Chinese Applicants 2014

Hi, I'm considering applying for this course this year, although I haven't committed myself yet. I need to apply soon though if I'm going to do it!
Can I ask when you sent your application off??

Reply 2

OP

Original post by CloverCotton

Hi, I'm considering applying for this course this year, although I haven't committed myself yet. I need to apply soon though if I'm going to do it!
Can I ask when you sent your application off??

Hey! If you're keen, I'd say go for it. There's a lot of different careers linked to it, and China's, you know, basically taking over the world economy-one of the main reasons I chose it over European languages :tongue:

I think they mainly want to see your interest/excitement in the subject because it's pretty rare that anyone's studied Chinese history or Mandarin before.

I sent my application off on October 7th. I got an offer yesterday from Nottingham, biggest relief ever :redface:

Best of luck if you do decide to apply!

Reply 3

Original post by TheBookOwl

Hey! If you're keen, I'd say go for it. There's a lot of different careers linked to it, and China's, you know, basically taking over the world economy-one of the main reasons I chose it over European languages :tongue:

I think they mainly want to see your interest/excitement in the subject because it's pretty rare that anyone's studied Chinese history or Mandarin before.

I sent my application off on October 7th. I got an offer yesterday from Nottingham, biggest relief ever :redface:

Best of luck if you do decide to apply!

Congratulations on your offer! :smile:

Is Nottingham your first choice?
I think the good thing about the course is that nearly everyone starts off on level ground, and there are lots of options at the end, like you say.

I'm thinking of applying to Edinburgh, Durham and Newcastle, but not sure where else.. I think Edinburgh would be my first choice. I would have applied to Cambridge if I hadn't left it so late!

My only problem is having science A levels (I'm on my gap yr) which is probably not going to work in my favour :redface:

Reply 4

OP

Thanks! Nottingham's probably my #3/#4 choice of the ones I've applied to. #1 would be Cambridge but obviously it's super hard to get in, so realistically, I'd like to go to SOAS.

I looked at Durham too- ended up choosing Leeds instead to have a wider range of grade requirements! Edinburgh's course looks so good (I'd be totally lying if I said the pandas at the zoo there weren't part of the decision to apply :tongue:

)

The science A levels is a tricky one, but I think it won't matter that much if you explain on your personal statement. It'll make you stand out from the other applicants as well, different skills and all that :smile:

Reply 5

Hi everyone! It does seem like we are not very few . I sent my application off a few days before the Oxbridge deadline. I initially applied to Cambridge, SOAS, Edinburgh, Sheffield and Leeds.

I changed SOAS to Durham on track the day my application was sent off. I know that may seem really silly, but I really don't want to stay in London for uni, and if SOAS were to make me an offer and I actually had to stay home ( it wouldn't really make sense paying £ to stay in halls when I live 2 bus rides away) I'd feel gutted.

So, I changed it to Durham cos they want they sames grades as SOAS -AAB. Hadn't really considered Durham before but as I'm actually looking into it now I'd love ot go there if they ever gave me a place! I really loved the feel/ course at Sheffield, as well as Cambridge, but the latter isn't very probable, but I guess, at the end of the day I still get to study Chinese somewhere!
I have offers from Sheffield and Leeds at the moment, so just keeping my fingers crossed for the rest.

Just out of interest, why did you guys pick Chinese??? Just wanting to hear fellow future sinologists' reasons for picking the course. Maybe we all have something in common ?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 6

GingerNinja92

Hey leaozinho :biggrin:

I'm actually a music student at Newcastle University but am dropping out to apply to study Mandarin at either a British University or in Taiwan.

I am picking Mandarin because I have a huge passion for the language (and was silly not to follow it through haha). My step-mam is from Taiwan so that made me curious about the language and culture (and i'll be going to Taiwan over christmas and new year, which will be so cool!).

I love the music too. I don't listen to much from China, but the Taiwanese music is brilliant, as it is the mando-pop kingdom (for the want of a better word lol)

Why did you decide to study mandarin?

