Chinese courses

I am starting my degree in Chinese next month, so I will be able to tell you about it then! About not having been to China, I don't think it will matter at all. So few people do chinese that you're surely to get into one Uni at least!

Reply 2

No, not having been to China should not damage your chances at all... but you should have some sort of reason for wanting to do Chinese other than because it's weird and not many people do :P. Where were you thinking of applying and what sort of focus were you thinking of doing? If I remember correctly (and I could well be wrong) Oxbridge and SOAS are the only places that do Traditional Chinese as well... Most other courses focus on modern China. But as I said I could well be wrong about that :P.

Reply 3

Saz__

OP

Thanks a lot for the advice! I like the history... so I guess I'll have to apply somewhere that does at least some classical.

Did/do you know much chinese when you started? I've talked to some people and some say you shouldn't know any at all but others said that its a real advantage!

Reply 4

Well... All I can say is according the prospectus for where I applied to it said that no knowledge of the language was required, but an A-Level in another language was an advantage. I think they assume an Ab-initio start. Plus, especially with Chinese, it's easy to pick up bad pronunciation what with the tones and stuff :smile:

. Having said that, yeah I did a bit outside of school and then went to China for a few months in my gap year. But as I said, it's no real advantage according to the uni prospectus.

Reply 5

Enfalas

Do you learn all the characters? Cos theres 2000 of em I heard...

Reply 6

More. You need at least 3000 to read a newspaper apparently :P. How many english words are there though?

Reply 7

freshine

If you have many questions or problems in learning chinese,you may ask me,I would
help you sincerely

Reply 8

Luvbug

9

I have a question. I'm thinking of applying to do it, but I would like to know what it is like to do it with no prior knowledge whatsoever, and if it is incredibly difficult.

Reply 9

Most (all?) of the courses in Chinese are for total beginners - you start with 'hello' and finish with long convoluted sentences about taking a cup of tea to Mr Wang, your ex-neighbour who is now a teacher at the Beijing Languages Institute, and telling him not to work too hard tonight as he has to give a lecture in the morning.

I started on my course with a bit of a head start, as I did a gap year in China, but within a few weeks everyone else had caught up. It's not a problem, don't worry about it.

Reply 10

Hey naia

Where do you study Chinese? How long have you been studying the degree for? Is it good so far? Are you fluent yet? I have many more questions, but we'll start with those!

Reply 11

Hey Thundercat,

I'm just about to go into my second year at Pembroke College, Oxford. I'm no where near fluent, but the difference in just one year is amazing - I can get around and make myself understood, and even though I can't have deep conversations yet, I'm sure that in 3 years time I will! So far I'm definitely enjoying the course - this year should be great too, because I'm going to spend a term at Peking University in Beijing, which should be fab :biggrin:

Reply 12

Just one term at Peking Uni? So do you spend an entire year in China doing other stuff too? Is the degree still 4 years? I'd love to spend some time at Peking Uni, that's the best uni in China! I think at newcastle I can spend a year at Renmin Uni in Beijing or Shanghai Normal Uni. I can't wait to get back to China! Where did you spend your gap year in china? Teaching English?

Reply 13

Yeah, it's just the one term at PKU - the course is 4 years long, but 3 1/2 of them are spent at Oxford. However, you are encouraged to go to China in the vacations if you can - there are lots of travel funds and bursaries and things available. Shanghai Normal would be great, Shanghai is an AMAZING place, I lived there on my gap year teaching English. However, they speak the Wu dialect, which is totally different from Mandarin. When I first got to uni, I had to spend about a term getting rid of the accent!

Reply 14

Yes, I love Shanghai. Only spent 5 days there while travelling around, but I do like it a lot! It's a lot more happening than Beijing, which feels like a big, Chinese version of Milton Keynes. I lived and taught in Yunnan, so perhaps my Mandarin has a Yunnan twang...I never even thought about that! Is it hard getting rid of the accent?

Reply 15

Yeah, Shanghai is definitely way better than Beijing! Shanghai is so alive and has big towers with sparkly lights! :biggrin:

It wasn't that hard gettng rid of the Shanghai accent, I just had to remember to do it! For ages, I used to say: "Huoche zhan zai nali-a?" (where's the train station?) instead of: "Huoche zhan zai nar?", which is how it's pronounced in Mandarin. Not sure if you've ever seen any of the Da Shan 'Chinese for Foreigners' programmes on CCTV, but they use the Peking dialect which uses WAY more 'r' sounds even standard Mandarin does. Apparently in Beijing, if you don't use enough 'r' sounds when you speak, they laugh at you because it makes you sound like a southerner....

Reply 16

I love the funny Beijing dialect. There are so many rrrrrr's! I also say nali-a, not narrrrr. I think it sounds better! Yidian, not yidianr! Youbian, not youbianr! But I guess I'll have to put r's on my words then. Anyway, Southerners are way cool! Yunnan power!! :tongue:

Xiexie-a!

Reply 17

Woohoo the southern 'a' is just sooo great! Zaijianaaa!

Reply 18

sixthirtythree

Shock! How can anyone diss Beijing's er hua! That's like, evil! I'm Beijing-born and came back this summer to brush up my writing/reading at BLCU. Admittedly, I love Shanghai more, and LOVE Shanghaihua (can only manage vague phrases, but can understand it - would love to learn it!)

But still, er hua rocks *waves Beijing Olympics flag* :biggrin:

Reply 19