korean students

[rezaf]

i have been studying chinese in shanghai for a month and the reason that i write this is because i am very angry . all of my classmates are koreans and i have never seen such lazy and uninterested students in my life. they hardly attend half of the classes. never do their homework and just speak in korean with each other when the teacher is teaching. i study for 5 hours a day and now i can read and write 430 words but i doubt that my some of my classmates know more than 30 words(including the numbers and wo ni ...) and after 1 month they can not pronounce zh, ch, sh, z, c . they have slowed down the class and made it difficult for me to learn in the class because the teachers must spend a lot of time in teaching the very basic words and grammer everyday. there was a good teacher who tried to make the environment creative but korean students protested against this teacher and didnt come to her class this week and wanted the university to give them back the money for this class. as a result the 校长 came to our class today and told her that they are going to change her next week. i just want to know if in all the universities the situation isthe same and does anyone have any suggestion what i should do in such a lazy class?

[heifeng]

month they can not pronounce zh, ch, sh, z, c

The bad news is this will never change.

SOME (not all) Korean students are in China b/c they are not 'top-tier' students, thus came to China for school.

OTHER Korean students are really hard working b/c they need an 8 or 10 on the HSK. Find those students. Even though they are a bit too test obsessed, you'll be happier.

I don't have too many quelms w/the Korean students here in BJ, but on occasion have been annoyed when in a class of 40 students they are collectively creating a hum of Korean speaking during class and only myself and my uzbekistanian classmate and the teacher is speaking Chinese. But occasionally there will be a Korean student 'not in with the pack'. Maybe they are outcasts for some reason, maybe they just got back from their military training and find others too immature now...but some decent ones are around.

Don't get too disheartened. Learn some free Korean, and let them take you out for dinner at least once and then never reciprocate...turn lemons into lemonaide or start planning subtle ways to get revenge just to give your days a beam of sunlight.

[adrianlondon]

Ask to move classes. Maybe all your classmates know each other and are just there for something to do; with no real goal.

The three Koreans in my class were different. The two girls (very different ages) worked really hard while the young guy did nothing for the first month or so. Then something happened and ... wow, he worked really hard and suddenly did so well. But yes, their pronunciation is often wrong but that's just because of the Korean language. Brits find it hard to differentiate between "x" and "sh" for example, but I'm still understood

[Shadowdh]

Man if they changed the teacher as the students were too selfish and lazy to keep up then complain right back and comment on the fact that the other students are just lazy and dont work...

[wushijiao]

One of my good friends in Shanghai is a Korean guy getting his PhD at Fudan, and what he said as far as Korean students is basically: there are a small percentage of Korean students who are from good/elite Korean universities who are studying abroad in China. These people. in general, take studying very seriously. I know a few Koreans who have amazing Putonghua, to the point where I wasn't 100% sure if they were native speakers.

Then, according to my friend, there is a whole different wave of Koreans who have come to China because, in many cases, they couldn't get into college at all back home. Studying in China is way cheaper than in Korea, so their parents let them. To some degree, China is like their "spring break" party place.

[Hero Doug]

It sounds like you're just going to end up waisting your money and time. Can you switch classes or get a refund?

I think you'd be better off with a tutor and self-study then the environment you're in (not sure how possible that is). And the thing is; with Chinese universities (at least the one's I've seen) your whole class takes an entire subject, so there's no chance of having them for just a bad class once a week.

Possibly one of the best solutions (at the risk of being the class outcast) is to monopolize the teacher's attention. I don't know what the class structure is like but when a question is asked always give an answer with follow up question and try to make the teacher go off topic.

[rezaf]

without a visa i can not stay in china. so studying with a tutor is not a choice.but does anyone know if it's possible to change the university in the middle of the semester?

[gato]

What school are you at?

There should be at least a policy that students shouldn't have private chats during class, so the students who don't care to learn don't end up disrupting those who do. If those are noisy during class, complain to the teachers and the school administrators. Go as high up the leadership ladder as you can. The most powerful person in a school is its Party secretary, if you didn't already know (though I doubt he/she would be accessible). If they won't enforce their own rules, tell them you want your money back. Organize with other students who feel the same way and file your complaint together. 团结就是力量。 加油！

[rezaf]

It seems that the korean mafia is stronger than the policies , the reason that i chose this school was that there are only 10 to 20 students in each class and the teachers are relatively good but now i understand that i made a mistake.

[gato]

That's too bad. Try complaining to the school president anyway. Maybe something can be done.

Or you can hang out with jujubeans119 who posted below about East China Normal University (华东师范大学). It's basically Shanghai's counterpart to Beijing Normal University and sounds pretty good.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=102947#post102947

East china normal uni in shanghai.

[Gymbo]

I hope that this isn't at Fudan since I'm planning on being there next year.

