How I learned Chinese (Review of Keats Language School)

learning Chinese is remarkably poorly
suited to the modern Western system of university education we could have a debate about whether or not modern Western universities do a great job of teaching Latin we could have a debate about whether or not they do a great job of teaching ancient Greek or modern languages like French Italian Spanish that's debatable but there are peer-reviewed studies there are quantitative studies showing that after four years in a bachelor's degree students in the United States Canada England if they've enrolled in intro to Chinese if they start off as beginners and spend those four years of their lives and thousands of dollars the modern Western system of education absolutely fails to furnish them with basic competence in spoken Chinese there are other interesting debates that we had about other educational models they're used for Chinese I used to somewhat naively assumed that the United States Army did a good job of teaching army boys how to speak Chinese because you know it's life and death ultimately while I was a student it keeps I had the strange pleasure of meeting quite a few graduates of US military courses a Chinese and they admitted themselves that they learned next to nothing in the long years and long hours spent learning Chinese from the US military system and they reflected that their colleagues the other guys who went through the same program they also learned nothing and those who did become fluent in Chinese or Japanese or other difficult Asian languages did so through extraordinary means outside of the program so I had some interesting conversations of us my point being there are several different models competing in the 21st century for how to teach students languages like Chinese and Chinese is if we're being honest a lot more difficult to convey to someone speaks English as their first language then Latin Greek Italian what-have-you and to some extent the Western education system it really was invented to teach Latin above all staff the old fashioned grammar school system of getting students to read write and sing in Latin and not very much thought has been given as to what kind of changes would need to be made even to teach modern European languages let alone to over over I'm the tremendous unique difficulties and obstacles that Chinese insults so when I was studying at a normal Western University Canada University Victoria most of the professor's just threw up their hands and admitted the system was crap they said the only way you're going to learn Chinese is to buy an airplane ticket to China and do something because you're not going to learn Chinese sitting in a classroom with 40 other students where you maybe get to talk to the professor one on one in Chinese for five minutes a year in my course of Victoria the only one-on-one speaking exercise spoken exercise for Chinese was the final oral exam otherwise the method of teaching listening comprehension which if you really think about it can never work for Chinese their method of teaching listening comprehension was to play a CD an audio CD and then have the students fill out a multiple-choice form photocopy it's never going to work what you really need are long hours one-on-one with the teacher speaking having the teacher hear you reply stop you with errors you're making correct you you need to build up the moment-to-moment use of vocabulary and grammar in Chinese and you need to start from zero you need to start from scratch it's a tremendously challenging language and again I just don't think that the university system in Western countries addresses those challenges in any way whatsoever so I ended up spending I think over 15,000 US dollars to study Chinese living in the school that key of Kunming key to the name of the school so I live there I studied there I ate all my meals there about five days a week and that price tag I'm indicating 15 grand that wasn't just for the lessons of time of the teacher it was for that whole package a place to sleep a couple meals a day etc etc it was for an environment with very few distractions and an environment that in truth drove some of the other students crazy I can say from experience that staying in that environment was easier than living in a Buddhist monastery easier than living in most Buddhist monastery and there were army guys there as I mentioned as the army guys could say that it was easier than living in a bunker keeper said easier than living in a dugout or in a typical army base but no my life there was not easy it was not enjoyable I wasn't there as a tourist I wasn't there to have a good time I think it is worthwhile to point out is one negative aspect of this review that Keats does not live up to its own hype at all in organizing social occasions for the students when you first come in the door Keats you come to the elevator they have all these photographs on the wall of them going out to do karaoke of them going out to visit museums this kind of thing and when I was there that never happened once not once in seven months I can't give you guys any credit the only two field trips that happen during the time I was there happened specifically because I complained to them and I said this is false advertising you have these photos on the wall you made these promises in the website even the contract and I've at that point had been there for five months or been there for six months and this hasn't happened even once so they finally did one a karaoke night and again karaoke can be significant for practicing you know Chinese to speak in sing Chinese and it finally did they attempted to do one trip to one Museum but there are no trips to the zoo the music they do not do that they actually do let you down that respect so you're pretty much all alone in this bunker living in these really strange circumstances eating every day at the same buffet table with whatever crazy weirdos happen to be it religious school-- that they've got you know maybe you'll have a great experience that way maybe you won't but if you're the kind of person who gets lonely take your friends with you don't go alone in a bowl as a pair you know bring a friend or girlfriend or boyfriend go as a group of friends a group of students could all enroll at once and make the most of it that way because otherwise it's you and a pad of paper and an internet connection I appreciate the internet connection it's your only window in the outside world and otherwise you're waking up and going to class in my case it was four hours a day five days per week is Keats perfect no but one of the most important things I can praise