I found your blog by accident–and I’m really glad I did. I know how you feel, because I too stand at the cusp of change, of decisions. I want to lend my support for your gut feelings and echo earlier comments — you should absolutely do what you feel is right in your heart, because if you are passionate about what you are doing, right NOW (not the future, not the future), then you should DO that. Who knows what opportunities await you? You have an incredible asset (which is bilingualism, in Chinese, no less). You can do anything you want, but this skill that you hone will stay with you throughout all that you do, so long as you harness it.

Speaking from bitter personal experience, I can assure you that with few exceptions, translation pays much less than English teaching, although it does have the advantage, at least for me, of being usually tolerable and occasionally satisfying, neither of which was true of my TESL experience.

Mark - 

Beijing’s a great town, as you’ve seen, and it has a lot to offer to students of  Chinese, unlike Shanghai, which is (insert obligatory swipe at Shanghai here). I can say from experience that Beida’s Chinese-language program more or less blows at the advanced level, but I’ve heard fairly good things about BLCU’s, and Beijing Normal University is meant to be pretty good as well. And the foreign community, or at least the subset of it that hangs out at the Sandglass cafe, would be happy to have you.

You didn’t post a link the first time, so I didn’ have a chance to read it. Was it some sort of scam?

I guess we have different philosophies. I used to earn more than double what do now, when I was 20 and working as a programmer. If I’d only considered schooling as a way to get more money and advance my career, I’d never have gone back to college. I see learning as it’s own goal; life isn’t just about making money.

I was doing something else at the same time as I posted this information about free chinese course, so I didn’t totally read it

I personally DO NOT suggest anyone go there after reading this introduction completely and asking the guy who’s incharging this program.

sorry again.

No, I am not going to be a translator. I am a software engineer.

If you want to invest money into your schooling then it means that you should expect some material benefits. Education is not a hobby to do it just for fun. It should boosts careers and lead to promotions although often it doesn’t work like that. What job would you like to do if you spent two years studing?

I’m not sure if you’ll be interested in it:

There’s a FREE one year chinese course held in Foshan University in Foshan City. It’s actually for a promotion of image.

Foshan is famous of ceramics and chinese Kongfu, the Kongfu guy Huang Feihong is well known not only in China. Founded in Jin Dynasty (AD215-316) and was given the name in Tang Dynasty (AD628),is a famous cultural city with a long history. It was one of the ancient famous cities, well known at home and abroad for its handicraft industry. It was also the biggest commodities terminal, listed as one of the “Four Terminals” in China (Beijing in the North, Foshan in the South, Suzhou in the East and Hankou in the West).

the school pay 1000$ for your flight ticket, free accommodation, 1500rmb per month as monthy living subsidy, and you’ll have an accidental insurance of 12500$ for one year.

btw,Foshan is 3-4hrs bus ride from Hongkong.

think about it, it’s a good chance to learn chinese, then you can go to Beijing for further study.

Follow your heart. There’s no need to worried about living coz I’m sure you can find a teaching job there if you really wanna work, and compared with Taiwan,mainland’s so cheap to live.

when you can read simplified chinese,read my novel..hah..

What will I do with good Chinese skills? I’ll live a richer life. I’ll regularly read books in Chinese, make more Chinese friends, and maybe blog more in Chinese. Most of all, I’ll have a truly multicultural view of the world.
I have several American Chinese friends, but none of them can speak Chinese as well as I can. I’m sure that becoming truly bilingual would be a big plus for them, too, though.

Are you studying English so you can be an interpreter or a translator, Vitaly?