Reply 7

OP

Hello! I'm so glad there are a few more of us on here now :smile:

I decided to study Chinese for lots of reasons:

1. I visited China in 2008 and started going to a Chinese culture club afterwards and reading lots of books about the history etc.
2. I took Mandarin ab initio as an extra GCSE and loved it, despite how hard it was!
3. I have a general interest in the East Asian region (Korea, Japan, Taiwan etc.) but for some reason China just appeals to me more
4. I knew I wanted to study a language at university but the thought of doing French or similar doesn't really excite me, I want to do something more challenging
5. I went to the University of Hong Kong for summer school this year and took classes in Chinese politics/economics/social policy, and I just knew then that this was what I wanted to study, it really made my mind up, I loved it so much. I would have applied to HKU right then if it wasn't so darn expensive! :tongue:

Bit long-winded, apologies, but that's why I decided to apply.

Reply 8

Hey, so can I ask everyone what they did for A levels?? Being a science person I guess I'm a bit of an odd one out in this thread :P

Leaozinho - in reply to your thread, I decided to pick Chinese because I was sick of science and wanted a completely new challenge. I have visited China before and found the people and culture there fascinating, and because I enjoy learning new languages (despite A level appearances). I also have adopted Chinese members in my family, so have always had links with China.

TheBookOwl - thanks for being so positive! I now just have to persuade my 6th form tutor to be as open-minded...

Reply 9

I always really admire people who study what they really want to do, regardless of the circumstances. It must've been hard to make the decision, but I'm sure you'll be a lot happier as a result because you're actually doing what you want to do :yes:

Woooow Taiwan! That's so awesome! Im guessing you already know some of the language, right? Are you doing simplified or traditional ?
I havent actually done much in terms learning the language :colondollar:

I only really started like a week ago because I've been focusing on like Chinese history and modern politics etc. mainly.

I decided to do Chinese because, as cheesy as it sounds, I've just always been interested/ obsessed with languages but it's always been on the European side. I knew I wanted to study a language at uni but the thought of carrying on a European one wasn't as exciting as starting a completely new one.

I've been really into East Asian culture for ages especially Korean culture(kpop amd kdramas rule), which is why I actually wanted to study Chinese and Korean at Sheffield but the course was discontinued :frown:

I'm guessing not enough people were signing up??

I love challenges and learning Chinese would be like the ultimate challenge for me.

Chinese culture and just China in general is just really interesting to me and I want to know more so I just went for it. I mean, if I don't do it now when will I ever do it?

Do you have any recommendations for good Chinese music? I only really know kpop and a bit of jpop.

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Reply 10

Original post by CloverCotton

Hey, so can I ask everyone what they did for A levels?? Being a science person I guess I'm a bit of an odd one out in this thread :P

Leaozinho - in reply to your thread, I decided to pick Chinese because I was sick of science and wanted a completely new challenge. I have visited China before and found the people and culture there fascinating, and because I enjoy learning new languages (despite A level appearances). I also have adopted Chinese members in my family, so have always had links with China.

TheBookOwl - thanks for being so positive! I now just have to persuade my 6th form tutor to be as open-minded...

Im doing Portuguese, French, English literature and bio. I really don't think having only science A levels will have a negative effect in regards to your application. When I went to the Oxford open day they said that that they do sometimes get applicants who have done a science A levels. They said they act quite liked them because they were quite analytical/ methodical in their thought processes, which is a really good quality to have when learning the language! Even if your not applying to Oxford I think it' s safe to say that most unis will probably be of the same opinion.

You've shown that you have a genuine interest in China and that's the most important thing :yes:

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Reply 11

OP

Original post by CloverCotton

Hey, so can I ask everyone what they did for A levels?? Being a science person I guess I'm a bit of an odd one out in this thread :P

Leaozinho - in reply to your thread, I decided to pick Chinese because I was sick of science and wanted a completely new challenge. I have visited China before and found the people and culture there fascinating, and because I enjoy learning new languages (despite A level appearances). I also have adopted Chinese members in my family, so have always had links with China.

