Survive and make everyday conversation.

My name is Amy and I’m a second year university student. I’m studying Politics and International Relations and I’ve always had an eye on coming to China to work in a governmental role. One of my tutors advised me that to cut through the competition in this sector I would definitely need a good level of Chinese, so 18 months ago I started taking online classes.

Within a few months I felt I had enough day to day vocabulary to make a ‘test’ trip to China, and I surprised myself – I could happily survive and make everyday conversation.

Since then I have been working with my teacher to tailor my classes, reflecting the topics I study at university. The hotter the competition comes for expat jobs in China becomes the harder it will be to find a good one, and I’m determined to stay ahead of the curve.

Although I have a long way to go until I attain perfect fluency, I can happily chatter on to my teacher so that our three weekly classes fly by. My goal for this year is to take a second, extended trip to China to start to scope out employment opportunities, showing off my Chinese abilities at the same time.