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University of Sheffield
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Chinese Studies

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Reply 20
Original post by Roxas

Also, what is a tandem partner?


Basically a language partner, they help you with Chinese, you help them with English. You can have as many as you want lol.

Original post by MandarinStudent
Indeed I am starting this september! Eager to get started.

Oh I'll definitely look to fill up on the culture and and society module then. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, hopefully something slightly insightful. P.S. have you got any idea where you are going career wise afterwards, any companies or things like that specifically targeting the department/Language students? :smile:

Oh and the Confucius institute sounds brilliant!! Is it expensive?
And I've got a few Chinese Folk albums from iTunes haha, youtube endless source of wisdom! :P


Ohh awesome! You'll be in Nanjing when I get back so I'll probably meet you when I'm in 4th year lol.

Hmm I have looked into it a bit but I don't really have a specific career in mind. There's the obvious ones like being a translator and teaching but you can pretty much have a career in anything that doesn't require a specific degree (like law and such) for example, business, marketing, etc.

You can borrow books and movies from the Confucius Institute for free :smile: They have cultural classes like calligraphy and Chinese dancing but you have to pay for them.
(edited 12 years ago)
Mappin Building
University of Sheffield
Sheffield
Reply 21
Original post by ZombieYoshi
Do they take into account your GCSE language results?
I'm applying for 2012 Entry later this year and plan to apply for both Japanese and Korean Studies (I'm yet to fully make a decision on which I'd rather do, but lately I've been leaning more and more towards Korean), but my GCSE German was a D because I didn't care at all for the subject and as such didn't put in any effort. However, I've been teaching myself Japanese since last Summer and just started teaching myself Korean, and I highlight these facts in my Personal Statement... so if they do take GCSEs into account, hopefully they'll take this into account as well.

I'll try and keep track of this thread because I haven't really heard too much concerning Chinese Studies and it could perhaps help me make a last minute decision on it...


Original post by ZombieYoshi
My main concern with Chinese Studies is the whole censorship stuff in China. Considering most of the websites I spend my time on will probably be blocked, I don't know how I'd cope haha, although when we did China Under Mao in AS History I loved it. It is true that it'd probably be more beneficial because of how quickly they're rising in the world... but a language based solely on Chinese characters is pretty intimidating to me, especially as I find Kanji in Japanese hard enough. Not many people do Korean Studies either (especially compared to how many people do Japanese Studies), so maybe knowing the language would make me more unique to employers...
Oh I don't know, I just need to learn more about the course and country, because I've talked to a guy doing Korean Studies and read a few blogs of people who did Japanese Studies, and I also consume a number of Japanese and Korean media so I'm familiar with the countries and languages.

I know what you mean about things going fast, I swear AS went by ridiculously fast, and I'm sure A2 will be the same.


Don't worry they shouldn't take your GCSE Language grades into account, especially if it's a European Language. As long as you show that you have a great interest in Japanese/Korean/Chinese (whichever you're applying for) in your personal statement then you should be fine :smile: They most probably will take into account the fact that you've done a bit of self-studying. I applied for Korean Studies at Sheffield as well and mentioned that I taught myself Hangul and I got an offer :smile:

Yeah the whole censorship thing does suck :/ Actually have no idea how I'm gonna survive without facebook for a whole year haha but I guess I have to get use to it/use VPN to get onto it or something lol.

Don't worry, when I was applying I had a hard time choosing between Korean and Chinese. I actually almost ended up choosing Korean but then I wasn't too sure about what kind of career I could have with a Korean Degree so I ended up choosing Chinese. I'm not trying to put you off Korean Studies though, Korean's awesome haha and I know loads of people who do Korean Studies and they love it!
Original post by lollipop1
Don't worry they shouldn't take your GCSE Language grades into account, especially if it's a European Language. As long as you show that you have a great interest in Japanese/Korean/Chinese (whichever you're applying for) in your personal statement then you should be fine :smile: They most probably will take into account the fact that you've done a bit of self-studying. I applied for Korean Studies at Sheffield as well and mentioned that I taught myself Hangul and I got an offer :smile:

Yeah the whole censorship thing does suck :/ Actually have no idea how I'm gonna survive without facebook for a whole year haha but I guess I have to get use to it/use VPN to get onto it or something lol.

