Information and learning about words like that around getting used to a new way of thinking about language. There is a key element in Mandarin a few people who grew up in the western world had ever seen. One of them is the Mandarin spoken. I want to see this topic in more detail because the pronunciation is one of the biggest weaknesses in the ability of students. So, in English, there are only syllables and a story about English pronunciation ended around there. If you can pronounce all the syllables you can pronounce English. Mandarin Chinese story is much longer. First, there is a field modulation inherent in the language. They call it a tone, but they are not really the tone, because they vary in the field. Both even when including the modulation of the field, now there are words in Chinese are unique in their pronunciation. Which means that every word, as English speaking people will see it, and that the university can not teach mandarin optimally – they teach you almost everything else better than others. Why not Mandarin? The problem is not one of lack of expertise, lack of resources or lack of interest. Universities in China attract excellent teachers, they are also funded and their access to the benefits of scale due to high enrollment numbers. Problems are somewhat in the topics taught. Mandarin is not difficult to explain, it’s just very different from what most are used to. The University is fantastic. » Read more: Studying Mandarin Professional