Sharing dorm with Chinese student

[ansileran]

Hi everyone !

I intend to study in China, starting from fall 2011, at a Master degree taught in Chinese, and I was wondering if it is possible to share the dorm with Chinese students. I know that international students usually house in the international student's dormitories... Any idea if that's possible ?

Thank you very much

[roddy]

Doubt the people running the Chinese dorms will want the (perceived) extra hassle of having foreigners to look after. Off-campus dorms / apartment shares would be an easier option I suspect.

[calif90071]

I very well may be wrong, but from what I've heard the Chinese gov't tries to keep foreign students away from Chinese students as much as possible for fear of another revolution like what happened at Tiananmen in 1989...so I don't believe it is possible. It's kind of like how foreigners have to go to church separately from Chinese, the government's biggest fear is foreigners instilling "revolutionary" ideas into the Chinese.

[roddy]

And where did you hear that?

[ansileran]

Crap... I really wish to learn about Chinese customs during my stay there and live the same way Chinese people do... I'm afraid that if I end up sharing a dorm with another international student, we will end up living the way Europeans and Americans do. And I doubt we are going to speak Chinese, probably English or even worse, French or German...

I stayed once with a Chinese host family and it was great, though we sometimes had a lot of trouble communicating, given that I couldn't speak much Chinese at the time and they weren't speaking mandarin...

@calif90071 :

I seem to have heard something along those lines the last time I was in China, like how I wasn't supposed to share a room with a Chinese student since I was French and underage, but I had assumed that the greatest problem was me being underage... If the Chinese government allows international student to take classes with Chinese students, we already have al the time we want to plan a revolution, if that's what we are here for, so I don't really understand how sharing a room would make it worse...

@ roddy :

Do you know of anybody who manage to share an appartment with Chinese students ? Don't they usually live at the dorms or with their parents ?

[roddy]

No, there'll be plenty living off-campus for one reason or another. And you don't have to live with students, you could find a place with actual grown-ups, or rent a room from a family, etc. Here's one experience from the intrepid Brian_US.

[ansileran]

I'll read it, though I would still prefer to live with students. I keep thinking that it would be easier to have something to talk about or to find something to do with students than already working adult. And it may be a very wrong idea, but as a young white girl, I would feel safer living with students than other working adults...

That wouldn't apply to a host family with children, but they usually don't have any room to spare and it made me feel so bad last time (though they were glad about the money...)

Thank you for your answer !

[calif90071]

I heard it from one of my friends from Xi'an

[fanglu]

I lived off-campus in Beijing with some enterprising Chinese students who had rented an apartment and sublet it to foreigners, effectively living rent-free in one of the rooms.

@calif90071:

I think the separation of Chinese and foreign students has more to do with:

a) their conditions - foreign students' dormitories are far nicer than Chinese students'

B) supervision - at least in theory dormitories are supposed to ensure that their (chinese) residents are in their rooms at night, don't have anyone else in their rooms etc. - I doubt most foreign students would like that level of observation

[ansileran]

@ fanglu

That's nice ! How did you find the appartment ? How did it go ? How long did you stay there ? I'm very curious I know...

[jbradfor]

I intend to study in China, starting from fall 2011, at a Master degree taught in Chinese

You didn't mention which university, so everyone might made some assumptions here....

Unless you have your heart set on a particular university, or set on only a top name university, I wouldn't give up yet. In particular, I would recommend looking for universities in Taiwan, or lesser-known universities outside the main cities on the mainland.

I highly encourage you to pursue this, if it interests you. When I was in Taiwan, I stayed in the dorms, and it really made the experience special. My situation was different: 3 month exchange program for me, versus getting a degree for you. But I agree, one learns so much more about the culture living in the standard dorms.

[ansileran]

@ jbradfor

I didn't mentionned which university I'm going to, because I haven't decided yet. It's going to be one of those offering CSC postgraduate scholarship so it's a bit more restricted list than what's available for the general CSC scholarship. I'm considering seven of them seriously, in Beijing and Shanghai, but also Zhejiang, Nanjing and Wuhan.

I'll also try for a scholarship in Taiwan, for the Taiwan National University.

Of course, I know that if I were to go to some less renowned university, there would be less foreigners so it would be better to actually practise Chinese, but this would be my second master degree, which I would be doing instead of a business school in France, so I have to pick a university whose diplom would be recognise...

How were the dorm in Taiwan ? Which university did you stay at ? Wasn't it too hard to understand Taiwanese ?

[jbradfor]

How were the dorm in Taiwan ? Which university did you stay at ? Wasn't it too hard to understand Taiwanese?

Bad. 东海大学 (in 台中). Impossible.

The dorms I stayed in had 6 people in the room (in 3 bunk beds), no A/C or heat, hot water for the showers only from 5 PM to 9 PM (which I hate, as I like morning showers, unlike most Chinese), and really bad food. But I loved it! It's the type of experience I think one can only have when one is young and still not too soft from age. Plus it was only for 3 months, for 2 years (for a masters) it might get old...

