[Paul92]

(Original post by Eldedu)
Excuse my ignorance, but what's the Q stand for? I was only familiar with LGBT

Questioning

[Paul92]

(Original post by Eldedu)
If you're not studying anything related to Africa or the Orient, is there any point in going to SOAS?

An interesting post from somebody who hasn't applied! I'm not studying a language at SOAS, which I regret, but I discovered that I couldn't get 4 years funding. I am studying politics however, principally because I have a strong interest in the politics of the Middle East, which I'd like to specialise in, whilst areas of development etc. fit very well with my career aspirations, and I believe SOAS is the best of the London Unis for me in that regard (and London the best city).

[Zainchawdry]

My question is: If i miss my LLB Law offer by say 1 grade e.g. if i get AAB/ABB instead of AAA, if i phoned them up, how likely is it that they will still accept me?

[Txi]

regarding the BA Chinese (Modern and Classical) degree.

1) I read on the site that you can get advanced standing straight into year 2 , how does ones qualify for this ?

2) For this course how many people on average for lectures and tutorials ?

Thanks in advance

[miniteen]

(Original post by Txi)
regarding the BA Chinese (Modern and Classical) degree.

1) I read on the site that you can get advanced standing straight into year 2 , how does ones qualify for this ?

2) For this course how many people on average for lectures and tutorials ?

Thanks in advance

1. You get into advanced if you already speak good chinese (and can write properly as well.) I got into advanced by showing that I was already at the level of the end of 1st year when we started the course.

2. Tutorials maybe 20. Lectures, 30 to 80.

[Txi]

(Original post by miniteen)
1. You get into advanced if you already speak good chinese (and can write properly as well.) I got into advanced by showing that I was already at the level of the end of 1st year when we started the course.

2. Tutorials maybe 20. Lectures, 30 to 80.

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply.

How do they judge if your are advanced , do they give some sort of test ?

Don't you find 20 to a tute in those rather small rooms a bit too much ?

You can reply me PM if you prefer.

Cheers !

[Jagzthebest]

ok new question, If i did undergrad at SOAS would it affect a postgrad if the postgrad, say an MA was in european history and if i wanted to become a lecturer

[miniteen]

(Original post by Txi)
Hi there,

Thanks for the reply.

How do they judge if your are advanced , do they give some sort of test ?

Don't you find 20 to a tute in those rather small rooms a bit too much ?

You can reply me PM if you prefer.

Cheers !

Yes. They will test you. Every time you apply for a language class, they will give you a test to see what your level is. What level do you think you're at if I may ask? (i.e. what have you done?)

20 can seem quite big, but since most students never speak and others never come, it's more 8-10 students.

[miniteen]

(Original post by Jagzthebest)
ok new question, If i did undergrad at SOAS would it affect a postgrad if the postgrad, say an MA was in european history and if i wanted to become a lecturer

I didn't really understand your question very well, but I definitely do not think an undergrad at SOAS in anyway undermines your chances of getting a masters and then a postgraduate. On the contrary, many students from SOAS end up in academia, especially since it's so specialized. The only problem is, since it's so specialized, you often have people who have done their whole education at SOAS: BA, MA, PhD. And then they end up teaching at SOAS, because the course is so specialized, going elsewhere to specialize even more in one particular area of an already narrow field can be quite difficult. So yeah...

[Txi]

(Original post by miniteen)
Yes. They will test you. Every time you apply for a language class, they will give you a test to see what your level is. What level do you think you're at if I may ask? (i.e. what have you done?)

20 can seem quite big, but since most students never speak and others never come, it's more 8-10 students.

what like for every module there's a test.

shouldn't they just give you ONE test to see if you are at level of year 2.

Well, I would say for spoken pudonghua, I am at intermediate level, for Cantonese I am a native speaker.

As for as characters go - I can do short stories - I guess I got about 300 characters

I can't imagine how people not turn up to language tutes - wow isn't that taking a big chance ?

