Establishing a Study Abroad Program in China

[xianu]

Hi all,

I have been charged with starting a Chinese program at the University of Northern Colorado. Part of this has been to establish exchange and study-abroad programs. I am thinking of establishing a short-term director-led summer study abroad as well (maybe 4 weeks+ short excursion) and have been contemplating locations. I am interested in finding out from people currently or recently living/studying in China: Now that you have been there, maybe traveled around, where would you go, and why?

One more thing - I have friends and family living in Beijing and would probably be able to offer some sort of buddy program, where students could be sort of adopted by a local family and go on outings, or have a home-cooked meal, experience local life in Beijing. My only reservation is that Beijing is just so westernized and modernized. I fear it will be too easy for the students to settle into the ex-pat existence in Beijing, even with local foster families. ANy thoughts on the pros and cons?

Thanks

[gougou]

I'd say that depends a lot on the students. I live in Beijing and have much more Chinese friends than foreigners. On the other hand, I've talked to people that lived in second-tier cities and had barely any contact with locals. So if the students are willing to interact with the locals, they should be able to do so in Beijing just fine. And if they are unwilling to mingle with Chinese, sending them to the countryside might not be the way to make them like China.

[xianu]

Its not like I want to take them to the countryside. I lived in Beijing years ago, and enjoyed all Beijing had to offer. Because I am ethnically Chinese, I didn't make random friends like most of my classmates did. However, becasue I have a lot of family there, I also had a lot of insight into local culture. Because of these reasons, I think it is hard for me to judge how Beijing is for the average american student. I wonder if going someplace like Nanjing or Xi'an might be more interesting for the students, in that it is a little less (or a lot less) westernized/modernized/populated. Just curious, what would you put your level of spoken Chinese at?

[venture160]

Another huge plus is that the schools in Beijing and Shanghai have lots of experience with HUNDREDS of other foreign institutions, so you would not really run into a whole lot of contract/management problems with your local partner university. If you went out to a smaller city where they have less experience dealing with overseas universities, it could be a nightmare. I personally saw this happen with my 30,000+ student university.

[Xiao Kui]

i've never been to nanjing, xian, but I've lived a long time in Kunming and Chengdu which are located in the so-called undeveloped western region and they are very modernized, westernized, and populated so I imagine xian and nanjing would be even more so. Any big or medium-sized city in China right now is, but that doesn't mean they've lost their historical or unique cultural value.

I think the fact that you have connections in BJ is a helpful advantage to offering homestay options there. You can find homestay options any where but a friend of mine recently had an awful experience where she was assigned to homestay with a couple that was never home, had a dog that wasn't housebroken, etc. They were just doing the program for the money. If you have trustworthy friends in BJ that can make reliable recommendations for you, then you can spare your program participants that kind of disappointment. It seems like you also have the beginnings of a guanxi network in BJ, why try to get that going from scratch somewhere else?

There are also additional things besides offering homestay and buddy options that can help your students assimilate. I think many study abroad programs make students sign a language pledge where they promise to only speak Chinese Mon-Fri, and can only speak English on weekends. I don't know how effective this is, maybe other forum members can offer some input, but I have met people who definitely honor theirs, it's evident when you walk into a cafe and see two foreigners speaking to each other in Chinese. First you think they're showing off, but then you realize, "ahh, language pledge."

[roddy]

I'd build on what you've got in Beijing. Just making sure that the students aren't living right in the middle of Wudaokou or Sanlitun will be enough to make sure they've got plenty of Chinese stuff round about, establish a relationship with a local university or training center, make sure you set standard for classrooms, teaching methods, etc, don't let them gouge you on accommodation costs and you should be ready to go.

I'd be inclined to look at the smaller, less well-known universities. Just thinking about what's in walking distance from where I live there's a Post and Telecommunications University, a Sports University and a Transportation University - all reasonably central locations, all (I believe) with CSL departments, and as they're less well-known I'd imagine they'd be more likely to go an extra mile to keep a 'group' customer happy.

[xianu]

thanks for the feedback. I was leaning towards BJ, but then realized that I would be getting this program off the ground for next summer, which, unfortunately, alos happens to be the olympics. I suppose that just means extra planning, and reserving our spaces ahead of time.

It seems like most universities now have some CSL school, and the textbooks all seem to be about the same. And these kinds of programs are always hit and miss as far as quality of language instruction. The only way to get the really good and solid language classes is to enroll in one of those really good (and usually expensive) programs, like ICLP in Taiwan, or IUB at Qinghua in Beijing. The aim is some language instruction, cultural experience, and director-led program that puts both nervous students and nervous parents at ease with sending their kids abroad.

[roddy]

You certainly want to be keeping as much control as possible over the teacher and materials, maybe even bringing your own teacher with you, otherwise setting down very firm guidelines for what should be happening in class and making sure it does. I don't think the only option is the expensive one - just make quality control your responsibility rather than the school's, and be prepared to push for improvements if necessary. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if your first trip consists mainly of ironing out problems.

[xianu]

I would bet that every trip will be about ironing out problems. It is China, after all, and there are always new problems popping up. The benefit of being in any of these summer programs is really having native speakers with different accents, and even teaching styles work with the students to expose them to, well to different ways of approaching the language - i.e. make it a living language. Just being in the Chinese-speaking environment where the only way they can really function is by using the language is plenty of exposure, as it is. The really motivated ones wil explore the city, maybe get purposely lost, and seek out opportunities to use their language skills, sometimes even at the expense of the actual language classes, but they will be absorbing the culture and learning how to reconcile the differences and unexpected similarities between Chinese living and their own. I will institute a language pledge, though.

[venture160]

One way to monitor class standards is to frequently observe classes and hold weekly or bi-weekly all teacher meetings where the progress of the students is discussed. Some of the teachers might be turned off by this, especially the older one's, but you could counteract their suspicions with a 2-4 day "free training session" using your foreign expertise to entice them. It would be a great way to get to know who is going to be teaching your students and establish good relationships.

[venture160]

A good resource for you to look at is the Chinese Language Teachers Association webpage, they have quarterly journals and monthly newsletters where alot of the issues you are interested in are discussed.

http://clta.osu.edu