Chinese at SOAS

I've an offer for Economics+Chinese at SOAS.

After studying Chinese at SOAS and doing the year abroad in China, how good does your Chinese become? How functional are you?

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Reply 1

Piers-

I haven't done the year abroad yet, but as far as I know you would come back very "functional" :smile:

Reply 2

CHEN327

oh yes~~~~~good luck in your study~~~if any problem in Chinese i can hepl do ask me :smile:

Reply 3

vazstar

heya, i also got an offer to do eco and chinese... am actually quite tempted though....Still havent heard back from on uni, so have no clue as to what Im going to do next year...
What would people suggest? Here are the offers:
International Economics-Loughborough
Economics - Manchester
International Communication Studies - Nottingham
Economics and Chinese- SOAS

I dont know what would be more useful!!!!Please reply!

Reply 4

sweet_fluffy_nuke

vazstar

..
What would people suggest? Here are the offers:
I dont know what would be more useful!!!!Please reply!

Useful for what ?
Education is not just about utility.
If Chinese is your passion, you should go to SOAS

Careerwise, I would rank them:
Economics - Manchester
Economics and Chinese- SOAS ( concentrate on Economics modules and lay off the Chinese )
International Communication Studies - Nottingham
International Economics-Loughborough

Reply 5

Shaka09

acolyte

Useful for what ?
Education is not just about utility.

Education is just about the money you will earn by your studies :biggrin:

Bye

Reply 6

Exoskeletal

Piers-

I haven't done the year abroad yet, but as far as I know you would come back very "functional" :smile:

so long as you don't set up a ghetto with the other english speaking students and don't speak enough Chinese - which is apparently what too many people do.

Reply 7

Piers-

Exoskeletal

so long as you don't set up a ghetto with the other english speaking students and don't speak enough Chinese - which is apparently what too many people do.

my english is deteriorating at such a fast rate that i'll be lucky to be able to string a sentence together by the time I get to china :s-smilie:

Reply 8

vazstar

Well i hope to work for the united nations when im older, in development. I speak russian and english fluently, and am doing french for a level, so itd make sense to learn chinese too, esp now...but i would like to get away from london...and manchester is appealing...

Reply 9

Exoskeletal

as a northerner, i can say with some authority that when compared to London, Manchester is far from appealing.

choose soas.

Reply 10

vazstar

Sorted!!! Am doing joint honours Eco and Chinese in Sept (provided that i get the grades). Any tips/advice? Also, is there anyone else whos also doing the course, or either eco or chinese?

Reply 11

jsdmorrison

hey there.

I'm doing straight Chinese this september. See you there. :smile:

Reply 12

suyinkan

I'm also doing straight Chinese this Sept. And really looking fwd to the year abroad! It would be nice to meet other people starting Chinese in Sept... come on people, there must be more of you! :p:

Reply 13

vazstar

Change of plan....decided to go to loughborough, as i dont want to drop french! and chinese is a little scary! good luck tho!

Reply 14

hed~kandi

Hehe, good luck with your French @ Luff! :smile:

Another BA Chineser here! :wavey:

Can't wait for it all to start and I can't wait for the year abroad! i think the great thing about Chinese at SOAS is that we all spend the year abroad together at the same uni, whereas for Japanese (for example) everyone is all over the place at about 12 different uni's. At least we can all get through it together! :biggrin:

Reply 15

clivel

haha. my brother studies chinese in beijing normal university and said that the soas people are generally a pile of crap! haha. he is a full-time student in china and thinks that you cant learn anything worthwhile during 1 year.

i did the chinese gcse by myself and managed to get full marks in all papers (thanks to his help haha)

wish you all the best if you wana start learning chinese in the uk.haha. you'll need it

Reply 16

Luxun3

clivel

I guess your brother is pretty wrong if he thinks so.... Of course the SOAS students are not fluent when they come to China, as thats only after their first year at SOAS.
However you can really get to a decent level of Chinese after spending a year in China, not fluency no but a decent level of Chinese.

