NTU Chinese Language Division - Not Recommended !

For the past 2 1/2 months I have been studying at the NTU Chinese Language Division. I'm not wholly convinced it is the most effective methods for learning a language, although I'm not one who is enthusiastic of learning methods per say, I would have a very hard time recommending anybody to go to NTU to learn Mandarin. Friendly staff does not mean efficient teaching.

First off, throughout the whole term, I've only had one language teacher. For 15 hours a week of continuously getting one person's point of view, one person's approach, it is difficult to say that that one receives a well-rounded view of the society or culture of the language that we intend to learn. Moreover, the teaching methods or curriculum is entirely classroom-based. That means at the intermediate level we have the textbook(Practical audio-visual Chinese), some student presentations and a professor rambling on sometimes of her personal life, sometimes of gossip news but more often than not explaining vocabulary in the most uninteresting ways. (PS - If you have a modern computer that does not have a drive, you can download the MP3 CD for book 3 and for book 4. Book 5 will follow shortly. These audio tracks are utterly boring, ando maybe useless if you do not have the text books. Chinesepod does a much better job, especially when it comes the entertainment factor not to mention the grammar explanations.

On a personal note, my greatest difficulty with the language remains. Although many people believe the Chinese grammar is simple, it is a matter of where to know, or how to place the words in a sentence, a classroom setting does not give you the opportunity to learn how to use these basic sentence structures influence our national manner. In my opinion, it would make a lot more sense to have more repetition of the grammar structures that they intend that we learn, and expect more from students to learn vocabulary without the teacher's explanations.

In front of me I have three or four textbooks, unfortunately this last term has killed any interest that I had in learning the language. My intentions are to learn the language so that I can carry out my research have conversations with people and so on, however I'm confronted with the reality that having artificial or superficial reasons to interact with people does not make language learning interesting but more burdensome. That is I don't really want to find from for the facts before the sake of finding friends because the intentions or the basis of the relationship are instrumental I want to learn language they may want to gain face or like me as well learn another language, I'm not sure.

Right now, the learning method which appeals me most consists of television, movies, more or less interesting dialogues. This may sound like an utterly boring list of activities but unless I have a valid reason for interacting with people that I don't know, is the approach they must take.

I've tried some demo versions of language learning software, which have a more or less accurate recognition of one's voice and how well one pronunciation matches the provided sample. However I found part of the language learning software packages are the recording and repetition of the user's voice. Although may sound archaic, it closely resembles the use of a tape recorder where the language learner would speak and then listened to his or herself. Nowadays, an inexpensive MP3 player or a mobile phone will do the job, however the advantage of being in front of a computer is that one can see the soundwave of the original, compare and repeat, and find other resources, other audio sources with which one can practice.

Getting back to the experience of classroom learning at NTU, I feel I should supplement my complaints, my grudge towards the learning centre, with some suggestions :

1. Teacher rotation -- throughout the term the teacher should rotate once or twice a week whenever possible that there are students at approximately the same level. Given that the textbook at lower and intermediate levels are the main tools of learning and require very little preparation on behalf of the teacher the rotation of classes should not pose too many difficulties.
2. Diversified learning materials -- obviously, one can not learn the language from a book ignore from rote repetition of audio CDs, but self evaluation, or even feedback on how one presents or describes something in this foreign language would assist students greatly in making progress. Throughout the term, aside from being yelled at "use Chinese grammar not English grammar", the feedback on what's I should work on how I should work on it has not been provided.
   

In summary, a textbook can help in learning a language, but it can also hinder one's desire to learn. I have heard that the programme at ShiDa also leaves a lot to desire. Somehow people believe languages have to be instructed, as opposed to absorbed and used to express meaning...