BEIDA / Beijing Normal University / BLCU / TSINGHUA?

[JELLOS83]

Hi all

I am planning to study Chinese in Beijing in 2009.

BEIDA, Beijing Normal University, BLCU and TSINGHUA are the most mentioned schools on this forum.

Things I already know:

- From what I've heard, all schools cost more or less the same.

- BEIDA : some knowlegde of the language is required. The campus is really great.

- BLCU : good but maybe too many English-speaking students so easy to refrain from speaking Chinese all day long.

- Tsinghua : I don't know info

- Beijing Normal University : The only time I encountered the name of this school, it was when someone posted that most people agree when saying that this is the best option but he didn't state why.

Can anyone give a comparative explanation on these schools?

Thank you in advance

Jelle

[James Li]

For Beida, you are supposed to know at least 800 characters or have studied Mandarin for a certain number of hours. However, in actuality, there are many total beginners there. If you place low on the placement test, you will just be put into a beginner class. Within each level (i.e., beginning, intermediate, advanced), the school has many sub-levels.

I understand that both Beida and Tsinghua use the same books from Peking University Press:

Boya Chinese series. See, e.g.,

http://www.amazon.com/Boya-Chinese-Elementary-Starter-CDs/dp/7301075294/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227882898&sr=1-1

Spoken Chinese series. See, e.g.,

http://www.amazon.com/Elementary-Spoken-Chinese-Guifu-Haiyan/dp/7301066287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227883119&sr=1-1

My friends at Tsinghua love their instructors, while I am also very, very happy with mine at Beida. The Tsinghua campus is much larger and, overall, is more attractive. At Beida, it seems that at least 10% of the buildings on the main campus are set aside to provide cheap cafeteria food for students. (I may be exaggerating a bit.)