Qingdao University Or Ocean Univeristy?

[Guest Zi Mo]

Hi everyone. I'm italian and the next September I'm going to spend one year in China to improve my chinese, but i want to pick a smaller and less international city than Beijing.

Qingdao seems really nice but I still don't know which University attend. Can someone tell me if there are substantial differences between Qingdao University and the Ocean University? Which is the best? What about their campus, location in the city (relative to the city center, the sea..), chinese levels and their fees?

Any suggestion?

Thanks a lot.

Simona

[Gibbs]

I currently attend Ocean. The Ocean campus where they teach Chinese is very close to Qingdao University. Maybe a 10 minute walk. Both campuses are approx. three to four blocks from the ocean but the nearest beach is 石老人 (east of campus) or one of the more popular bathing beaches towards downtown (west of campus). Relative to the city center both campuses are a 5 minute bus ride to the Jusco. Last I heard, QU students use the Boya books and we use the 发展汉语 books published by BLCU. Ocean has classes A - F with A being for beginners. I studied in the US for six months before coming but still had to start from A because after trying out B class, I realized I was in over my head. I would estimate you should be ok with starting from B class if you have an existing vocabulary of about 350-400 words. During the first week of the semester, you can attend any level class you like. This way, students get to try out different levels and see which level suits their ability. Classes are mostly composed of Korean students and there is a huge emphasis on writing. This surprises many westerners so be prepared to take notes in hanzi and write all homework in hanzi. The teacher will only write pinyin on the board if it is a new word. Words already covered will be written in hanzi only. We also have dictation (written in hanzi) which is done on the board in front of the class everyday. We have three classes, listening, speaking, and grammar. Grammar is everyday while listening and speaking classes alternate. We learn two chapters in grammar class a week which contains about 70 words total and two to three chapters total in both listening and speaking. In your average week we are responsible for learning about 100-120 words although some do overlap. This can be a lot to learn and is one reason why at the beginning of the semester there were about 22 students in the class now we average about 8. Granted, some of the students who started A class were just learning for recreation and quickly fell behind so they no longer return. Progress is rapid and attrition is rampant. Although I've heard in the advanced classes because the students are learning the language as part of their degree or for their current job, they take it more seriously and class attendance is much higher. As far as the fees...I just paid for the Sept - Dec term 7,000rmb. There will be an additional fee for my visa extension and of course books. I hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you would like any additional information regarding housing/daily expenses/bus cards etc.

[Mercury]

You can also consider the Petroleum University of China. It's in HuangDao. A district near Qingdao. The place is far more quiet.

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