Don't worry, when I was applying I had a hard time choosing between Korean and Chinese. I actually almost ended up choosing Korean but then I wasn't too sure about what kind of career I could have with a Korean Degree so I ended up choosing Chinese. I'm not trying to put you off Korean Studies though, Korean's awesome haha and I know loads of people who do Korean Studies and they love it!


If you don't mind me asking, what was it about the Korean course that interested you, and also what offer did you get? Was it ABB like the requirements, or lower or higher?
Reply 23
Original post by ZombieYoshi
If you don't mind me asking, what was it about the Korean course that interested you, and also what offer did you get? Was it ABB like the requirements, or lower or higher?


My offer was BBC (same with Chinese).
Hmm I guess it was because I was just really interested in learning the culture and language. I've been into Korean music and I've been watching Korean Dramas from a young age and then I just gradually became interested in learning about the culture and the language so that's why I applied. Also the fact that I could spend a whole year in Korea was definitely appealing.
Original post by lollipop1
My offer was BBC (same with Chinese).
Hmm I guess it was because I was just really interested in learning the culture and language. I've been into Korean music and I've been watching Korean Dramas from a young age and then I just gradually became interested in learning about the culture and the language so that's why I applied. Also the fact that I could spend a whole year in Korea was definitely appealing.


BBC? That's pretty low compared to the ABB, and makes me feel rather confident haha. I suppose I was the same with Japanese, although I was also interested in Korea but didn't know too much about it, so lately I've been getting some Korean music and have nearly finished my first Korean drama and I'm becoming very interested in the country and culture.

Anyway, enough about Korea, and back on topic for China :tongue:
Original post by lollipop1

Ohh awesome! You'll be in Nanjing when I get back so I'll probably meet you when I'm in 4th year lol.

Hmm I have looked into it a bit but I don't really have a specific career in mind. There's the obvious ones like being a translator and teaching but you can pretty much have a career in anything that doesn't require a specific degree (like law and such) for example, business, marketing, etc.

You can borrow books and movies from the Confucius Institute for free :smile: They have cultural classes like calligraphy and Chinese dancing but you have to pay for them.


Yes probably!

Yea I haven't given it too much thought, but hopefully all will become clear eventually :rolleyes:

And free?! oh that does sound like a resource to fully take a fill! And also spare money to use on some of those classes...maybe!

I can't wait to start and get my feet wet.
Reply 26
Original post by lollipop1
My offer was BBC (same with Chinese).
Hmm I guess it was because I was just really interested in learning the culture and language. I've been into Korean music and I've been watching Korean Dramas from a young age and then I just gradually became interested in learning about the culture and the language so that's why I applied. Also the fact that I could spend a whole year in Korea was definitely appealing.



How did you apply for korean and chinese with the same personal statement? An offer of BBC would make my life so much easier D: Do you thin if i subliminarily add in somewhere I LOVE YOU SHEFFIELD PLEASE PICK ME, that they will pick me? :biggrin:

I'm so worried about my personal statement, i've been interested in China/ it's culture for years but the only thing i've done to look into it is organise a family holiday to go to China to explore some of the ain tourist attractions.. Should I put that in my personal statement? o.o
Reply 27
大家学习中文的热情很浓啊。

需要我的帮助吗??
Reply 28
Original post by Roxas
How did you apply for korean and chinese with the same personal statement? An offer of BBC would make my life so much easier D: Do you thin if i subliminarily add in somewhere I LOVE YOU SHEFFIELD PLEASE PICK ME, that they will pick me? :biggrin:

I'm so worried about my personal statement, i've been interested in China/ it's culture for years but the only thing i've done to look into it is organise a family holiday to go to China to explore some of the ain tourist attractions.. Should I put that in my personal statement? o.o


In my personal statement I pretty much just wrote a paragraph about why I wanted to apply for Chinese, then a shorter paragraph about Korean (Since I only applied for Korean studies at 2 unis and one of them was a joint honours with Chinese) and then I just wrote why I wanted to learn an Asian language in general.

Yeah they raised the grade requirements to ABB the year after I applied, it was BBC before then haha.

