I am currently self-studying Mandarin and attending a small class for around 4 hours per week.
I am very enthusiastic about practicing my Mandarin as much as I can. I spend all day speaking English in class so I need to grab every opportunity that I can to use Mandarin.
However I get the distinct feeling that my school does not want me to learn Mandarin and in some sick and twisted way is trying to hold me back. The staff are very hostile when I use Mandarin to talk to them. For instance today one of the staff asked me what I was eating for my lunch. I replied slowly and paying particular attention to tones “chao fan” and she immediately hit back with “fried rice” and ended the conversation almost like I had uttered a profanity.
These people work in what is supposed to be an educational organization yet they won’t support my learning! WTF!
Of course I would never use Mandarin in my class when I am teaching but outside of the classroom I see nothing wrong with trying to engage with people. I was thinking of preparing a list of questions that I could ask the kindy kids such as “what’s your favourite, colour, animal etc”.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can use my school to improve areas other than my listening skills?
Work at the schools I’ve been at. They all use Chinese even though they know damn well that I don’t understand it… I ask them a question in English and they answer it in Chinese. Sometimes I have to go grab a student I know so they can translate for me.
My Chinese is met with big smiles. They’re always embarrassed to use English. Seems like they’d want people that speak some English to work at an English school… if you went to a new buxiban and the receptionist spoke English really well, customers might be impressed and think it was a good school…
Good point. And to be perhaps a little more helpful, as TaiwanVisitor suggests above, some schools are friendlier than others to you mucking about with your learning Chinese than others. Your’s sounds like one of those, it’s policy even if there’s no way we can understand each other sort of places.
I’m sure this is just toooooo basic, but have you ever said anything to them about how you’d appreciate their helping you with a bit of Mandarin, just so you can enjoy life in Taiwan more (not to use in class)?
I would bet you’d be more disposed to help someone learn English in a non-English-teaching setting if they asked nicely, rather than just expected you to stay in a language they hardly spoke so they could practice.
You might want to write more clearly. “My school” – the one you’re attending to learn Mandarin, or the one you’re working at to teach English? I assume the latter, in which case you’re there to teach English, not to learn Mandarin. Outside of that school, you’ve got the whole COUNTRY to practice with, so what’s the problem?
There, fixed that for ya.
[quote]Does anyone have any advice on how I can use my school to improve areas other than my listening skills?
[/quote]
Yes. Use that opportunity to work on improving your ENGLISH TEACHING skills, which is what you’re being paid for, and then use your time and opportunities outside the school to work on learning Mandarin.
Milkybar…mate! don’t sweat it…that was just a reflex action [an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus] they all have to foreigners…the other day in a grocery store, I happened to be partially blocking the way in the isle to a middle aged woman who says, in English, “excuse me” to get past me - so I asked her why she was speaking a foreign language in her own country, the reply was: “because I don’t know you!” this would imply that she knows everybody else (since she almost certainly speaks Chinese to them) - of course what she meant was that, I can clearly see that you are a foreigner and as such you are either incapable or unwilling to speak Chinese (and even if you were capable or willing, I will still make the assumption that you aren’t, just in case I lose face or I appear to be not sophisticated enough when I very very occasionally meet a foreigner and in any case I just wanna show off).
So I asked what I should do next time I am in a similar situation - that is, what if I came across someone like her that ‘I didn’t know’ and I have the choice of speaking either English or Chinese to her - this seemed like a perfectly logical question to me - she just rolled her eyes and walked off in disgust!
Yes, some will be hostile. In some cases I felt they only interacted with me so they could practice English. If I wanted to practice their language, I was just wasting their time. Quid pro quo didn’t seem to be a concept they understood.
[quote]
Of course I would never use Mandarin in my class when I am teaching but outside of the classroom I see nothing wrong with trying to engage with people. I was thinking of preparing a list of questions that I could ask the kindy kids such as “what’s your favourite, colour, animal etc”.[/quote]They won’t like this - they won’t want the children interacting with you in anything other than English, even outside class. I wouldn’t fight this one - just continue trying to interact with the staff in Chinese.
[quote]
Does anyone have any advice on how I can use my school to improve areas other than my listening skills?
[/quote]I found the buxiban to be a great place to improve my listening skills, because no one believed I could speak and understood Mandarin, so would blather on and on right in front of me about me/sexual topics they wouldn’t otherwise want a foreigner to hear/gossip, etc. Much more interesting than the stilted conversations they’d have the few occasions they realized I understood what they were saying.
[quote=“Milkybar_Kid”]I am currently self-studying Mandarin and attending a small class for around 4 hours per week.
I am very enthusiastic about practicing my Mandarin as much as I can. I spend all day speaking English in class so I need to grab every opportunity that I can to use Mandarin.
However I get the distinct feeling that my school does not want me to learn Mandarin and in some sick and twisted way is trying to hold me back. The staff are very hostile when I use Mandarin to talk to them. For instance today one of the staff asked me what I was eating for my lunch. I replied slowly and paying particular attention to tones “chao fan” and she immediately hit back with “fried rice” and ended the conversation almost like I had uttered a profanity.
These people work in what is supposed to be an educational organization yet they won’t support my learning! WTF!
Of course I would never use Mandarin in my class when I am teaching but outside of the classroom I see nothing wrong with trying to engage with people. I was thinking of preparing a list of questions that I could ask the kindy kids such as “what’s your favourite, colour, animal etc”.
Does anyone have any advice on how I can use my school to improve areas other than my listening skills?
Also overall is this a good or bad strategy?
Many Thanks[/quote]
I have been living in Taiwan for quite some time and I have devoted a good portion of the time as well as money towards learning Chinese, and I have spent the majority of the time in Taiwan working in the English immersion environment. And like yourself I have to put up with many of my co-workers freaking out when I speak to them in Mandarin and as much as it sucks and is strange IMO for them not to speak their native language with me when I have knowledge of that language often more knowledge than they have of my language in what is suppose to be a professional environment-just grow to accept it and when the day is done study and surround yourself with Mandarin speakers as best you can.
Anyways, just know you are not the only who feels this way. BTW it’s really starting to get to me and has been for a while how foreigners in Taiwan are stereotyped as not knowing anything about the Chinese, so I’m thinking about starting a web group or facebook page to show that not every non-Taiwanese dude or chick in Taiwan can only be conversed with in English and NEVER Chinese-Who’s in?
- she just rolled her eyes and walked off in disgust! 