Chinese Majors

*waves* Hey guys!

I have a few questions... lol, sorry if these have been asked before.

1.What part of the country did you go? Was it in an area that spoke almost no English? Which dialect was spoken there?
2. Was it hard getting a job?
3. How long did it take until you felt you were fluent?


Lol, I'm asking all of this because I plan to move there for a few years to build my fluency/knowledge of Chinese culture... but I'm afraid that I may have trouble blending in.

I was also wondering how to write my name in simplified character... it's Chang Liu Yao (The surname is actually mine... whereas "Liu Yao" was my own creation).

Thanks :)

Hi all.

I started learning Mandarin Chinese at uni half a year ago, and I plan to continue it until the completion of my degree, with major status. I just came back from spending a month in Guangzhou, and I also love Cantonese and am learning it by myself and with aid of my Cantonese girlfriend.

I prefer traditional writing, though my Uni mandates all handed in and assessed work must be in simplified! :( I'll get over it. I'm also studying Japanese and Korean, and I find the unification and similarity of these three (four) languages in their roots to be fascinating, and aiding in study!

Looking forward to reading from you all.

Arlen

大家好，

It's me again (the girl who asked about studying abroad and then went this last summer)! Graduate is fast approaching for me (this coming June) and I'm freaking out a bit. I've got this degree in Chinese but I won't be fluent by the time I graduate, and my other work skills include basic office skills, a tiny bit of teaching experience, and people skills. I realized that my best option is probably going to teach English in China, even though I don't see it as a life profession. My reasons for this are: A) a lot of jobs there pay for your housing and living expenses are low, so I could make substantial headway paying off my student loan debt and B) I could become more fluent in Chinese so it might actually be a marketable job skill instead of a tiny embellishment to my resume.

The thing is that I've heard that there are some disreputable schools in China that withhold pay from their workers, treat them badly, make them work overtime and don't pay them, and make them live in really, really sub-par housing. In other words, I've heard horror stories. I've heard good stories, too, but the hard thing is knowing how to distinguish the good places from the bad places and be sure that after I get my visa and plane ticket I won't show up in China to a bad situation.

I figured this might be a good place to ask: do any of you have experience teaching English in China? Have any of your friends taught English in China? If so, I'd like to hear about those experiences and any recommendations. How can one go about making sure the place they teach is fairly reputable? Do you know of any good listings? ...or, alternatively, any other ideas on jobs for me? My hometown is very small and I think there are only a handful of Mandarin speakers in my hometown, and I don't have much money to relocate.

大家好！

我想介绍这个网站，叫“lang-8“
在这里大家可以互相教自己的母语，学习外语

http://lang-8.com/

lang-8是一个提供国际间语言交流及联系的社会关系网络服务（SNS）平台。
在这个平台上面，你可以用你所学习的语言书写日志等待将这一语言作为母语的朋友来修改。
当然你也可以帮助其他正在学习并使用您的母语的人修改文章。
所以在这里你不仅仅是将学习语言，同时将帮助别人学习你自己的语言。
例如，如果有一个正在学习英语的中国人和一个正在学习中文的美国人，那么这个美国人就可以帮助中国人修改英文，中国人也可以为美国人修改他所写的中文文。
把自己的母语教给其他人是很容易。
正在学习语言的人来说得到这种语言的本土使用者的教导与纠正也将受益颇丰。
这样一来，通过lang-8，每个使用者不仅可以很好的教授和学习语言更能够增进彼此的国际交流。

谢谢！



JapanTimes Article
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20070918a1.html

Hi, does anyone know where I could find tone drills to get my spoken chinese more accurate. I am doing Mandarin.

TY

dajia hao!!

has anyone tried applying for CSC's Chinese Government Scholarship Programme? I actually have plans of applying but I'm a bit skeptical and confused. I checked their website but I think it's outdated. I'm also looking for other scholarships available for Chinese language learners like me. Thanks in advance.

