Studying/Teaching Styles in China

Being someone that’s had the opportunity to study Chinese language in a decent Chinese university, it’s a pretty helpful thing to try and describe the teaching styles of Chinese schools (in the eyes of a foreigner). But bear in mind that I had only taken a Chinese class and didn’t take part in a degree level one.

Chinese classes at the University that I studied at (BUCT) started at 8:50 sharp, it’s definitely best to be early, as if you’re late by even a minute you’ll already have missed some important parts of the class, and your name will have been crossed as absent. Many rules in Chinese universities follow the procedure that if you’re late or don’t show up to class a certain number of times you won’t be eligible for any scholarship opportunity, and you may not be allowed to be entered for the exams. Therefore unless you’re truly sick, make sure you get there early and start learning.

Chinese teaching is much more different to than of the UK, in the UK we’re asked to join in with the lessons, but most of the time people won’t actually contribute to anything, and the teacher will just move on. However in the Chinese lessons in China, the lesson won’t move on until the teacher is satisfied that everyone is having a go at contributing to the class, whether it’s answering a question, reading out loud, or writing something on the board, as this is seen as one of the best ways to learn the language by being actively involved in it.

Chinese lessons (the first to 3^rd lesson) will start off in English, with the teacher slowly implementing Chinese words and teaching into the lessons. Speaking English is allowed if you’re asking a question or at the early stages of the lessons, however later on you are required to speak solely in Chinese, which even though the English of the teacher’s is excellent, they’re there to teach you Chinese, so expect to be speaking Chinese quickly.

Depending on the type of person you are, if you pick things up quickly you’ll be fine, but those that don’t, expect a smooth journey at first, with plenty of time to learn the new words, learning the grammar etc. in lesson. But in the latter stages, you’re expected to spend most of the learning time in your own time, as the lessons will pick up in momentum and size i.e. not 10 or so words at the start with 3 or 4 lessons on this topic, but more than 30 words with a new lesson a day (especially if your teacher is competitive, they’ll want to be ahead of the other class, which I guess is kind of unfair), you’ll have to learn the majority of the new words outside of the classroom, and use these words and new grammar within the classroom, if you don’t do this revision in your own time, then you simply won’t keep up. I was lucky as I had already studied basic Chinese so I knew all of the characters, grammar and words in the first semester, however after this, it was hard to keep up whilst working at the same time!

The Chinese teachers like you to speak, whether you’re in comprehensive, speaking, or listening class, it’s the best way to learn this language, so expect a lot of presenting, standing in front of the class, speaking to your partner etc. oh and a good tip is to pick a partner that’s also good at the language, because if your partner is someone that doesn’t like to join in and talk to you, then you may not have the ability to practice what you need to.

I studied hard in my first and second month, and in the third month it was difficult to keep up due to work commitments, however, over such a short period of time I could instantly see the progress of everyone in my class, the people that had the chance to do the learning full time, doing it in their free time, it was really impressive as they were really terrible when they first came to the lessons, it was great to see. Some of them are now studying Bachelor Degrees at some of the universities here in Beijing, and their Chinese is perhaps HSK5 level, I was really impressed!

For more information, please check our website: www.studyinchina.hzlearning.com.