TheBookOwl - thanks for being so positive! I now just have to persuade my 6th form tutor to be as open-minded...

I'm taking French, German, History and Latin at the moment, and I did AS Maths last year. Some places mention English Lit as being useful, but seeing as language A Levels have heaps of literature in them anyway, I'm not stressing about it. I don't know if unis really look at it but I'm hoping to try and finish an EPQ about the whole 'one country two systems' thing if I have time.

Thinking positively is the way forward :smile:

My 6th form tutor was a bit bemused when I first told her what I wanted to do, but she soon came round when she saw that it really excited me!

Reply 12

OP

Got invited to interview by Cambridge today, I'm so excited!

Reply 13

Original post by TheBookOwl

Got invited to interview by Cambridge today, I'm so excited!

Congrats !!

Reply 14

Original post by TheBookOwl

Got invited to interview by Cambridge today, I'm so excited!

Yey, congratulations!

Reply 15

Blargh1

Hello everyone! My inner university hype machine is really starting to heat up :borat:

I'm applying to Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, SOAS, Sheffield (preference in that order). I'm doing maths, history, Spanish at A2, I did AS further maths last year but this year I'm doing AS German (ab initio) instead. My predicted grades are A*AA (average UMS 88%). The day after I sent it off I got an ABB offer from Sheffield which was great for confidence but is awful for anticipation. I now check everyday even though I know the other three probably won't come through until March! :nutcase:

I wanted to study a language at uni from scratch and Chinese seemed so much more different, useful and exciting than anything else. I am now very much obsessed with it :smile:

I'm still reading quite generally at the moment but with a focus on my favourite historical period, 1900-1950. I have got some more specific things to read as well like Tao Te Ching for the more classical parts of Chinese culture. Also, I love a bit of geopolitics and always try to keep up to date on China Daily.

Congratuations BookOwl! My college is going to send invites over the next week, pretty nervous about it.

Just a quick question for those who chose Edinburgh, were any of you unimpressed by the course? The satisfaction ratings are low (I know it's a common problem for Edinburgh) but what really turned me off from the department was the open day. They said that in the first year of learning Mandarin you only go from basic greetings up to ordering a meal at a restaurant!? What's more, unlike everywhere else where they stress how much hard work it is (in a good way), when we talked to some students they suggested it's pretty easy and you don't really do anything in the first 2 years. The only reasons why I'm still applying is that in a great city like Edinburgh, having less work could turn out to be pretty fun and also that, seeing as employers have no idea about the quality of a specific course, the employment figures are pretty impressive.

Anyway, sorry for the mega-post, just wanted to address everything in the thread so far :colondollar:

Reply 16

OP

Thanks everyone :colondollar:

2.5 down, 2.5 to go...

leaozinho and Blargh1, which colleges are you applying to? I applied to Clare.

With regards to reading, I've mainly focused on 20th century history, but I've tried to read a little bit about as much as possible (poetry, art/architecture, dynastic history, Confucius, Buddhism etc.). I've recently got quite into researching the political status of migrant workers after going to see The World of Extreme Happiness. I'm currently working my way through 2 books- Jung Chang's new one about Cixi (very very good) and Factory Girls by Leslie T. Chang. I have a special interest in a couple of areas, those being the role of women, the sociolinguistics of Mandarin and SAR reunification. I find everything in Sinology just so completely exciting, I have no idea how on earth I'll be able to narrow it down at university, but that's a challenge for the future :tongue:

Blargh1, that's interesting about Edinburgh- I didn't get a chance to visit the department, I just went on the prospectus/website and was like "ooh, seems really good". Like you say though, less work is no bad thing, and being able to find a job at the end of all of it is the #1 priority!

Reply 17

Blargh1

Original post by TheBookOwl

leaozinho and Blargh1, which colleges are you applying to? I applied to Clare.

Trinity Hall.

I'm getting that new Jung Chang book for my birthday

Reply 18