About Us
Create a Chinese-speaking environment where anyone can start to learn or improve their Chinese proficiency. As someone who started learning Chinese a year and a half ago, I understand how hard the basics can be, even with the help of a teacher. My goal for this club is to create an immersive and judgment-free environment so that everyone has more opportunities to speak Chinese. This club will be able to assist those who are unable to take Chinese classes due to schedule conflicts or any other reason. I almost did not continue studying Chinese due to the 5 days of classes every week for Chinese 1 through Chinese 6. It was not that I didn’t like having class every day, but it affected the order in which I took certain classes for my major. There will also be workshops held by our board of directors for beginners to work on pronunciation and practice speaking. I believe pronunciation is extremely important and wouldn’t encourage anyone to do a lot of speaking practice until they have the basics of pinyin and tones. This club will also benefit both intermediate speakers and those who studied Chinese as kids but forgot a lot. I have found that just being back in an immersive environment can help bring back a lot of passive knowledge into active knowledge. In addition, this club will benefit advanced and native speakers as more and more people will be exposed to learning Chinese. I have sent a poll to some of my friends who are native speakers, and they said they would be willing to come to the meetings and work with the members once I have everything going. I plan to have the first 10 minutes of the meetings in English and the last 10 minutes in English. My board directors and I can decide whether or not we should decrease the window of English time later. I will announce stuff they can talk about during the 40-minute immersive window, such as fundraisers or other socials. During the 40-minute immersive period, members, depending on their level, will only be advised to speak Chinese. For example, people currently in Chinese 1-3 will intertwine some English and Chinese, but people in Chinese 4-6 are advised only to use Chinese; if they don’t know how to say something, they can jot down the English on a piece of paper and then look it up later or ask native speakers during the last 10 minutes of the meeting. Although I believe people should not form bad habits, I also believe as long as you either of a grasp of some Chinese grammar or are a beginner and have a few sentences, then that is what you can practice. The idea that practice needs to be perfect is important, but as long as you are surrounded by people who can correct you, I think the most important thing to do is just speak Chinese. The more you speak, the more you will start to think in this language. I will also do my best to encourage members to think in Chinese and talk to themselves in Chinese. The more Chinese, the better. This club will allow everyone who is studying Chinese to practice what they are learning. As members of different levels of speaking and listening ability collaborate, they will get better at listening comprehension and take less time between sentences to speak Chinese.