This is gonna be a bit long, but...

Now that I'm in my last year of my undergrad career (hopefully), I'm getting into more advanced Chinese classes. I was kind of excited about it, but kind of scared...now I'm kind of depressed about it.

We have a new 老师 (laoshi for those of you without fonts installed) this quarter and they're pretty cool in that they are energetic and into the subject. However, my class is probably about 2/3 native speakers, 1/3 of us second language learners who've learned from the beginning up. The second language learners (like me) are feeling a little unfairly treated.

Here are some examples:
1. The instructor uses Chinese a lot in the classroom, very fast, which isn't much of a problem for me except that A) I never really have time to stop and ask them about words I don't know (which they seems to assume we should do, but in reality I personally just try to get the best understanding out of what they're saying by parsing what I _do_ know) and B) they use Chinese to tell us what the homework is at the end of the class and it's usually spewed out really quickly because class is almost over...also, assignment explanations are also in Chinese so I kind of missed out on 2/10 points on an assignment today just because I didn't catch one part of it and didn't know that part existed.
2. The biggest thing is that our tests have a "listening comprehension" part in which the teacher reads a piece of prose out loud to us (an article, paragraph, etc.) and we're supposed to answer questions based on that. That'd be all well and good, except that the article on our test consisted of at least 1/4 words I didn't know (integral keywords like nouns, vocab stuff), that I had never been taught. They apparently they say they've been using those words in class, but see point 1 and how am I supposed to memorize a bunch of words that I don't know will randomly show up on a test that aren't part of the vocab or grammar we've been learning? I haven't gotten my test back yet, but I'm super worried because all of my other friends from previous classes have failed the test...and I didn't even try to answer the listening comprehension part because I didn't know what to say since I didn't know most of the important content words.
3. I get marked down points on homework assignments for using things I know were correct, or things will get marked wrong and then the corrections will change the meaning completely or consist of things I was never taught...
4. It's just extra frustrating that the class is full of native speakers in it for an easy "A". (Some of these kids don't seem to have any respect for us second language learners at all...I don't know what's up with that.)

I'm not a stupid kid. I study hard, and since I went to China this summer I feel like I've improved because I can actually understand a lot more...I worry extra about my classmates who didn't have that chance, because they're struggling a _lot_, way more than me. I'm really upset. On the one hand, I really want to like this teacher because they're really enthusiastic and cool, but on the other hand they seem to have an extremely large amount of trouble negotiating the (at least two) extremes in our class (thanks to the fact that our school doesn't have dual track programs). If I get an A- in this class, I might be eligible for honors in my major (which sort of means a lot to me), but it's looking like that's not going to happen even though I'm working really hard.

The advice I'm seeking is...how would you approach the instructor about this? They already apparently knows that this divide exists, but don't seem to be doing anything about it. I'm afraid they'll get really defensive...

（谢谢你看过这个很长的问题， 也谢谢你的忠告。）

Greetings the community,

I just found this cozy little spot on the net and thought I'd introduce myself. My name is J.F. Grasso, I'm a teacher, translator, post graduate candidate in Linguistics at the University of Hong Kong and author of The Everything Speaking Mandarin Chinese book. I was a Chinese Lang and Lit Major myself as an undergrad and now I'm doing my Master's in Linguistics.

For my MA thesis I'm conducting a linguistic survey on native English speaking Chinese language learners and would be honoured to have any Chinese learners to participate. It is my hope that what I learn from the results will aid educators in improving methods of teaching Chinese.

In order to ensure accuracy of the results, I would invite members to email me directly at the study's email address CFLstudy@aol.com at which time I would forward them the link to the study and a short questionnarie. The results are private, and the subjects privacy is ensured. Participants email addresses will be shared with no one and no entity.

