Sichuan University

[andreasro]

Does anyone know how more about applying on your own at Sichuan University for the Chinese language course?

I know someone who didn't get the scholarship but he still wants to go there on his own. Beside the info on Sichuan University's website, is there something else useful one should know about going there for a language course (a year)?

Also, where can I find new information on Chengdu?

Thank you in advance,

Andrea

[andreasro]

At least can someone share his/her experience with a language course at Sichuan University?

Please share if you went on your own or with a CSC scholarship.

Thank you in advance.

Andrea

[cleufir]

andreasro:

what would you like to know, umm.. more specifically? Everybody I know who has been there has been satisfied with their courses.. the tips I've got are that it's better to be accomodated in the dormitories and that it's advisable to take toilet paper wherever you go.. food in canteen is cheap and inedible.. teachers are nice, but you never know who you get..

I'm from Czech republic, and know a few students in my university who have been there, I and my classmate are going there for one year (I on Confucius scholarship, as it seems) starting this August, and my boyfriend studies there. So I can ask for you (or for your friend) if you want to know something.

Links on chengdu: http://www.gochengdoo.com/en/

http://www.chengduliving.com/

[okiedokie]

Hey all, I'm about to head to Sichuan University in a couple weeks to begin my year of Chinese language study. I've tried contacting the international office, but to little avail. I ask questions about the program and the accommodations and the secretary tells me “来成都再说” as opposed to real info. :/

Anyone know a contact on the university I can contact?

Or does anyone know about the international dorms on campus? About the check in process?

[Razumihin]

Hello, can someone tell me a little bit about Sichuan University? I'm considering studying there. I want to study the bachelor's degree program for Chinese language.

a) Do they give HSK preparatory classes to people who are complete beginners? What is the HSK level required to get into the Chinese language undergraduate program?

b) Is the level of teaching good?

c) Are there many western students, do they have their own classes?

d) How much does it cost to live in Chengdu? I will have at least 4000 yuan per month.

Thanks in advance to anyone who answers this

[Steingletscher]

Razumihin, are you talking about the Chinese Language program for foreigners or studying Chinese with native speakers? I'm currently in the foreigner program so I can give you information on that if that is what you want.

[Razumihin]

Yes, Steingletscher, I mean the foreigner program for learning Chinese. If you can tell anything about it I'd much appreciate it.

[Steingletscher]

I just started this last year, so my experience is only of the beginner classes and from what others have told me about the advanced ones. I had never studied Chinese prior to stepping in the classroom, so I started in the very beginner with no HSK. If you have the HSK 4, you can skip up to the middle levels (中级). They require you to complete it in 4 years, but you can do it in 3 with HSK 4. Even though there are three elementary levels, most take the first two and then skip the third since the credits for the 2nd and third are the same. I personally studied during the winter break so I could skip the 3rd level because I wanted more practice, but that is entirely optional. Whatever you do, you are going to have to skip a level. In order to get the degree, during the last year you have to write a graduate paper entirely in Chinese at 10,000 characters with the standards being like those of native speakers.

The administration doesn't seem to tell the students much information, such as even give us what is required for us to graduate. For example, my advisor told me at the beginning of this semester that I have to take ping-pong and tai ji chuan (and the only way I even know who my advisor is is because she was my teacher in my first semester). It was quite random and I have no idea what I have to do next semester besides the morning Chinese clases. You aren't really directed towards information about the program when you start, and it doesn't help that the information booklet is all in Chinese. I asked my teacher and got the information, so I'll put some more down. I have been told by other students that you have to pass the HSK 5 take the classes in Senior year, but I haven't heard anything official about it. Its all quite opaque.

Most of the students are exchange students who are there for only a year. About half of the students are Korean, Thai, and Pakistani with the rest from Western nations. There are a lot, with the medium of communication mostly being English between the Westerns & Pakistanis and Chinese with Asians. I have heard comments from some students that their English is getting way better at a much faster rate then their Chinese is. There are no Chinese in the classes, and the building is somewhat removed from the rest of the teaching buildings, so it is a little out of the way. There are still a lot of foreigners, so it is easy to get lost in them and not really interact with the Chinese around you. It seems that the majority of students are studying business and are interested in Chinese for that sake and not such much the history and culture, but oh well.

So far, classes have been okay. For the first level (初级一), the class is conducted half in Chinese and half in English, but after that it is all in Chinese. The Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU) textbooks are used for elementary levels, and the Boya for the middle levels. The average class in this level is around 20+ people and the focus is entirely on the teacher. There isn't much focus on pronunciation, so unless you take a lot of time outside of class to work on it, your speech is going to be almost incomprehensible to most except your teacher. During the first two weeks when we did focus on pronunciation, we all pronounced over the same time, so our voices were masking our problems so it was hard to notice what we were doing wrong. There are times when I cannot understand what my classmates are saying even though I know the hanzi of what they are saying, and others where their accent is so thick is hurts my ears. In terms of speaking, I don't think we spend much time talking, just a lot listening to the teacher speak. Oh yeah, its all in simplified Chinese, but you can teach yourself traditional.

