Is Shanghai a good choice?

Hi Ale,

What other cities are you considering? Between Beijing vs Shanghai, Beijing is well known for their language programs. SH also has sufficient ones as well- for only studying 3 months it won't make a very big difference. Do note that Shanghainese is its own dialect, different from Putonghua. Our Beijing friends have told us SH is more live-able- less traffic more social areas to hang out.

What do you mean by "Cultural life"? You mean like Chinese tradition? or Museum, music events?
There's something like 200,000 expats in Shanghai. 

One of my friends studies here, and has made really good progress. There's many varieties of programs, also you can check out the University programs.
www.miraclemandarin.com

Hope that helps!
I've lived in SH 5 years and loved it. (I lived in Shenzhen for a bit and my husband in Beijing, and SH we still like the most)

Kris

Ciao,Ale~ Benvenuto a Cina e piacere!
I lived 4 years in Shanghai, and I majored in Italiano all'universita'^^.

To be honest, Shanghai is NOT my favourite city. It is beautiful, but not quite friendly to nonnatives(by nonnatives I mean chinese who are not shanghaiese). Anyway, I'll tell u everything I know.

- To attend a mandarin course is quite easy in Shanghai. u can choose a language school. These schools are professional and you'll get many foreign friends to study together with.
http://www.mandaringarden.org/(I've heard of this one for years/owns a good reputation)
http://www.mandarinmorning.com/(many recommends online/don't know those r ads or not)
http://www.lycn.org/en/(cooperates with many world top 500 enterprises)

or u can turn to foreign language universities. Lots of students are willing to teach Chinese. This way is more fun and worth the money:P
I have taught 2 Italians when I was a sophomore, u can trust us.

As for shangainese accent, well, all the cities have their accents. At least you are not in Guangzhou.←w←
Also, adesso young people basically speak standard mandarin. Don't worry about this~   

- Ho fatto la guida turistica per due mesi(don't know how to say this phrase in ENG...sorry). As I observed, my tourists all loved Shanghai. It's a perfect combine of west and east, old and modern. You'll find temples, bars, live houses, fantastic night scene, all kinds of goods and food. Very fascinating.

- Cost...Let's say it won't be low. I don't think bars or food would be a problem, cos' there r many great places with reasonable prices, u just need to find them. Apartment is the thing u should think about. Downtown housing prices are crazy. To rent an apartment of 80-120M2 with furnitures, at least 3000rmb/month, up to 110000rmb/month. Advise is that don't live downtown, just make sure your house is close to a metro station.

- Last one, the foreigners I met in Shanghai were basically business men or women, language teachers, students, and tourists. Don't know what kind of foreigners u foreigners would meet.

Hope my answer useful. Ciao e buona giornata!

ehi_ale wrote:

Hi everybody, I'm Ale, 32, italian, and I'm planning to go to China for three months. I'll be there with my girlfriend, who's chinese and is going to work as an intern.
I'm planning, but I'm not yet completely sure!

I've been in China before, but I've visited Shanghai only for a couple of days and I didn't like the city too much. Or, better, I probably didn't have the time to enjoy it.
So I would like to ask you a couple of questions. Here they are:
-I'd like to attend a hardcore mandarin course, of at least 4 hours a day, to increase my knowledge of the language, which is very very basic. Is Shanghai the right city? I heard that shangainese accent is quite bad... (comments and suggestions on the school are welcome)
- what about cultural life of Shanghai? Is it going to be interesting for a foreigner?
-how much does life cost? I would like to go to bars once in a while, live in a small but nice apartment, eat local food in restaurants and so on...
-last question: what kind of foreign people one can meet in Shanghai? Are they all business oriented people?

Thanks!
Ale

1. Shanghai is a great place to learn Mandarin,, while some people have an accent, as all cities, even villages, when you take a Mandarin course you won't have to worry about someone teaching you the accent rather than the true Mandarin. There will be plenty of people to understand, and really the accent isn't bad, it is heavier than some parts, but you must remember, Shanghai is made of more people not from Shanghai than those in Shanghai. For Spring Festival, the population dramatically drops. You'll be speaking to Chinese people from all over. A Rome of China you might say,

2. Cultural life will be interesting, while Shanghai is a very modern city, it has many sides to it. You will have plenty of old, new, natural, modern, artistic things to do in Shanghai, in fact if you just try a little, you'll have to start excluding or saving things to do later.

