How to choose a suitable Chinese language school?

How to choose a suitable Chinese language school?

Japanese: 自分に適した中国語教室をどのように選びますか

Traditional Chinese：如何選擇一家适合自己的漢語学校?

Simplified Chinese：如何选择一家适合自己的中文学校?

In recent years there are more Chinese language schools for non-Chinese speakers have established around Beijing and many foreign friends asked me to help them to choose a nice language school, many of my students also called me to complain that they are not very satisfied with the language school they are taking now. As a Teaching Chinese as an Additional Language (TCAL) teacher, I usually give them some suggestions by my experience.

Not long ago I’ve received a student from Germany who had already arrived in China for more than 1 year. He had changed four Chinese Language schools and since now his Chinese level is as a student who has just learned 3 months of Chinese in my class. When he told me “I am a well-known one in Language schools” with a sad expression, as a teacher, I really feel sorry.

So, I would like to share some experiences with more friends, in order to provide a consulting information for non-Chinese speakers.
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Because different schools have different learning styles, it is important to choose a suitable school.

But how? At first you may ask 5 questions to yourself, if those questions are solved, you may find a suitable Language school.

Q1: For why I learn Chinese?

Q2: How many times can I spend on Chinese learning?

Q3: What’s the goal of my Chinese learning?

Q4: What’s my current Chinese level?

Q5: Do I have any special requirement?

Here is a simple discussion:

Q1: Forwhy I learn Chinese?

Some may argue that it is easy to choose a school, the only thing you need to do is know more about the teachers and learning environments of the Language school. Actually, you should understand what do you need and what is your current circumstance, and then you may put forward your requirement and begin to choose a school. Many were not able to understand those preconditions before they choose a school and feel not happy after they choose it. The reason could be on the Language school but to those students a careful choosing must take in to account.

The reason of learning Chinese could be separate in to 4 species in students who had contacted with me:

1) For the need of work

No matter you wanna find a job, or get a better job, even if you would like to take a better conversation with your Chinese employees, the requirement of working is the main reason of learning Chinese for most people.

And if you want to find a language school for answer the need of work, you’d better pay more attention on the courses the school provides and the technicality, practicability and timeliness of those courses.

2) For the need of short China life or a short travel to China

Most foreign friends who live in China may have the demand on learning daily Chinese, for daily Chinese is kind of language that really meets your immediate demand and could be used abroad.

Basically all of the Language schools can provide those kinds of courses, so what you need to do is pay more attention on practicability of that course-it is quite important.

3) Just for the aim of master another foreign language.

A systematic learning progress is also very important for language learning. The students should improve their basic language knowledge and pay attention to your teacher’s basic knowledge-it is impossible to learn more language knowledge from a weak-foundation teacher.

4) I am interest in Chinese Kong-fu, Beijing opera, traditional songs and dance, musical instrument, etc. I learn language for the purpose of learning these things.

At this learning period the student should pay attention especially on the technically of the course and how to combine the language knowledge with students’ learning purpose. The learning of culture should also take into account.
Q2: How many time can I spend on Chinese learning?
Q3: What’s the goal of my Chinese learning?

We can discuss Q2 and Q3 together for we all know learning time really matters learning effect. For example:

1) I’ve got plenty of time to learn Chinese and I wish to improve my language skill to a higher level.

In this condition you need an institute which can provide normal language education，for example, Beijing Language University. In this instance there may have tens of students in one class.

2) I would like to learn Chinese but I am busy at work and I need to go on errands frequently, so I can’t ensure sufficient learning time.

In this condition you’d better choose a school which can provide language course in plural cities, for example, MEIHE is able to provide a 2-cities course (Beijing and Shanghai), though you must receive the condition that you are unprivileged of a stable teacher, for that, of course, the teacher would not goes on errands with you, even if you pay the travel bill for him/her. Also you may go to online Chinese school, such as www.chinesehour.com, which provide well-received practical courses with one-on-one professional teachers.

3) I am busy and I need to learn Chinese that can use immediately.

In this condition you need a speeded-up language learning school, like UCC. You must understand that a speeded-up course not means to make effort at the last moment-in that case you may recite few words which can be used only one time-then you forget them and need to learn them once again. A systematical learning progress is also imperative for a short-term learning.

Q4: What’s my current Chinese level?

You ought to know your current Chinese level before you choose a school.

You can get in touch with few language schools to attend a Chinese level test, which may helps on confirming your current level. This idea used abroad in most schools; about those language level tests, students ought to pay attention on 2 features:

First you need to notice is whether the test testing students’ language level from listening, speaking, reading and writing, which means in a formal language level test, those 4 subjects of questions must be contained. Many language schools just find some teaching material and ask the student to read, after that they give a brief estimation of the student’s Chinese language immediately, that is what we call an impractical language level test.