What was it that made you interested in the Chinese culture in the first place?, What other factors have contributed to your decision to study Chinese at uni?, Have you learnt any Chinese before? etc. I pretty much just used these types of questions to help me with my personal statement. I also wrote about my trip to China (so you could try and include the holiday you're planning in your personal statement if you have space). Hope this helps!
Original post by Roxas
How did you apply for korean and chinese with the same personal statement? An offer of BBC would make my life so much easier D: Do you thin if i subliminarily add in somewhere I LOVE YOU SHEFFIELD PLEASE PICK ME, that they will pick me? :biggrin:

I'm so worried about my personal statement, i've been interested in China/ it's culture for years but the only thing i've done to look into it is organise a family holiday to go to China to explore some of the ain tourist attractions.. Should I put that in my personal statement? o.o


I of course haven't applied yet, but I'm applying for both Korean and Japanese, and in my personal statement the first paragraph is about why I'm interested in East Asia as a whole (because it's so different to the western culture I know etc.), and then I go on about how I found myself learning more about it (Discovered anime->Japanese music and dramas->Korean music and dramas->Chinese History), and then further on I mention how I'm teaching myself Korean and Japanese.
I'd imagine mentioning the trip to China would be a great thing to add, as it shows you were interested enough to actually travel there, and the fact you organised it yourself would be rather impressive too.

Original post by lollipop1
Yeah they raised the grade requirements to ABB the year after I applied, it was BBC before then haha.


Well damn, there's my hopes of getting in easier completely dashed. Oh well, I achieved ABBC at AS (hopefully at least AABB after a couple resits), so I may have quite a good chance with the ABB requirement anyway.
Reply 30
Hi everyone! I'm going to Sheffield for Chinese and History, and I have a couple questions about the Chinese part. Most of my general questions have been answered, so these are pretty specific.

- How much do you need a computer? Like, do you need a laptop for some language lectures/seminars/workshops? (Just wondering if I need a small laptop)

- What kind of materials do you need to buy? I'm just wondering if there's a lot of textbooks/dictionaries, etc that I would need to buy - and which ones, so I can look ahead to find good prices :smile:

- Are there lots of homework assignments, or is your time outside of class mostly spent practicing what you learned how ever you choose to?

- How are you assessed? Equal parts oral/written, or is one favoured over the other?

So they're pretty specific, but I was just curious - hope you can answer them. Thanks for the help!
Reply 31
Original post by Mala
Hi everyone! I'm going to Sheffield for Chinese and History, and I have a couple questions about the Chinese part. Most of my general questions have been answered, so these are pretty specific.

- How much do you need a computer? Like, do you need a laptop for some language lectures/seminars/workshops? (Just wondering if I need a small laptop)

- What kind of materials do you need to buy? I'm just wondering if there's a lot of textbooks/dictionaries, etc that I would need to buy - and which ones, so I can look ahead to find good prices :smile:

- Are there lots of homework assignments, or is your time outside of class mostly spent practicing what you learned how ever you choose to?

- How are you assessed? Equal parts oral/written, or is one favoured over the other?

So they're pretty specific, but I was just curious - hope you can answer them. Thanks for the help!


- For language classes you don't need a laptop. The only time you really need a laptop is during listening classes but those are provided for you anyway.

- You don't really need many books for Chinese. I mentioned some books in this thread somewhere so those would be good. A Chinese - English dictionary would also be helpful :smile:

- You get 1 piece of homework per week which is basically just a few exercises and maybe writing a short paragraph in Chinese (I think in semester 2 it was 1 piece of homework every other week). This MAY change though depending on whether or not you get the same teachers as I did in first yr. But apart from that you're expected to keep up to date with your characters and just generally practicing what you've learnt during the week.

- You take 2 Chinese modules each semester, one module is listening and speaking and the other is writing. Listening and speaking are both equal weight (so each count for 50% of the overall module mark). For the writing module, you have a mid-semesters exam which counts for about 30% of the overall module mark and an end of semester exam. This is the same for semester 2 (but you have to know all of the characters from semester 1 as well for semester 2 exams).

Hope this helps!
Reply 32
Yikes guys, Korean is overrunning Sheffield's forum right now! Let's get back to Chinese! ^_^

Still working on my personal statement X_X After a predicted grade mishap I thought I couldn't even apply to Sheffield, but my teacher got the two people with my name the wrong way round... USEFUL!

Currently reading a book about business in China in the 20th Century, what's everyone else up to?
Original post by Roxas
Yikes guys, Korean is overrunning Sheffield's forum right now! Let's get back to Chinese! ^_^

Still working on my personal statement X_X After a predicted grade mishap I thought I couldn't even apply to Sheffield, but my teacher got the two people with my name the wrong way round... USEFUL!

Currently reading a book about business in China in the 20th Century, what's everyone else up to?