them for is that when there were serious imperfections in the program I reported the problem they addressed the problem and it changed is every teacher it keeps good no but when I had a problem with the teacher I took it to management and I got reassigned to a new teacher or the teacher was instructed to change what they were doing they adapt it and things moved on even on the wall the room you stay in they have a poster up saying if you have a problem come to management talk to us we're going to change things if there's something you want to change with the content of what you're learning take it up with management take it up with your teacher we can change things and that is sincere Keats is not perfect but they adapt they recognize their imperfections and they make changes and that is a virtue that puts them in my book many many levels above the kind of toxic authoritarian environment ideal at the University of Victoria the University of Victoria if you report a problem they would try to sweep it under the rug do try to blame the students they would have ridiculous complaints processes involving the head of the department and the Ombudsman and the Dean nothing will get done ultimately they would just say look we're trying to make as much money as possible by giving you a full education as possible a damn thing in a change and yeah II that even was true University of Victoria trying to just address what they were doing with the teaching assistant how some of the minor things were organized they could have really easily made improvements and I and other students pointed out shortcomings in areas they can make room that would wouldn't have cost them a dime but they refused they would rather be right they would rather feel like they were right and continue to be wrong than actually sell the phone so Keats is not like that I did have problems with some of the teachers and also just keep mind some of the teachers just want to teach stuff I wasn't going to study so I came there I'm paying this premium to do one on one one teacher one student so that means you don't have an exam you don't have a preset list of words to memorize you've got to come there with the initiative and the organisation and self-discipline to say hey here's what I want to study so another guy who got a lot of the experience there was another guy there who is something like an accountant in the international finance system so you know specialized accountant for something like stock trading what than interested but he came to that school he knew exactly the vocabulary wanted to study he knew exactly the kind of conversations conversations he needed to rehearse in Chinese exactly even the kinds of written sentences he needed to work on and then his teacher could respond to that right so likewise I came and said look I come out of a political science background Asian Studies background I'm interested in history politics economics this is the kind of vocabulary I care about and every day I was doing a written composition this is a one-page handwritten essay and that would have in it this has a vocabulary about politics and history and then we would use that in the speaking and listening practice in class I was using my written class it my written work so on and so forth and it naturally took our curriculum in that direction in a direction that was rewarding to me intellectually and personally reflected my interests and where I was motivated to really work hard in the language I had one teacher who by contrast wanted me to do a bunch of lessons on driving a car you know turn left at the red light disco cab you Larry and I said look I've never driven the car in my life I'm not planning to get a driver's license this is not part of my life anyway and this is not what I'm paying for I'm not if you're in a classroom with 50 people and they're doing that lesson out of the book you know Chinese vocabulary for driving a car left turn right turn this kind of thing then you're stuck you can't really negotiate you can't claim to override what the teachers decided is the best route home for the class as a whole but when it's one-on-one you make the curriculum and you have to set down the the path you want to take to the teacher actively not passively don't just resign yourself to doing whatever the teacher wants to do you have to come with that initiative with that self discipline and be ready to make the most of the educational experience Oh Keith is a good school keith is a great opportunity it cost thousands of dollars but it saves you time I think if you study Chinese in a mainstream American University you will also spend tens of thousands of dollars and you will learn much much less in the passenger for four years I'm filming this with my weights in the background you can see where I do benchpress back there people asking for advice in Chinese all the time people who need me face to face on how much how much language general to cope with speaking listening etc sometimes they see my handwriting and they're impressed to the level of that in terms of reading and writing Chinese also and they say to me in effect what's your secret how did you learn Chinese what methods do you learn they ask that kind of question but the truth is they don't want to hear the answer when the answer is it's a lot of hard work it's a lot of long hours and it costs a lot of money it's just like people asking for advice on weight lifting weight loss health or fitness they generally only want an out answer that's going to be something easy something cheap a shortcut a secret there is no shortcut there are no secrets but you've got to take an analytical eye and look at all the educational methods that are available to you how you can make the most of them what works what doesn't work and when the system is broken and I do genuinely think that the modern Western University system is broken and its approach to teaching Chinese then you have to look at alternatives that are outside the system I have very little positive experience with education my own high school is terrible I've been to universities all over Europe all over Canada and all over Asia huge number of universities in Asia the vast majorities institutions I regard is terrible and the only advice I can give you as a sort of warning talk about what the shortcomings are what's benefit my experience with the education at Keys is uniquely positive it's a uniquely positive educational experience in my life although it has shortcomings we're talking about institution that's willing to recognize its own shortcomings and adapt them as long as you bring the initiative to make the most out of that opportunity