Are you serious? Are we talking about the same materials (Practical Chinese by Seiboth/Symonds/Yuan-Ping)? I know a lot of better books for learning Chinese.
I agree. They taught me how to say “email” in Chinese when I told them that I don’t write “aerograms” and they accepted that I didn’t see the necessity of learning “missionary”, “priest” and “pastor”. 
Well, I have nothing to say about Practical Chinese since I had already studied for 2 years (accelerated 4 year program) before arriving. Thus, I was referring to the texts they use at higher levels – Chinese Folk Tales & stuff like that. It’s much more engaging to learn through reading interesting (if something bizarre) stories than a textbook.
Zakarius
Hello There,
I am looking for feedback from people who have taken Chinese programs at any of the aforementioned universities in subject line. I live in Taoyuan and am looking to study chinese somewhere in Taiwan in the fall. My goals are to learn Chinese for conversational and business purposes.
Any and all feedback appreciated on these mandarin programs appreciated.
Thanks.
David
Not Providence.
Fengjia has big classes, most students are overseas chinese form Indonesia, so their level is pretty advanced. The campus is an a conenient location.
Donhai has a beautyfull campus, good air to breeth, but i think it is the most expensive language center in Taichung.
Providence is the cheapest of the three and pretty far out.
You should have a look yourself at all the schools, i think the choice of school is not too important. Depends on your effort how much learn.
You won’t get a teacher. What you get is a student, maybe an English major, learning how to teach Chinese to the laowai. Not the best way to go. I want a teacher, not someone earning extra pocket money.
Donghai is on a mountain slope with it own ranch and swimming pool. Foriegner get their own forienger dorm with drying machine. There is a nice market area/dorm area called the beishu on the top of the campus.
Expensive, but I believe the tuition also covers a kick back in spending money. They manage your spending money. Which I think is a scam.
There is an exam for all people entering the language program and classes are relatively small. There is a group class of 15 to cover culture and a conversation class of 3 to cover language.
ac_dropout, it sounds like you must have gone there a few years ago. Things have changed a little.
There are no culture classes. Group classes are 3-5 students, or larger for Indonesians. Students can pay extra to live in the dorm, but it’s not a foreigner dorm. Normal tuition doesn’t include any spending money allowance. It may be different for exchange students. One has to pay to use the pool. One doesn’t have to take an entrance exam.
Thanks for the feedback. This is a link I found for DongHai’s program:
www2.thu.edu.tw/~clc/
Their tuition is higher than other 2 universities but pretty in much when you consider their program runs for 16 weeks rather than 12 weeks the other programs offer. No mention of any spending allowance. That sounds real ‘sketchy’ to me. I plan on checking out campus next week. I REALLY like the idea of clean air after spending past 7 months in Taoyuan…OUCH!!
Unfortunately you’re not going to find it Taichuung (that extra u should fuck the pinyin nazi!). Check the air quality readings in the papers sometime.
I did time at both Feng Chia and Tunghai back in 1997. I also spent a month in Feng Chia’s student dormitory - my month with the kretek brothers. Feng Chia was cheap but the classes crowded as hell. With all the Indo students a non-indo stands a very good chance of picking up a student scholarship thingy. However, academic rigour is sorely lacking. I got to advanced in Feng Chia and thought that when I picked up some money from Australia to study at Tunghai I’d drift over to their advanced classes. Ooops! They mean business in Tunghai. Classes are small and there is nowhere to hide when you’re struggling. Great incentive to learn mind you.
I’ve come around to the view that it really doesn’t matter what the teacher’s like - because generally Chinese teachers are all crap - what matters is how much of your own effort you want to give it. That said Tunghai gives the same kick up the arse that Shi Da (also studied there) tends to. They simply won’t tolerate time-wasting students . . . or didn’t!
Had my own pad by the time I moved over to Tunghai so I have no idea what the dorms are like but that Lixiangguo (utopia) stretching up the hill on the opposite side of Taichunggang road looked like a mighty nice place to set up in. Bunch of mad yanks lived up there at the time . . . . wonder if any of 'em are still around?
Got no idea what this spending money managing is all about. Never heard any such thing when I was there.
HG
[color=darkblue]By the Providence University, specifically Biz House (officially the PU
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]
Unfortunately you’re not going to find it Taichuung (that extra u should fuck the pinyin nazi!).
HG[/quote]
Good swift kick for the pinyin nazi. A cold one on me is waiting for you at Bobwundaye next time you are in town.
I also think that the teacher doesn’t matter. You have to learn Chinese yourself. The classes simply impose useful discipline. The other thing that can help is taking classes a bit below what you think is your level. You’ll learn more if you are feeling relaxed and enjoying things. Don’t ‘stretch’ and take classes that are too hard for you.
