Would really _love_ some advice about self study vs BLCU for Mandarin this summer

[TaoYuZhe]

Dear All,

I realise this is familiar material, but I've read through most of the posts and still feel like some advice would be very helpful.

I've registered for a 6 week course at BLCU this summer (I also have a few more weeks afterwards to travel). I've paid the registration fee but not the course fees (of 4800RMB) and I'm having doubts about whether to go through with it.

While I agree with most on the self study thread that when starting Mandarin, classes are best. However, I am now an intermediate, know about 1100 characters, have worked through over half 汉语教程一年 textbooks, and have traveled by myself in China before. I'm motivated - when I did classes before in Dalian I went quite a bit faster than my class, though I enjoyed meeting the other foreign students. I think through self-study, some private tutoring (perhaps with some of the cheap tutors at BLCU), living in Beijing (with 2 Chinese room-mates) and by speaking to as many Chinese people as I can, I could go faster than at BLCU and spend probably under half the money.

I don't particularly like cheesy dialogues, role playing etc. either.

The attitude towards BLCU, in particular, on these forums seems a bit dismissive. The classes are big, there are lots of westerners and you don't speak much Chinese. I suppose it is a name for my CV at least. On the other hand, (especially if I can get placed in a class of people better than me), then classes can be motivating. They also force you to drill grammar.

I realise this partly comes down to two preferences:

- How important is it to be in a class of people, meet some foreign students etc

- How important is the 2000RMB or so I could save

But some comments on BLCU, the ease of self study for people of my ability and anything I have overlooked would be very useful. Thank you for any help.

Soon to hit Beijing,

TaoYuZhe

[itslateagain]

Hi Tao,

I'm in the same position as you: I'm applying for the August 4-week intensive at BLCU and have been wondering if it is indeed the best means of rapid progress with my Chinese. I am coming off a semester an Sichuan University balanced between upper-beginner and lower-intermediate classes, and am looking to up the ante before taking the HSK.

One of my classmates came in from BLCU and strongly recommended it, saying it was intensive and professionally run. He lived in a single room on-campus, as I plan to do. Though foreign students do tend to speak to one another in English and other non-Chinese languages, I think you can avoid that by going out of your way to meet locals and do language exchanges, meet with a private tutor, etc. As someone who previously studied independently, I must admit that a large part of it is self-motivation. Perhaps you're disciplined enough to keep your study habits regular on your own. Alas, I found it too easy to sleep in and be distracted by other things, and so really found the structure and constant listening practice (at least in zhonghe) very useful.

At the very least, if you're looking for a foreign (Australian/American) partner to speak Chinese with (might be an interesting change of pace from meeting with locals) around BLCU, then I'd be happy to meet up in August at some point! I'll be new to town and looking to meet some folks too.

Cheers,

Qiu Zheng

[greenarcher]

Why not apply to BNU? I head it's way more intensive than BLCU, smaller classes and not as much foreigners.

[gato]

BLCU does have a reputation of having too many English-speaking foreign students, as it's the largest school in China for teaching Chinese to foreigners. Beijing Normal University (BNU) is primarily a teacher's college (training Chinese high school teachers) and run the Chinese as a Second Language program as a side business, and so may provide a better opportunity to mix with the locals.

The summer months, however, are pretty lax for all the schools, which are filled mostly with not too serious vacation students. So you might be better off going to a nice, cooler (literally) city in the summer. Beijing's temperature topped 40 deg Celsius a few weeks ago. See this thread:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=126229#post126229

Re: suggestions on IUP , BNU , Princeton summer

[TaoYuZhe]

Hi, thanks for the replies so far.

I've decided on Beijing as I like the place (and I've arranged a flat). I know it's going to be extremely hot though.

I think it's probably too late to apply to another uni. Next time if I were looking for a summer course I would take your advice and consider one of the other places.

I have also heard quite a few positive comments about BLCU. It seems like if you are motivated, it's good enough. Further, although people say there's lots of non-Chinese speakers, others say the majority of the students are Korean (with plenty of Japanese and Thais as well) and in my experience you often end up speaking Chinese with these groups.

Also I think you have a point about the structure helping. Though as you say, it's important to supplement with conversation, language exchange, tutoring etc. My thought was just that I could probably learn faster, for less money and even have a better time by sticking to these.