Anyone studying at the MLC and could please say what are the optional hours for the “Basic 1” class?
I studied there a few months ago. They have been running 3 optional hours a day.
8:00AM~10:00AM
10:00AM~12:00AM
14:00AM~16:00AM
However, since there’s often not enough students to fill up each slot, you may have to choose the one that is most popular. Which usually is from 10 to 12.
umm, well, they said they only have 1pm-3pm and 3pm-5pm, but someone said that ain’t so. Trying to get the information form a student.
Maybe I should just give up, go to Shida and suffer bravely.
I did 18 months at Chinese culture University. I always did the 10 to 12 class. Check out their website: mlc.sce.pccu.edu.tw/
This is what they have on their site:
“Please note that basic 1 classes in 2003 are all at 3:00pm-5:00pm or 3:00pm-5:00pm o’clock. All the students who have never learned Mandarin could join these classes.”
(copy & paste)
The above should be 1:00pm-5:00pm or 3:00pm-5:00pm.
lysfjord, did you take Basic 1 or something else?
I did basic 1 in 2000. Completed step 5 in June this year. Guess they might have changed their schedule. It’s probably easiest to just email them and ask then?
That’s what I did before posting here, and pondered about the reply.
Well, too bad. It’s gonna be hard finding work with hours like that.
I’d like to bring this up again. Anyone studying at Chinese Culture University MLC?
I’ve looked into it a bit. The school is nice looking and seemingly well equipped, the office staff is nice, helpful, and ready to offer any information I have thrown at them, and the program is a bit slower than Shida’s. It’s also 16000 per semester as opposed to 18000.
Anyone?
No? Why not?
Yes? What do you think of the teachers there and environment? I walked around and looked at the classrooms and looks good. The teachers were using laptops and multimedia equipment to teach with. The office says that they go slower to meet the needs of students who wish to gain greater understanding and practice of the grammar and writing. For me, slower is better. I’m having a hell of a time keeping up to shida’s program. It’s a full time job for me and I just can’t keep up the way I want to. I think I kinda get it, and then I don’t. Not good enough for me.
I did a term there over the summer and I believe it’s much better than Shi-Da in all aspects. The facilities are top-notch and the teachers are good. In fact I think they share teachers as my teacher taught 8am-10am at Shi-Da, then hopped on the bus to CCU to teach from 10:30 to 12:30.
I even asked that said teacher which one she thinks is better, and she said if she were a student, she would choose CCU.
However, I dunno about it being slower. I found the it to be blazingly fast and you really gotta put in the time to keep up.
Though usually the teachers are open to suggestions as they are flexible in their teaching methods. So if the class thinks it’s too fast, the teacher can probably change it a bit.
[quote=“canucktyuktuk”]I’d like to bring this up again. Anyone studying at Chinese Culture University MLC?
I’ve looked into it a bit. The school is nice looking and seemingly well equipped, the office staff is nice, helpful, and ready to offer any information I have thrown at them, and the program is a bit slower than Shi-Da’s. It’s also 16000 per semester as opposed to 18000.
Anyone?
No? Why not?
Yes? What do you think of the teachers there and environment? I walked around and looked at the classrooms and looks good. The teachers were using laptops and multimedia equipment to teach with. The office says that they go slower to meet the needs of students who wish to gain greater understanding and practice of the grammar and writing. For me, slower is better. I’m having a hell of a time keeping up to Shi-Da’s program. It’s a full time job for me and I just can’t keep up the way I want to. I think I kinda get it, and then I don’t. Not good enough for me.[/quote]
I’m sure a good teacher is a good teacher in any environment. My teacher at Shida expressed frustration to to over not being able to go slower due to administration time constraints. We’re just starting lesson 10 (of book one) and are supposed to be finished lesson 11 by semester’s end, which is in a week, I think.
I don’t understand a lot of the grammar, I’m still having a hard time remembering the characters (and not geting any better) and concepts such as radicals have not been mentioned beyond “oh look at the similarities with these characters!” I have a strong feeling that Shida would just push me ahead even though (I think) I’m not ready. Basically, I would like to take it again, and fill in the many gaps that I know I have. I have so many questiona I don’t even know where to start.
Shida wants me to learn 11 chapters in one semester, CCu says they stop at 8, and have a greater focus on the entomology and grammar. Slower, more understanding, and hopefully not having tests every f-ing day would be good. I see slower pace meaning I get more chances to practice in class as well. Also, I have a crick in my neck from having to turn constantly and look around the big head next to me, and my legs will not fit under the tables at shida. Wenhua has nice classrooms where everybody gets to face forward and have adequate table space, from what I have seen. And the office ladies are informative and nice, even to the point of offering to let me talk to the teachers before I sign up.