[miniteen]

(Original post by Txi)
what like for every module there's a test.

shouldn't they just give you ONE test to see if you are at level of year 2.

Well, I would say for spoken pudonghua, I am at intermediate level, for Cantonese I am a native speaker.

As for as characters go - I can do short stories - I guess I got about 300 characters

I can't imagine how people not turn up to language tutes - wow isn't that taking a big chance ?

Just tell Xuan Li as soon as you get there that you'd like to be put in a higher class. I think you definitely qualify for Special Chinese 3, if not 4. Especially if you speak native cantonese.

The drop out rate for the course is very high. And most students aren't particularly hardworking. It's a big risk yeah, but a lot still take it.

[Txi]

(Original post by miniteen)
Just tell Xuan Li as soon as you get there that you'd like to be put in a higher class. I think you definitely qualify for Special Chinese 3, if not 4. Especially if you speak native cantonese.

The drop out rate for the course is very high. And most students aren't particularly hardworking. It's a big risk yeah, but a lot still take it.

Really ? but I thought the spoken part would be nearly all mandarin apart from 1 module that I saw that was Cantonese.

what exams in Chinese did you take prior to you entering SOAS; A levels ?

[miniteen]

(Original post by Txi)
Really ? but I thought the spoken part would be nearly all mandarin apart from 1 module that I saw that was Cantonese.

what exams in Chinese did you take prior to you entering SOAS; A levels ?

I did the French International Baccalaureate (OIB.) My mandarin was lower intermediate when I got to SOAS, I was capable of having basic conversations on any subject.

You won't be able to take the Cantonese module. 1. It's third year minimum. 2. You speak it fluently, what would be the point? They wouldn't let you.
What I meant by that though was that it'd be very easy for you switching from Cantonese to Mandarin than it'd be for someone who doesn't speak any form of Chinese to learn Mandarin.

[Rancorous]

What the hell is SOAS? I think someone's got confused between SOS and SAS and made some random acronym.

[SEHughes]

Pinyin argument above is pathetic.

Txi, I'm not a big fan of the SOAS Chinese department, but if you go in with some prior Mandarin and you're diligent, you'll be fine. Taking Cantonese as a native speaker would be silly even if they did allow it.

[weirdnessandcoffee]

What are my chances of getting in with:

5-6A*s at GCSE and 2 C's and possibly a D?
I have a second language as well- Bengali

I'd like to do law (I know I need 3A's to get in I think)

[grass mud horse]

(Original post by SEHughes)
Pinyin argument above is pathetic.

Txi, I'm not a big fan of the SOAS Chinese department, but if you go in with some prior Mandarin and you're diligent, you'll be fine. Taking Cantonese as a native speaker would be silly even if they did allow it.

What don't you like about the SOAS Chinese dept, if you don't mind me asking?

[SEHughes]

(Original post by grass mud horse)
What don't you like about the SOAS Chinese dept, if you don't mind me asking?

My gripe is with the language modules.

Year 1
The language course is mis-sold as a beginner's course; they allow non-beginners in contrary to what's stated on the website, and then set first year tests to push the better students, who are with a couple of outliers all from this non-beginner group. The result is that everyone else suffers without putting in massive amounts of extra work.

The advice given on getting past language issues is pitiful. "Keep writing the characters" or if that fails, lots of shouting seems to be the primary tactic for some staff members.

In 2008 (the year I started), time was taken out of first year Mandarin class hours for some dusty old Austrian to tell us mildly interesting but generally useless facts about how difficult the language is to learn, different romanisations etc, and then subject us to the ludicrous task of learning all 214 Kangxi radicals with numbers - understanding the way characters break down into their semantic parts is useful but this approach just distracts from the more important task of developing some useful proficiency in the spoken language.

The first year is taught in traditional characters, and then you're expected to switch effortlessly to simplified after a twenty minute explanation near the end of the second term. This is done on the baseless assumption that it's easier to learn it that way rather than simplified first.

Some staff members are insistent that Chinese cannot be learned to near-native fluency by Westerners, and yet seem qualified to teach interpreting-type classes in the third year.

