What am I getting myself into!?

[africanese]

Hallo,

Hope I'm posting this in the right place.I'm thinking about doing my undergraduate in China next year in engineering.From various Chinese university websites in Beijing and Shanghai,I've seen that I need some knowledge in Chinese.I've gotten admission to BLCU,Tsinghua,Fudan and Lanzhou(I applied to all those for the sake of having options).I was thinking at most 1year of intensive Chinese language learning then I move on straight to my undergraduate.I've read a lot of the threads in this forum about BLCU and so far I've just seen one downside of this school;that it has too many foreigners,which might not be a good learning environment,according to the threads.But,BLCU seems to be the best language school from what I've read.I don't know anything about Lanzhou University.There website to is a lot wierd.

I actually don't know what my question is.I'm just confused.Which of those schools would be the best for a total beginner?And is learning Chinese for 1 year then moving to my undergraduate,can it be done?Is it realistic?And is there a good university in perharps Hong Kong which can teach my undergraduate in English?(with reasonable fees ofcourse;23000RMB per annum).Any other info will be greatly appreciated.

[babygodzilla]

my friend did that. she did 1 year of language studies at BLCU, then she moved on to journalism. im sure journalism requires a high degree of understanding of the language, and she only studied for a year, which i thought is amazing. ive been here a year and i still dont understand crap. she even told me she hardly ever attend class cause theyre so boring (and they are).

so yea it can be done. good luck.

[terryswift]

you might want to check out beijing university of technology. there are foreign students studying engineeering there. i studied chinese there for a semester- i cant remember if a few of my school mates were studying chinese and engineering simultaneously, or if they did a semester of language and then went into the engineering program.

[imron]

Tsinghua university has a very strong reputation in Science, Technology and Engineering fields. That's probably your best bet for the undergraduate degree.

[imitation]

To study in the Undergraduate degree you will first need to sit the HSK 初,中级 exam and get a minimum 3 grade which is 40% average in all 4 sections (I think this is the requirement for Engineering). I just sat this exam after almost 3 semesters of study, I probably won't get that requirement because my listening is terrible (I partially blame this on living in Guangzhou whilst the HSK audio is all Beijing accent, but I might also just be stupid I haven't ruled that out). Of my classmates most thought the exam was very hard and we have all been studying for the same length of time.

I think it's definitely possible to have much better Chinese than I have though in much less time, don't have foreigner friends, don't have a job which involves using a lot of English, don't use the Internet to vist your favourite English webpages, don't watch English movies, etc, etc.

[africanese]

Thanks babygodzilla.That really makes me look forward to coming there.

Terryswift,thanks but I think the 4 universities I got more or less cover what I need or may need.Imron,I know Tsinghua has a good rep on the Science,Technology and Engineering fields.But that's what I want to do after my language classes.So,its kind of,should I go to Tsinghua since the probability of me getting a position in their Engineering classes will be higher than if I wasn't there initially(maybe the classes might be filled,if that really happens).Then again,BLCU has the best language classes.So why not learn the best of everything,best language at BLCU best Engineering at Tsinghua!?I also don't know much about their language programs.I've not heard or read anything about the programs.Anything about Fudan University?

Thanks imitation.I'll try my best!

[Xiao Kui]

i understand that the HSK requirements for the sciences are lower than for some other subjects, but can you really excel in any undergraduate Chinese program if your HSK score is only 3? Even if the engineering program were entirely math, it seems like you would need to know a little more Chinese to feel comfortable and not completely lost.

What am I missing here?

[johnmck]

When I did Engineering (electronic) at university (in the UK) I was told I didn't have to come to lectures if I did not want to, all I had to do was pass the exams - if I thought spending my time in the library was more fruitful then I should do that.

The thing with Engineering is that if you have a good book and a friend that understands the stuff, you can study it yourself. Sitting in a room with 200 other students copying whatever is written on the blackboard is not very useful. Hence I suspect that you can study engineering with a level 3 HSK, although you will need some good books in English and be ready to do a lot of work (also workout which of your 同学 is the cleverest and convince him that explaining the lessons to you in the evening is good English practise ) .

[gato]

The thing with Engineering is that if you have a good book and a friend that understands the stuff, you can study it yourself. Sitting in a room with 200 other students copying whatever is written on the blackboard is not very useful. Hence I suspect that you can study engineering with a level 3 HSK,

Except that the tests are in Chinese. Engineers need to use words, too. It's not all equations.

[roddy]

i understand that the HSK requirements for the sciences are lower than for some other subjects, but can you really excel in any undergraduate Chinese program if your HSK score is only 3? Even if the engineering program were entirely math, it seems like you would need to know a little more Chinese to feel comfortable and not completely lost.

What am I missing here?

I would assume that even if you are going in with an HSK 3, you are going to be making some very rapid progress - you're going to be in classes in Chinese, surrounded by Chinese people, with a very strong motivation to keep up. You'd basically (if you approach it the right way) be doing both an undergrad degree and an intensive Chinese course. You'd need to be pretty well organized at the start to avoid falling way behind, and you might well be better off doing an extra six months of language study before starting, but handled well it could be a very good intensive / immersion language experience thing.

[africanese]

Ok,let's finish this because it's really killing me.What would be better,BLCU for language then Tsinghua or just Tsinghua since it has both the language and the undergrad course???(though I still don't know about it's rep in the language field).Is BLCU better than Tsinghua in that(language) field?Somebody,please answer this.

And why is BLCU having such a high drop-out rate?

[africanese]

Hi people.I just came across a thread and I think I've found my answers.Tsinghua is the way am going,no doubt about that.Thanks a lot for your help.I love this forum.Take care.