BLCU nationalities mixing

[aikidavid]

i'm considering going to BLCU in ths spring. I know it's a very international university with a large number of Koreans and Japanese. This appeals to me in that I would get an international experience out of going. I'm just wondering, at BLCU do the Americans, Koreans and Japanese all become friends and hang out together or are the groups of friends generally divided by what country people are from?

[Brian US]

I think it really depends on language skills and personal interests. At first I didn't really hang out with my Japanese roommate because my Chinese was (still is) terrible and he didn't know much English. I started in lower elementary at BLCU where everyone in my class gravitated to their native speakers:

The Indonesians sit together

Russian speakers

British

Portuguese guy sits with the Spanish speakers

The one other American, to my dismay, moved behind me. He always kicks my chair blaming it on restless leg syndrome....

Yet, my American friend is in a higher level with her best friends being Japanese, Indonesian, and Uzbek with Chinese as their common language. So again it depends on your language skills and basic compatibility.

[MikeyNinja91]

It must be so strange to automatically speak Mandarin to someone who isn't Chinese...especially if Mandarin isn't your first language....I guess that's something I'm going to have to get used to.

[anonymoose]

I think this kind of thing also depends to quite a large extent on class dynamics. You'd think that with a couple of dozen people in a group, each group would be more or less the same on average, but in fact, the atmosphere within different classes can vary drastically. I'm sure most people have experienced this from school and university, and also from language classes in China for those who've done this. I've also taught classes, and as a teacher, it is particularly noticable how classes vary from one to another. Sometimes just one or two people in a class can have a large influence over the dynamic of the class as a whole.

I can't speak for BLCU in particular, but from my experience in Shanghai, students do tend to stick in groups of their own nationality. But as I said above, classes can vary quite a lot, so you might end up in a class where students naturally intermingle a lot. However, if you are still at basic level, then as someone else mentioned, the language barrier will also be a factor keeping different nationalities in their own groups.

[greenarcher]

I don't think nationalities can dictate a person's personality but in general, here are my observations if you are an english speaker:

1. Koreans and Japanese (not a lot of them) are very poor in spoken english. Much worse are the Japanese who might not be even able to understand.

2. Koreans are easy to get along with but they usually speak in Korean when they are together which kinda sucks. They also usually stick with fellow Koreans.

3. There are quite a lot of Italians, maybe the most among western Europeans. Pretty easy to get along with since they can speak a bit of english. Eastern Europeans might be a bit harder since not many of them speak english. They usually stick with their own (former USSR countries).

4. I have zero experience with people from Africa.

5. Getting along is pretty vague, there's probably a lot of levels of closeness. When you don't want / can't stick with people from your own country, I don't think it's that hard to find a new group of friends if you are born friendly and outgoing.

If your Mandarin is pretty good then there's no big problem, just use Chinese with your classmates. Most of the time this is how we communicate since Chinese is the common language among my classmates.

It also depends on the composition of the class (young, old, working, etc) and the class dynamics. I'm lucky enough to land in a class with mostly the same age group and having classmates who are not introverts.

It may take some time for everybody to get warmed to each other specially for the regular 20hr classes but it should be better after the 1st month.

[Meng Lelan]

I can't speak for BLCU in particular, but from my experience in Shanghai, students do tend to stick in groups of their own nationality.

Not sure what you mean by this, is there a branch of BLCU in Shanghai? Or what is the closest equivalent to BCLU in Shanghai? Maybe Beijing attracts more nationalities who are starting in Mandarin than Shanghai, so they cluster together more?

[anonymoose]

Not sure what you mean by this, is there a branch of BLCU in Shanghai? Or what is the closest equivalent to BCLU in Shanghai?

I just mean studying Chinese at a university in Shanghai. Of course it wasn't BLCU.

[knadolny]

Most of my friends at BLCU were Korean, Japanese, European, and American. I could speak Chinese when I went so that helped since not all my friends could speak English.

I met my wife while at BLCU. She is Japanese and we still speak Chinese to each other every day. I would call that a pretty good mixing of nationalities.

[zhouhaochen]

we were pretty international in our class with very little English spoken but hung out together quite a lot. Chinese becomes the common language (though I started on a pretty low level), because thats what we all came there to speak.

You have to be careful to not end up speaking Mandarin with a Korean accent though:mrgreen:

[BarbieGirl91]

I am coming from Serbia, and I don't think that there is a lot of people from where I live... I am coming in September, to be there for 4 years, and I am really scared...

Could someone share with me their experiances? I need to make sure that studying in Beijing is really what I want, and I need to do it quickly.

Otherwise, I may miss my chance. :/

[greenarcher]

There are a lot of students from the former USSR so if you speak Russian, it won't be hard to make new friends.

[knadolny]

It's good to be nervous (you know you are alive), but don't worry too much. A westerner living in Asia can be a real challenge sometimes especially when you first get here. I'm having a tough day today, but that said I have had the most amazing past five months. I miss my friends back home and miss speaking English sometimes, but I am learning Japanese, learning all about another country and culture, and becoming a much stronger person as a result.

I am living in Tokyo now, but studied at BLCU in 2004-05. Beijing was an amazing time in my life. I met my wife at BLCU, made some really great friends, and have some of my fondest memories from that one year.

Enjoy yourself!

[Lu]

Barbie Girl: it's normal to be nervous, but you'll have a great time: meet people from all over the world, learn a language, get to know the country...

No need to worry about making friends, everyone who comes to BLCU needs to make new friends, and so it becomes very easy to do so.

[yueni]

Sorry to be so late to the party, but I really do think that language does have a hand in how well your class gets along. (Of course, time also helps.) My class from last year got along really well. (I was in the advanced class.) So well in fact, that a lot of us still keep in touch, even though it's been 6 months and most of them have gone back home. (In fact, I'm currently talking to two of my old classmates on Skype right now.)

My classmates include:

Russians, Thais, Indonesians, Americans, a Slovakian, a Swede, Vietnamese, a couple Koreans, Japanese, and I'm sure a few others, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

Some classes have a really good chemistry together, beginner, intermediate or advanced, while others don't. I suggest being active in getting people to do things together, and being willing to do things together with your classmates and being interested in them and what they like and what their culture is like. =) Get them to introduce you to their friends!

[knadolny]

even though it's been 6 months and most of them have gone back home

It's been 4 years for me and I'm still in touch with a lot of the friends I made back at BLCU. A few came to my wedding as well.

This post reminds me of something we did at BLCU which I thought was odd compared to the US anyways. We had a "class leader" (班长 bānzhǎng) which organizes events, karaoke, bowling, dinners, or whatever. The best way to ensure your class bonds and does a lot together is to become the 班长 and rally people together. Then you get the additional benefit of getting their contact info and passing it out to all your classmates. Some 班长 are not the most efficient and their classes tend to not bond as well. Well that was my experience with my two different classes over two different semesters.

Come to think about it the people I lost complete contact with are my two North Korean classmates. They didn't have email addresses.

Enjoy