[Yang Rui]

I went to a big University in the UK, and my entire four years i was surrounded by exactly the same kind of students. All the adjectives you use could describe them (particularly lazy) and they really held back the development of the few people in the class who were actually there to learn Chinese. Many graduated unable to differentiate between xue/shui, chi/che etc.

My advice would be: try to remember that what you do in the classroom is only a small part of the learning experience. Talk, study, and socialise with Chinese people outside the classroom as much as you can. It's possible that your Chinese will improve rapidly and you can move into a class of more motivated students.

I don't think it's necessarily a Korean thing, just a bad bunch of people.

[Hero Doug]

One more thing to keep in mind is that you're in China. Go out and do some window shopping. Ask prices, sizes, colours and whatever else you know how to ask. If your class is a horrible environment remember you have a great envrironment outside the campus.

I also believe that school only shows you what to practise and learn on your own time.

Get an MP3 player and jam it with Chinese audio and listen to that instead of music (something I hate doing but it has to be done). Just because they don't want to immerse themselves, doesn't mean they dont have to.

Also, in class, if you know what's being taught because the slower students need yet another review, study your vocab, grammar patterns, or whatever else you feel like studying.

The most important thing you're going to walk away with from that university is a piece of paper saying you attended. Where your skills came from is irrelivent.

[terryswift]

its interesting to read all of this- a friend of mine went to a uni in harbin and had the same experience, but i had the opposite; my korean classmates in beijing were extremely hardworking. they often studied late into the night (or early morning). i dont know why it was different at my uni, but it definitely was!

[jujubeans119]

sorry to hear about your inconsiderate korean classmates. that is a shame and hopefully you've resolved it by now. i've made some korean friends here at the uni and so far they've been great. in a class of mostly westerners, we have 3 koreans, 2 of them come to class everyday on time and study hard, one even took the effort to hire her own private tutor and take some hsk classes. the third one, the guy, hardly goes to class and even one time skipped a test just because he didn't feel like studying. he's been absent for more than 2 weeks now i reckon.

and yes, the koreans have more tendency to speak in their language more when they're together even when there's a non-korean in the table. i guess its true for any nationality when they congregate. i am guilty of the same sin. hanging out with them a lot can be tricky too because they tend to speak mandarin with a rising tone at the end and my friend has warned that while i am speaking more mandarin, i may also be picking up the wrong tones.

[rezaf]

there are koreans who are awesome. it's just unluckiness.

[geraldc]

Koreans still use Chinese characters, so they're probably just slacking while they still can. In a while you'll be complaining about how their character recognition and high scores at HSK skew things to your disadvantage.

There's no point complaining about your fellow students, esp if you're in China, there's always a free language lesson with a native speaker out there somewhere...

It's funny how when a country has military service, how you'll always find young men going around the world learning languages in an attempt to defer it for a few more months.

[venture160]

Why is it so many Laowai that come to China study end up finding Korean girlfriends? Is it because Korean culture is more westernized? Or maybe because you hang out with them all day during class... just something I was wondering about.

[Jamoldo]

I don't have a Korean girlfriend, but yeah its probably because they're in class with us all the time.

As for people complaining Koreans, they're just like any other type of international student. If you're from the US/UK and are studying in France/Italy/Spain etc there will be plenty of the same type. Party a lot, don't study, go to class etc. After all, reading and writing essentially isn't a big deal in those countries because they use Roman script and there are a fair amount of cognates. How does this relate to Korea? Well Korea's right next to China, Chinese is probably taught as a second language in lots of secondary schools/unis so it's going to be natural for Koreans to come to China to study for a semester or a year.

Plus one doesn't have to go far to find the same kind of western students (partying, not studying etc). Plus my pronounciation sucks in addition to not recognizing characters. It's not from lack of effort. Quite frankly the original poster should just take a chill pill and get out some more.

[woliveri]

When I was in class I had some Korean classmates but for the most part they were ok. The gripe I have with Koreans was outside of class.. It seems, like it was mentioned before, that they are in China to party and play and that's ok but it seems like they were looking down on the Chinese. Also, I had a couple of bad experiences with Koreans, both when looking for an apartment to rent. One Korean, who was my oral English student recommended me to another Korean student who was leaving their apartment so I could take over it when they left. I made an appointment to meet her at a certain place and time but she never showed up, never answered her phone, bascally stiffed me. The second instance was I caught wind of a website set up for Koreans studying at my uni. On the site they post apartments coming available for rent so I called one. We started talking and when she found out I wasn't Korean she didn't want to continue the conversation. The whole experience felt racist. So, while I know there's some good Koreans out there, I now have a bitter taste in my mouth which I remember clearly.

rezaf, it sounds like you are in a beginning class. I found that the beginning classes at my uni were roudy, chaotic, and definately not a place I would want to pay money to be. However, at my level, the students were all very studious though they did use their native language during breaks in class so I think it depends on the level of the class as to how serious they are.