Where to study Chinese in china?

[esroh]

Hello,

I'm looking for a university where i can study chinese (between 6 months to 12 months).

The uni must have:

1) Quite a good dorm (well i mean clean etc....) and not too expensive

2) Have good chinese course for extreme beginners (i don't know chinese at all)

3) Not too expensive eg around 6000-7000rmb (or less ) tution fees per semester

BTW I came upon Tianjin University of Technology. Is it good?

[muyongshi]

Quite a good dorm (well i mean clean etc....) and not too expensive

What are your standards? Live by yourself? With Chinese roommates? With other foreigners? And how much is not too expensive.

[Ash_india]

Try the Xiamen University,Xiamen. Tuition fees are quite low i.e 8000 rmb. i am planning for the same university for spring sem,2010.

[esroh]

I prefer living by myself on or off campus. It should have individual private bathroom and they should be decent.

[Tierrademayo]

I was in Hangzhou from Feb to Aug 2009 spending a very very good time.

Nice university, nice city, nice people and very close to few cities like Shanghai, Ningbo, Suzhou, Shaoxing, Yiwu and so on...

So I really recommend you Zhejiang University to learn chinese.

I will come back to China in 2010, but I'm not sure where to go. I really liked Hangzhou but don't want to stay two times at the same place.

Don't want to go to Beijing or Shanghai, Xiamen looks very nice but I'm looking to try something different maybe at the southwest or at the northeast.

I have read some reviews from Dalian, Kunming, Chengdu, Kunming, Jilin and Harbin but I'm not sure at where to go.

Any suggestion?

[XiaoXi]

Tianjin is definitely a good choice. Its the nearest you can get to Beijing without actually being there (not recommended unless you like paying through the nose and awful taxi drivers) and has some of the most friendly people in China. I recommend living in 河西.

[Tierrademayo]

As I read before, in Dongbei there are nice cities to study chinese. Specially Harbin.

I am not interested at all to be close to big cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou but also don't like to be absolutely in countryside.

Xiamen looks very nice but I'm afraid it's too small to spend 6 months there.

Also thinking about Wuhan and Guilin but can't find reviews from students who studied there before.

As I was living in Hangzhou for 6 months (and travelling around Beijing, Shanghai, Dalian, Yantai...) I got an idea about the easter China.

I am looking for a confortable but different experience.

[flywhc]

Consider dialect issues.

Unless it is your intention, you won't like people laugh at your funny accent learned from supermarket cashier or taxi driver.

I feel most people in Guangzhou, Hangzhou even Tianjin and Harbin can't speak Standard Mandarin. University teachers may speak well but not other local people.

You may find it is hard to handle two set of pronunciation in short time although it is a good experience to learn different dialect.

XiaoXi, other people may thought 河西 is a city if haven't lived in Tianjin.

People in Tianjin are very friendly indeed with sense of humor. It only takes about 30 minus to central Beijing by Express Train. However life in Tianjin is a bit boring due to lack of tourist sites and entertainment places (at least when I was there two years ago).

And even many graduates in Tianjin don't (although they can) pronounce tones correctly.

I don't know anywhere other than Beijing I could recommend for perfect language environment. but if you decide to go other places, Normal universities always has good language environment because it is mandatory to speak standard mandarin in campus at those universities.

[Ed Log]

Beijing also has an accent (a strong brogue) that quite a few people suggest is not too pleasant to hear.

Xiamen is a nice relaxed city, but as you will see many people heartily recommend where they have been which probably suggests if you go anywhere you should be OK so long as you approach it with the right frame of mind. We all have our bias's so find a city that you like the sound of and go for it. If you don't like it approach it in a different way.

For bias I would recommend 121 tuition as it is much quicker!

[XiaoXi]

XiaoXi, other people may thought 河西 is a city if haven't lived in Tianjin.

People in Tianjin are very friendly indeed with sense of humor. It only takes about 30 minus to central Beijing by Express Train.