And yes actually studying for a degree in Chinese in the UK is much better than doing so in China., I mean of course it is always the best thing to study a language the country where it is spoken, but there is more to a university degree than getting a certain level of Chinese. In the end you also should have gained certain academic skills.
Now if your brother studies for four years at Beijing Normal University he might have a better level of Chinese than a SOAS graduate, but that's about it. The SOAS graduate has a degree from a internationally renowned university, whereas the BNU graduate has a degree from a mediocre Chinese university, that noone in Europe will ever heard of. If he wants to do a MA in the U.K. for example it will be much harder for him t, as he lacks the academic skills that that he needs for an MA: I dont want to say that BNU for example is a bad uni, but if you look at the academic qualitiy of the degree it not in no way comparable to a degree from SOAS or most other U.K. universities. At BNU one is just a language student whose only goal is to et a decent level of modern Chinese, so that one can maybe get a high lvl on the HSK. However at SOAS you need to be good at classical/modern Chinese, essay writing, time management, critical thinking etc.. to gain a good degree.

That is why in the end it is much better to study for a degree in Chinese at a UK Uni than at a Chinese uni. If you want to further improve your level fo Chinese after your degree you can still easily go and live in China for a while.

Reply 17

SomeNextPirate

Ghassan

That is why in the end it is much better to study for a degree in Chinese at a UK Uni than at a Chinese uni. If you want to further improve your level fo Chinese after your degree you can still easily go and live in China for a while.

Much better to study in the UK full stop :yep:

Hence why we get so many internationals, and well, China/other countries (other than the USA I guess) don't.

Reply 18

clivel

haha. he also studied classical/ancient chinese etc. as well as business chinese, history and the full range of topics that make up a degree.

he even studies modules in psych and education. pretty all-round to me.

think about the reason why chin doesnt have many international students...language! many (not all) of the chinese who study in the UK only come here as they can't get into a good uni at home - my bro teaches english to many of this kind of student who have not done well on their high school exams and look at the european countries/USA as an escape route. they also have a lot of money so this isnt a problem for them.

as for time management skills and other study skills, of course a uni has these kind of courses if you are interested to take them.

you're right that SOAS/other UK unis are more widely known in the world but the most important point still remains - his language will be better than studying at a UK uni AND he wont have so much debt :smile:

Sounds good to me.

If I can get a college to help me take A2 chinese i will also do so ...and am also considering heading off to china to study business - probably not beijing, but a smaller city.

oh, btw he has already applied to goldsmiths to take some teaching course for 'community languages' - dont think having studied in china has any disadvantages apart from missing his friends!

Reply 19

Fischer

Firstly, it's a bit silly comparing the two institutions because their goals are different. The BNU degree aims for fluency in Chinese; the SOAS degree aims for a rounded knowledge of modern chinese language (including both traditional and simplified characters), classical Chinese, philosophy, history, art, literature, etc etc. The classes offered at BNU in things like classical Chinese and history taught in Chinese, so they are superficial at best for someone who has just started learning the language. It's not the same as an academically rigorous programme.

BNU is a great place to study Chinese language. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it might be the best place in mainland China. And that's why SOAS students go there for a year! However, it does have its weak points. The examination system is atrocious. Cheating is rife. The exams are very easy to pass (and even score very highly in). For that reason, SOAS makes students sit their exams as well. The difference is....shocking. I'd say the SOAS exams are roughly twice as hard.

The BNU texts are very dry and boring. All of them are about how great China is (usually in terms of economy). I still cringe everytime I hear the phrase "经济发展". A whole year of it did my head in. I simply can't imagine 4 years of it. That reason alone would stop me doing a degree there.

About the cost. Well. In England we're entitled to government loans to help us go to university. In China, we're not. Your bro would have needed a fair bit of money to live and study in China for any amount of time. It's actually illegal to work on a study visa, so you might want to keep that one quiet.

I can't really think of anything else to say. It's a shame that you've formed an opinion so readily of everyone doing Chinese at SOAS (and indeed anyone studying any language in their home country...) based on what your brother said in private. I bet he didn't realize you'd go blabbing it on an internet forum.

They're both great places to learn Chinese. It just depends what you're after, really. I definitely would not rather study for 4 years at BNU than at SOAS.

Anyway, I hope this clears things up.