It’s not so much a matter of me not putting in enough time. It’s a full time job for me; I guess I’m just a slow learner. It’s really frustrating and I would rather be knowledgable in all aspects of what I’m supposed to know than just 60 percent like I have been doing.
One thing for sure, I’m going to make sure that the next class I take is not taught in Spanish, English and Chinese. Unfortunately, my Spanish has improved a lot from trying to figure out what the teacher was saying to the South Americans. Live and learn, I guess.
CCU has been top notch! NO COMPLAINTS FROM ME!
This is my 2nd semester there. and here is what I have to say:
Teachers:
They range from young (20 something) to older (40-50 something). The school has 30 teachers and about 300 students making class size about 10 students per teacher.
My first teacher 吳老師 was a bit fast for me, but I did miss a few classes so it is partly my fault for not absorbing as much as I should have. She taught at both ShiDa and CCU. She mixed things up in the class keeping things interesting by teaching cultural things too, like tea ceremony stuff, calligraphy with traditional ink and paint brushes, and even a field trip just for fun. She tested us every day with small tests and one Major test every week. Too much testing in my opinion. A bit nerve racking if you didnt study every day (fair warning). She spoke English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, and Japanese which helped the one japanese student we had. She limited the amount of Japanese she used and focuse dmore on teaching in Mandarin and English. Her teaching style was to drill us on writing and reading in class with ,what I felt to be, too little time on conversation skills. She taught straight from the book which I didnt care for that much.
Score: ****- (four stars out of five)
[Classes usually start off with a good mix of English and Mandarin…but as the semester progresses the teachers will usually limit the amoint of english they use in class.]
My second teacher 田老師 has been the best so far. Her pace is a bit slower and more thorough. She uses her own handouts more than the book, because the book is ancient and mixes too much mainland chinese with what we really need to know. She doesnt test as often as my previous class, but her major tests (once a week) are challenging. Her homework is moderate yet thorough. She teaches conversation skills in class, reading in class, and expects you to learn the writing at home from the book (makes sense!) She makes sure our pronunciation is right with tones, thorougly explains grammar until everyone gets it, and mixes the classes up with interesting language games, reading, and conversations. Often times our conversations will stray from the lesson and we learn a ton of new material not in the book that is really usefull in everyday life here. She doesnt let us stray too long and knows how to balance the lecture time with conversation. All of my Taiwanese friends and my wife say that since starting with this teacher, my mandarin has been improving dramaticaly! However, I will say that you can only get out of the class what you put in…learning a language is not easy and you HAVE to study at least 2 hours a day to really make progress. I am going to request her for my third term.
Score: ***** (five stars out of five)
Facilities:
Located a few blocks from the Technology Building Station on the Muzha (brown) line, it is easily accesible. The school is newer and doubles as a satelite location for WenHua Da Shue Yang Ming Shan. They teach computer classes, graphic arts, English, Business, Yoga, Belly Dancing, Broadcasting, Martial Arts, and of course Mandarin. The Mandarin Center is on the 4th floor and classes are held on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors in big MODERN clean classrooms. Each classroom has digital technology (computer, overhead projectors, computer projector, DVD player, etc) that the teacher’s can utilize for their classes. Some classrooms have tables for desks which is great for extra leg room and a place to write on, but some classes have the desks with the folding tops. PLeanty of classroom space, but those tiny desks can make you feel cramped, especially if you are tall like me. It is not too big of a deal though.
There is a decent size computer (digital media center) room on the Basement level 4 floor. It has a cafe, library, copy room, compouter room, private study rooms, lounge, and TV lounge. There is also a cafe on the main floor that is reasonably priced.
I have spoken to students and teachers from ShiDa that both say CCU is betetr equiped, cleaner, and over all nicer than ShiDa.
Cost:
16,000 every 3 month term.
Class time hours:
8:00-10:00
10:00-12:00
12:00-2:00
3:00-5:00
You can request your class time, but a class time needs a minimum of 6 students to assign a teacher to that time slot. The school usually reserves the afternoon classes for beginning levels and the morning classes for intermediate and advanced classes. I got lucky this semester and am in a biggining level from 10: to 12:00. I love the morning hours as it frees up your whole day.
Office Staff:
Accomodating. There are one or two ladies that are friendly, but the other 3 are cold as ice and HATE using English. You are expected to at least try and communicate with them in Mandarin, regardless of your current level. But on the flip side, you only have to go to the office to sign up and to pick up text books, etc. So its not an every day encounter. I have heard ShiDa’s office staff are far worse.
One last note, the school is located two blocks from Daan Park (great for hanging out during nice weather) and is two blocks away from the Diner (one of Taipei’s best western food establishments!)
Wow… nice post Quarters.
