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Why did I come to Cantonese Guangzhou to study Mandarin Chinese?
Many foreigners don’t like Guangzhou. Many Chinese learners think there is no point to study Mandarin Chinese in Cantonese Guangzhou. It does make more sense to study Cantonese in Guangzhou (which I’m doing by the way), but Guangzhou isn’t a bad city to study Mandarin either.
I can answer in a simple way that in the first place I came to the south because my university back in Finland has an agreement with Guangzhou University and therefore it was easy and free to come to study here. First I planned to stay in Guangzhou for six months and then go to Beijing to do a Bachelor degree. But something happened and I am still here by the Pearl River.
My boyfriend happened. I fell in love with him. But that is only half of the story. I fell in love with someone else too, with Guangzhou. I guess there is a little bit of rebel in me. It is kind of cool to date Chinese migrant worker who doesn’t speak English. It is also kind of cool to like Guangzhou because most of the laowai’s are hating it.
Everyone now knows how southern my Chinese accent is (you can listen to it yourself!), but living in Guangzhou and studying Putonghua isn’t a bad match. People here do have a strong accent and I do hear a lot of Cantonese everyday, but they also speak the official language. I guess in a year I’ve met only few people who didn’t speak Mandarin and those were all small grandmas. (Don’t take it in a wrong way, I do like elderly people and can communicate with them well with a calculator!)
I have teachers from around the China and in the campus I am hearing quite good Putonghua all the time. My best Chinese friend is from Shanghai and her accent is really standard. We don’t speak any erhua here, but I don’t see any reason why my Chinese wouldn’t improve here as fast as it would in Beijing. Actually people don’t know much English down here which is great for my studies.
Guangzhou might be a crazy place and sometimes I wonder how student of humanities ended up in Guangzhou where the most important thing is to make money and make it fast. I would also like to point out that I have been living in China just for a year and it is a short time. But right now I like it in here and have no plans to move north.
I have one question for you in return. Why didn’t you come to Guangzhou?
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Sara, I am happy that you like Guangzhou. in GZ there are many people who can speak Mandarin. I do think that you can improve your Chinese very good in GZ.
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Sara Reply:
April 10th, 2011 at 3:12 amYes, especially in the campus there are students from all over China and they speak putonghua in variety of accents. Many with a very standard one.
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I was born there so I didn’t have a choice but to be there. I love the food! There is nothing else better. =]
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:16 amI just heard that one of my favourite dishes is really Cantonese. That’s 炒河粉，非常好吃！
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That is not strange at all seeing all the chinese learning english in scotland! These chinese students will have an accent the english find difficult themselves. Seriously though I think the standard of mandarin in GZ will be poor but so what? Plus you get to learn canto too!
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:18 amCan’t wait to start learning little bit Cantonese starting next Autumn and get to use it on the streets!
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My reasons for choosing Beijing were pretty much the same as yours first choosing Guangzhou: my school had an agreement with universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. Guangzhou simply wasn’t on the list. For some reason, I ruled out Shanghai (maybe because I had heard all the stories about partying and I’m boring enough not to be interested in that), so what was left was Hangzhou and Beijing. Main reason for me choosing Beijing instead of Hangzhou was the fact that Beijing was harder to get in; it seemed logical to put Beijing first.
I’m happy with my choice. I’ve been communicating with the chinese in Chinese since I came and for me it really doesn’t seem like people would know too much English in here either. Also there is a lot of migrant workers so not everyone speaks standard erhua. In smaller towns people would maybe be more interested in you and trying to start conversations more actively thus giving you even more chances of practicing, but that tends to get annoying quite fast too. But I think that’s the same for everyone – which ever city they have chosen to come to study Chinese to, they think that their city is the best one or the very least a really good choice.
(Still, I also think that best would be to study in different cities, get used to different accents. Aside from Beijing, I’d like to study in Xian, Hangzhou, Taipei, Singapore (yeah, not even as much in China as the earlier one, but they speak mandarin! Plus, possibilities of traveling are great from Singapore) and maybe in Yunnan or Chengdu. Also I’d really love to learn Cantonese, at least enough to be able to bargain, so Guangzhou or Hong Kong would be interesting in that way. Assumed that you had limitless amounts of time and money resources, what places would make top of your list of cities you would like to study in?)