I don't particularly like the grammar of the BLCU textbooks, so I've been working my way through Claudia Ross' Modern Chinese Grammar and its workbook. How grammar is taught is by simply giving more examples of the sentence structure with very little explanation, all explained in Chinese. Since our Chinese is still very low, the explanations are very simple. Perhaps I'm comparing it to when I learned ancient Greek, which is grammar intensive in requiring a deep knowledge of English grammar so as to compare the two. Since I already have a good knowledge of English grammar and its technical terminology, I would prefer learning the basic Chinese grammar through English, but alas, that is not how it is taught here.

As for the higher levels, the higher you go, the less core classes you have and most of the time is spent on electives. During the first year, the only electives you can really takes are the physical education one, which is Ping-pong and Tai-ji-quan. Most of class time is spent on the core classes. To graduate, you need after all of the core classes and besides the thesis, you need to take 20 electives. There is a large variety of classes which can go on for multiple semesters. Topics include a second foreign language, Sichuanese (Sichuanhua), translation, business and economics Chinese, Chinese literature (classical and modern), Chinese history, modern Chinese media, and finally College writing. I really want to take the class on Modern Chinese Rhetoric, which I hope will be very helpful and insightful, mostly since I studied Western rhetoric before coming here. All of the electives are in Chinese and you can take them whenever you want, but just have to take a total of 20.

The classes are intensive as you have class every morning from 8:30 am to 12:00, with two classes during that period and a 30 minute break in between them. I don't know why each class has a 5 minute break after 45 minutes into class, but there is. Some days have an afternoon class. In total you are in class for more then 20 hours a week.

I do sound like I am complaining, but the level of teaching is still quite good. Many of the exchange students who come here often have studied for 1 or 2 or more years in their home country, only to have to repeat those levels and at the end have a much higher level then if they spent the same amount of time back home. I have progressed a tremendous amount, though not as much as I would like. I probably know about 3,000 characters and even more character combinations As good as the classes are, if you really want to improve, you are going to have to work a lot on your own outside of class, reading on your own, interacting with native speakers, and whatever you want to improve. A good friend who is in the highest level tells me he is satisfied with his classes and feels comfortable enough with the language to read Journey to the West on his own. There is a lot of focus on the characters in comparison to the other schools. I met a girl who studied for three years at the Minorities University, only to have to retake two years of Chinese after transferring because she didn't know that many characters. Her speaking was really good, but she couldn't read or write nearly as well.

One thing that I did hate is the foreign dorms. There are two of them, the West dorms where the main offices are as well as the East dorms. The West ones are expensive (at 80 rmb a night), but they are mostly filled with Americans in whatever program they are in for the 12 weeks they are here (they are on their own schedule). The East ones are much cheaper and where most of the scholarship students are housed. They have shared rooms around 15 a night with a public bathroom, doubles with a private bathroom for 35 a night, and private ones about 50 with their own bathroom. What I hated about them is that I never felt that I was in China when I was living in them since they felt so removed from the rest of the city in there. So I moved out and in with two Chinese students.

I have heard of people who graduate and then not knowing what to do then. The school for foreigners doesn't seem to have many contacts in helping graduates find a job here in China, or anything after graduation.

The dialect doesn't really get in the way of learning Standard Mandarin since it somewhat resembles it. It will throw you off at first (especially if you have been studying elsewhere in China), but after a few months you will get used to it. The students almost always speak 普通话 well enough to be understood, but talking amongst themselves most prefer 四川话。You can speed up the process by asking people what certain words mean that aren't standard. Once when you get used to it, only when nonstandard words or phrases are used will not be intelligible. I speak all the time with locals, though admittingly most of my time spent socializing outside of class is with Chinese students and very little with older people. The older, the thicker the accent. Though old people do know a lot of shit that young people don't, so I want to spend more time with them, and practicing my Chinese with them. The biggest barrier is not the dialect, but your Chinese ability. The times when I encounter a word that exists in Standard Mandarin that I do not know is far greater then when something is unintelligible merely because it was spoken in the local dialect. Oh yeah, if you can pick up some of 四川话, you will get serious brownie points from the locals. They love it when foreigners say things like "gwawazi" or "zazima?"

What is harder to do is getting out of an English bubble, even with Chinese students since they have to have had high English ability to even get into the school. If your Chinese isn't very good, you can make Chinese friends using English and slowly, overtime replace the two languages.