That's actually totally incorrect. The train is indeed that quick but it does NOT arrive at central Beijing, it arrives in south Beijing which is actually pretty stupid considering its the fastest train in the world but leaves you having to take incredibly slow buses if you want to get anywhere. Well actually they're just normal buses but compared with the train they are incredibly slow!

However life in Tianjin is a bit boring due to lack of tourist sites and entertainment places (at least when I was there two years ago).

Yes that's true. Other than fantastic restaurants there isn't much else. The food is better than Beijing though. If you want tourist sites then you want a holiday but if you want to get on with learning Chinese then Tianjin is great.

And even many graduates in Tianjin don't (although they can) pronounce tones correctly.

Yes that's true although you can't exactly say people in Beijing speak mandarin properly either.

I don't know anywhere other than Beijing I could recommend for perfect language environment. but if you decide to go other places, Normal universities always has good language environment because it is mandatory to speak standard mandarin in campus at those universities.

I don't think anywhere is perfect. If you go to a city with a dialect then maybe their mandarin will be more standard but since the whole city always speaks the dialect you won't be surrounded by a Chinese environment! Sure, you'll be able to talk to people but if you for example wanted to join in with a conversation then you wouldn't know what they were talking about.

[Tierrademayo]

I don't mind about accent.

I can learn spanish in Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador or México...and all of them they are a little bit different, but even if I do it in Spain, I will find many different accents but the end, what I would like to, is just to be able to communicate in Spanish.

So, I was studying in Hangzhou and sometimes I found some "Hangzhouhua", but I think It was really worthy because it's a very nice city who have a lot of thing to see and to do, and it's also near to Suzhou, Shanghai, Ningbo and Shanghai, Zheda is also a very nice university.

When I am talking about a place to study chinese, I am not looking for the right accent or the best university, just a nice place to be full of happiness during 6 months.

Meeting people, travelling around, doing nightlife and so on.

[kdavid]

I don't mind about accent.

I'd strongly rethink this. Having a bad foreign accent in Mandarin can severely skew your pronunciation and meaning, making you very difficult--even impossible--to understand.

Depending on what you plan on doing with your Mandarin, how clearly you speak, and how standard of an accent you have, is going to play a very large factor in how seriously the Chinese take you as an individual. When learning Mandarin, pronunciation is everything.

If you're just coming here for fun, and don't plan on using Mandarin for a career, or having to to use it in your profession, don't worry about accents, or really even studying the language seriously, just find a location that fits your priorities (sites, locals, foreigners, etc).

[Tierrademayo]

Understood.

But I met China before Chinese and that's the reason because I'm learningchinese and also why I would like to try somewhere new.

Maybe Dongbei is the best place to get a clear chinese but, at the southeast you can also find something that you cannot find anywhere, so I really would like to find a balance, learning mandarin and finding China.

[flywhc]

Beijing also has an accent (a strong brogue) that quite a few people suggest is not too pleasant to hear.

Mandarin was offically defined based on Beijing accent so you won't find a better place. Old town slangs and intentional accent are sometimes indeed unpreasant but at least all 4 tones and all consonants especially "zh ch sh z c s f l h" are all correct and clear.

In Beijing accent, /r/ is stronger and used more often, lost and joined sounds are more often when speak fast, pretty like American English (compare with British Queen's English).

That's actually totally incorrect. The train is indeed that quick but it does NOT arrive at central Beijing,

Beijing South Railway station was built by the old city wall - tradionally all places in the city wall are considered as central Beijing. It is with in the 4th Ring of Beijing. There is a underground train (Subway Line 4) connected it to other places.

I can learn spanish in Uruguay, Argentina, Ecuador or México...and all of them they are a little bit different, but even if I do it in Spain, I will find many different accents but the end, what I would like to, is just to be able to communicate in Spanish.

