A quick and easy overview of how best to start your Chinese journey.
In my opinion, it should be a pretty logical step to try and learn the language spoken in the country you live in.
If you are planning on moving to China or have recently moved here it will be a good idea to start learning some Chinese ASAP.
I know for many people the reason for moving to China is more business or career-oriented and the aspect of moving to a different country with a different language and culture is not really at the top of their minds.
However, I believe only by learning Chinese you can make the best out of your time in China, connect to the people here, try to understand the culture, and simply make your daily life way more convenient. When you only speak English you will be cut off from a huge part of life in China and be limited to foreigner-focussed areas, services, and most of the Chinese population. You will also need to rely heavily on other, Chinese-speaking people which is of course something that might not be completely avoidable but still not the best feeling.
I myself am still very much at the beginning of my Chinese learning journey so I cannot really talk about experiencing all of these benefits first hand but these are definitely goals I hope to achieve in the near future.
As I am a Chinese learner myself, I know how frightening the idea of learning this completely new language can be and how very difficult it seems. I am not going to tell you that once you start you will find learning Chinese is actually a piece of cake.
But while I am in the process and, quite regularly, to be honest, complaining and struggling with grammar, tones, or characters, I also realized that Chinese is not harder than other languages (I know there are exceptions, and me having German as a mother tongue might not be the best example) and it let me reconcile again with Chinese.
The best tip I could give is to simply start, any little bit of Chinese you learn will be helpful in your daily life and will make you feel more like a self-dependent adult again.
If you really are overwhelmed by the Chinese characters you can leave those aside and start by only learning Pinyin and vocabulary. If you reach a certain level you will most likely want to learn the characters as well but even without those, you can just ask your way around. Many Chinese people cannot read that well either and get by just fine.
Learning Chinese
So, when coming to Beijing, you will of course need to learn Mandarin or Standard Chinese (Putonghua 普通话). People in Beijing, as the capital of China, and one of the more northern provinces, use Mandarin. I don't really know if there are any areas in China where people don't have an accent but Beijingers still have a little accent which is something you will get familiar with quite fast and nothing to be concerned about while learning Mandarin. Every Chinese teacher is doing their best to speak Putonghua and even if they have a slight accent from their hometown it won't stop people from understanding.
So, even if you haven't left for China yet, I think it still makes sense to start learning Chinese. It will allow you to get the first glimpse into how the language works, learn about the different tones, and get a feeling for the sentence structure which is already very helpful for your further process.
Depending on where you are in the world just chose any course that fits your schedule and budget. I personally prefer offline courses but that's completely up to you. If you start online courses you could even start with a school here in Beijing and later switch over to offline courses.
You can of course also self-study. There are a ton of extremely helpful courses and free Youtube videos out there that I find very helpful. I would still recommend starting with a teacher as especially the tones might be a bit hard to grasp on your own in the beginning.
Most of the courses I have seen so far are oriented on or completely based on the HSK system, the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, which is the standardized test of Standard Chinese. Even if you don't plan on ever taking any of the HSK exams, it is still a good guideline for learning the language. You can even buy the official books by the Confucius Institute and learn based on those but I personally find courses that build their own lesson plan with some additional content, vocabulary, and stories a bit better. The HSK books are very straight to the point and if you want to learn using those books I would recommend adding some additional resources and videos to your learning to better understand and practice the grammar points and vocabulary.
I personally find it very rewarding to actually be able to read at least some of the words I am encountering every day and to sometimes understand the phone calls I am getting on a daily basis from delivery personnel and customer service.
In Beijing, you have the choice between quite a lot of different language schools. You can simply search for Chinese schools in Beijing and will be presented with a long list. I have only been to two schools so far, which I both liked, but for different reasons.
I have to say that finding group classes is currently very difficult due to the low number of foreigners in Beijing. If you are a beginner, this might be easier but if you start anywhere from HSK 2 level or up, it will be almost impossible. Your best chances are in finding other students who would be willing to join a group class with by yourself.
This is also the reason, why most schools currently don't offer a lot of after-class activities like cooking classes, joined excursions, etc. (even though they might still claim so on their websites).
The schools I have experience with are the following to:
That's Mandarin is a school close to Dongzhimen (Dongcheng). They offer group classes online and offline and have their own course schedule as well as a learning platform. It is a small school but everyone is very friendly and welcoming. They base their program on the HSK plan but create their own stories, and videos and add quite a lot of additional vocabulary. The teachers speak English (to various degrees) and they also offer 1:1 courses.
I started at this school with an intense group course which was 2-3 hours of Chinese every day. That was pretty challenging but of course, also allowed for some quick progress. I was lucky as I actually had another student at the same level who could join me for group classes and had that much free time to dedicate to learning Chinese.
The school also tries to organize events like Mahjong classes, Chinese Game nights, etc. every few months.
CCH - China Culture House Beijing is an even smaller institute in Chaoyang, next to Liangmaqiao. They mostly offer 1:1 classes and teach their offline classes either at the students' home, offices, or in their own office with very limited space. My husband's company has a cooperation with this school which is why I even knew of them.
The teachers are very nice and knowledgeable but they don't have their own course program but base their teaching on the HSK books or if you have any specific individual needs.
With all the different teachers I have encountered so far I was generally happy. They are all very hard-working and do their best in teaching you Chinese. The English level will differ a lot from teacher to teacher but the more experience with attending Chinese classes I have, the more I find that irrelevant. I would actually encourage you to try not to speak any English at all during the lesson, the same goes for the teacher. It is surprising how much a good teacher can explain to you in a language you don't know yet and it will force you to practice Chinese more.
One other difference between the teachers was how easy it was for me to communicate with them on a personal level. This has more to do with cultural background and their personal experience, rather than the language. You will see a difference between teachers who have never left China and don't have a lot of contact (outside of school) with foreigners, and teachers who might have already lived in another country, have traveled a lot, or have international friends. I am not saying one is better than the other but while learning the language you will also encounter situations, words, or phrases that are not easy to understand based on our different cultural backgrounds and I found it easier to explain what my question was about to teachers you have already had a look outside of China. The same goes with understanding humor but this is an issue that will differ a lot from person to person (and my German sarcasm is a problem in many parts of the world).
Additional schools I have reached before and believe to be quite good are:
Beijing Hutong School - located in Sanlitun, Chaoyang. Close to the Central Business District CBD. When i contacted them they only had 1:1 classes available but I guess depending on the current demand, they usually offer intensive and group courses as well.
LTL Mandarin School Beijing - also located in Chaoyang, south-east of the Central Business District. They actually focus on learning Pinyin and spoken Chinese first and as far as I know disregard characters in the first stages of learning Chinese. They have a very good website with a lot of resources and videos and I would also recommend subscribing to their newsletter.
Youtube Channel Recommendations:
Instagram Channel Recommendations:
Most of these channels are being run by Chinese teachers who offer lessons so if you are interested you might be able to reach out to them directly and book a class.