Learning Chinese in Sheffield - Any courses?

[Hook 10]

Hope this is the right forum for this!

 

My girlfriend and I are going to Beijing in August for a few weeks, and we'd like to try and learn a little bit of Mandarin before we get there because during the week we're going to be pretty much on our own and it would be nice to be able to say hello, please and thank you! Having never taken any courses in Sheffield (except my degree!) and was wondering if there was any local colleges or anything that offer such beginner lessons on an evening!

[upinwath 10]

not in pinyin but:

 

Hello - knee how

Thank you - shay shay knee

Goodbye - zai chien

 

I want you to emulate oedipus - tar mar de.

 

you have to get the tones right. That's the hard part.

 

Mandarin has 4 tones and you MUST get the right one each time for the word to be correct. I mis toned word can change the meaning totally.

 

I'm trying to contact my old tachers and will PM you if I manage.

[upinwath 10]

PS.

You will be supprised by the food. Real chinese food has about as much to do with chinese take aways as riding a push bike teaches you about driving a 7.5 tonne truck.

[matsalleh 10]

Do Chinese have a word for please?

You could have a look here:-

http://www.byki.com/

Basic would give you an idea

[Kable 10]

The best way I found, was to get a Chinese girlfriend when I was over there for 6 months.... but you can't really do that so.... I'd say, buy a few books and listen to some audio lessons from Chinesepod.com, get familiar with the sounds, remember you must not just try to read English in your head... the sounds are completely different.

 

Don't worry too much about sounding perfect, but genuine effort is appreciated far more than a lazy English sounding 'nihao' or 'xiexie'. (not genuine pinyin, I know, but...)

 

I also found that once you know a little bit, you do get favourable treatment.

Or just more respect, sometimes foriegners are taken for ride, charged ridiculous prices, but if you are able to haggle in Chinese.....

 

As for the food, it is a diverse thing... I spent 6 months in Hangzhou and occassionally went to Shanghai. Certain things that you find in one place, you will not find in another. But Chinese food in China is far better than in the U.K. You must be prepared to eat some strange things sometimes though.

Golden Shark's fin cake became a normal part of a breakfast for me.

I tried deep fried frog, by thinking it was chicken, and was tricked into eating both turtle and snake. Chicken and Duck's feet are a very popular bar snack.

 

One thing that everyone will like however is; Well, do you ever think where the ideas for places such as Jumbo or Wokmania come from? The tea-houses.

Which are far superior to the above establishments.

 

You pay for your tea leaves, get as many refills as you want, as much food as you want for free.... The fried dumplings are addictive. (if they have them in Beijing, that is.) For a good tea, I would reccomend Long Jing (Dragon Well) tea.

[Ivor&Mel 10]

There are free Mandarin learning resources available online: just Google for "free online chinese course" or similar...

 

In the longer term, there certainly used to be Mandarin evening classes available: I attended the one at Tapton a few years ago.

 

I'll second Kable's recommendation about Long Jing! Couldn't see the point of it when I first tried it in Hangzhou (tea to me was black and strong... and then you added milk and sugar... Long Jing seemed so weak), but I've now been drinking it for years and love its delicate, subtle flavour.

 

I'll add a recommendation that you try and eat "you tiao" for breakfast. Probably not healthy, but absolutely delicious when hot!

[3313 10]

Chinese community centre on london road teaches mandarin.

[Bago 10]

Kable, shocking behaviour! Poor girl. You're encouraging others to use girls like that?

 

not in pinyin but:

 

Hello - knee how

Thank you - shay shay knee

Goodbye - zai chien

 

I want you to emulate oedipus - tar mar de.

 

you have to get the tones right. That's the hard part.

 

Mandarin has 4 tones and you MUST get the right one each time for the word to be correct. I mis toned word can change the meaning totally.

 

I'm trying to contact my old tachers and will PM you if I manage.

Definitely need to get the tones right. Cos someone tried to say to me "Hello" to me. Instead, he ended up cursing my mother in another dialect! lol.. Which I thought was hilarious. In an odd way.

 

Supposed to be: Hello = Knee HOW Ma ? (In Mandarin)

He ended up saying: Your mother = Knee AH Ma ? (In Cantonese)

 

Actually, technically, it's not swearing, but nobody uses such reference to someone's mother like that. It doesn't sound good, cos it's too close to a swearing phrase, which does make reference to one's mom. There are actually a lot of little traps like that.

[aveva 10]

For Chinese lessons try the Language College at King Edward VII School. They have been running classes in many languages and at several levels for several years - highly successful, excellent tutors, relaxed, non-threatening atmosphere ....

Contact the Language College Project Manager on:

229 6573 or [email protected]

Good luck and enjoy learning Chinese!