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:30 amThanks for a long comment Noora! I think Beijing is a great choise. I really like the city and hope to visit it again in the future. I understand that it can get annoying when everyone wants to talk with you, especially when they always ask the same questions. But sometimes it’s a good practice too.
Interesting questions you asked! I have never really thought about that, but what if… My dream is to visit every province, but maybe it would be little bit too much to study in every one of them. Beijing would absolutely be on the list with Guangzhou. Then I would like to study for a while in some small village where no one speaks English. That would be a great way to force myself to study more. I can’t really make a better list right now, but maybe I’ll get to this later after thinking a little bit more.
Anyone else want to tell their favourite places?
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Sara, like I said before, it doesn’t matter whether you speak standard putonghua or not. The main purpose of learning and knowing how to speak a language is to be able to communicate. As long as people can understand what you say and you can understand what they say, that is all that matters. As for Guangzhou, I have never been there before, so I can’t say much. But from what I have read and heard about GZ, the place is more robust compared to other cities in China, just like Hong Kong. But if your heart is where GZ is, then it is as good as any other place to be. But like you said, it may be good to travel a bit to other cities in China since you are already there.
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:32 amTraveling is absolutely good for language learning and to widen one’s knowledge. I have plans and next places I would like to visit are Yunnan and 土楼 tulou houses of Hakka minorities.
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Sara,
I’m curious: Finland is soooo cold and GZ is like a sauna. How are you adapting? Btw, I’ve noticed that almost all mainlanders speak mandarin. The standard accent is an exception. Yes, Beijingers have a heavy “roll” accent, not standard.
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:41 amI really like sauna, but sure it’s not so nice to be in a sauna most of the year 24/7! I really hate the summer in Guangzhou, it is way too hot for me and I’m sweating constantly. The late autumn is the best. No rain and not so hot anymore. Also winter is tricky because if it’s 10′C degrees outside, it’s the same inside too. No double-glazing in windows or central heating like back in Finland.
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I haven’t spent that much time in China myself either, just one year, and most of it in BJ but a short visit in GZ still left me with a positive impression of the city.
GZ university was an option for me, but I chose BJ as my destination. Besides the obvious reason of BJ is supposed to be THE place to study mandarin, I was told that the GZ university doesn’t have a very central location. The universities in BJ are technically in the central area of BJ, but now I know in reality they are also not close to the so called “centre” of Beijing and it takes forever to go anywhere from them anyways =)
I try to speak as much mandarin as possible while in China, only place where I’ve had trouble communicating so far has been Shanghai.
Have you been studying cantonese? I find the language to be really vibrant with all the slang and stuff, too bad there’s a lack of resources to study it when compared to mandarin.
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:50 amYou are right, Guangzhou University is here on the island and it’s far from the city center. On the positive side there isn’t much traffic here and the air quality seems better. The quality of this university isn’t that good, so I think you made a good decision not to come here.
I know only tiny bit of Cantonese, but will hopefully start studying it next autumn. People have adviced me that it’s good language to know if want to do business or work here in Guangdong province. It sounds interesting and little bit funny, but also really hard.
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Plans really do get botched up and a new, much better alternative frequently replaces it! I’m glad to know that you’ve found your fit in you Guangzhou and your boyfriend!
Here’s to China… and dreamers!
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:52 amSo nice to see you over here Katherine! I do believe that if some plan doesn’t work out, it happens for a reason and something better is just around the corner. Good luck with your project! I’m definitely reading your new posts.
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I spent 6 months in Guangzhou during the SARS outbreak. Absolutely loved the place, and always find I have to defend it when mention the city to others. Everyone always says the city is dangerous, and maybe it is, but when I was there never had a problem
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:54 amSo niceto hear that you loved Guangzhou Ross! I also haven’t got any safety issues here. I feel much safer than in Finland because there are always so many people in here. But in Finland it’s just a lonely street at night and the one creepy guy behind you. Sure it also depends on in what kind of groups you hang out, but I consider Guangzhou a safe place to live.