I hope you all will consider my request and I look forward to contributing to the community.

regards

JF

Anybody know the Mandarin Chinese work for "pinwheel" (you know, those toys that look like flowers and spin in the wind)? I'm teaching a Chinese class for toddlers and tomorrow we're doing numbers, and my number book has pictures for each number, most of which are easy things like bananas or basketballs, but for 9 they have pinwheels and I have no clue how to say that. THANKS!

(x-posted to chinese_majors and asianstudies)

The Guodianchu slips (郭店楚簡) were unearthed in 1993 in Jingmen, Hubei, China and contain a number of texts, commentaries and various Taoist and Confucian sayings including an early copy of the Daodejing (老子甲乙丙). They are dated to be from around the Warring States period.

The following site has the entire collection digitally transcribed and available for free:

http://bamboo.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/

The titles and codes for each text within the collection is available here:

http://bamboo.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/basisbwdocs/bamboo/bam_title.html

Hey everyone,

It was just 3 months ago that I posted here asking you all about what I should pack for my study abroad in China. It's kind of weird to be back, almost like the whole thing was a dream. I just wanted to thank you all for your advice! I had a great time ( even if LJ is blocked in China :P ) and managed to do some traveling after the program was over to the South. 现在我跟中国人说汉语的时候，我的脸平常不是红的。 :)

If you have any questions about studying abroad for summer intensives or Beijing, feel free to ask them because I'm now a little more knowledgeable. I'll try to answer them!

Hi. I thought I would share this all with you.

Donald Wagner has produced a few Classical Chinese readers in the past. I noticed on his site that he has provided a free download for the following text:

The 'Memoir on the Eastern Barbarians' in Hou Han shu, with notes and glosses for students of Chinese and Korean.

The .pdf file is available here:
http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/HHS/HHS.pdf

His site is here:
http://www.staff.hum.ku.dk/dbwagner/

I really recommend downloading it and going through it. The text can be a bit difficult to understand at times but he provides extensive notes and vocabulary so understanding most of it shouldn't prove too difficult provided you know basic Cl.Chinese grammar. You won't have to spend endless hours looking up archaic words in big multi-volumne dictionaries.

大家好，

I posted a while back about logistics and questions pertaining to studying abroad, and now in about a week I will be leaving to study abroad in Beijing for about 2 months. I'm really nervous but pretty excited and can't believe that I actually managed to get through all the paperwork!

Now I'm beginning the packing stage and wondering if you have any advice on how to pack, particularly clothing-wise for a Beijing summer. I'm not used to warm/hot rainy days, so any advice there would be appreciated too.

( This is what I've thought of so far for packing... )

Anything else? Best ways to cope with the heat/humidity (I come from a much colder climate)? Tips for jet lag? Things to avoid at all costs? Also, any thoughts and advice on the language issue would be appreciated...I've been studying Chinese for 2 years now but I don't feel like my Chinese is up to par with other students who have been studying for 2 years elsewhere. If you have any questions for me, too, I'll try to answer them. :)

Sorry to take up your community with so many posts, but I figured you all would be the ones in-the-know.

谢谢你们的帮助！

Hi, My Australian/birth name is Tara. I have also taken a Chinese name because when I lived in Beijing it was easier. So I'll introduce myself in Chinese and English. They won't be word for word, or even close to the same as each other, my language skills aren't equal. I am using NJStar for characters. I am not sure if it will work. If it doesn't please don't get upset with me, just tell me if it needs to be coded differently, I am new at using Chinese language software.

As I said, my "western" name is Tara. I am a Queensland, Australian student, just studying Mandarin at the moment. I have disabilities that affect my pain and energy levels which affects my ability to study full-time. I have a keen interest in China and Chinese. I hope to work in China, if I can negotiate a part-time job.

I lived in Beijing for 3 months. I was studying at a small university there and also taught a short course in Australian culture to some Chinese Officials prior to them travelling to Australia. It was a very intense experience.