I agree with everything said…
I’m currently at ShiDa and studied at CCu for seven months a few years back. While I agree that CCu is newer, cleaner, slower, I do have a few points:
IMO, the classrooms at CCu (with the desks all facing the front) are less conducive to language learning as you are rarely required to interact as a group; it’s only one student and the teacher taking turns – you may as well not be in a group class half the time. Even when you do get to interact, you are still going to have lots of uncomfortable head-turning unless you make sure you get a seat at the back! But seeing the faces of the other people in your class when they are speaking is much better than looking at the back of their heads. Eye contact (and even embarrassed squirming round one big table!) is good for language learning.
Don’t be fooled by the admin staff. They are of course as sweet as candy when they are waiting for you to hand over your cash. IMO, they are no better or worse than the ShiDa admin people, though I witnessed two of the particularly nasty CCu admin “girls” reduce a Buddhist nun to tears. The Filipinas in my class also said the CCu admin were “bitches” to them, and only treated the Japanese and Koreans with any sort of respect (like Taiwan generally, I suppose). If you’re white and male, you won’t have any problem with them, though.
Also, I probably wouldn’t worry so much about radicals in the first semester – towards the middle of book one you will start to notice more that parts of some characters are the same (ooh, look, a radical!) The later chapters of the ShiDa text are designed like that, and recognizing them starts to come quite naturally. Again IMO, wasting time in the classroom listing all the other characters that have the same radical is pointless at such as early stage. If it bothers you that your teacher at ShiDa is not doing this, it is something easily done yourself at home – with a dictionary. Teaching radicals in the classroom is much like going through an English dictionary in an English class – something that you probably wouldn’t want to pay for! Still, there are many opinions about the best way to teach Chinese; I personally don’t think CCu’s focus on entomology (if indeed it does), nor talking about interesting cultural asides is particularly helpful in the early stages.
[that said, Quarter’s description of his/her second teacher at CCu also describes mine at Shida now – it’s the luck of the draw, not the school itself]
As for the speed of classes at ShiDa, well, 10-11 chapters in twelve weeks (ShiDa) is faster than 8 chapters in eleven weeks (CCu). But from what I remember about the teachers at CCu, that extra time is spent talking about their one trip to America (in the 1970s) and all the strange things that they saw the “foreigners” doing!
I don’t have any vested interest in ShiDa – or you staying there – but there’s probably not that much to chose between them. Also, there may be visa considerations if you change schools?
Anyway, good luck! 
The classroom set up at CCU has never posed a problem in either of my semesters for group discussions, interaction, language games etc. The teachers will ask the students to get up and switch seats to interact with other students during activities, not really a big deal.
I disagree with you here. I am white, male, 28 from the US…half of them still act rude and mean spirited…other students I have talked to (African, Indonesian, Pilipino, Thai, English, American all agree.
I do agree with you here. I have only had experience with 3 teachers at CCU, one of which I didn’t really care for. Keep in mind there are 30 teachers. It is the luck of the draw…but you can “request” a certain teacher…they don’t guarantee coming through on your requests though. Your 1st week you are allowed to request a class transfer if you don’t like your class placement for any reason. After the first week you are stuck in that class for the remainder of the term.
I never had a teacher do this. Most times the students solicit stories from the teacher to entertain ourselves and to build friendship with the teacher. I never had a teacher go on about anything. Usually it’s the students that go on and on and on…
This is true. You are allowed to apply for a change of school on your visa but I don’t know the regulations behind it…something worthwhile to look into before you make any changes.
Anyways, its always good to hear other opinions so you can get a bigger view of the picture…thanks for the discussion 
I’m OK with the visa situation. I’m going to have an interview with one of the teachers on monday, To find out more about her teaching style.
The speed issue is a great consideration for me. I need to feel somewhat confident that I am keeping up. Thus, I’m taking level one again. I really don’t feel like giving Shida my money anymore.
I guess ya live and learn. In retrospect, I should have had an idea of what to expect and look for in classroom dynamics. I should have noticed that my class was taught in Spanish and English, and avoided this because my limited knowledge of spanish confuses me when I’m supposed to be thinking in Chinese. I should have held the class back with endless questions about every grammar point and definitely did my homework differently. I should have went in for extra help right from the start, instead of getting frustrated and wondering why my efforts weren’t working. When I did go in for extra help, it was too late, and not very helpful. I should have got there early on the first day so I could get a good seat and not have neck problems today. I should have taken a later class because I have a sleep disorder and getting up at 6:30 just isn’t working for me anymore. I shouldn’t have given the office ladies at Shida a hard time about misplacing my paperwork twice and not giving me all the information I asked for. Patience, Grasshopper…
I really feel that, as a beginner, the Audio-Visual book is sorely lacking in beginners curriculum. I would have wanted more time to learn “kid stuff” like colors, numbers, more basic conversation that’s more useful for the situation of someone who is coming from another country to Taiwan (I know, I’ve been here long enough, but…). Pinyin and BPMF could have been explored further, and also the mechanics of writing each and every character would be useful to me. More grammar without deciphering the secret codes of (N), NU-M (N) - M (qian2) or (AV) V O (de) N and on and on. That stuff takes me forever to figure out, and does not translate well with my knowledge of English Grammar. Arg. At least a handout on basic study tips would have been useful for me, a tradesman who hasn’t been in situation like this before. How do you study? What do successul students do? I don’t remember college very well, I’m afraid. I did well back then without even trying, and never studying. This time I studied my ass off, and I just don’t get it.
