Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) Chinese Program

[void0]

I have been studying mandarin in my country for one year and in China for one semester. I am presently attending the second year of the Bachelor Degree in Chinese Language in Wuhan University and I wish to pursue my mandarin studies in another city next year. After dozens of hours of research, I now consider going to Harbin Institute of Technology (the regular program not the expensive CET Harbin program). I would like to have infos on the mandarin program there, with respect to: (1) class size; (2) available courses; (3) quality of the teaching; (4) degree of motivation of students; (5) textbooks used; (6) accomodation for CSC scholarship recipients; (7) etc.

Thank you very much!

[kdavid]

I can't answer from personal experience; only from hearsay. However, it doesn't seem that others are diving in, so I'll try and help you out with what I can.

1.

2. Beginner, Adv. Beginner, Intermediate, Adv. Int., Advanced

3. The teachers are quite good from what my friend says, though this varies and sometimes depends on student motivation and quality. My friend had a great class with a handful of very motivated students, but a horrible class with students who never studied and had no motivation.

4. The Japanese and the Koreans seem to be the most motivated. The Russians are largely looking to escape mandatory military duty or studying abroad for a semester, and thus not too interested.

5.

6.

7. HIT is a nationally reknown school. Pretty much everyone formally studying Mandarin studies at HIT. I hear it's a great school. I plan to enroll for the Intermediate session beginning later this year.

If I didn't answer one of your questions, it's because I don't know.

[Steebu]

Class size at HIT is around 18 students. Though the higher level classes had fewer students. What I found when I studied there was that as the semester progresses, the number of students attending class decreases to around 8-10 students. As already mentioned, the Korean & Japanese students on the whole do study quite hard, especially when ever the HSK is looming. I believe that the courses provided are ideal for beginner & intermediate students, however for advanced students, though passable, do not reach a standard that would be ideal. I heard that Heilongjiang University provides a higher standard course more suitable for advanced students, though I could be wrong.

The teachers are good and the majority do enjoy teaching and attending some social activities which makes the class more enjoyable.

The accommodation for the scholarship students is in dorm 6. Not as new or luxurious as dorm 13 which occupies the vast majority of foreign students but does have its own free internet facilities. Dorm 6 also is allocated to the CET students.

As for Harbin, its a great city with very few foreigners though you can easily find the few that are there if you wanted. If you do go to Harbin, I do recommend a cafe called Hamamas, opposite HIT front gate in Mugong Jie run by a PNG guy. Great food and coffee for when you need something not Chinese.

[Socks]

I was at HIT this summer, and roomed with a full time student. To be honest with you, I wasn't really impressed with any of the full time students there... They weren't serious about learning, and seemed really lazy. In my class, there were about 6 students (out of 12) that were studying in the summer (in addition to studying in the spring semester before), and they rarely came to class. The university attracts a lot of young (i.e. college age, and pre-college/post high school aged) students, so maybe I am biased with my answer (as I am a couple of years older than everyone else).

I liked the quality of the teachers... They seemed really cool, and if you came to class and showed that you were willing to work, they were really cool. I think that they were a bit weary/impatient though, because they ended up with a bunch of slackers in the class.

Hope this helps!