Language Schools in Chengdu

[evasiege]

For such a large city I have been unable to find enough information about language schools in Chengdu. I know there are a couple universities that are reputable like Sichuan and Southwest Jiaotong, but is that it? I'm trying to take an intensive program in the summer lasting a few months or more, but Sichuan university only offers a short 4 week program in July and I can't even get any information from the Jiaotong uni website. Are there any reputable private schools in Chengdu that anyone knows of?

Edited February 5, 2009 at 05:05 AM by evasiege

[Aremonus]

Just email the guys from Jiaoda... but I dunno whether they'll reply, seems they're on holiday. Anyway, I gotta get an answer fro mthem too, so if they keep on ignoring, I'll go there and kick them to work (I'm living right beside it).

I am going to study here for one term, from february (end of it) till beginning of july. If the guy who's responsible for it would kindly come back from his new year holiday.....

[evasiege]

What do you know about the school? Can you give me some information? I'm trying to take a class during the summer, intensive maybe.

[Lugubert]

I'm no too interested in formal standard courses.

On the other hand, I could imagine spending serious time and money on a Chengdu tutor. A cute young University girl might be nice (I'm 65), but I'm afraid that a sufficiently old and enormously patient old hag with a more than elementary knowledge of English might be ideal.

I loved staying for a week plus at Sim's Cosy Garden Hotel in Chengdu, and their very efficient travel desk (a great Lhasa tour and more, digging up enough people to get the necessary permits), but if I were to go for an extended stay, I would be open to all kinds of suggestions like renting a flat-cum-cook.

In a few months, I hope that my application for B.A. in Chinese and Arabic will be honoured. Right now, I feel that future alternatives might be a Masters in Comparative religion concentrating on Sikhism, or Old Testament exegesis (or maybe the complete Sodom story).

Any suggestions on how a retired Westerner whose view of life views seems to sufficiently coincide with ancient mainly philosophical Daoism might enjoy Chengdu? Starting point will be like summer 2010, when I have had time to set up sisters and nephews and nieces to care like weekend grocery shopping, hairdressers' anddriving to clubs and doctors, and for possible emergencies, fingers crossed, for mother (now 92, still living on her own in her own apartment).

(Advertisement: I'm a bachelor, no kids, not rich by any means, but at 65, sufficiently healthy and well off for providing all of the above if neccessary.)

Edited February 14, 2009 at 04:22 PM by Lugubert

[Aremonus]

Well I actually don't think a Daoist can enjoy Chengdu city much more than any other city in the world.. but you might consider going to a small rural town where people still live daoism rather than the current hedonism...

What I personally enjoy most about this city is the food here - the weather isn't really tempting as it's couldy most of the time and the average education level is quite low which often makes you longing for an intelligent converstation

About Jiaoda:

It's quite a nice uni, not many foreigners are visiting it (which makes you learn more Chinese as u're forced to use it all the way) and it's quite near to wherever you wanna go. To have make sure that u spend a nice summerholiday u should makesure that u have 200-300 yuan to spend a day - otherwhise it's not easy to go out, as most of the clubs are on the other side of the city and a taxi-ride there and back takes already 60. I've heard some good comments about the summer programm, but I honestly don't know as my study didn't start yet. Next week I'll know more.

[evasiege]

When does their summer program start? The international students link on the website doesn't work, and they won't respond to my e-mails. This is beyond frustrating...

Edited February 21, 2009 at 06:24 PM by evasiege

[Aremonus]

Hey, Mr. Xu, the guy in charge for it, was on holiday. Have another try now, it should work out^^

If not, u can send ur questions to me and I am going to his office myself, passing it by everday anyway (and have to go there today).

[evasiege]

So you like the area the school is in? Are most things within walking distance? I'm thinking about applying for a scholarship to there and a couple other places in Chengdu.

[Aremonus]

Well the things you need are in walking distance.There are stores, lots of restaurants, appartments (including appartments on the campus itself, but they're not fitting quite the highest standards). The centre of the city is a few Km away (for about 3 miles), but a taxi there takes as few as 17 Yuan (2.5 Dollars) and for sev. cents u can go there by bus, so that shouldn't really be a problem.

I don't really think that there's a scholarship available for a summercourse, but honestly, I don't think it is necessary to look for one. The tution for a whole term including registration fee is around 8000 yuan (1200 Dollars), for a summercourse it's gonna be less. And the living expenses here are also quite low... I am living quite a good life with the 5000 yuan (700 dollars) my parents give me per months. The brand new appartment on 25th floor that I am living in takes 2000 yuan and I spend around 100 yuan per day.

Of course it's easily possible to spend far less. If you live in Dormitory and save money in daily life, it's also gonna be possible to live with 200 Dollars a month. Most Chinese get around 600 yuan or 90 Dollars per month for food plus the dormitory.

Nevertheless, I suggest u to take enough money along, so that you can also travell around and see the country. Around Chengdu are a lot of nice places you can't miss

What other opportunities are you thinking of to study in Chengdu? In my opinion, there's only Sichuanda that is really able to compete with Jiaoda...

My class is very small, we're only 7 Students in total, and two of them hardly ever come along. So the lectures are very intensive, especially for me, as they've straightly sent me to the second term, claiming I could catch up if I work hard enough as I was already able to read pinyin and a few hundret characters...