KOREAN STUDIES? There's only 8 of them this year, so I don't know what they're on about, there's about 30 of us, hahaha
Reply 34
Original post by joeroberts93
KOREAN STUDIES? There's only 8 of them this year, so I don't know what they're on about, there's about 30 of us, hahaha


Yeah ! Chinese is much better! :biggrin:

Can you tell me some stuff about your course? What Chinese did you know going into the course and how hard do you find the workload? Talk me through an average language lesson maybe? Are you looking forward to the year in nanjing?!
Original post by joeroberts93
KOREAN STUDIES? There's only 8 of them this year, so I don't know what they're on about, there's about 30 of us, hahaha


STALK!
Reply 36
Where has everybody gone? :biggrin:
I applied for Chinese and History a week ago, and was just wondering if anyone has had any offers for Chinese yet?
Original post by Roxas
Yeah ! Chinese is much better! :biggrin:

Can you tell me some stuff about your course? What Chinese did you know going into the course and how hard do you find the workload? Talk me through an average language lesson maybe? Are you looking forward to the year in nanjing?!


Sorry, I haven't replied to this and only just realised! At the moment it's feeling pretty intense, cause we all have a 2 hour long test tomorrow, which is worth 30% of our semester's marks.

The actual workload in terms of what the teachers set us isn't too much at the moment, it's certainly less than my French tutors expect of me anyway. It's been about an hour of grammar a week, homework wise.

On top of that though, I would definitely recommend going through the characters for the lessons on the weekend before. For example, this weekend I'll start practising the characters for Monday, as the Vocabulary lesson is only an hour, and if you have anywhere from 25-50 characters to learn a week, that one hour won't mean you can recall all of them straight away. As someone who's not been doing this as much as other people in the class, you can really see the difference. Over the week, you do pick up a lot of the vocab, in Grammar lessons, Speaking/Reading lessons, and homework, but it's so much easier to just look at it before, and that way you don't miss out on some of the grammar points looking back to find out what the hell the teacher's talking about.

I didn't know any Chinese at all when I began the course, like around half the class. Of the other half, most had done only a small amount of self-taught language, but a few have had proper lessons, or spent some time in China.

As long as I pass this year, fingers crossed, I'm definitely looking forward to the year abroad, but I reckon it will be pretty difficult.

I would say the classes are actually quite similar to a language class at school, though we have separate classes for Speaking, Writing, Listening, Vocab, and Grammar. In Speaking, we'll normally go through the week's vocab in one lesson, learning the pronunciation, and then we'll go through some dialogues. Writing mainly consists of a test on the week's vocab and grammar, but it isn't towards our grade, just to see how we're doing. Listening we'll normally have some listening exercises off of the computers, and some translation. And grammar we learn the grammatical structures we'll need to know, and might do some translation in that as well.

Hope that was helpful, if a bit long, hahaha. I needed a break from character revision.
Is anyone here doing Chinese History? I'm applying to Japanese and Korean, but would like to do the Chinese History module and was just wondering what it's like and what you do?
Reply 39
Original post by ZombieYoshi
Is anyone here doing Chinese History? I'm applying to Japanese and Korean, but would like to do the Chinese History module and was just wondering what it's like and what you do?


Yeah, I am half through the Chinese History module right now. I am a first year single honours Japanese student by the way. What do you wanna know about the module?

Brief Description-

We cover the last 100 years of Chinese history through a median of films, lectures and seminars. The film classes are quite interesting as you get to see the events unfolding through different perspectives (plus it's nice having a break from long lectures.) The lecturer is nice and her recorded lectures are really handy and clear (which she uploads on the Friday night). Not too much Chinese language is used in the class and if she does use Chinese then she explains it to us non-Chinese studies/nationals. We are graded this year through a Literature search (10%) and an essay (90%). You can choose from a choice of ten essay questions and just answer one. I think the word limit is 1500 but I'd need to check to be sure :colondollar:
As for the actually content of the course...well, it's pretty easy to digest the information she provides BUT make sure you do the back ground reading as well as this is what really cements the films, seminars and lectures together. Lastly, we are taught in two week chunks, for example, we having been covering the ,"China at war and the Chinese perception of Japan," these last two weeks but will move on to, "The Communist Revolution," on Monday.

Anything else you wanna know? I have the module handout if you want it. Here, I will attach it to this thread so you can read it if you want. :smile:

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