Where to go from here...?

[ai_ya]

Hi all!

Basically, after being severely disappointed by Leeds a few days [basically the told me my Chinese level was too high to attend the degree course I enrolled on , and that I had not notified them of this Chinese level beforehand, even though I have proof that I did AND have their replies saved, ensuring me everything was fine].

Anyway, because of this, I am probably going to finish my degree in China next year. I have HSK Level 8, which I got in Dalian last year [i'm 19 years old, if this info helps] and was planning to come back and start on the degree which I had been accepted, now this is not going to happen.

Several options are now open to me, and I would like to know the opinions of others and which would be best to help me land a decent job in China after graduating [not an easy thing, I know].

I can either do a Chinese degree course and graduate in 2 years [people with HSK level 6 or above can start from the 3rd year], or I could enroll for something totally different like a business/economics course or something of that type.

It seems the only good jobs foreigners can get in China is teaching English [unless their company send them to China or something], even if they do speak fluent Chinese, it's already hard enough for the Chinese graduates to find jobs and I don't really have any other skills apart from the languages [i'm proficient in Spanish too].

Does anyone have any advice/suggestions to offer? Any help would be really appreciated!

Thanks a lot

David

[roddy]

Are you absolutely sure there's no way you can stay at Leeds? Direct entry into a higher year, changing to a Chinese + something joint degree where you basically waltz through the Chinese stuff? It seems to me if they've been made aware of the situation and accepted you, it's up to them to come up with an acceptable solution, not you. Have you spoken to the student union, admissions office, etc? Apologies if you've already done this and not got anywhere and I know it's not exactly what you're asking for help with, but I do think you need to exhaust those possibilities first, if you haven't already.

I can either do a Chinese degree course and graduate in 2 years [people with HSK level 6 or above can start from the 3rd year], or I could enroll for something totally different like a business/economics course or something of that type.

First off, I'd recommend you avoid the 'Chinese for foreigners' for degrees. These have HSK 8 as a graduation requirement, and you'll come out with nothing of value bar language ability and the kind of cultural knowledge you pick up from BLCU textbooks. I was enrolled on one of those courses last year and had given up on going to classes by October. If you just want to get a degree for your CV in a hurry maybe, but it's not going to do your employability any good with an informed employer.

An actual degree course in China would be an option, but generally when high school students sign up here and ask how they can do their undergraduate degree in China, the advice is don't. A UK (or wherever) education is in almost every case preferable. You'd be in a better position as you already have the language level necessary, but I still couldn't recommend it - especially when you're making a quick decision after having your plans changed.

For my money - you still want to be doing a degree in the UK. If Leeds won't accommodate you kick 'em in the shins and move on. Obviously at this point that might mean taking a gap year, but so be it - I'd change your year of graduation, not country.

It seems the only good jobs foreigners can get in China is teaching English [unless their company send them to China or something], even if they do speak fluent Chinese, it's already hard enough for the Chinese graduates to find jobs and I don't really have any other skills apart from the languages [i'm proficient in Spanish too].

I don't think that things are that bleak, but skills other than linguistic are invaluable.

Very disappointing thing for Leeds to do - quite surprised it's happened.

[ai_ya]

Thanks for the reply, any advice is useful!

I asked about going straight into the 3rd or 4th year of the degree, and unfortunately they said something about not being able to justify me being on the course. They then offered me a place on a Japanese course, which I'm not willing to do because I have never been interested in Japanese, and wouldn't want to stay there for a while - I would be unhappy on the course and probably end up quitting.

I'm probably going to try and find some work for this year, save up some money and in the meantime have a think about what to do next summer. I will avoid the Chinese-for-foreigners degree as you mentioned.

Thanks again :]

[roddy]

I think it might be worth getting in touch with the student union's advice centre. It does sound like you've been messed about unnecessarily and if a bit of pressure is brought to bear then maybe they can come up with something suitable. I find it hard to believe that a department the size of Leeds can't accommodate someone with a decent level of Chinese - it might be troublesome but as far as I can see that's their problem, not yours. At the very least you're due an apology for the messing up of a perfectly good year.

