I'll start by saying I have always had big plans when it comes to blogging and to date they have borne only the meagerest of fruits, so let's just say I would like to post about my upcoming year learning Chinese in Yuxi, Yunnan, China now and then.
I turned 40 this year and if there has been a big item on my bucket list that is yet unchecked, then it is definitely learning Chinese and living in China for an extended period. I spent an amazing university summer holiday teaching English in Fuzhou 20 years ago, and promised myself I'd go back and learn Chinese. After living in France for 14 years and working in tech, I decided that I'd give myself a proper 40th birthday present and get back to my language-learning roots and not do tech for a while. China's tech scene is pretty damn awesome though, so I'll no doubt at least be a big user.
The current plan is to do 1:1 classes two hours a day over the summer, and then enroll in a standard Chinese for foreigners class, all at Yuxi Normal University (picture above). I spent a lot of time doing online courses at the end of last year until about Feb of this year but I'll confess that I've not put a lot of time in since. With work and extracting myself from here in France, there wasn't much time left for study.
I decided to go to Yuxi for a number of reasons. It is going to be pretty hard to avoid speaking English, so the fewer foreigners, the better. It is also a lot cheaper in Yunnan than in most of the eastern provinces. The main dialect spoken is Han (so Mandarin) but it is a very diverse province, and around 30% of Yuxi residents are from ethnic minorities. The big one has got to be the weather and amazing scenery though - the nearby Kunming is known as "The city of Eternal Spring" and there are lots of mountains and stunning lakes to be discovered. Yunnan people are also reported to be very friendly and laid back, and that's just what I'm looking for!
So that is my first post - I'll try and keep them short and sweet and regular from now on :-).
I turned 40 this year and if there has been a big item on my bucket list that is yet unchecked, then it is definitely learning Chinese and living in China for an extended period. I spent an amazing university summer holiday teaching English in Fuzhou 20 years ago, and promised myself I'd go back and learn Chinese. After living in France for 14 years and working in tech, I decided that I'd give myself a proper 40th birthday present and get back to my language-learning roots and not do tech for a while. China's tech scene is pretty damn awesome though, so I'll no doubt at least be a big user.
The current plan is to do 1:1 classes two hours a day over the summer, and then enroll in a standard Chinese for foreigners class, all at Yuxi Normal University (picture above). I spent a lot of time doing online courses at the end of last year until about Feb of this year but I'll confess that I've not put a lot of time in since. With work and extracting myself from here in France, there wasn't much time left for study.
I decided to go to Yuxi for a number of reasons. It is going to be pretty hard to avoid speaking English, so the fewer foreigners, the better. It is also a lot cheaper in Yunnan than in most of the eastern provinces. The main dialect spoken is Han (so Mandarin) but it is a very diverse province, and around 30% of Yuxi residents are from ethnic minorities. The big one has got to be the weather and amazing scenery though - the nearby Kunming is known as "The city of Eternal Spring" and there are lots of mountains and stunning lakes to be discovered. Yunnan people are also reported to be very friendly and laid back, and that's just what I'm looking for!
So that is my first post - I'll try and keep them short and sweet and regular from now on :-).
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