Anyway, I must say, I can really advance fast here and I'd suggest you to study some chinese at home before coming here, too - starting from the beginning inside China is on one hand gonna be tough (as you can't even order food in restaurants) also boring (stuck on the first nihao for sev. weeks^^)

The environment is generally nice, the air in chengdu is relatively clean for China and the food is among the best in the country - as long as you like spice. Also the infrastructure is not bad, ATMs, Internetcaffees, stores, buses, everything is available. Jiaoda itself has got quite a nice campus, although the building style is, let's say, interesting.

You might also consider getting a private tutor, especially if u're an absolute beginner... but I have no idea how much that takes.

[evasiege]

Hmm, interesting. Well I'm not too sure about taking a summer class there anymore, but definitely still thinking about coming in the Fall and applying to both Jiaoda, Sichuanda, and I think there was another one that has a decent program.(Finance and Economics uni) I've been studying Chinese for the past couple years at a university so I'm not really a beginner or anything Few more questions for you.

More specifically, how are the teaching methods?

Do the teachers speak mostly in Chinese and are students expected to use only Chinese? How many hours a day do you have class and how much homework do you usually get?

What are the school demographics in terms of those studying Chinese? (American, UK, Japanese, Korean etc.)

Also, how is the nightlife in Chengdu? I'm not a hardcore party animal, but like having things to do during the weekend.

Any info would be helpful!

[Aremonus]

Oh if u've studied some Chinese before, it's not gonna be any problem. The Finance uni is also not bad, quite near to jiaoda - but I can't give you specific information about it, as I havent studied there yet.

The teaching methods are not bad, but still Chinese... so they may not quite fit your standards. Nevertheless, the teachers are open-minded and once you don't like something, you can usually talk about it and work out a solution, especially for such a small class. I have conversation, pronounciation (which is not really interesting), intensive reading ( the main course where we also learn grammar), extensive reading and Chinese characters class. The lessons are entirely in Chinese, English is only used in case that something really can not be explained in Chinese... so rather seldom. That's probably also because the teachers themselves are not quite good at English

At the moment, I have 20 hours per week, every morning from 8 to 12. In the afternoon, there are some extra courses about chinese paitings and taichi and such stuff...

5 of my classmates are from Africa (they were sent here by their company together to learn Chinese), the other one is Canadian. But in advanced class (which u'd be probably attending), there are more people from "the west". Japanese and korean usually go to study in coast cities, as most European and American do too - but also, they don't stick out as much as foreigners do among all those asians, so I can't really tell u about them.

Chengdu is quite famous for its nightlife, there are a lot of opportunities... but I'd rather hang out with friends than going to clubs, so I am not really experienced. Nevertheless, hanging out with friends is nice here too, there are KTVs, restaurants, coffees and more everywhere. Anyway, most of the nightlife is, as I've said, in the south, while Jiaoda is in the northwest of the city. So u gotta take taxi down to wuhou district.

Personally, I like to go to the center of the city, where you can find lots of shopping opportunities as well as good restaurants, a park and other stuff.

[maboren]

Aremonus,

I am currently deciding on a place to study for a semester or year.

Any comments about the local dialect?

[Aremonus]

the local dialect is not so easy to understand at the very beginning, but most people speak mandarin (with a slight accent, which u'll get used to soon). Generally I think, the dialect doesn't really affect you very much if you're a beginner, as you can't pick up much on the streets anyway. (And when u're advanced, it's not going to take long until u're used to it - maybe one or two months)

When do you plan to come here?

And also a warning for you: If you're a absolute beginner, better study some Chinese at home first - if u come to China for the beginner term, u won't learn much - most people I know nearly died of boredom in the very first term^^ Better buy that Chinese Book and get busy - now

[evasiege]

Think I'm going to apply to all 3 schools in Chengdu for the CSC scholarship with Jiaoda as my first choice. Still might try and come early to do the summer session if I have enough money. How much homework do teachers assign? I don't mind doing some, but repetitive activities bore me to tears. How much free time would you say you have a day? Do most students hang around campus all day or do people head into town or what? I want to try and tutor English for some extra cash if possible. Maybe take some martial arts classes if there are some available in the area.

[Aremonus]

I don't have too much homeworks, around 2 hours per day if I study well and preview every lesson - but I am in second term already, first term (which I studied at home myself) is said to be much less (but u dont learn much, as I've heard from a friend who went to beida).

I only have class in the morning, the rest of the day is off, so plenty of sparetime if you don't work. The campus has got around 20k students, so there are some everywhere^^

Tutoring english is easy, if you're white. Chinese people prefer white English teacher, second choice is black.. if u're Asian, u won't be accepted (which happend to a classmate of mine from Canada - although growing up there, she can't teach, cuz her parents are Vietnamese).

Anyway, I don't think tutoring is a good idea, as it is quite low paid - better be a professional teacher (they take you anyway, if u're native speaker - they'd even take me and I am not nativ speaker :S )

[evasiege]

Well I wouldn't try to make a living from tutoring just a few times a week to put some extra cash in the wallet for weekends or whatever. Professional teaching while a full time student I heard isn't fun at all so I'd skip out on that. Oh and I'm a black American, but I've been told I have absolutely zero accent.