I hope I learned something, at least. I’m going to try, try again; and try not to be so pissed off about the situation. I think I can budget for a private tutor if I get another private, and there’s always Language Exchange, not that I’ve ever had any luck with that.
Good luck on Monday! 
See if they will let you sit in on one of the classes so you can raelly see the teachers style. Maybe even glance at a blank test. I don’t see why they would object.
Don’t be so hard on yourself…life is full of should have’s, would have’s, could have’s.
Major point here: Never, ever feel like YOU are holding a class back because you have questions, or becaquse you don’t understand. It is the teacher’s responsability and job to ensure all questions are answered.
You are paying them to teach you, you deserve to get the most out of your money. If the teacher made you feel like you were slowing things down, screw that teacher! You are paying her/his salary and they better darn well adjust their teaching styles to the needs of the students period (without drifting too far from the curriculum of course). And if it was other students that actively or pasively made you feel that way, screw them too! You have just as much a right to ask questions as they do. Your questions, no doubt, most likely helped others who were too intimidated or shy to ask questions. Raise that hand and dont be intimidated.
Hang in their my friend. Those things come in due time. I don’t know why the audio visual chinese books don;t introduce those things from the start, but you will eventually get to them. My current teacher designed her own handouts on: colors, days, months, weather, anatomy of the human body, food, animals, time, and other things. They were informative handouts that helped a lot, but we were not expected to know the material for testing. It was just suplimental stuff. Hopefully your teacher at CCU will do the same for you…don’t be afraid to ask for a handout on something either.
I agree that 1 week on BPMF is a bit intimidating; however, the system is rather basic. I tutor (with my wife) a young girl (7years old). She has been learning BPMF for the last 2 years and is still having major problems. She was amazed that I learned it in 1 week. If you linger too long on BPMF you become too dependent on it. Best to get it in quickly and dont use it as a crutch. It really is not that hard if you pick one system, stick with it, and write it with the new characters that you learn. Drill yourself constantly on BPMF: Flash cards, mental pictures when you read signs, menus, flyers, newspapers, etc.
The grammar system in the Shi Da and CCU books was confusing at first too. WHat the hell is a SV…M…etc etc etc…My first teacher didnt explain it at all. My second teacher took a day to explain it and showed us the American English equivelants. Thank you Tien Lao Shi!
Again, ask for a handout or explenation.
Keep in mind that many of these successful students have already had chinese language courses from where they came from, or at other language schools. Many of them come in at level one to cruise through or for a refresher, when in fact they are at a level 2 or 3. I had classmates openly confess this to me. Don’t measure your success by the success of others.
How do you study? Mostly alone. I spend 2 hours at home. 1st hour write the new charachters about 20 to 30 times each with the BPMF and tones and say the character outloud each time.
2nd hour I try to make sentences using the grammar we have learned. And I test myself on the charachters. I write the BPMF for each charachter randomly, then I write the charachters…I do this in reverse too.
The day of a major test, I get to school early and drill myself on characters and tones for about an hour or half an hour. This way it is fresh in my mind before the test.
WHen at home, on the road, or anywhere I always look for the charachters I have been learning, try to read things and imagine the BPMF and tones. I use the stuff I have learned when I order food, take a taxi, ask for directions, talk to friends etc. I have made it clear to my classmates that i fully intend to talk to them mainly in mandarin, english is rationed. Tehy have agreed and it helps so much. It is so tempting to fall back into english when we are around each other. Make this agreement with your new classmates!
Does anyone have any opinions (based om experience) of the way Mandarin is taught there?
I have signed up to kill two birds with one stone (visa- and Chinese improvement) and chose CCU over Shi Da based on the pleasant vibe I got around the place.
I did notice though that the classes that I walked past seemed to be lecture style…lots of students facing the front as the teacher…wrote on the board. Hopefully these were advanced grammar classes or something and I hope the regular classes are not run this way.
Hi there
Just wondering if you have started yet, and what you think of the classes at CCU?
I will be starting in September.
Opinions regarding CCU have already been discussed on this forum before.
You could try doing a search.
But I will give you my opinion in one sentence.
It’s better than Shi-Da and cheaper.