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To be fair Guangzhou is much less Cantonese-dominated than it used to be in the past. As you see migrant workers all over China come to work there and one would increasingly consider Mandarin the lingua franca. So to speak you may well learn a ‘neutral accented’ mandarin which is all well. And most Chinese speak heavily accented Mandarin anyway. Lastly my answer to your question is that my home is just across Shenzhen River!
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Sara Reply:
April 24th, 2011 at 8:11 amThat is true Marcus. Chinese people hava accents all over the country, some lighter some stronger. When I go out I can hear both Mandarin and Cantonese. And then a variety of other dialects I don’t even know what they are.
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Having just come back from my one-month vacation in China, I have to say that the cities definite seem safer than the ones over here in the US. Though dear god I am so much more appreciative towards all the everyday privileges I get over here. Thank you so much for the FDA, thank you so much for smoke bans, thank you so much for cleaner air. Beijing and Guangzhou might be a good place to chillax and party but I can’t imagine living there. Especially not after experiencing all the things that I have taken for granted from over here in the states.
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Sara Reply:
May 12th, 2011 at 11:25 amI agree with you Kyon, that you appreciate your own country more when you visit other places. I’m on my holiday back in Finland right now and I love the clean air and that I can drink straight from the tap! But at the same time I also miss Guangzhou, I guess during the year I made it my home and I just can’t wait to rent my new aparment and start finally doing my BA (that’s I’m going to finish ;) )
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hi – have you written or can you recommend any travel guides for visiting Guangzhou? I’m coming from Shanghai but haven’t travelled much in China yet. Thanks.
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Sara Reply:
May 12th, 2011 at 11:32 amHi Brandon! The only guide book I have in Lonely Planet China, but they don’t have a city guide for Guangzhou. So unfortunately I don’t have any first hand experience on Guangzhou guide books and don’t want to recommend somethings I haven’t read or used. I think you could check out Travel China Guide’s website for Guangzhou. I used that site a lot when I want to find out about other Chinese cities. And if you tell me what you like, maybe I could recommend some places in Guangzhou for you?
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the first time i went to china it was to Guangzhou, I went as an interpreter. I loved it. And, in fact, the mandarin they spoke there it was so clear to me (because its learned too) I could communicate really well
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Sara Reply:
May 19th, 2011 at 5:36 amNice to hear that you liked Guangzhou. First I thought that mandarin was easier in the north, but after a year in the south I like the way people talk there. I have had two teachers from the norht, norther than Beijing, and have had problems to understand them. Sure it has an effect that I have a Cantonese boyfriend.
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heey i am wim and i want to go to the JINAN university (international program) in GZ but i still have a few questions. i don’t want to live on campus because of the strict rules. but how much does it cost to live and rent an appartement in guangzhou near the JINAN university?
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Sara Reply:
December 20th, 2011 at 1:12 amI’m sorry wim, but I don’t know about the renting situation near that area.
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Sara Reply:
April 10th, 2011 at 3:08 am
Thanks for your opinion T! Maybe the best thing would even be to study Mandarin in a few cities around China. Then one could get to know diferent places and different accents. Pretty much no one sounds like the textbook CD and you can’t go out and tell people their putonghua isn’t standard. It’s you, and me, who have to learn to understand.
I hope you are right that living in Guangzhou will be an advantage for me!
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T Reply:
April 10th, 2011 at 10:20 pm
You’re right. Foreign language learners often get caught up in the idea of learning the official standard variety of the language that they forget that the primary function of language is to facilitate the practical purpose of communication.
If one restricted his/her exposure to Chinese to the variety spoken in Beijing, he/she risks not being able to communicate with Chinese speakers from other places in China due to regional variations. In which case, the practical purpose of learning the language would be defeated.
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Sara Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 2:22 am
Really good points T! The most important things it to understand people from different parts of China and speak in a way they they can also understand you. That’s why learning outside the classroom is important, to get real life exposure.
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