Shijiazhuang

While Shijiazhuang might not carry a five star rating in tourist guide books, it is an ideal location for immersion Mandarin study. Although you may never have heard of Shijiazhuang, it is a large, rapidly growing, and very modern Chinese city. You will find an infrastructure and technology level that is familiar to you. There are high-rise glitz laden shopping malls, movie theatres, concert halls,techno clubs and karaoke bars, all existing intertwined with ancient temples, maze-like bazaars, open air markets and dozens of botanical parks. You will live in a level of comfort that is approximate to what you are used to at home, but you will be immersed in a uniquely Chinese environment that comes with a large provincial capitol that has a dazzling mix of the modern and the traditional, but is wholly Chinese.

Why Study Mandarin in Shijiazhuang?

Studying in Shijiazhuang has a number of advantages over studying in Beijing, Shanghai, or any other of the large cities in China. Primarily, the advantage of Shijiazhuang is a linguistic one. But before describing the first and most important advantage to studying in Shijiazhuang, a brief introduction to the issue of dialects in spoken Chinese is helpful. There are 11 major "recognized" dialect families in modern oral Chinese. Of the major families, most of them are spoken in between 100 and 200 locales across China, each locale having a range of distinct sub-dialects within each major dialect family that can vary from a simple accent to a significantly restructured grammar. The Mandarin family of dialects is by far the most significant of the 11. Mandarin is spoken in over 1,500 locales, and the next most common family (the Hakka dialect) is represented in about 205 locales. Clearly, Mandarin is by far the most widely spoken form of Chinese. Mandarin itself is made up of a large number of sub-dialects (di fang hua) as well, however one form of Mandarin is very important, pu tong hua, or, Standard Mandarin.

Standard Mandarin Environment

So with so many dialects being spoken across the country, why is it so important to learn pu tong hua (standard mandarin)? While there are a bewildering number of dialects, pu tong hua is not only the most widespread form geographically, it is THE form of oral Chinese used in all government and large business environments, all Chinese children must use it in school, and nearly 100% of the media is in standard Mandarin. What this means is that if you learn Mandarin, EVERYONE in any business or educational environment will be able to understand you and most people on the street will at least be able to communicate regardless of their origin. While you may encounter many people each day who do not speak standard Mandarin at home, they will all be able to fluently use it to communicate with you as well as their Chinese co-workers and classmates.

Standard Mandarin is spoken natively by 90% of the population of Shijiazhuang. Those familiar with the incredible plasticity of oral Chinese will recognize this as an uncommon and very special attribute. What this means for our students is that every contact hour both in and outside of the classroom will reinforce the course material. Often students studying in Beijing and especially Shanghai (or anywhere in the south of China) complain that what they learn in the classroom is useless as soon as they step into a taxi, or conversely, the daily language they pick up in markets and shops contradicts pronunciation and grammar learned in class. After a year or two of learning the difficult local dialect, they find themselves unintelligible to colleagues and classmates from other provinces who have learned to speak standard mandarin.. While seasoned Mandarin students may have little trouble adapting their pronunciation and phrases to match the background of a listener, for beginning students this kind of inconsistency can be a disaster, severely hindering the development of your oral Chinese.

Pure Chinese Culture

Cultural diversity is not always a good thing. Shijiazhuang is absolutely NOT an international city. You will find little western architecture, very few western chain stores (no Starbucks, 7-11, or Baskin- Robbins here), and very few foreigners. This lack of foreign influence has maintained the uniquely Chinese nature of the city, and it's undiluted culture and language environment is ideal for an immersion study program. What this means linguistically is that you are forced to use Chinese everyday. While most Chinese people studied English in high school, and there are many English speaking locals who will be very willing to help you on the street and in the market, nearly everyone you meet will be much more comfortable communicating with you in Mandarin.

In large international cities such as Beijing and Shanghai there are literally thousands and thousands of English speaking foreigners. Entire districts have evolved to cater to the English speaking populations, and many language programs in these cities place you directly in these areas. It is entirely possible to live in Beijing for years and never learn any Mandarin beyond the very basics. You can get around, but your career and education will be severely hindered. While extremely self-motivated students will have little trouble learning wherever they go, for most people it is very helpful to have a complete immersion environment, and complete immersion can only truly exist when there is not an option to remain illiterate.

Likewise, from a cultural aspect it is very advantageous to learn in an environment that is as un-influenced by the west as possible. Those students who study in international environments find themselves surrounded by other foreigners and Chinese people who are specially trained to cater to Western cultures. Those students who experience a complete immersion environment will gain an insight into Chinese culture, and therefore Chinese thought, that will give them a distinct advantage in establishing relationships, and a much richer experience regardless of length of stay.