Mandarin Month: BITC Students Share How Their School’s Caring Staff Makes All the Difference
In the lead up to our Mandarin Month mixer on June 24, Sunday, June 25 where you'll be able to meet with Beijing's best Mandarin schools, we'll be dishing out some language-learning advice on a daily basis. Read on if you don't want to wait to get started on improving your 中文. Mandarin Month is sponsored by Sanfine International Hospital.
Do you feel shut out when your friends converse in Chinese? Or perhaps you want to delve further into the culture that gave birth to the likes of the world-renowned martial art of kung fu. If that's the case, you might be the perfect fit for the Beijing Information Technology College (BITC), which offers a rich array of Chinese language and Chinese culture classes that will help the uninitiated better understand and communicate with locals.
A Beijing-based vocational school that is known for its engineering and technological expertise, BITC provides a more personalized and interactive learning experience that is well suited to students who prefer a more hands-on and practical approach to learning. Classes hold between eight and 13 students per class and the teachers use varying methods to encourage students to comprehend the language and speak with confidence.
“One reason I come to classes every day is that the teachers are really fun,” says 44-year-old American Dale Shaw. “They give you plenty of time to practice your Chinese during class. It’s almost as if you are out in public speaking with local Chinese. I really enjoy attending, and not only are the teaching staff really nice but so are the office staff.”
Having visited China once before in the 1990s, Shaw returned to the Middle Kingdom in 2012 and decided to make it his home. Naturally, he decided he would need to learn the language to make the most of his time here but when he inquired about classes at one of the top language schools in Beijing, he was turned off by the attitude of their office staff, after which he resolved to arrange his own private lessons. That is, however, until he heard about BITC through a teacher at the school, who went on to become one of his favorite mentors.
Today, Shaw travels some distance to BITC, which is located in Jiangtai near Line 14 in the northeast of the city, to attend classes, but he says it's worth the effort.
"It’s a distance to the school, but I am always willing to come here. The classes are great,” says Shaw, who has been a student at the school for the past three years. “I am often praised for my Chinese, which I like to attribute to having studied here.”
On any given day Shaw arrives in the morning for his first class and stays until in the afternoon to take a Chinese listening class – another of his favorites. Each class is 45 minutes long with a break in between classes. A suitable schedule for each student can be assembled via a master timetable created by the school.
“One thing about BITC is that you have a minimum number of required classes, but you don’t have a maximum,” explains Shaw. “So, say you want to study all day, you can so at no extra cost.”
But Chinese is not all Shaw studies. The school offers many cultural classes such as kuaiban, a style of storytelling that utilizes two pieces of bamboo knocked together to maintain rhythm. BITC also offers Chinese dancing, martial arts, and Chinese tea ceremony lessons.
“The kuaiban class was nice. The teacher was very young, and he could do it very well, which made me want to go out and continue,” says Shaw. “I also attended the school’s calligraphy class a few times. They also have tea ceremony classes; another of the cultural classes I would like to try but have yet to do so.”
Islam Ali, a 20-year-old Egyptian currently reading for a diploma at BITC in Chinese, has also done some cultural classes at the school. Ali had studied Chinese for a year before branching out into his field of electronic engineering and holds a HSK Level 5 certificate.
Ali’s favorite cultural activity was learning kung fu, and became so proficient in the practice that he started representing the school in competitions across China.
“I learned Chinese kung fu and attended Chinese kung fu competitions,” he says, adding that the school also helped him to learn and practice other forms of wushu.
The first competition he attended was in Beijing, “which was just like an ordinary competition,” said Ali, adding that they only gave out certificates for participation. However, the second competition he attended was of a much higher caliber, and Ali walked away with a few prizes.
“The second competition was an international competition in Qingdao. I took second place for performing with a sword and first place for performing another kind of wushu,” says Ali. “There was another section in which we trained and performed as a group, and also ended up taking home gold medal for our performance.”
Ali said he would recommend the school to his friends not just for the courses that they provide but because he feels that BITC has taken excellent care of him and have taught him a lot.
“Whenever I have faced a problem they try very hard to solve it for me. They don’t ignore me,” he says. “They work with me until I solve the problem, and I like that.”
Keep on track with your studies with all of our 2017 Mandarin Month content here, and don't forget to register for our June 24 June 25 mixer here.
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This blog is paid for by BITC
Photos courtesy of BITC
