Chinese Summer Courses: Your First Swim

By Author: thomas galvin
Total Articles: 612
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For North Americans seeking a stronger grasp of the Chinese language, Chinese summer courses are proving to be a worthwhile experience.

One thing that becomes painfully clear to students of Chinese is that apples are not oranges. Making the switch from the Latin alphabet to the Chinese system, from a world where changing your tone makes merely a subtle difference to a land where tone is fundamentally important, can seem like sending a fully uniformed baseball player into a mile-long swim.

The batters cannot simply read about the backstroke. They must undress, dip in their toes, doggy paddle, and slowly immerse themselves. Chinese summer courses can aptly facilitate this first swim.

The typical intermediate level student of any language knows basic grammar structures and a respectable collection of words, yet is missing the finer points. Most pertinently for students of Chinese, the intermediate student invariably has pronunciation skills that leave much to be desired.

Without overly tasking the student, a few short months in the country of the language's origin can provide some invaluable experience. ...
... If its pronunciation you need to improve on, there simply is no alternative to living in China, yet a whole year abroad can often be, for reasons of finance, schedule, or the sheer intimidating nature of a year away: unfeasible.

Is it feasible to make even a Chinese summer course happen for you? Decades ago, when Chinese was only beginning to avail of mass appeal, there were far fewer organisations in China facilitating study abroad programs. This is no longer the case. International programs are not hard to find.

Nextstepchina.org. is a good starting point. This website provides clear information on the facilities that will help you find high quality Chinese summer courses not only within but also outside of universities.

Both of these options have their merits. Studying within a university can offer a familiar and welcoming environment to young students. For those who have taken quite the leap already in crossing the Pacific, this is often a worthwhile option.

The Chinese Language School Shanghai is a department of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University, which currently hosts over 2,000 foreign students. As anyone who has ever studied a foreign language abroad will tell you, after a long day stressing over each and every word that awkwardly flops off your tongue, having a group of native English speakers nearby can be just the oasis you need, especially in the early weeks.

However, if you really want to dive into the Chinese experience, the Chinese Language School Shanghai also offers Chinese Summer Courses in the form of tutoring programs that take place in your apartment. These courses can provide the intermediate student with the opportunity to fine tune the precise points of the language they are most unsure of, which can be a valuable nerve steadying experience.

A real plus that comes with these courses is that you are able to choose the starting date yourself and they can run from two weeks to anything up to three months. Choosing a summer course over a yearly one is often the result of having a limited travel window. The ability to determine your own starting date and the duration of your stay gives you the control a traveler needs in order to steer their course.

More information on Chinese summer courses can be found at nextstepchina.org. This website offers information on a range of other topics relating to studying Chinese in China, but don't be intimidated. This is toe dipping time. Test the waters, find out what’s out there. There is plenty of information to help you prepare for your first swim.

Find Chinese Summer Courses and Chinese summer program china related information at www.nextstepchina.org/