I've been in Taiwan for a year, and I'm still trying to get better at communicating in Chinese. Let's get started as I share with you my personal experience with learning Chinese during my study as GMBA student.
GMBA NYCU life
Studying in GMBA will serves me a different purpose for my life after I graduate, and I’m looking forward to it. However, to be able to graduate as a GMBA is a big struggle and I have to make sacrifices in order to make me a better person and to succeed in my career life. In National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), for graduation requirements, besides 50 credits of required courses which I take, as an international student I’m required to take 10 credits of Chinese or pass TOCFL level-2 test, which is a proficiency test of traditional Mandarin for foreigners. I'm overjoyed that they provided the foreign students with the chance to learn more about the Chinese language for free.
My experiences and difficulties
For your information, here are two kinds of Chinese class in NYCU, the first one is regular Chinese class which covers a bit of writing, conversation, vocabulary, and grammar, the second class is conversation Chinese Class, which studies mostly in conversation and vocabulary. In the fall semester 2021, I took Chinese 1 class which is the beginner class, and I struggle with it for a while, especially to write Chinese characters is quite complicated, it’s even seeming like drawing or painting for me.
I also took Chinese courses last semester and this semester, but they were just conversation courses. How to pronounce the word and sentence correctly is the trickiest part, as they have four distinct tones. However, I believe that is pretty common for the majority of the international students I was in class with because they go through the same struggles as myself.
How to deal with?
As times goes by, I start interacting with a lot of local Taiwanese people and find them to be really kind, pleasant, and honest. Even though I'm still learning, I can at least begin to learn Chinese and converse with the great Taiwanese people with the aid of Google Translate, my Taiwanese friends, and Chinese class. I also participate in a cultural (language) exchange program this semester with another Taiwanese student from other Department.
According to my experiences, there are many ways for foreigners to study Chinese; as long as they put up the effort and the necessary time, everyone may do it in their own unique way. Because learning a language, particularly Chinese, requires a lengthy process and requires time and effort. So, I will enjoy all of this process!
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