3. The cost vary greatly, but mainly depending on location. Especially apartments. I live further away from the city, but near line 1, and pay 4200 for a 2 bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom. I am not sure on square meters, but it is a nice place. Now consider you move into the city, say near Jing'an ... easily 6, 8, 10,000 there. Your girlfriend may help cut cost on the apartment side, being Chinese, and able to read apartments to rent online and such. Advice, try not to go through an agent, thats a hefty fee there. As for bars, they will be fair priced, especially during happy hours, heck if you miss anything from Italy, I saw there is an Amphora chain selling things mainly from Greece, and not bad priced.

4. The people will generally not be too interested in that your a foreigner, I say this coming from towns or villages, where its below or around 1.5 million. There its almost a starved or surprised "OMG a foreigner." If you are outward and say hello though, I do believe they will respond, though once we did and the guy said "Do I know you?" as if to say "Why are you talking to me?" so we wrote him off, but most aren't like that. Mainly teachers and students that I have met, as well as tourist. The business people exist as well, actually met an Italian business man in Xinzhuang working for a tile or flooring company. The more businessy people are near Pudong, and by that I mean expensive suits and briefcases. Most other business people are well, normal, in fact, they might be more talkative, especially if they have something to sell

KrisD wrote:

Hi Ale,

What other cities are you considering? Between Beijing vs Shanghai, Beijing is well known for their language programs. SH also has sufficient ones as well- for only studying 3 months it won't make a very big difference. Do note that Shanghainese is its own dialect, different from Putonghua. Our Beijing friends have told us SH is more live-able- less traffic more social areas to hang out.

What do you mean by "Cultural life"? You mean like Chinese tradition? or Museum, music events?
There's something like 200,000 expats in Shanghai. 

One of my friends studies here, and has made really good progress. There's many varieties of programs, also you can check out the University programs.
miraclemandarin.com

Hope that helps!
I've lived in SH 5 years and loved it. (I lived in Shenzhen for a bit and my husband in Beijing, and SH we still like the most)

Kris

Hi Kris! I've only considered Shanghai: the options are: live in Shanghai for a while/stay here in Italy. My girlfriend is forced to work in SH, so... I'd prefer Beijing, I like it better.
By cultural life I mean going to concerts, watching movies... stuff like that...
Are there universities that provide beginner courses?

Sini S wrote:

Ciao,Ale~ Benvenuto a Cina e piacere!
I lived 4 years in Shanghai, and I majored in Italiano all'universita'^^.

To be honest, Shanghai is NOT my favourite city. It is beautiful, but not quite friendly to nonnatives(by nonnatives I mean chinese who are not shanghaiese). Anyway, I'll tell u everything I know.

- To attend a mandarin course is quite easy in Shanghai. u can choose a language school. These schools are professional and you'll get many foreign friends to study together with.
http://www.mandaringarden.org/(I've heard of this one for years/owns a good reputation)
http://www.mandarinmorning.com/(many recommends online/don't know those r ads or not)
http://www.lycn.org/en/(cooperates with many world top 500 enterprises)

or u can turn to foreign language universities. Lots of students are willing to teach Chinese. This way is more fun and worth the money:P
I have taught 2 Italians when I was a sophomore, u can trust us.

As for shangainese accent, well, all the cities have their accents. At least you are not in Guangzhou.←w←
Also, adesso young people basically speak standard mandarin. Don't worry about this~   

- Ho fatto la guida turistica per due mesi(don't know how to say this phrase in ENG...sorry). As I observed, my tourists all loved Shanghai. It's a perfect combine of west and east, old and modern. You'll find temples, bars, live houses, fantastic night scene, all kinds of goods and food. Very fascinating.

- Cost...Let's say it won't be low. I don't think bars or food would be a problem, cos' there r many great places with reasonable prices, u just need to find them. Apartment is the thing u should think about. Downtown housing prices are crazy. To rent an apartment of 80-120M2 with furnitures, at least 3000rmb/month, up to 110000rmb/month. Advise is that don't live downtown, just make sure your house is close to a metro station.