Keep in mind that this was in '89, so I'm sure things have changed. And that was only at one university. And even the local students complained about the accommodations. So I'm sure most are better now.

Regarding Taiwanese, it's pretty much mutually unintelligible with Mandarin. However, pretty much everyone in Taiwan speaks Mandarin as their primary language, at least when not at home. So you'll be speaking Mandarin with people, not Taiwanese. People also complain about the "Taiwanese accent" Mandarin, but for the life of me I can't figure out why. It's not that different from standard Mandarin, and I found it really easy to get used to. So I had no issues speaking Mandarin with everyone there. [Or, I should rephrase it, I had many issues, but they were all due to my level of Mandarin, and not due to the locals not speaking Mandarin or having a heavy accent.]

this would be my second master degree, which I would be doing instead of a business school in France, so I have to pick a university whose diplom would be recognise...

Others please jump in if you disagree, but in my opinion very very few people outside China really know enough about the quality of Chinese Universities to recognize the good from the mediocre. [i know I don't.] So I'm not sure how important this is?

[GreenArrow45]

In regards to the recognition of Chinese universities, I think if a company is well-versed in Chinese affairs and has Chinese employees etc, they will likely know the difference between good and bad universities in China. Otherwise, my guess is most places are just going to be looking at global rankings of unis, which means they will know BeiDa, Tsinghua, and HKU of the Chinese universities and TNU of the Taiwanese universities. The most important thing though(in my opinion) is what his future plans are with regards to work or future study as to whether or not the name recognition of the school is important.

[fanglu]

I found it from an ad (in English) stuck up on a notice board in the cafe at BLCU. There were plenty of agents around the campus too, I'm sure if you were specific with your requirements they would be able to find you somewhere like that.

It was alright, although I spoke English with them far more than Chinese (my Chinese wasn't really that great at that point), and their insistence on smoking in the flat was kind of annoying. Oh and I had trouble convincing them to arrange for my registration with the PSB for a while too.

I stayed for one semester.

[Lu]

I'm afraid that if I end up sharing a dorm with another international student, we will end up living the way Europeans and Americans do. And I doubt we are going to speak Chinese, probably English or even worse, French or German...

While there are many Westerners in China, there are even greater numbers of Japanese and Korean students. When I was studying in Beijing, I lived with a Korean roommate, who spoke Chinese but almost no English, and it was indeed good for my Chinese. Perhaps you can request such an arrangement.

In Taipei I was living with one Dutch and one Korean (again) roommate, but there were Taiwanese students on the same floor, I could have roomed with them as well.

[natra]

The conditions in Chinese students' dorms are pretty bad. There is often no AC, and hot water is usually only provided in the dorm during a certain time of the day. When I was studying abroad 2 years ago, the undergraduate dorms did not even receive hot water, and graduate student dorms only had it from Monday - Friday between 4PM-8PM. Electricity was often cut off at night around 12AM, and then not turned back on until the morning.

The dorms are generally also very dirty.

You can give it a try, I guess. Just do not feel obligated to stay there if you change your mind afterward.

[doraemon]

If you want to practise and improve your Chinese, I think a Chinese background international student would be the next best thing than an actual Chinese student. Universities generally have separate dormitories for overseas and domestic students and it'll be really hard applying for one. Or you could share a room with an international student despite not being Chinese, can't speak any languages that you do so you'll end up having to communicate in Chinese. But that being said, I have to admit a local, Chinese student would most likely have a greater level of language ability as well as a better understanding of Chinese culture/customs than any overseas student. ;)

[ansileran]

Thank you all for your answers !

@ fanglu

I remember that my "shushu" used to smoke a lot in the appartment last time I was in Beijing. But appart from that, it was great to be able to live the way Chinese people do, eat Chinese food and so on. PSB registration seems to often be a problem...

@jbradfor & GreenArrow45

I intend to try to work for a Chinese company doing business in Europe or an international company doing business in China (major in international trade) so either way, they will probably know the leading universities in China...

@Lu

That's reassuring, the school I stayed at last time only had European students and, since text books were in English, we all had to understand it. At the time, most of us spoke English way better than we spoke Chinese (I still do) so we just talked in English outside the class. And as they were all staying together at the hotel or in shared appartments, they almost never spoke Chinese in the end... I really wish to avoid this.

@natra

Are things really that bad ? I don't care much for AC or extended shower time (though I really enjoy hot water, especially in winter ^^) but what do you mean by "very dirty" ? Like only cleaned up once a week ? I guess that, if I can change dorm after a semester if I really can't bear with it, it could be worth giving it a try.

@doraemon

If I have no other choice, I'll go for that option, but it might be hard to find international students on a longterm program who speak no English at all. Especially since English is mandatory for most master degrees in China, as far as I understand...

[natra]

I do not think that there is anyone to clean the dorms other than the students who are living in a room. I have been into some Chinese dormitories that were absolutely filthy. And the smell... It just smelled like sewage from the shared bathroom on their floor.