so (which may be in one or two years, when my daughter is old enough to go to kindergarten).
I’m at NTNU at the moment; I do the intensive classes (3hrs/day), you can also choose regular which is 2hrs/day but additionally you have to do 5(?) hours per week of “large language classes” and/or study time in the library. My teacher is fairly good and so far I haven’t heard any complaints from other groups either. My one problem is that the style of teaching is very monotonous: on the first day of starting a new chapter we will go through the grammar exercises, then come up with a dialogue using all the grammar patterns; then we will go through the vocabulary, then have a short discussion about the chapter’s topic, then read the text, then a test and short presentation, lather, rinse, repeat. Honestly, about two-thirds into the term I’m a little bored. With my classmates I only speak Mandarin even outside of class, but that will mostly depend on the group.
A few acquaintances of mine are at Wenhua and from what I’ve heard, they use the same textbook (Practical Audio-Visual Chinese), but only have 2 hours/week of frontal-style teaching, the rest is activities like calligraphy, martial arts, stuff like that. My acquaintance also complained that the groups are too big (more than 30 vs. 6-10 at ShiDa). However, this is all only 聽說 so maybe someone who actually went to Wenhua wants to comment on that? Blaquesmith and Belgian Pie, you seem to have had a better experience there. Maybe there are also different types of class like at NTNU’s MTC (regular/intensive)? Or they have a different program for exchange students as opposed to people who actually pay for the language classes?
Actually, a friend of mine came last summer to do a short intensive in NTNU’s MTC, and he didn’t like it at all. He complained that all his classmates were japanese high school kids that were there just because their parents sent them to Taiwan to study chinese, but they were not really interested, and spoke between them in japanese all the time. That’s just his experience.
In my class in Wenhua, there were 3 japanese people (an old couple and a girl), two vietnamese cousins (boy and girl), a french guy, a german guy, a U.S. girl, a russian student, and yours truly. The other groups were also 9-12 people (I recall that from the student lists, which were public). Our teacher was great, and she managed to explain almost everything in chinese (and make us understand it!). We did a lot of practice at class, and besides the books (which were very good), they also gave us a lot of good material. The intensive were 3 hours everyday, monday to friday. Besides, they have the other activities you mention. Wenhua also has a group of volunteer taiwanese students that help foreign students with their chinese practice. Personally, If I have to keep studying, I want to do it there.
Same for me if I lived closer to or in Taipei … but doing a 3 hour commute everyday for 6 months is exhausting … at my age … plus doing the homework, I was really tired of doing it daily
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