Learning Chinese at BNU: Doing Homework

In China there is a huge amount of school & places to study Chinese language, which normally means mandarin 普通话 putonghua . Many University offer one-year-, semester-, summer-programs and so on for foreigners study Chinese. Usually people try to do the HSK 汉语水平考试 Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (it's like the Chinese Proficiency Test) http://www.hsk.org.cn/, most University offer besides their own evaluations the possibility to prepare for and also to take the HSK. The Beijing Normal University 北京师范大学 www.bnu.edu.cn/ is quite known for that, but the most famous one is still the Beijing Language and Culture University 北京语言大学 http://www.blcu.edu.cn/blcuweb/english/index-en.asp


SIM-CARD/ CELL PHONE: Already at the airport you can buy a Chinese sim-card. It's quite cheap, I don't remember anymore the price, but it's like 50 RMB for the card and 50 RMB for the refill (sim-卡, 冲着卡). Of course your foreign cell phone won't be able to read the Chinese characters, so only in that case you will have to get especially the Chinese Cell Phone, or you can get yours cracked up for the Chinese Language Options (which is not really legal), that costs about 120 RMB or so. With most providers both parties pay, the one who calls and the one who gets the call, of course there are special offers, like if you pay 10 RMB or so at the beginning of the month, you only pay for the calls you make. Attention: Often it can happen that you get calls from people you don't know, if you call these people back, the money on your sim-card will be gone!
the biggest provider: http://www.chinamobile.com/en/

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[On2yOu07]

heyy i'm going to BNU this upcoming semester but for their language course only. So was the course hard for u? i'm really excited and scared at the same time.

[NeliANDLucy]

@On2yOu07 hi, no worries, the courses are not hard, it really depends on the level you are doing :). I am sure you are gonna have fun!!! First course I took, did not fit me, but then I switched to one level higher and it was fun, the right amount of difficulty....I think you have to do first a small entrance exams, so they can estimate your level and find the fitting course for you. ^^ wish uuu a lot of fun!

[Goalie9117]

@NeliANDLucy I'm going to be a freshman in college this coming fall and I'm going to be studying Chinese. Any advice on how to study the language? Or anything at all about the language? Also i'm studying Spanish at the sametime (i've already taken it for 4 years though, so i have it down pretty well)

[NeliANDLucy]

@Goalie9117 The first year you should continously study every day ( learn new vocabulary and repeat it), because especially at the beginning, it’s really hard to memorize Chinese Words, because you won’t have any connections you can relate to. So don’t give up to easily, even if it seems for a very long time impossible......it is not!

[NeliANDLucy]

@Goalie9117 Also very recommandable is to have a language partner to keep you motivated, as more Chinese friends as better for your learning skills, because also passive hearing will make the language a tiny bit more familiar to you. And then the most recommandable is to actually go to China and do a language exchange year. That will make you the biggest progress.

And try also to learn the written language it will help you to understand better the structure and concept of Chinese Language.

[NeliANDLucy]

@Goalie9117 I guess it's just like every other language ;)!!!

[On2yOu07]

@NeliANDLucy thank u for your reply! i actually just got back from China. I've been touring around the uni to see what its like before the semester starts! thank u for all the tips! hopefully i'll be ok there! thanks alot!

[luolaci]

In fact~~Chinese people see Chinese characters as a picture~~I means when they look at a character, they just remenber its image.So next time they see this character, they will remenber it by its shape~~different shapes has different meanings,for example,"木"means tree,and "林"means forest~~as you see~~putting lots of trees together ,then they become the forest~~~interesting~~right~~?­! :)~

[Goalie9117]

@NeliANDLucy I noticed that you are from Switzerland. Your english is really good. Did you learn that before you learned Chinese? And was it hard for you to learn a third language after already having learned one? Or does it get easier as you go?

[Goalie9117]

@NeliANDLucy thank you very much! I am definitely looking forward to studying Chinese!! I know it's going to be hard, but learning languages (of any kind) is what i love to do. I can't wait to get going and I'm definitely going to study as much as I can. My school actually offers a program to study in China the summer after your first year of taking Chinese so I'm hoping to be able to do that!

[NeliANDLucy]

@Goalie9117 So always keep those things in mind, when you are learning Chinese. Then it will demand more effort and persistance from you, than any other latin, greek based languages. You will have to do a lot of listening, because their way of speaking is so different. It will take you while to be able to differentiate the tones (Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone).