Chinese

Anyone know of any decent resources for learning the actual script rather than pronunciation etc, as I want to get some idea of the language before considering studying it @ university...

I've got a couple of books where it's all about pronunciation and speaking but nothing about the actual characters,

Thanks for any help...

I am also considering learning some as I wish to study abroad in Hong Kong in my International Management degree.

What type Chinese are you studying, Mandarin? If so, how difficult is it to speak?

Probably a lot easier than Cantonese (and nicer sounding too).

It's more useful, too, since they speak Mandarin in most of China...

i was thinking of doing GCSE chinese, but think i won't have enough time, so am considering skipping to AS level and then possibly A2. If i work at it solidly, do you think i should be able to sit the AS exam by june 2007?

It's more useful, too, since they speak Mandarin in most of China...

indeed, it'll be very useful in 40 years time

And whatever you do, don't come to Newcastle to do Chinese.

Obviously ignoring the fact that Mandarin is the world's most spoken language, even ahead of English (the second most spoken is Spanish). China also has the largest population of any country, and it is estimated that the Chinese economy will overtaken Britain's by mid-2006 to become the world's 4th largest economy.

What's so bad about it?

It's really really slow. Half the speed of the other Uni's that do it. In the first year, you do no modules relating to China other than 4 hours of Chinese language. All the good stuff comes in year 2. You go abroad in third year, not second, and by that time one would assume to have an extra year of knowledge, but it turns out that we learn the same amount, just half as slow. So while other Uni's have 2 more years in UK when they return, we have just 1, and it's half as slow! It doesn't take a genius to work out that graduates of Chinese from Newcastle will be much less able than those from Leeds/Sheffield/Soas/Oxbridge etc. Don't come here unless you want to do Chinese as an extra topic in another degree.

Do you know which unis do chinese and economics?

It's really really slow. Half the speed of the other Uni's that do it. In the first year, you do no modules relating to China other than 4 hours of Chinese language. All the good stuff comes in year 2. You go abroad in third year, not second, and by that time one would assume to have an extra year of knowledge, but it turns out that we learn the same amount, just half as slow. So while other Uni's have 2 more years in UK when they return, we have just 1, and it's half as slow! It doesn't take a genius to work out that graduates of Chinese from Newcastle will be much less able than those from Leeds/Sheffield/Soas/Oxbridge etc. Don't come here unless you want to do Chinese as an extra topic in another degree.

Just did a UCAS search, it came up with Nottingham, SOAS, Leeds and Edinburgh. I guess you could also do it at Newcastle as part of their combined course programme - you already speek some Chinese right? In that case the speed probably wouldn't be such a problem for you because you would start at a higher level.