Universities without many foreigners

[tlevine]

艾琳2005 studied at Beijing Huagong Daxue and seemed to like it. This makes me wonder whether there are other universities like this--ones that are not particularly well known for their language instruction but still have a decent Chinese language program. Has anyone else studied at a university like this? What did you think about it?

[sthubbar]

The Beijing Film Academy isn't usually what comes to people's mind when they think of studying Mandarin. Surprise, surprise, they have a special department that caters to foreigners wanting to learn Mandarin.

What do I like about the Beijing Film Academy Mandarin program?

1) Small classes - easy to interact with the instructor and ask for any clarification or additional help if desired. Classes range from 3 - 8 students per class

2) Small school - Close interaction with the administration allows for much flexibility. For example, on Monday I take the Advanced Class, Tuesday - low intermediate, Wednesday, intermediate, Thursday - Intermediate & Advanced, Friday - Advanced & Low Intermediate. [i really like Listening & Speaking classes. ] I have a friend enrolled at BLCU. He is enrolled in the B level even though his Mandarin has advanced much further than that. He is not allowed to switch classes so his classes are currently worthless.

3) Quality instructors - The instructors here are on par with others I have encountered. This means that some are good some not so good. With the above mentioned flexibility it is possible to attend the better teacher's classes and avoid the not so good ones.

4) Less expensive than most other Universities - Leaves more money for other pursuits. 9000 RMB / semester

5) Surrounded by Artistic Students - The students on campus are future Directors, Screen Writers, and Actors. On a daily basis there are people around taking pictures or filming or dressing up in some costumer or wedding gown. Makes life fun.

6) Film Academy - Did I mention this was a film Academy? Do you like watching movies? Well these people make this their living. Almost every day there is a film being screened. Many of them are free. They also regularly have Film Fesitivals, for example they just had the International Film Festival and this week is the Japanese Film Festival.

7) Close to Wudaokou - If you have friends or any connections to Wudaokou it is withing 10 minutes.

Check out there website or drop me a line if you'd like to here more.

http://www.bfa.edu.cn/bfa_english/international.html

[tlevine]

sthubbar:

Is it easy to interact with the students from China?

What other schools did you consider attending, and why did you choose the Beijing Film Acadamy over these?

Are you a "Short term Chinese language student"?

[sthubbar]

Intereacting with students is as easy as at any other university.

My reasons are above.

The school is setup to mainly handle a minimum stay of one semester. There are a few students who have started the semester late.

[anthony87]

Does anyone know how to go about applying to this school? Also, is there on campus housing?

[babygodzilla]

That's interesting. Why would you want to take classes of different levels, ranging from low intermediate to advanced, on different days? Could you elaborate on that? do you mean you have Advanced Listening on Monday, and Low Intermediate Listening on Tuesday?

[mr.stinky]

does it have to be in beijing?

i recently went to guangxi baise to check out the chinese department. coming off

a campus rebuilding effort and renaming of the school (from youjiang minority

teacher's college to baise university) the enrollment had lagged.

they currently have 0 foreign students, but will set up a class with as few as three.

don't have three? they'll give me 1:1 at the same price (US$800/year). this would

be 10 hours per week with the foreigners class, and 6 hours per week with the

chinese students (minorities) learning standard chinese.

can't say anything about the instruction, but it's a fine city. population about 400k with

less than 10 furriners. AND THEY DON'T SPIT!!!

[wizwan]

Hey Mr Stinky,

I was particulary interested in your post about about going to guangxi baise...

I gather there aren't any foreigners at all other than you, and you get to study with local chinese students?! That sounds fantastic..

Can you give us more info about this place please? Where is it? How can I check it out (I'm based in England at the min)

Sorry I didn't understand what you meant by 'less than 10 furriners' - I've never heard of furriners!

Thank you!

[sthubbar]

Babygodzilla: I attend different level classes because I have pretty specific ideas about how I want to learn Chinese. I would much rather take a low-intermediate listening class over any grammar course. I don't know English grammar, why would I want to learn Chinese grammar?!

[mr.stinky]

http://www.bsuc.cn/school/iee/IEE_EN_zsjz.htm

i don't actually attend this university (name changed to baise daxue) yet.

it's in downtown baise, not too far from the jiafu (missing the "le") shopping center

and the MFC chicken place.

skipped class last week to accompany my girlfriend to baise on business. while there

i decided to check out the school, cause i really like baise. it's small, clean, and

nobody spits that i saw/heard.

if i finally get fed up with the pollution and traffic and rude people and the high cost of living

in kunming (hahahahah beijing people!!!), i'd like to try baise for a year or so.

but then things here may be looking up. i may be moving out of my girlfriends apartment

into the brand spanking new highrises in the northern 'burbs. only a 20-minute bus

ride (1 kuai) will get you to the new complexes with 85m2 apartments for 550-650 rmb per

month. yes, it's expensive, but should make a nice xmas present for myself.