Alternatively, six months work and saving up to fund a six month tour of China ain't such a bad way to kill a year. And a year of Japanese won't hurt, even if you're not interested - you'd have access to the university's Chinese society, etc. But if you know you're not going to continue with Japanese there could be implications for student loans, etc, if you later change to a different degree.

[Hanlink]

If you already have a relatively high degree of fluency in spoken and written Chinese, perhaps you should be pushing yourself more in your courses. If Chinese is the interest, perhaps you should think more along the lines of pushing your boundaries with Classical Chinese and trying universities with areas other than just the modern language.

In addition, if you already have the language skills, then perhaps you should be using university to widen your employment potential; a business degree perhaps, accountancy, law, hotels. In my view, you are not thinking outside the box enough on this one.

Further, have you ever thought about Taiwan for a degree. Their masters degrees have academic cachet, their scholarship programmes are good and their degrees are not 'foreigner' degrees.

Leeds is definitely not the be-all and end-all for good chinese degrees, but it certainly does not reflect well on them to refuse you at this stage.

Good luck!

[simonlaing]

As a person who went to leeds for a one year masters and was disappointed at the Chinese level and the Business class level of difficulty,

In the business and Chinese degree,

(They only have 10 weeks per semester, usually one class a week for 2 hours, with minimal reading and most of the time you whole grade based on a choose 2 out of 10 essay exam that often repeats from year to year.) Plus there were other issues like chinese oral and listening professors from sichuan and fujian with heavy accents.

-There were a couple of professors that stood out , and I had to search out other classes, like computer programming, managerial accounting and others.

There are options for you at Leeds. There is a fairly good interpretation program there. (Usually they only let post-graduates into the program but since you have CHinese and spanish already I would push to take those classes. Or go an audit them for no credit.)

There are a bunch of Chinese students in the interpretation/translation program so they would be looking for a westerner with the requesite level.

Also some of the 4th year classes were good, business CHinese by Wu Da Ming was fairly good , (though you may have to deal with some slackers in the class).

If they say they can't be flexible that is BS as there was a hua ren girl who jumped into 4th (and wasn't doing well but they inflated her grade). Also a hunxue Korean British girl who grew up in BJ who was able to jump into 3rd year as she had a good foundation before she got to Leeds.

In the east Asian studies class, the Professor Dorn (sp?) German guy was smart and gave good classes. You can take the Chinese major for the piece of paper and then try and take these other classes.

On your degree you have to think long term. A western degree is worth so much more than a Chinese one still. Both in China and in the west. If you do go to a Chinese university make sure it is a highly ranked one (like in the top 10). But friends who have graduated with both Chinese and Non-chinese majors have been disappointed by this and haven't found good jobs afterwards. Also there is a sizable Leeds alumni network in China.

Stay in Leeds work the system or work around it. You need the western degree to be successful later. Enjoy being a young university student, once you start working things will be more regimented and you won't have a chance to try new things.

If you want more info, questions/advice send me a PM or post it here,

Good luck, I totally understand the disappointment at the lack of rigor.

Simon

P.S. The Ultimate frisbee team is pretty cool they play on wednesdays and sundays usually.

[Scoobyqueen]

I do not think you need to have a single honours degree in Chinese to land yourself a good job in China. In fact you would be better to combine it with a practical subject such as business. I graduated in languages (joint degree) but found that companies wanted proven practical experience and ideally achieved already at the degree stage. I ended up (nearly having to do) a PhD in a business field where I then used my languages in an international comparison study and that has served me very well jobwise plus the opportunity to work in several countries. In hindsight I should have done this from the start though (combining Bachelor with languages and business).

Since your Chinese is already at a high level it should not be a problem getting a job with a western company. Your language level will be tested at the interview stage anyway so you just state how fluent you are in your CV. As an employer I am not looking for someone who has a degree in languages but rather someone who has practical and international experience or equivalent applicable knowledge and who can communicate with my business partners to a more or less fluent extent.

In short, I would recommend doing Chinese as a subsidiary and business or something similar as a major with one year of intercalation abroad in China (most faculties in the UK agree to that).