As ending high school I am thinking of starting language course in China. My choose would be Shanghai and long term chinese course. Due to this I have some questions.
Do you have any experience about such a long course? Can I after one year speak Mandarin enough to start degree program? What are the most difficult things for the begginer in China?

I am waiting for optimistic reply

Most language programs like that are set up to have you go through it for 1 year before you can go into regular classes, and it should at the very least take 1 year. But it's really hard to say as you will have to be learning the writing system which in my opinion is the hardest part about learning Chinese.

Hello Suzume90!

My name is Derek! I recently started a study abroad company (called Next Step China www.nextstepchina.org) while in Beijing and have to agree with Lordarithon. I studied in a school in Beijing for one year and although the speaking can progress pretty quickly the writing portion will be the hardest part (As well as the listening). I invite you to take a look at our programs. I decided to start my business in Beijing because I noticed that those that studied in Shanghai found it easier to meet a lot more foreigners because more local Chinese speak different (especially English) languages in Shanghai than they do in Beijing. I would caution that if you want to be in a place to get good immersion while still being in a big city, Beijing is a good choice.

Derek Capo

I understand the writing part of Chinese as I am quite good oriented in Japanese, which has same characters. Unfortunately language course in Japan and living cost is something over my student bugdet...

If you say that it is hard but possible I am satisfied
Thank you!

Suzume90 Wrote:
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> I understand the writing part of Chinese as I am
> quite good oriented in Japanese, which has same
> characters. Unfortunately language course in Japan
> and living cost is something over my student
> bugdet...
>
> If you say that it is hard but possible I am
> satisfied
> Thank you!

If you are already good at Japanese the writing shouldn't be so hard as they are often quite similar. In one year of studying you should be able to learn enoguh to get into a degree program IF you study very hard. No fooling around, no hanging around with foreigners speaking Englsih all the time. If you honestly study hard, speak only Chinese with people you can do it. But it's a big IF because people here love to speak English.

Isn't the full program suppose to be at least 2 years (some can be 3 and a half years!). Maybe base from your name you're Japanese so you do have maybe already knowledge of 1000 Chinese characters so you only need 1 year to learn 1000 more. You should at least know 2000 characters if you want to take a degree in Chinese otherwise you will just be totally miserable. You can try 1 year first then take the HSK Chinese proficiency test to see if you're good enough. They use the HSK like Toefl for applications to university.