4-week summer course (Chinese Bridge Scholarship)

[Jikolp]

Hi!

I would be really interested if anybody has got and tried the 4-week Chinese Bridge Scholarship. I´ve also got one for next summer and I may not go (I gotta pay the flight, I may not be able to pay), but still I would be really interested in your experience.

Or if not the scholarship, I still would be interested in the summer courses of Beijing / Shandong (Jinan) / Qingdao Universities. I´ve already visited the sites of these, but there´s not much info. Here are some questions:

1. Are there only beginner courses? (I would want to choose and intermediate one)

2. Do e.g. Calligraphy classes require extra payment or may be covered by the scholarship?

3. How ´early´ are the summer courses announced? Application deadline is around April, but usually when are the course options available? (because of flight ticket reservation)

4. How did you find it, were classes really helpful? I want to be trained hard!

5. Are there placement tests?

6.Generally, how much homework?

7. What if I get ´Elementary´ in a placement test but want to go to a more advanced group to improve better and work harder?

8. Student visa required or ´simple´ tourist visa is OK?

Well, I cannot tell more details, because I don´t know more about it just that:

-4 weeks

-next summer

-Beijing/Qingdao/Jinan (Shandong)

Thanks for your replies, opinions, ideas in advance!

Edited September 9, 2008 at 03:12 PM by Jikolp

[ipsi()]

I'm in a similar boat, though I got the scholarship without realising it! Lecturer just came up one day and said "Hey, you've got a four-week scholarship to China. How about that?". Seriously, that's exactly what happened. I just wasn't expecting it as I hadn't won the local China-Bridge thing and hadn't realised there was a second-place prize

I can't answer all your questions, but I can take a guess at some:

1 - I hope so! I'll have finished the undergraduate courses here in a couple of months, so I hope it's not a case of 'Lets start from square one'

5 - I would expect so.

6 - Who does homework? I do assignments - haven't done homework since primary school . EDIT: Which isn't to say no-one tried to give me any.

7 - I believe that's possible at other Universities, and I believe a student who did it last year did exactly that.

The one person I know who did do said that she found it a fantastic experience, but that it was often more trouble trying to understand the exam questions that to answer them, as the questions were all in Chinese...

I'm figuring something like Qingdao/Nanjing/Shanghai.

When are you thinking about going? I'm anticipating April/May for least disparity in the temperature...

[Jikolp]

Hi!

Well, I think in July or August, others are not possible, because in September (hopefully) university starts and at the end of June I´m having my school-leaving exams. I´m only in high school yet... I´ve just taken part in the 1st CB for high school students and there I got this scholarship. The first three people go to China to the competition, not like in the one for uni students. The hight school version also includes team and individual competition.

Well, I know nothing about which cities I could choose from, but there was a rumour that maybe Jinan or Qingdao, or maybe even Beijing. Well, I´ve just fallen in love with Beijng, so if possible, I may choose that one. Jinan or Qingdao, I love them both, so I think I´ll choose according to the course (and accomodation). If other cities are possible... I don´t know. Many people mention Nanjing, I´ll look it up. ;)

Do you happen to know what´s covered by the scholarship? Accomodation, tuition fee, books, food, that´s all, right? No pocket money or travel expenses.

Do you think I should wait for the embassy to tell me about the courses offered or should I email Hanban?? We were encouraged to email Hanban, but I don´t know actually whether I should. On the other hand, the embassy knows everything on time, but delays the info until the very last moment, so I may email somebody.

[ipsi()]

Ahh, right. I'm in a slightly different position, in that I'll be taking a month off work to go study .

Far as I'm aware it will only cover tuition/accommodation, so you'll need to save up some spending money and such. I can check with one of my lecturers at some point to make sure. I think accommodation would include food, but I could be wrong there.

As for textbooks, I have no idea. They won't be expensive. You're probably looking at €10-€20 for the lot. Maybe €50 if you need to buy heaps of books.

I've been to Qingdao once before. No idea what Jinan's like, but Qingdao is quite pretty with quite a lot of shopping (relative to New Zealand...), but essentially no nightlife. Hell, I live in the capital city of New Zealand, with 300,000 people (that's in the greater Wellington Region), and there's way more nightlife here than in Qingdao, a city with 3,000,000 *urban* residents. But that also reflects New Zealand's (drinking) culture.

You might as well email Hanban - how could it hurt?

[Jikolp]

Oh, the places are okay, I´ve also been to Qingdao, as well as Jinan. They´re just cool! Hm, to me it seemed Qingdao´s nightlife was quite fizzy, but everybody has a different taste and I don´t mind if they don´t party the city into pieces. ;)

Well, yeah, I´ve also read about the expenses on the paper I got, but was hoping that I translated it differently... Well, now it´s very unsure whether I´ll have the money for the flight, but at least I´ll try. Oh, and start playing on lottery. ;)

I´ve seen short introduction about possible host universities on the Hanban site, they all seemed okay, but a few days ago, I was told from the embassy that we probably can go to Beijing (others told Shandong) and that results are out in JUNE (!!), others told early spring. I think they must have misuderstood me, since June is nonsense, application deadline is always around April! And also, I really they tell us soon, since I want to book a flight ticket VERY in advance, the cheaper, the better.