Hi This is my first post on Macinsiders and I was just wondering... My nationality is Chinese, Cantonese Chinese to be more exact. I was thinking of taking the Mandarin Chinese: Beginners course since I would like to well, read and write chinese, as I can only speak it - cantonese not mandarin. Would the course allow me to enroll in it/or kick me out because I understand Cantonese? I don't want to take the Dialect course as I can't speak Mandarin at all -- well I know a few words, like water and thank you lol. What do you guys think? Thanks for any replies!

Reading the course description as it is in the calendar, I'm under the impression that the course is designed for dialect speakers like you. Your Cantonese-speaking background should be helpful just because Mandarin and Cantonese are both Chinese languages, but I don't know if they expect you to know any reading/writing, etc.

Unfortuntately, the whole Chinese program (as you may or may not know) is brand new, so no one is certain about that. I would double check its suitability for you with the Confucius Institute, aka our Chinese "department":

Confucius Institute at McMaster University for Culture, Language and Business 1280 Main St. E.,
Alumni Memorial Hall Room 203
Hamilton, ON, Canada
L8S4L8
905-525-9150, ext. 24700
[email protected]

Originally Posted by nh999

Reading the course description as it is in the calendar, I'm under the impression that the course is designed for dialect speakers like you. Your Cantonese-speaking background should be helpful just because Mandarin and Cantonese are both Chinese languages, but I don't know if they expect you to know any reading/writing, etc.

Unfortuntately, the whole Chinese program (as you may or may not know) is brand new, so no one is certain about that. I would double check its suitability for you with the Confucius Institute, aka our Chinese "department":

Confucius Institute at McMaster University for Culture, Language and Business 1280 Main St. E.,
Alumni Memorial Hall Room 203
Hamilton, ON, Canada
L8S4L8
905-525-9150, ext. 24700
[email protected]

Thank You : )

I've heard that they don't really let native Mandarin speakers take Mandarin courses. But as far as I understand, Cantonese is really different right? You should have no problem getting in. :]

Cantonese is different enough that you can't really understand a Mandarin speaker without any prior knowledge of Mandarin. I believe they are not "mutually intelligible", although many Cantonese speakers nowadays have picked up some Mandarin, and possibly also the other way around.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

I've heard that they don't really let native Mandarin speakers take Mandarin courses. But as far as I understand, Cantonese is really different right? You should have no problem getting in. :]

Out of curiosity how would they/SOLAR know you are a native Mandarin speaker?

It obviously won't know. The way they'll know is most likely through an aptitude test on the first day of class.

after my experience in taking beginner's japanese, it doesn't matter if you're a native speaker of mandarin or not. half my jap class already knew most of the basics. =____________=
word of warning though, that might happen in your situation as well, so the class may move extremely fast.

The thing with Japanese though, is that the beginners class is a prerequisite for the intermediate class which is a prerequisite for the advance class. So unless given special permission, you can't take a higher japanese course. You have to start at beginners.

The mandarin courses however have two entry levels, one for beginners and the other for dialect speakers.

Slightly off topic here, but relevant.

Anyone can 'play dumb' and pretend they don't know Mandarin to get into the easier class...so does anyone know if they test for 'dialect speakers' using a Stroop Test in an attempt to prevent lying? That is, you see a series of 'colour words' written in different colours. Such as, for instance:

blue green red

The test is to identify the COLOUR of the word, and not what the word says. Of course human beings who speak english, make a statistical number of errors.

So in order to test for fluency in another language, say Mandarin, you write the words for certain colours in mandarin, and mismatch the colours they display in!

Of course to someone who speaks Mandarin, they are subject to the statistical number of errors characteristic of the Stroop Test. Someone who does not know Mandarin, just sees a bunch of gibberish written in some colour. So they will instead, answer correctly 100% of the time!

(Any history buffs will recognize that this is indeed how say, the U.S. Department of Defense, would check for Nazi Spies in WWII...of course they would use German instead of Mandarin)

So does anyone know if this test is administered? (It should be!)

Very good point Mowicz, although I don't like how it reminded me of psychology Lol. I don't know if they administer this kind of test, but you are right, it is a very good test indeed.

Originally Posted by Mowicz

Slightly off topic here, but relevant.

Anyone can 'play dumb' and pretend they don't know Mandarin to get into the easier class...so does anyone know if they test for 'dialect speakers' using a Stroop Test in an attempt to prevent lying? That is, you see a series of 'colour words' written in different colours. Such as, for instance:

blue green red

The test is to identify the COLOUR of the word, and not what the word says. Of course human beings who speak english, make a statistical number of errors.

So in order to test for fluency in another language, say Mandarin, you write the words for certain colours in mandarin, and mismatch the colours they display in!

Of course to someone who speaks Mandarin, they are subject to the statistical number of errors characteristic of the Stroop Test. Someone who does not know Mandarin, just sees a bunch of gibberish written in some colour. So they will instead, answer correctly 100% of the time!

(Any history buffs will recognize that this is indeed how say, the U.S. Department of Defense, would check for Nazi Spies in WWII...of course they would use German instead of Mandarin)

So does anyone know if this test is administered? (It should be!)

that's a really smart test!

i'm on solar right now, and both 1z06 and 1zz6 are full ): ):

The lady I talked to when I called the department this morning told me they only reserved very little spots for upper years in Chinese 1ZZ6.

Not only that, only first years in Commerce/Humanities are allowed to take the Beginner's course apparently.

She said it's how things (regarding the Chinese courses) are for now, since they had no idea how many students would be interested, the faculty hasn't started their work term at Mac, students haven't written their placement tests, etc.

Um... I managed to add chinese 1zz6 last night during course selection.. lol i kind of decided last minute as i didn't know that mcmaster offered chinese class.. i figured i'd take it just to get some easy marks, as i do speak chinese quite frequently with my parent. But now i'm hearing things like they do not allow ppl who understands chinese to takes this course? is that true? and is there some kind of entry test that i have to take..? i'm starting to regret taking this course as i know nothing about it and it seems very troublesome.. i'm am very confused right now.. can someone please help me out here