Any Decent Schools in China Where the Students Aren't....

[PollyWaffle]

predominently japanese & korean?

Not trying to be controversial, just wondering if there are any?

[Tsunku]

That's not controversial. I think that Western students and Japanese (and to a lesser degree, Koreans) have waaaaay different needs when it comes to studying Chinese.

For the Japanese, the characters are a breeze, but their pronounciation is a mess. Most Westerners have the opposite problems. Pronounciation (at least the basic pinyin sounds) can be mastered easily enough, but characters pose a challenge.

My Japanese friend, who had NEVER studied Chinese before, got thrown into an intermediate class simply because he knew all the characters already. The reading was easy enough, but he was lost when it came to spoken Chinese (he never learned his bo po mo fo, and after a year he was still saying "wo shee ree-ben ren"). Schools here should seriously consider teaching the Japanese students separately. They're a special case altogether.

Don't know of any schools that fit the bill, however.

[yonglan]

What's IUP in Beijing like?

[bhchao]

My former Japanese extension course professor at UCLA also had difficulties with the Mandarin tones. Of course she was very good in Kanji. She knew her stroke orders of the Chinese characters, but said she has major difficulties with the speaking tones.

[yonglan]

Yeah, the Japanese school system has preserved the correct calligraphic stroke order (with a couple of exceptions), unlike in Taiwan, China, and Singapore (don't know about Hong Kong).

[bhchao]

Anyone have any insights regarding Beijing Language and Culture University?

[youpii]

BLCU put westerners, japaneses & koreans in seperate groups when possible.

I only had one japanese girl in my class but she asked to be with us.

[niubi]

when i studied at the foreigner's zoo (aka blcu) in 96/97 almost all my classmates were from asia (mostly koreans and japanese); i was one of three westerners.