Traveling By Yourself to a Foreign Country | Female language learners discussion | Forum

Wondering whether any woman here has traveled to a foreign country by yourself without support mechanisms such as being enrolled in a language program there or being part of a tour group….. basically, the type of thing Benny is doing right now in Taipei.  This is something that I'm considering doing though I have some safety concerns.  

I'm looking at going to Taiwan or mainland China to do a self-styled Mandarin immersion.  I was originally thinking of staying in Taipei though a native speaker friend thinks Beijing is a better choice.  I'm an American born Chinese whose parents speak a variation of Cantonese.

My concern seems to have been solved.  I started asking native speaker friends for suggestions and someone offered to let me stay with her family in Beijing and Shanghai!  I was floored.

I'm older than the usual person learning Mandarin and so don't expect to be moving overseas….eg it's not a big deal if my accent is seen as non-standard.   I'm more concerned about interacting with the local Mandarin speaking community which is fairly diverse, enough so that many speakers from the mainland have adopted Taiwanese ways of saying certain things.  Another thing is that being American born with parents from Guangdong who left pre-1949, native speakers seem to be happy that I'm even bothering to learn Mandarin.  I guess this is where it should be mentioned that some mainlander friends have been giving pronunication/accent pointers.  And there have been times when Taiwanese "straighten out" their accent or find someone with a standard mainland accent to explain something. 

I spoke no Mandarin when I first moved to Beijing 6 months ago, and I also came to study Mandarin. I had travelled before on my own once or twice, but I had decided to move to Beijing on my own after I finished my degree. 

I found an intensive study course, and I think as long as you have  a good feeling about the program and if you have someone who can recommend a program for you, then it should all be fine. Everywhere you travel now there is always of risk of being cheated or disappointed, but I think if you are smart about travelling alone then you will have a great time. 

At least if you enrol in a language program, you can at least have the security of being part of a group and meeting other people who are travelling and in the same position – taking the risk.