I have been particularly ill and took several years off uni and trying to work. Once I got diagnoses on my health issues and tried a year of science at uni part-time and had my arts' subjects accepted as a Diploma of Arts. I decided to get back into Chinese as electives with my bachelor of Science. Unfortunately two subjects a semester is too hard and I want to work sooner rather than later. I have made the decision over the last few weeks to focus on Chinese.

So here I am. I am hoping this post may spark some life into this group and start some sharing and networking. Fingers crossed :-P

Tara

我叫赵莉莉。我是中文的学生。 我对学中文很感兴趣。2003年我住在北京， 学中文和中国的文化也教澳大利亚的文化。我想在中国找个部分时间的工作。

Hello. I joined in the hopes of finding more information on places to study Chinese, as well as listen to others experiences and insights on their studies and pursuits of Chinese.

I am currently a graduate student in Technical Communications (Instructional Design and Intercultural Communications) at Illinois Institute of Technologies. I have been interested in the Chinese language for a couple years now (even studied it for a year) and hope to start the Technical Chinese certificate program at University of Wisconsin-Madison in the fall. I am hoping to continue with studying about Chinese language and culture into my Ph.D.

I am currently working on a research paper discussing the approaches to teaching Chinese as a global language. My Master's thesis is writing a "study aid/workbook" to a beginning Chinese class that I took.

Xiexie. Zaijian!

Dajia hao! I'm looking for a good Chinese Language software program and was wondering what you all would recommend. I am in the intermediate level, but wouldn't mind using something that reinforces basic and beginning terms and grammar. I'm hoping to use a program that incorporates simplified characters and not just pinyin. I hear the Rosetta Stone program isn't that good as well as some other high-priced programs, so before I shell out $200-300 for these software programs, what would you guys suggest? Thanks!

Hi all,

I posted a while ago about studying abroad for the summer...wanted to let you all know that I did get into a program. :) My program through my school hasn't been very good at keeping us in the loop on what we need to do, though, and I'm pretty stressed out. Perhaps you can help me with some of these questions:

1. How do student visas work? How long in advance do I need to apply for one and what do I need to have to apply for one? If there are any forms, are they available online? This is the one I'm most worried baout currently.
2. How far in advance do you think I should buy my plane ticket? Any recommendations on what airlines to travel/NOT to travel?
3. Do you know anything about travelling in China, specifically staying in hostels? My friend and I were thinking about travelling for a week or so after our program ends.
4. Best American bank to have an account with over there?

Thank you for any information you can share!

I just joined the community and will offer my introduction as per regulations.

I'm converting over to Sinology.

I am technically doing an 'Asian Studies' major and for the last two and a half years I have been focusing mostly on Japanese and Japan-related stuff. However, about a year and a half ago I somehow discovered Classical/Literary Chinese and since then I have been gradually shifting my focus towards that area of study. I have never taken a class on Classical Chinese and I've been studying it exclusively on my own with such wonderful textbooks as Raymond Dawson's and Micheal Fuller's Intro Texts and Donald Wagner's intermediate text that uses the Han Shu biography.

I hate to admit it but despite living in Japan and being fluent/literate in the language I keep finding myself drawn towards pre-modern Chinese stuff. I get lost in Tang-dynasty poems, pre-Qin political texts (Han Fei Tzu and Lord Shang are just awesome in the original language) and I read about Chinese subjects with Japanese books. I find myself more interested in Chinese relics at the National Museum in Tokyo than all the Japanese stuff. The truth is I'm gradually getting bored with a lot of Japanese stuff and my interest in Chinese art, language and literature is increasing. This isn't to say I'll abandon my studies in Japan -- just that I'll shift my focus over to Sinology. I feel kind of guilty about it but yeah, I'm converting to Sinology. I feel like I'm going back to the root of things, y'know?

I'm studying Mandarin at the moment and I frequently get angry with simplified characters (I simply can't see the logic in simplification). I know thousands (probably well over 5000 at this point) of traditional characters from my study of Classical Chinese. My pronunciation is awful and I really have next to no conversation ability in modern Mandarin (but I can somehow read things if they are in traditional characters).

