Update: Learning Mandarin
F4 Fever might have cooled down in Manila after the regular airing of Meteor Garden but Chinovela or Chinese TV soaps are still popular.
Unlike most fans who limited themselves with memorizing Chinese lyrics and phrases like Wo Ai Ni (I Love You), I decided to learn Mandarin.
This Saturday, my sister Tet and I enrolled for a three-hour, 10-session Mandarin lessons at the Manila Language School. Each of us paid Php 3,700. But we were informed that the fee would be Php 3,175 if there were six students enrolled.
I guess that it's quite reasonably priced. My officemate is currently taking Mandarin at Chiang Kai Shek College and she paid Php 6,000 for 15 sessions. And it was the cheapest that we could find last July.
My officemate's tutor at Chiang Kai Shek College is from mainland China. At Manila Language School, we were told that the teacher would be Chinese- Filipino. I made it a point to know because it's important that the teacher would be a native speaker. The Foreign Service Institute of the Department of Foreign Affairs only hires native speakers for its language courses for our diplomats and Foreign Service Officers.
posted by sayong @ 10/10/2004 03:01:00 AM
2 Comments:
At April 27, 2007 11:28 AM,
Anonymous said…
hi! nakita ko site mo from searching manila language school. Im planning to study mandarin din kasi dun. ask ko lang...sulit ba siya? good school ba? para kasing ancheap nung price! hehe.. please help me. pede mo po ba ako email sa saiyan_co@yahoo.com for your reply? thanks a lot!!!:D
At May 02, 2007 12:02 AM,
sayong said…
Hallo,
Our teacher then, Loleng, is good. And I’m also a bright student, kidding :) I was F4 fun so I had lots of other exposures to the language. That makes learning easier. My sister was not so keen on learning it so it was a lost as far as she is concerned. I think that Loleng still teaches Mandarin there. But what you will retain depends on you :)
My only criticism is that we didn’t get our certificates. Perhaps, because my sister and I finished the course in February 2005 and we didn’t follow-up on the certificates until September last year. We asked many times last September but they didn’t return call, as promised. The good thing is that I don’t need the certificate. I already have other language trainings and certificates. But it may be different for you. If you don’t need the certificates and you just want somewhere to start learning Mandarin, it’s good enough.
My officemate studied Mandarin in another school and we had a hard time understanding one another because we pronounced the phonetics differently. Now, she’s studying Mandarin again at the FSI and it seems that Loleng and her teacher have the same pronunciation and almost the same style in teaching. Another thing, I don’t see the relevance of learning to write Bopomofo. My officemate went straight to writing traditional characters.
Anyway, i-email mo lang ako if you have more questions :)
sayong
05-01-07 11:55pm
Post a Comment
<< Home