4,000 rmb a month is more then enough. I live in a place for 650 a month near campus, so that is far more then enough. The city is still cheap, slowly getting expensive, but overall cheap. There is also a strong expat community here at Chengdu Living and Gochengdoo. This city is getting fashionable and going global. The pollution is among the worst in the world and its an ugly city (at least compared to San Francisco where I grew up and Santa Fe, NM where I lived for a few years before coming out here), but I like it.

After I finish the program in 3 years, I'll write a full review. This is my impression of the first year so far. I also feel like I have more to say, but I can't think of anything at the moment.

[Razumihin]

Thank you so much, Steingletscher. Your post is very informative and helpful. Since you are staying in Chengdu could you give me your email via private message so that I could contact you later?

[Steingletscher]

I just wrote a little more in the post above about electives since I was able to get a list of all of the classes I have the option of taking.

[roddy]

Thanks for the extra info.

Also, future students will appreciate it if questions are asked and answered in public.

[somei]

Hi, I'm studying at Chuan Da this Fall, is anyone else studying there this year? I'm a Confucius Scholarship student and I've lived in Chengdu before but never studied at Sichuan university before.

[Jamasian]

Hello~! Is anyone in Sichu as an MA seeking student? I'm planning to go into interpreting in particular. Any insight would be appreciated. 

[kvetch]

Application Process and registration.

 

I didn't get in through the official channels, so there's not much I can say on this subject unfortunately. My chosen uni had no dorms left and my family weren't comfortable with me living outside the campus. Guanxi strings were pulled and I ended up here.

 

The placement test consists of mainly reading and a little writing, There's also a spoken test. Pretty standard stuff.

 

 

Classes

 

For the record, I can only speak for Chujier (the second lowest level)

 

Class is at 8:30 to 12:00. You get a half hour break at 10:00. Our teachers were pretty relaxed-they weren't too bothered if you left the assignments undone.

 

 

Shengci and grammar class gave us semi regular homework-this mostly consisted of doing the exercises in the book and then the teacher would go over it the next day. Reading homework was occasional.

 

You have two 1.5 hour classes each day. Shengci and Grammar(I forgot what the class actual name is OTL)is everyday. Speaking and reading twice a week and listening once a week. Writing hanzi class is once a fortnight and not taken too seriously(also they let you use a dictionary in the exam).

 

Reading texts are dry and dull at my level. Read the text, answer the questions. That's it. Shengci and yufa is exactly what it says. You have a list of new words to learn in your spare time and a small test the next day(usually you were tested about every two or three days). Word lists started at 20 new words, but it gradually increases to about 40. Class time is mostly spent learning grammar. Teacher gives you examples of its usage and then you create your own sentences. Our teacher also picked students to individually read out the lsit of new words and short passages of texts so he could correct your tones (but I think he was pretty lax about that). He also likes to toss out sweets for various achievements.

 

Every westerner in my class hated listening. Teacher plays a CD and you select the right answer. This might not be the case at the absolute beginner level, but there's very little opportunity in class to work on distinguishing tones. The book comes with a CD though, so you could practice tone related exercises on your own, although there's not many. Towards the end we had a about 6 people who regularly turned up.

 

Kouyu had the class repeating new words and dialogue that included new words after the teacher. You're also paired up with a partner to make your own conversations related to the topic. I can't say this helped my pronunciation a lot but there's not much a teacher can really do when it's a group class.

 

All in all, the atmosphere is pretty relaxed and laid back. Teachers are nice and happy to help you with any questions-they'll stay behind after class if you're really struggling with something. That way class time isn't wasted on a few people. If, for whatever reason, you plan on rarely turning up-a lot of teachers don't take attendance and aren't too bothered by this.

 

Class size is about 20 and consists mainly of koreans and americans. The first week is pretty hectic due to everyone constantly switching classes. Also everyone gradually turned up later and later as time went on, but that might have had something to do with it being winter.

 

Classroom are so-so. Teachers use whiteboards. No computers or projectors. Our classroom's air conditioning/heater kept malfunctioning. They also go into a lot of detail on what's included in the end of semester tests. Nothing to worry about there.

 

Accomodation

 

There are two student dorms. The west student dorm usually houses Americans from whatever exchange programme they're on. This dorm looks pretty nice inside, although rooms are small. Carpets on the floors, western style toilets in the rooms. I think they only have double rooms, but someone will have to confirm that for me. It's pretty far away from the teaching building-about 15-20 mins walk. But it's closer to pretty much everything else-west and south gate(where all the good stuff is). Most people here speak french, english, russian, thai or Chinese.  A few Japanese people there as well.

 

East student dorm looks old and run-down. It's also so, so far away from everything apart from the teaching building, which is 5 mins walk away. There are double rooms with bathroom(36 yuan perday), double rooms with no bathroom at 24 yuan per day(public toilets are of the squat type and have no toilet paper, also they have a couple of drain flies wandering around in there), and ensuite single rooms(40 per day).