The approach to going through the first-year textbook in some cases was to get students to memorise the example passages in order to recite them.

Year 2

Not much to complain about - the teaching at BNU is generally good, although the textbooks are pretty cheesy. My main gripe is the generally useless Classical Chinese class that's taken in this year, which consists of a jolly toothless Beijinger translating passages from classical Chinese into Mandarin - and then the test given at the end of year is classical to English.

Year 3

There are two different third-year language classes. Getting to grips with some real Chinese literature was enjoyable, but the grammar lessons in this same class were just awful. It was literally like someone reciting a reference grammar for an hour at a time, e.g. the proper choice of interjections when the preceding word ends with a certain consonant. Is it 啊/哪/呢/哦/啦... who cares?!

Year 4
Mercifully, not taking any Chinese language classes this year.

Ultimately, I think the department's MO is a sink or swim approach - those that swim do so despite the teaching method, whether it's their prior knowledge or the huge sacrifice of time they put in to catch up. The department then takes all the credit for it. I would gladly grin and bear it if I thought it was all about putting in a reasonable effort, as it seems to be with other language classes in SOAS. Sadly this is not the case in their department, hence my massive cynicism.

[Picaa]

(Original post by SEHughes)
My gripe is with the language modules.

Year 1
The language course is mis-sold as a beginner's course; they allow non-beginners in contrary to what's stated on the website, and then set first year tests to push the better students, who are with a couple of outliers all from this non-beginner group. The result is that everyone else suffers without putting in massive amounts of extra work.

The advice given on getting past language issues is pitiful. "Keep writing the characters" or if that fails, lots of shouting seems to be the primary tactic for some staff members.

In 2008 (the year I started), time was taken out of first year Mandarin class hours for some dusty old Austrian to tell us mildly interesting but generally useless facts about how difficult the language is to learn, different romanisations etc, and then subject us to the ludicrous task of learning all 214 Kangxi radicals with numbers - understanding the way characters break down into their semantic parts is useful but this approach just distracts from the more important task of developing some useful proficiency in the spoken language.

The first year is taught in traditional characters, and then you're expected to switch effortlessly to simplified after a twenty minute explanation near the end of the second term. This is done on the baseless assumption that it's easier to learn it that way rather than simplified first.

Some staff members are insistent that Chinese cannot be learned to near-native fluency by Westerners, and yet seem qualified to teach interpreting-type classes in the third year.

The approach to going through the first-year textbook in some cases was to get students to memorise the example passages in order to recite them.

Year 2

Not much to complain about - the teaching at BNU is generally good, although the textbooks are pretty cheesy. My main gripe is the generally useless Classical Chinese class that's taken in this year, which consists of a jolly toothless Beijinger translating passages from classical Chinese into Mandarin - and then the test given at the end of year is classical to English.

Year 3

There are two different third-year language classes. Getting to grips with some real Chinese literature was enjoyable, but the grammar lessons in this same class were just awful. It was literally like someone reciting a reference grammar for an hour at a time, e.g. the proper choice of interjections when the preceding word ends with a certain consonant. Is it 啊/哪/呢/哦/啦... who cares?!

Year 4
Mercifully, not taking any Chinese language classes this year.

Ultimately, I think the department's MO is a sink or swim approach - those that swim do so despite the teaching method, whether it's their prior knowledge or the huge sacrifice of time they put in to catch up. The department then takes all the credit for it. I would gladly grin and bear it if I thought it was all about putting in a reasonable effort, as it seems to be with other language classes in SOAS. Sadly this is not the case in their department, hence my massive cynicism.

Why did you decide to study Chinese? Not saying it's your fault but alarm bells should ring regarding certain languages at SOAS. Those languages that are most interesting to intelligence agencies who send their linguists to 'finish' there, from what I understand. It's like a full-time job for those people.

[SEHughes]

That's not what the course intake is like at all. They might take classes like that at the Language Centre, but I'm pretty sure SIS and GCHQ have in-house language training.