This coming September Chinese universities will open their doors to a new academic year. Across China thousands of foreign students will start studying different courses in Putonghua. Most of these international students have already spent a year in China studying Putonghua to prepare for their new studies. This year, however, is often grossly inadequate for preparing them for study at a Chinese university.

Normally, six months of learning enables most people to hold a conversation in Putonghua, ask for directions, order meals and even understand news on television. With 12 months of Putonghua training, foreign students feel ready for university courses. But they discover at the beginning of their courses that the Putonghua they know is only good for market bargaining and not enough to follow lectures in class.

One student who has just completed his first year at the Beijing University of Science and Technology said the Putonghua that international students learn is poorly taught and not orientated toward academic studies.

“I had confidence before I started my major. But just attending one class, I started wondering if the language used in class was the same as what I learnt for a year,” the student said. “I only managed to start understanding my classes at the end of my first year.”

Expected to perform as well as Chinese classmates, foreign students resort to using English books to make up for what they do not understand in class. They find equivalent books in English and study in their own time.

In this arrangement, it is almost like taking the same class twice, the difference being that the formal one is attended just for show. This is a smart solution from the students’ point of view, but it still doesn’t compensate for not being able to understand classes.

The Putonghua courses at many universities are also substandard. Newsweek recently ran an article emphasizing the poor quality of some Chinese-language teachers, who use methods considered outdated in the West, and fail to appreciate the linguistic difficulties that foreign students experience.

For example, Chinese teachers often use tedious repetition and chanting rather than, as modern language teachers prefer, working terms and grammar into conversation. Courses are often poorly designed and rely on outdated textbooks, and teachers often lack English skills that would allow them to communicate easily with their students.

Hearing these experiences thwarts the excitement of starting first year for foreign students. With one month to go before school starts, most are trying to find as many English books for their courses as possible.

Hellena, a graduate student in accounting, said she felt like she would be learning by correspondence. “I have heard about how the Putonghua spoken in class is different from what
I have been learning for the past one year, so I will do what every international student does,” she said. “Get as many English books on accounting as possible.”

Are Chinese university authorities aware of this problem? The answer is yes and no. Yes, because foreign students struggle in the initial years of their courses. When asked to explain the poor performance they point out the language problem. No, because international students are scared to approach the authorities and present their grievances. Going as individuals is unheard of and forming a representative group always fails as nobody is willing to volunteer.

“We are here on scholarship,” said one African student. “Nobody wants to lose their scholarship over this issue.”

One solution is to improve the overall quality of Putonghua teaching, and have specialized courses for individual majors, perhaps coordinated between universities.

The first half of the language year could cover conversational Putonghua, and in the second students could be divided according to their majors and taught relevant language for their course.

In a few years there will be a considerable number of scholars in the world tracing their qualifications to universities in China. Tens of thousands have already chosen this option.

It is important that educational authorities in China devise language courses better suited to students’ needs. If not addressed, the world will soon start noticing half-baked graduates from Chinese universities who can hardly perform to the level attested by their qualifications.