Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
a fourth tone to it (
shì
) and there are still around 50 possible meanings to consider. It's just
too much variability. Imagine trying to read a whole page, let alone a book, when you're
guessing at the possible meaning of every single word. Change
shì
to the actual character
you want, however, and the meaning becomes clear—for example,
是
means “is,”
事
means
“matter or issue,” and
试
means “to test or try.”
Many schools will offer you the option to study just with Pinyin, but the higher you get,
the more you'll discover that topics rely on characters.
Beijing is definitely the city to come to to learn Chinese, and there is a banquet of options
for doing so. You can plunge yourself into a comprehensive full-time four-year university
program, right through to just having the odd private tutoring session in your own home.
Peking University and Beijing Culture and Language University (BCLU) are just two
of the many university options for studying Chinese. They have a long history of teaching
Chinese to foreigners, and the textbook you'll use will probably have been published by
one of these two institutions. Universities offer undergraduate degrees in Chinese as well
as intensive short-term courses. In all cases, they typically require four to six hours of class
time every day, with a couple of hours of homework every night.
Before you hand over a single
yuán
for any program, it's worth investigating how many
students will be in each class in the given program and what the teacher talk-time is like. In
many university programs, classes have around 50 students and emphasis is on the teach-
er talking and the students listening. If your primary reason for moving to Beijing is work
rather than study, you will also need to check if it will be possible to do both at the same
time. Technically it's illegal for those on a student visa to work, and vice versa. Sometimes
universities say they can get around this with a letter of permission from your company, but
if you're dealing with sticklers for rules then you might come up against a brick wall, and
universities are unlikely to refund your deposit if you need to pull out.
If you are on a work visa, another way around this is to go to one of the many private lan-
guage schools around the city. Quality and prices vary greatly, as does their level of flexibil-
ity. Nearly all will offer a free trial class, so try out a few before you commit. These schools
will almost always work out to be much more expensive than universities, and they'll try
their best not to negotiate on price, but it is possible, especially if you're willing to commit