Second, you need to see if the school’s testing staff is professional. Here the professional part means the testing staff should at least know TCAL in depth. He/She should came into contact with several students, each student with his/her own learning style; cause of that they are able to point out the students’ learning problem and their current learning status-It is especially important to those who already learned Chinese for a period of time. Since now most language school use an interview mode for language level test (especially oral Chinese, which is mostly like IELTS oral test), it is quite important to know if the testing staff is professional. An unprofessional test staff may made a mess of the job and at last, waste your learning time.

It is possible that there is not better way to know if the test staff is professional than to attend a language level test by yourself, you may make a compare between several schools. After all, it seems not a disadvantage to learn more than one language schools’ learning advice.

Q5: Do I have any special requirement? (Can this school satisfy my special need?)

Some students may have special learning requirement, for example, learning environment, teacher’s communication manner, course time and course place. For different people have different needs I just make a simple explanation.

Special learning requirements can be separate into 3 sorts in rough:

1) The requirement of teacher(s)

Some may argue that of course people who can speak Chinese well can also teach Chinese well, that’s a wrong conception (about this question we had discussed it in my other articles). So, before you choose a course, you should pay special attention on these 3 points:

A. The teacher’s licence

Remember: CHINESE TEACHERS DO HAVE LICENCE! A normal teacher should have received Teacher’s Qualification from Ministry of Education, P.R.China; they were tested by the government and all of them hold at least a bachelor’s degree. If the student is not familiar with a language school, it is a good idea to choose a school with many normal teachers. At least, you will never find your teacher is just a first-year college student after you pay the high learning fee.

B. The teacher’s speciality

If you wish to learn systematical Chinese, my advice is to choose a teacher whose specialty is on Chinese language or TCAL, for those teachers are always excelled on linguistic mastery and grammar mastery than those who are not specialize on Chinese.

If you do not have any high-demand on Chinese learning but just want to learn basic oral Chinese, a teacher who graduated from other language department is also an option. Their advantage is that they can understand you easily with your mother tongue, yet they prefer to choose non-Chinese language to talk with you.

Never choose a teacher whose specialty is not language-correlative; indeed, they do not know how many substantives in Chinese and they sometimes make grammar mistakes by themselves.

C. Teacher’s non-Chinese Language level

Some students who can not speak a complete Chinese sentence wish to choose teachers with ability of second language, for they are afraid of misunderstanding in their learning progress. It is true that if the teacher can speak another language like English, it is easier to communicate with the student. Actually, as far as I know most TCAL teachers can speak at least 1 non-Chinese language.

But what I want to emphasize is: we propose that the teacher should understand what the student says, but never speak non-Chinese language with the student-even after class time. It is important to construct a language environment. Student may lose learning chances from non-Chinese-language-based communication with the teacher.

That is also why I suggest students to choose a teacher whose specialty is on Chinese language or TCAL, for when they need explanation, they will make the most of simple and complete Chinese sentences-a teacher with non-Chinese language specialty always used to explain students’ questions with non-Chinese language. At first time students may feel good with the non-Chinese mode, but my experience told me after a period of time those students will find that they know more Chinese words, but they are not able to make those words sentences-for when they are in the progress of Chinese learning, their way of thinking always be interrupted by non-Chinese languages, they are never able to enter a full-Chinese thinking mode.

2) Learning Circumstances

A good learning circumstance includes geographical position, learning facility and language environment.

In geographical position part students may choose language schools near students’ accommodation or working place, they may also choose language schools located in university zone-those schools are dominant on HSK teaching, though their class always contains tens of students(and, BE SURE their teachers are NOT college students, for it costs less to engage a student); another choice is those schools located in commercial zone-those are basically build for business person and their service are more flexible, their class size is always small with a higher price.

about learning facility: most language schools do have good learning circumstances except those home tutorials.

about language environment: this part is quite important. My opinion is that students choosing a learning place to “force” them to listen and talk with Chinese. In such a kind of learning place students’ learning progress is fast and they can save expenses of more Chinese courses.

3) Class time and place

Some language schools provide a home-tutorial service, if you do not wish to learn at language school or any other reasons; you can choose this kind of school, yet generally they will charge for additional travel cost. It is possible there is not any additional cost if you live just at the opposite of the language school.

In some language schools you can change your class time or make up a missed lesson. If you can not sure you can attend the course at a fixed time, you’d better ask the school if you can change your class time by giving notice in advance, or if you can fix up a missed lesson. As I know most schools are not able to offer such kinds of services, other schools requires a 24-hours notice in advance.

Those words above is just the experiential opinion, the choice is yours. In the end I will notice that to attending a probative course is necessary to avoid your purportless expense.

Here I wish all the Chinese-learning friends will use Chinese expertly.