How can you tell? Look at the textbook and make sure you know 90% of the characters. That way you will learn the other 10% easily and you’ll actually be able to practice using the ones you recognize passively.
While I’m randomly handing out tips–does everyone know about Pauker? This free flashcard program rocks.
HG: Can we expect a report on tomorrow’s march from you? Even if you can’t attend, it would be interesting to hear your impressions of what the mood is like on the street or in the office as the case may be.
It’s the student that makes or breaks your Chinese learning, not the teacher or school. That said, Tunghai was great because there’s more of a formal tradition and experience there, maybe it’s less of a fly-by-night Chinese teaching school like some of the others where the teachers are fresh college grads and have never really brought someone from nothing to total fluency. Teachers are fantastic at Tunghai, some are older grey haired ladies originally from mainland China that are great at teaching. If you are motivated to learn, you will do well.
Not sure if UMass still has an exchange program with Tunghai, but if so, I recommend you hook up with some of them before the semester starts. They all get rooms in the dorms as full time exchange students. Some of them, however, are more interested in living off campus and partying. So if you’re serious, “buy” them out of their dorm rights, then goto to an ID shop and have them alter your ID to show the UMass student’s name, and register for the dormitories. In my case, my language center ID only had my Chinese name, and the dormitory admin office only had his English name, and they simply assumed I was one and the same.
Lived with three other guys in a cramped little room with no mattresses or A/C and some showers at the end of the hallway, but my Chinese got a hell of a lot better, and my computer science roomate got me into surfing the Chinese web and typing in Chinese.
hi everyone,
long time listener, first time caller. i’ll be coming to taiwan (taichung) soon, and i have the same questions as bruin8. specifically i’m looking for a school that teaches mainland pinyin, since that’s what i studied here. i’ll deal with traditional characters if i can have my mainland pinyin. (what’s that offically called by the way?) are there any schools that teach it? thanks.
[color=black]They use it everywhere.
Ask before, for being super-sure.
Anyway, they’ll ask you how/where you have studied Chinese before.[/color]
Yeah, I’ve searched the archives and found some threads pointing to an answer, but I thought I’d ask anyhow.
I’m looking for a school in Taizhong to polish up my Chinese. I can read newspapers at a moderate pace and I can roughly follow the TV news, but my speaking and writing aren’t much further than everyday conversational level. Ideally, I’d like to crash some regular classes at Donghai and just chat up the students, but I’m transitioning out of the buxiban teaching scene, and I don’t think they give visas for just hanging out with Taiwanese students.
What sort of schools should I be looking at? My impression from reading older posts is that the Donghai and Fengjia programs are fairly expensive, the Providence University language program might be OK, and there’s also TLI. What’s the best option? Private classes at TLI? Getting a “real” job?
Don’t hang out with alien folks. Find places where you can fairly sure that you are the only foreigner and make friends with people.
Hello. I live in Taichung and was previously was a student at Providence, but found the class structure to be pretty slack. Granted, I did learn a fair bit of Chinese, but it was easy to see that if I wasn’t so inclined, I could have just sat in class and gotten by without having learned anything. I want to get back in class, but don’t really know which school to go to. Really, the only other school I have any knowledge about is TLI, and I’ve heard it’s pretty good in terms of price and the intensity of studies. Can any of you give me some insight on the schools around here: prices, intensity of the courses, were you satisfied, etc… As far as what I want to learn, I’d like to obviously get more fluent in speaking and be able to read much better. Writing is not very high on my agenda right now- I would rather focus my studies on speaking and reading. Thanks a lot.
Hello. I live in Taichung and was previously was a student at Providence, but found the class structure to be pretty slack. Granted, I did learn a fair bit of Chinese, but it was easy to see that if I wasn’t so inclined, I could have just sat in class and gotten by without having learned anything. I want to get back in class, but don’t really know which school to go to. Really, the only other school I have any knowledge about is TLI, and I’ve heard it’s pretty good in terms of price and the intensity of studies. Can any of you give me some insight on the schools around here: prices, intensity of the courses, were you satisfied, etc… As far as what I want to learn, I’d like to obviously get more fluent in speaking and be able to read much better. Writing is not very high on my agenda right now- I would rather focus my studies on speaking and reading. Thanks a lot.
Hi
Just a quick question. Were you at Biz House or at main campus? I hear at main campus they are much stricter as the teachers are older and more experienced and less likely to be overly nice with the students.
I hear Dong Hai is also a good school though much tougher and slightly more expensive.