|
 |
Good city to study in China? | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| parasitius Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5807 days ago 220 posts - 323 votes  Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Cantonese, Polish, Spanish, French | Message 9 of 13 23 April 2011 at 5:36am | IP Logged | ||
|
Go to Ji'nan. Sure they speak Jinan-hua but anywhere you go is going to have a local
language, and Shandong hua is decently close to Mandarin. (Which also means they'll speak better Mandarin on average than people to whom it is more foreign.) It's big enough that you'll never be bored, small enough you'll feel you're king of the town. At least -- better choice than Dongbei if you aren't ready for the extremity of the cold up there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| OneEye Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6659 days ago 518 posts - 784 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, Taiwanese, German, French | Message 10 of 13 23 April 2011 at 6:58am | IP Logged | ||
|
Another thing to consider is why you're going there. If, for instance, you're like me and pursuing an academic career in Chinese studies, you might want to go where your interests lie. I'm interested in Qing history, so the northeast of course appeals to me. Beijing was the capital of the Qing dynasty, Shenyang was an important city to the Manchus before the fall of the Ming, Heilongjiang University in Harbin houses important documents in Manchu, etc. If I were more interested in early Chinese history I might want to study in Xi'an. If I were interested in Confucius I might study in Shandong province so I could easily visit Qufu. Etc.
If you don't have such specific interests, maybe you can ignore this post. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6359 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 11 of 13 23 April 2011 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Pollution pretty much rules out China - they place a very low value on clean air, and even the countryside has a pollution problem due to the big cities. Maybe somewhere on the east coast of Taiwan. Isolated and beautiful. Their Mandarin is annoyingly different, but you could get used to it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fstop Newbie Canada Joined 4849 days ago 17 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English Studies: Mandarin, French | Message 12 of 13 24 April 2011 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||
|
Taiwan is a good option as suggested by some people but there are some differences with China that you need to consider. You probably know most of them already but here are some:
Taiwan uses traditional characters while China uses simplified. Taiwan uses the Zhuyin Fuhao phonetic system while China uses Pinyin. I know both but I prefer the Zhuyin method. Both are equally accurate if you learn it correctly but there are more resources in Pinyin. Colloquial Mandarin in Taiwan doesn't pronounce the retroflex sounds while in China, it depends on the location. Schools in Taiwan and China teaches the standard pronounciation with the retroflex sounds so it is not really a problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eoinda Tetraglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5757 days ago 101 posts - 113 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, Spanish, Mandarin Studies: French | Message 13 of 13 27 April 2011 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The cold doesn't bother me (I am swedish after all), that is unless it is habitually under -30C that might be a problem.
About pollution I just want it to be as clean as possible I realize it isn't going to be clean mountain air anywere I'm going (I want it to be better than Beijing at least((yes I know it isn't Chinas most polluted city))).I can handle what we in europe might call normally polluted cities. It has to be in Mainland China due to different reasons, although I'm sure Taiwan is lovely. I'm going there to learn mandarin and since that really is the main thing I'd really prefere if mandarin was spoken there. There is were my real problem lies 'cause the chinese have a tendency to call everything dialects no matter if it is like cantonese: a different language, if it is different: what westerners call a dialect. This makes things very complicated for me when I try to differentiate. I have thought a bit about Dalian but I would love more suggestions. 1 person has voted this message useful |
If you wish to post a reply to this topic you must first login. If you are not already registered you must first register
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
