Chinese people, welcome! [中國人, 歡迎你!] [中国人, 欢迎你!]

You're welcome. And congratulations! It's always nice to hear when it works out.
In some ways maybe - I have friends who know Cantonese and are learning Mandarin and often they'll use the Cantonese word instead!
Probably China, that's where it's at these days.

Yeahh I wasn't expecting 5 offers but no complaining :P I've yet to get past the biggest hurdle though. I see you went to Cambridge! - where do you plan on studying once you come back to the UK? lol the temptation to do that is big.. sometimes if people don't know how to say certain words then they will just say the canto word in like a.. mandarin accent.
Oh i see.. What is it you do as a job anyway?

I've already finished studying (academically, anyway). When I get back, I'll be starting work in September as a Technology Consultant in London.

Ahh so you'll be back soon? We'll both be in London! Have you been to London for work before, for internships and such? I suppose if you wanted to carry on with your Mandarin you could always do courses at SOAS or something

Hi everyone I'll be starting at UCL in September this year (: It's my first time going to the UK so I'm hoping to make some friends before I get there.

Also can anyone give me advice on banks / phone service providers / other practical information (: oh and especially any suggestion on how I can watch the Spring Festival concert XD

Hi everyone I'll be starting at UCL in September this year (: It's my first time going to the UK so I'm hoping to make some friends before I get there.

Also can anyone give me advice on banks / phone service providers / other practical information (: oh and especially any suggestion on how I can watch the Spring Festival concert XD

I think cctv-9/cctv news shows the spring festival gala...atleast it did a few years ago. And I'm pretty sure you can still get cctv news on freeview (its a little box you plug into a tv to get extra channels)

Or just stream it off the internet

Um I have a TV... and I think I need a license if I want to stream it off the Internet (I'd really like to watch it while it's happening)? Do I need a license if I want to watch live shows from somewhere not UK? I suppose I'll go see if I could find it in the hall lounge, there should be other people wanting to watch it too (I hope).

Hi everyone I'll be starting at UCL in September this year (: It's my first time going to the UK so I'm hoping to make some friends before I get there.

Also can anyone give me advice on banks / phone service providers / other practical information (: oh and especially any suggestion on how I can watch the Spring Festival concert XD

I'll be back in the UK by June. And I've been to London many times, but never actually lived there. Should be fun.

I just read some stuff in the closed threads and really want to say something.

I find it ridiculous that most of the people here usually think from their own perspective and make arbitrary conclusions.

One sentence is always around me these days because I'm heading to UK to study, that is "You'll never realised how you love your country until you're abroad." why? Because there're dirty words, racist, someones who spit on you, someones who have comments like "defiant, rude, crazy Chinese". Evan someone like me who dislike politics hate these and want to defend our lovely country, like defend our families.

Every coin has two sides, stereotypes though, is always the truth. China is different from western countries, culture, society, gov, etc. And China is still a developing country, I need to mention that. Different cultures lead to different understandings. Take policemans and soldiers as example, we Chinese regard them as someone who can offer help and defend to all Chinese. So when the miserable earthquake happened, they were the ones who set up immediately and rescued the people in rubble with hands when no devices were available. but what does other western policeman and soldiers do? Think about it. It's no wonder some western journalists found it wierd that no Chinese soldiers took guns alongside when they came to Sichuan. And when the disaster happened, most of the Chinese donated. In our city only, the donations from companies and citizens added up to more than 2 billion RMB (average salaries no more than 25,000 RMB per year), evan beggar donated. Just think when similar disaster should happen in your country, how many people would offer your hands?

I can also UNDERSTAND that our gov sometimes hide something to us. there're 1.3 billion people in China and a good proportion of them are not well educated( has been much improved now). It's easily to arouse rumors and fears in those people and bring distrust and resistance to the gov which would lead to another similar "Tibetan Affairs"(don't quote me here). Keep something back from us but also make it easy to management and live a peaceful life and unite Chinese better. I would like to know more but I can understand this.

Every country has omething to be ashamed of, something to be proud of. Most western people here criticized for what Chinese gov did but why should you never stop and think how much stuff that you have to be ashamed for your country? oh, sorry, there're must be someone here who evan hate their country.:s

people have the right to speak, but not in a way to always blame others and force your own opinion to others. You don't like our society, that's ok. You find our gov ridiculous, that's ok. It's your idea but not a truth. You think it wrong or you dislike it doesn't mean it IS wrong. We love our country. That' enough. As for me, a lot of brits are selfish and hypocritical. but I never regard all the british this way.

Don't point out that I'm logically wrong somewhere or quote some words I said to be stupid and finally lead to the point that all my words are rubbish, though someone did it before. I would like to receive some comments but not something like "How can you explain this" or something like "You Chinese are rude, defiant, etc and you should learn to your neighbour etc." I hate this, to be frank.

China is improving and growing, and this is the point that better than most of the countries.

Perhaps pay as you go? If you plan on calling home often you could think about using a Lebara card 'cause intl calls are cheaper with them.

Hi where are you from and what are you studying?? I will be (hopefully) going to uni in London too. Maybe we could explore london together
With phobe providers theres so much you can choose from. Perhaps pay as you go? If you plan on calling home often you could think about using a Lebara card 'cause intl calls are cheaper with them.

That's soon! It's good that you will have a few months to recover from withdrawal symptons after coming back from Shanghai :P

Hi I'm from Tianjin but I'm lucky that I did high school overseas so I'm fluent in English (: and I'll be going to UCL! Well, at least I think so. My offer is still listed as "conditional" even though I met all the conditions two months ago. I think that means I'm definitely offered the place right?

Where would you be going?

And haha I'm going to use Skype to call.

Oh. Tianjin. Ive always wanted to visit there. What course? And well, youve met the conditions so yeah you've got a place congrats aha. And LSE for myself.
Skype.. Yeah. Forgot about that.

Ahhh LSE. We'll practically be next door neighbours then (: and if you apply to intercollegiate halls we might even live in the same place. I got Life Science.
As for phones, I'm thinking of pay per month, since it comes with a free phone. Won't be bringing any electronics over since I don't really want to carry around dozens of adaptors.
And I checked with my seniors, they apparently won't know I met my conditions hahaha I need to scan and send them my results slip.

Aha i guess so. For intercollegiate halls i applied for College, International, and Connaught. I think its unlikely we will end up in the same hall though aha. Well now that you've got your results you can relax for a good few months!

LOL I'm applying to these three too, so it's not very unlikely after all haha.
Mine is Connaught 1st choice, College 2nd and International 3rd choice. I do believe International is nearer LSE though.
I can't relax - they don't have my results (no idea why) and they aren't replying to my requests for them to go take a look at my results. And it's nearing end May. I may have to actually call them up argh.