A Guide to Overcome Language Barrier While Studying China

A Guide to Overcome Language Barrier

There are several factors giving rise to the exponential increase of Bangladeshi students studying in China. China's rapid economic accent with its high profile international business expansion, the strong bilateral trade ties between Bangladesh and China, and the consolidating diplomatic relations between the two nations are some of the important criteria behind the increasing rise of interest among Bangladeshi students to come and study here. Broadly speaking there are two categories of students: one who are self-financed and the other are awarded either partial/full scholarship. The latter is much sought-after, since for instance out of 100 undergraduate aspirants only a selected few get accepted, at a varying ratio of 1:25. Based on empirical evidence there are other type of educational gratis from Chinese Scholarship Council besides the undergraduate program; they are Graduate program, PhD, and Chinese Diploma course.

Almost all the Bangladeshi candidates first must touchdown Beijing and then relocated immediately to locations mentioned in your "Offer Letter", which was handed down by Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh.

Once you have settled down to your assigned Chinese university and allocated the chosen program, you will be spending a long time gaining knowledge about China and in time come to appreciate China's high-quality education system.

In China, success comes through quantifiable constant self-improvements over skills sets, scientific knowledge, business acumen, unique expertise and developing global human connections. These important components must evolve during your professional and academic stage to such an extent that you could successfully translate and transform them into real life contributions and achievements at work place or in Bangladesh. In the long run the fundamental definition of success lies in Bangladesh- that is you must create opportunities, demonstrate capabilities and implement your important set of components through small-large scale development projects. In effect this will put your overseas studies and professional experiences into big play to major accomplishments. At the same time this will ensure the continuing growth and development of Bangladesh. By bringing our success medal we could one day break the poverty stricken faceplate of Bangladesh. The main theme of our "Success" is: "Ensuring progressive and sustainable development in Bangladesh through our overseas experience".

The primary phase is to break the language barrier. For first timers it is very difficult to communicate fluently in Chinese language without uttering a word or two in English, unless you took prior Chinese courses in Bangladesh. In most cases you will have some form of difficulty to communicate with your surroundings.

Attempting to ensure any informal English conversation with the locals usually with teenagers and adults (possessing appreciable education background) are seen as a welcome since it offers your counterpart a ripe opportunity to practice English with you. However long term wise, we are not encouraging you to mingle at a point where English only is seen by your Chinese friend as a comparative advantage. If you really need to improve English and that's your secondary intention try to befriend some European or even better American classmates.

Now let us get back to the Chinese Language program, which your assigned Chinese university will be taking care of. The Chinese University will be fully responsibility to foster your Chinese language capability by offering you a one year beginner's level Chinese course in this aspect. The course will start probably in mid-August (Fall Session) and end same time the following year. Almost all of the major universities (by major I mean universities located in or around major cities) have in place some kind of elementary Chinese level course for foreigners. Unless otherwise stated in the "Offer Letter", you may have to spend one year outside your assigned Chinese university. It is noteworthy to mention as for learning any new languages it is always very difficult the beginning and Chinese is no exception.

You should put in all-out-effort to overcome the steep learning curve, which means in short time you need to consume a lot of Chinese characters, vocabularies and basic grammar structures.

1. One point to put at your subconscious level; provided you are taking a fully Chinese-medium course of studies then start working on it right now! Double Pronto!

2. The day you receive your text books just don't let those books gather dusts on the table, please turn those pages. Spend 2 hours reviewing them and complete 2 chapters a day prior to attending any classes. Make this your second behavior to review and complete the chapters before any classes. In that way you will learn more from the class lectures.

3. Speaking of second behavior try to make a first day habit to constantly practice Chinese Characters on a rough page or on a special square-box gridline paper used for practicing individual characters. It is better to master some techniques for writing characters and the ability to instantly visualize the character by a combination of radicals. To make my point I will draw an analogy between Chinese and English characters. How do you write the English capital letter “N”? Well you first draw a vertical bar from top-bottom like this | and then connect it with a geometrically diagonal line \ lastly you finish off with another vertical bar |. Similarly in Chinese language, characters are constructed by radicals but not like the horizontal bar and the diagonal. Chinese radicals are far from simple geometric lines and they are used to constitute individual compound characters. Ironically for these Chinese radicals have unique names and you must memorize them for the sake of intimately knowing the Chinese characters. Later at the appendix I’ll show some examples to make my point clearer.

4. During weekdays set aside some time to discover Chinese TV channels. It won't be long before you find your favorite TV channels; allocate minimum 3-4 hours each day. This will improve your listening ability by natural acquisition and I have seen couple of Bangladeshi students who dramatically improved their language skills. During weekends try to watch your favorite Chinese TV program, soap opera or drama series. Keep your mind at constant practice, awareness and alert. Force your mind to exercise listening (percentage of comprehension) and visualize those characters and practice them in your mind (after you have mastered the radical techniques). Be nimble and a flexible learner. By keeping your mind at constant training and practice you could have more attention and therefore retain an astounding 90% of what you are learning.

5. You will spend an average 6 hours in class, 5 days a week learning Chinese language. To be an effective learner take down notes and actively participate and interact with teachers and classmates. During class try to maintain at all times class etiquette: be modest, equally respectful both to your classmates and teachers, show enthusiasm and don't be aggressive, take your time to both respond and ask questions and finally stand up when you need to answer or make any responses in class. Preserving this class etiquette will show the unique qualities among Bangladeshi students.

6. Enrich your social life by mixing with Chinese students. Overall Chinese people are very kind and helpful and ready to assist you on any aspects of your learning stage. Try to speak with them in Chinese and show your interest to make language partners. Language partners are essential during your studies to catapult your Chinese speaking and listening ability to the next level. Work out the time for it and as always be effective learner and enjoy learning.

7. Finally try to make some simple basic schedule like how you allocate time in a week on your program and take special notes on which part of the program you are having most difficult time and ways to mitigate this problem. If you already have a routine based on your day-day activities and lifestyle follow them strictly.

Your first year Chinese is very crucial and critical to your Undergraduate or higher studies, provided Chinese is the medium of language. So make sure to tie down your improvement and performance with time. Otherwise you will very soon loose sense of time or spend most of your time sleeping under the blue. শিক্ষা সংক্রান্ত খবরাখবর নিয়মিত পেতে রেজিস্ট্রেশন করুন অথবা Log In করুন।

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