How to Learn Chinese "in" China

When you see this title you probably think this is a dumb question about how to learn Chinese. Think about it. Now you are in China, and you are surrounded by Chinese. All you can see, can hear is Chinese. You are hanging out with your Chinese friends. You are learning the ancient eastern language when you are experiencing the riches of the culture and history. Isn’t it fantastic for people who want to learn Chinese? Yeah, this is ideally the best way to learn Chinese. But the realist is not always like this. 

I have seen people who have been living in China for more than ten years but still can hardly hold a conversation in Chinese. Why? Let’s put ourselves in the shoes. If you are in going to China by yourself and you don’t speak Chinese. Your neighbors are all Chinese except there is one westerner. Who do you think is going be your best friend? There is no doubt that only westerner will be your best friend there. Ok, if the westerner is your only best friend in China who do you think you will hang out with most? And what language will you speak to each other?

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I think you already have the answers now. I’m going to tell you a story of two Chinese students who studied abroad. I use to work for a Total Immersion English training school. I had one student went to America to study and then came back to my class again after a year. And his English wasn’t improved at all.

I was surprised and I asked him about this life in America. I tend to find out that when he was in America, he was living in his relatives’ home in China Town and he only hang out with his Chinese classmates. He was speaking Chinese all the time in America.

Another student who went to UK to study since high school, that was 20 years ago. And she spokes almost native English when I met her 5 years ago. What surprised me more was when I heard from her father about how they chose school for her. When she was going to high school in UK her father went to UK and drove all the way down from north to south of England.

Finally, his father chose one school for her. The head master of the school was surprised by their first Chinese student and asked her father why chose their school. Her father said: “This is the only school so far I found out there is no other Chinese students. If there is one Chinese student, then my daughter is going to be the best friend with this Chinese student, and they will hang out with each other and speak Chinese only. There is no offence to anyone, but I want my daughter to be able to get along with people from all over the world.” 

This is same to many westerners trying to learn Chinese while they are in China. Even you are in China, if you don't push yourself to adapt the environment, you are not going to improve. So don’t think that the only way to master Chinese is to go to China. No matter where you are you can always learn Chinese. I have never been to any English speaking countries, but I’m communicating with people from around the world in English. What I want to point out is no matter where you are the key of learning a language is up to yourself.

Of course being in China gives you great advantages to learn Chinese. However, you need some effort to force yourself to adapt to Chinese. Once I have seen a French guy who speaks perfect Chinese was interviewed by a TV show from Phoenix TV. When he was asked about how he learned Chinese he said when he was learning Chinese. He tried to avoid hanging out with his western friends and always hang out with Chinese friends. Although there was culture conflict and it was difficult at the beginning, but that was the way he improved his Chinese. He threw himself into a total Chinese environment.

I can tell being away from your country to a totally new place with different culture and language is tough. But this is also a challenging for you. I hope from this share you will find out how to learn Chinese in China.

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