Check Wikipedia, you will be surprised that some of Chinese dialects are considered as totally different languages from Mandarin! For political and cultural reasons they are classified as same language, which is disagreed by many western linguists.

I thought I was in Japan when I first time arrived in Shanghai Airport because I completely couldn't understand a single word from people around me and many signs were written in Japanese. (They spoke good mandarin when they spoke to me.) Think what's your feeling as a beginner.

However it is a good experience and fun to learn different dialects if you love challenge.

I am sure you love because you are learning Chinese.

[flywhc]

See the last paragraph in this wiki talk page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Tianjin_dialect#Dubious

Also, I had little trouble being understood in Beijing with my wacky American/Tianjin accent, although I did have some trouble in Taiyuan. People in Beijing were a little confused until I told them I lived in Tianjin; then they were no longer weirded out. They expected foreigners to speak textbook Mandarin, I suppose, which I certainly do not. I also said "you guai" 友拐 and "zuo guai" 左拐 to Beijing taxi drivers, which apparently is quite unusual. I was told that in Beijing you use the cardinal directions (north, south, east, west) to give directions. That wouldn't work in Tianjin, since the city is SO not built on a north-south grid.

[gogetter4ever]

Yeah, it really depends on what type of person you are. I hate cold weather and crowded, dirty places. That makes Beijing out for me. A guy I know studied down in Sanya, Hainan Island. It was an all-inclusive deal. Sounded pretty cool.

[taylor04]

I enjoyed Hangzhou, most people living in Hangzhou moved there so most people speak Mandarin. It's a great city, doesn't have as much to do as Shanghai or Beijing, but a lot of fun. I traveled all over China and it's still my favorite place. It's a lot cheaper and very few people speak English so it's a good place to practice. They do speak a little Hangzhouhua in Hangzhou, but a lot of it is related to Mandarin. I studied Mandarin for two years (one year in Hangzhou, one in the US) and could understand a conversation in Hangzhouhua without a problem. The Mandarin there isn't as standard as Beijing, but I would kill myself if I had to hear er er er every day. The city is very very clean. If you buy a bike, get a good lock and lock it to a tree or something, I had 3 bikes stolen there. Great city though, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

[XiaoXi]

Beijing South Railway station was built by the old city wall - tradionally all places in the city wall are considered as central Beijing. It is with in the 4th Ring of Beijing.

Certainly people in Tianjin don't call it central Beijing, its referred to as south Beijing so I'm gonna have to go with them on this one rather than yourself. The old train station actually stops a lot nearer to the centre than the new one does and even that is most certainly not central Beijing.

There is a underground train (Subway Line 4) connected it to other places.

The subway is not ready for use yet so I wouldn't count that. I literally took that train just a couple of weeks ago so I'm sure we would have used the subway if we could have done!

[imron]

I think nowadays, the second ring road is more or less considered to be central Beijing (or at least central-ish). I certainly wouldn't consider anything outside the second ring road as central and wouldn't consider Beijing South (or West) Train Station central.

[anonymoose]

I am not interested at all to be close to big cities like Shanghai, Beijing or Guangzhou but also don't like to be absolutely in countryside.

Xiamen looks very nice but I'm afraid it's too small to spend 6 months there.

What kind of city are you looking for then? There's not a huge gap between the likes of Xiamen and Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou. If I were going to China purely to learn Chinese, then I think Xiamen would be one of my top choices. It is comparatively warm (although if you will only be in China for six months, and that happens to be over the summer, then that is not really an issue), and relatively clean and orderly.

I spent a year in Dalian, and it's also a pleasant city as far as comfort goes, but not very interesting if you want to see anything historical.

Another place you may wish to consider is Guangxi Province (Guilin, Nanning, Liuzhou). It's a little poorer and less developed than, say Guangdong, but is also less internationalised, so has more of an authentic Chinese feel to it. The area is also very beautiful from a natural point of view. I've only been there briefly travelling, but it's certainly another place I'd consider if I were to stay for six months.