Maybe next year I'll go study in Taiwan. I want to get fluent in Mandarin before going to grad school.

...and I would love advice and oppinions from anybody who has been through the experiance...

I graduated in 2005 with a BA in Asian Studies from Carleton College, with a focus on history and with Chinese as my primary Asian language. I have been working for the past 1 1/2 yr. as the director of a language center at a small liberal arts school. For the past year or so I have been considering grad school. I know that my primary interest is modern China (especially Mao-ist era China), language, literature, film, culture and history all facinate me, and after some serious soul-searching (and a few Chinese courses at the U of MN) I think I have decieded that I will be applying to Chinese literature and cultural studies PhD programs in the fall.

I really want to find programs that fit me, both in terms of interests, and in terms of accpting me into their programs. Thus far I have compiled a list of 14 schools that look promising. I would love any inside information on any of the following schools' grad programs in East Asian/Chinese Language/Literature/Culture/Civilization: Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, UC Berkely, UC Irvine, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, U Chicago, U of Michigan, U of Minnesota, U Penn, U Wisconsin-Madison, and Yale.

I would love to hear any advice from people who have experiance either with these programs specifically or with applying to PhD programs in general. Right now I am in the process of reading publications in my research interest area published by professors at the universities on my list. (Right now I'm reading The Uses of Literature : Life in the Socialist Chinese Literary System by Perry Link)

Thank you in advance. (x-posted to chinese_majors and asianstudies)

I love to do everything, from drinking a cup of coffee and reading a book to traveling to a place to sketch some pictures. My smile is actually my best feature. My weakness? Maybe I'm a little lazy sometimes. For example, almost every morning I have difficulty in getting up.

I love art and appreciate oil paintings as well as traditional Chinese painting. Music is always somewhere in the background, and my interest covers most genres. By the way, besides pop music, which is favored by young people, classical music is also one of my favorites. Bach is the greatest composer in my opinion and I like him the best. If there is one thing besides painting that I love, you must know that I love traveling! My hometown is Suzhou. It is a very beautiful city and a famous beauty spot in southeast China: with over 2,500 years of history, it is generally known as 'heaven on earth'. So if you are interested in travelling around China, the first place I'd recommend is Suzhou: I'm confident that I can be a good tour guide for you.

If you are a fun-loving person that has high standards, but enjoys living life even at the lowest levels, if you will come and talk with me, sending me your thoughts and suggestions along with your interests, I will respond.
In my spare time I like to read ancient Chinese literature while listening to classical music. During the summer and winter vacations, I like travel to travel around the country with friends. I like the sea very much, so usually I prefer to go to the seaside. Swimming in the sea is a wonderful experience for me. Where else do I like best? Besides reading and traveling, I also like to paint oil paintings, though I'm not very good at it. However, I really enjoy the process of drawing, by which I can record all the beautiful and attractive things that I have seen. Since I'm interested in drawing, I often go to museums and galleries to see the wonderful and excellent art exhibitions that they sometimes put on. I really cherish the chance to learn from the great artists by going to see their works.

In short, I'm very interested in things related to art and culture, for example: literature; paintings; music; movies; drama and so on.

My favorite topics when chatting with others are about things that happen to me in my everyday life. My wide interests and hobbies can be my source material and I like to share the feelings and experience I gain from reading, painting, traveling and listening to music with my friends. For example, we can recommend good books to each other, wonderful movies or dramas to go and see, or even some beautiful places to visit. So either my friends or I can usually find something in common to share and discuss. This way we can increase our knowledge and learn about new things: frankly speaking, I love to learn about new things through listening to my friends. Literature; paintings; music; movies; drama and travel are the most interesting and frequently-discussed things in my conversation with others.

Want to know more about me, please feel free to visit:
http://www.echineseonline.com/j.do?sid=aadd&type=1