Does Anybody Here Do Chinese Studies?

brian1991

Hi, I started a similar thread on French, but I'm wondering now if anyone here does Chinese Studies (Arts)? I've always been fascinated by Chinese culture, but the language frightens me. Articles like this one really scared me: Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard.

So what's your opinion of the language (Mandarin). What is the course like in general also (pace, assignments etc)?

Thanks in advance,
Brian

PhatPiggins

Don't do it unless you see a long term career involving Chinese. It's bloody hard to learn and really frustrating. I wasn't overly impreesed with the Chinese dept in UCC but I only did a part time course so am probably not the best to judge.

brian1991

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of focussing on my German in college and might take up Japanese when I'm older, a language you can't do at UCC unfortunately for me.

PhatPiggins

brian1991 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of focussing on my German in college and might take up Japanese when I'm older, a language you can't do at UCC unfortunately for me.

I'm handy enough at languages and still struggled with Chinese. Thing is though I still need it for work and it's only going to become more important that we can speak the lingo. Think about what you want to do when you graduate before picking your language, if I could have it back I would have done Chinese in school and Uni.

Sorry to sound like your dad :eek:

Nova_era

I actually find that having to learn a completely new alphabet makes learning a new language easier.

A few months ago I started teaching myself Russian, and I found that due to having to concentrate so much on the completely new alphabet, I remembered a lot more than I would have in learning Dutch, Swedish etc.

It's not impossible, if it was then Chinese Studies wouldn't be a subject in UCC. A guy in my class last year did Chinese Studies, and is off to Shanghai for 3rd year.

Go for it.

pearliefan

I found it interesting for a while but in the end the characters were just too difficult. However, I didn't keep on top of it enough as I did it with Computer Science so I was concentrating much more on the Computer side.
There were arts students in my class as well and they got on very well and were flying it by the end of the year, so if you think you have time for it and a real interest in it, give it a shot!

Good luck

Xiangjiao

Hi Brian,

some valid points already raised here by other posters.

I took the course in the first year of mt degree (2007/8) and really enjoyed it. In the end, I chose not to keep in on but that was primarily down to the fact that I kept on the two Arts modules I had the most interest in (Hispanic Studies and History). As a spoken language, if you can get your head around the tones, it's not at all difficult. The written side is another matter, but no pain no gain. I feel I got a lot out of it, I would like to pick the language up again some day (and I was surprised by how much I could remember when speaking to Chinese people recently), and it also stoked my interest in Chinese history.

Also, as its a small and new faculty, the teaching and administrative staff are extremely helpful, friendly, and approachable; I can remember our language instructor going out of her way to run out-of-hours classes for people who were struggling and/or falling behind.

If you are doing an Arts degree, it's well worth sampling for the first year. I kind of lost interest towards the end of the year (after I'd decided what I would be keeping on) but passed it handily enough. Who knows after that, you might well end up sticking with it.

brian1991

Thanks for the replies so far. I think I will take up Chinese Studies for first year and see how it goes. At least it might make German look a lot easier. -_-
Has anyone else here done Chinese Studies?

Xiangjiao

brian1991 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies so far. I think I will take up Chinese Studies for first year and see how it goes. At least it might make German look a lot easier. -_-

Good on ya!

myImage

great link, thanks