- Last one, the foreigners I met in Shanghai were basically business men or women, language teachers, students, and tourists. Don't know what kind of foreigners u foreigners would meet.

Hope my answer useful. Ciao e buona giornata!

Hi Sini, your answer is definitely useful! Where did you live in Italy?

My girlfriend is from the North, so her accent is quite neutral, and I would like to learn mandarin with the most neutral accent possible. I heard that in Shanghai people don't like too much mandarin, but maybe it's not true.

Do you know of any green areas, not downtown but not far from the center of the city, where one can find a small apartment (I don't think we need 80sqm, 50sqm is more than enough) at a fair price, let's say 5-6000RMB? Living in a zone which is not crowded with expats wouldn't be a problem. Not at all.
Any suggestions?

willabroad wrote:

1. Shanghai is a great place to learn Mandarin,, while some people have an accent, as all cities, even villages, when you take a Mandarin course you won't have to worry about someone teaching you the accent rather than the true Mandarin. There will be plenty of people to understand, and really the accent isn't bad, it is heavier than some parts, but you must remember, Shanghai is made of more people not from Shanghai than those in Shanghai. For Spring Festival, the population dramatically drops. You'll be speaking to Chinese people from all over. A Rome of China you might say,

2. Cultural life will be interesting, while Shanghai is a very modern city, it has many sides to it. You will have plenty of old, new, natural, modern, artistic things to do in Shanghai, in fact if you just try a little, you'll have to start excluding or saving things to do later.

3. The cost vary greatly, but mainly depending on location. Especially apartments. I live further away from the city, but near line 1, and pay 4200 for a 2 bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom. I am not sure on square meters, but it is a nice place. Now consider you move into the city, say near Jing'an ... easily 6, 8, 10,000 there. Your girlfriend may help cut cost on the apartment side, being Chinese, and able to read apartments to rent online and such. Advice, try not to go through an agent, thats a hefty fee there. As for bars, they will be fair priced, especially during happy hours, heck if you miss anything from Italy, I saw there is an Amphora chain selling things mainly from Greece, and not bad priced.

4. The people will generally not be too interested in that your a foreigner, I say this coming from towns or villages, where its below or around 1.5 million. There its almost a starved or surprised "OMG a foreigner." If you are outward and say hello though, I do believe they will respond, though once we did and the guy said "Do I know you?" as if to say "Why are you talking to me?" so we wrote him off, but most aren't like that. Mainly teachers and students that I have met, as well as tourist. The business people exist as well, actually met an Italian business man in Xinzhuang working for a tile or flooring company. The more businessy people are near Pudong, and by that I mean expensive suits and briefcases. Most other business people are well, normal, in fact, they might be more talkative, especially if they have something to sell

Last summer I visited many places out of the beaten track. At first being photographed by people, like a rockstar, was fun, but after a while it felt weird... I guess I can cope with the fact that I won't be noticed in Shanghai

Do you have any suggestions on websites in chinese were we can find home listings? Are there many scammers like in Craiglist around?

I lived in Berlin for a couple of years, it's my favorite city and I like the people who live there. And I would also like to meet people who work for tech companies and in the internet marketing field. Probably Shanghai is the best place for it, isn't it?

Shanghai is one of my favourite cities.  There is enough variety there to please practically any taste.

If you study formally, you will learn 官話.  As a new student you will likely not even notice the different accents of your teachers.

Thank you for your answer, Mia.
So... Any hint on good mandarin schools in Shanghai?
I tried to check the websites of the schools suggested, and something looks strange in all the cases: the courses are not divided in levels! So it could happen that a class is composed by beginners, experts and so on... It's a bit strange.

Websites from schools in China are terrible sources of information.  The Chinese, in general, do not utilise the internet for marketing as we do in "the west".  The internet is for shopping and playing video games.

If I were in Shanghai and wanted to take classes, I would find the nearest university.  Classes at cram schools could very well have students at every level in the same class.  Cram schools exist to make money for the owner, not to teach anybody Chinese.

Hello all,

@ehi_ale : You could check out our languages institutions in China, in our business directory to find a school that suits you.

Regards

Kenjee