 

You need to bring your own bedding. My mattress had all sorts of dubious stains when I moved in. And my bathroom had a maggot infestation but that's another story. You're required to clean your own room. Also there's only one socket so I'd recommend going to Walmart(outside west gate) and buying a multi socket thing.

 

You can borrow a fridge(100 yuan per semester) and if you want a tv you'll have to borrow that too. Each floor has 3 washing machines and one public kitchen. There's no hot water in the kitchen but it's pretty spacious. There are 2 electric cookers per floor. A few roaches wandering around in there, and when the windows are opened hundreds of small insects would clamber in but it's not as bad as it sounds.

 

Showers have a problem with waiting ages for hot water, and then you have the options of either scalding hot or freezing cold. If you carefully tweak it you can settle for lukewarm. I ended up using the public showers because the water is instantly hot(as long as someone's used it before you)

 

Fuwuyuan are fine with loud, all night parties. They have a lobby on each floor and pingpong tables. There's also a vending machine with drinks and snacks on 2cnd floor. Also they leave the windows in the lobby open. Hundreds of insects fly in and the next morning you're covered in bites. Dorm mates also like to play loud music sometimes.

 

There's a canteen inside the dorms, about 15 kuai for each dish.

 

The cheapest option for internet is CMCC edu (30 yuan per month for unlimited internet) Get a china mobile sim and they'll text you your password. As long as you have enough credit they'll allow you to sign in for the internet. The downside is that it can't access certain websites, even ones that aren't blocked. Also it has this annoying habit of directing you to the sign in page even after you've already logged in. Doesn't work with spotify or google play, there's a cafe with wifi near xiaobeimen if you need any apps.

 

If you're cooking your own food, there's a small supermarket nearby that sells vegetables, dofu, fruit, eggs and pork. Go past the hongbing hotel and keep walking on a small dirt path-you'll see a building with a blue roof. Vegetable prices are pretty expensive, so I'd advise going to another place to buy them. If you go towards the shop selling noodles behind the teaching place, there's a couple of paths to the right between residential homes. Take the bottom one by the sports grounds. Keep going and you'll end up by a key cutting place. Then turn right and go up and there's a woman selling vegetables for cheaper. If you want a rice cooker the cheapest option is about 55 yuan for a tiny one. There's a shop selling electronic appliances near the canteen. It's the street which is lined with fruit markets and food stalls.

 

Campus

 

Campus has a post office, china mobile shop, bank of chengdu, icbc bank, sports fields and gyms. Lots of places to buy food from. It's also massive, so if you hate walking(like me) it's not a great idea. West gate has the high end resturants and walmart. Its about 30 mins walk from east dorms.

 

Xiao bei men has smaller resturants, a tanghulu stand from midday to evening, cinema and many bubble tea shops. There's also a place there that does amazing kaoyu(fish). About 15 mins walk. There are also bars around here but its quicker to walk to them from east gate.

 

South gate is mainly food, also has a couple of salons. There's a bakery here too. North gate is mainly resturants.

 

East gate has bus stops. That's pretty much it. You can get the 335 to chunxilu. Get off at shamao station. The last 335 back is around 8. If you miss that then you can take the 68 to jiuyanqiaoxizhan and walk back.

 

There's also a wholesale by the name of hehuaci. If you can stand loud, awful music and large crowds, go here if you want stuff for cheap. Take the 27/27A at jiuyanqiaobeizhan (across the bridge)and get off at dongbeisanduan station(I think this is correct). There's a wanda plaza (large shopping mall) just in front. Turn right on the road just before the plaza and go straight on until you hear the aforementioned god awful music. The wanda plaza also has a supermarket in the basement. It has more stuff than carrefour or walmart, but walmart is the best for asian candy.

 

There are a few small shops by the teaching building where you can buy food and other necessities. Above the shops there's a printing and scanning place. Useful for printing out boarding passes. I think they also allow you to use internet there but I'm not sure. There's also a restaurant above the canteen but it's not that great in my opinion.

 

Chengdu in general

 

People here are laid back and friendly, and there's a lot of interesting places. You could do a lot worse. If you want to practice your chinese, stick to the uni students or you'll end up with both a chengdu accented chinese (understandable to locals) and terrible putonghua tainted by your home country's accent(not understandable to anyone).

 

Also this guy has a lot of info on chunda.

http://www.kevinmunns.com/index_files/chuanda.htm

[roddy]

Excellent write-up, Kvetch, many thanks. 

[Razumihin]

Thanks Kvetch, that was immensely useful info.

[MvB]

Sooo, I know from the list on the embassy website that there's at least a few other Europeans (don't know about other regions) going to study at Sichuan University next year. Anyone of you on the forum going there? I'll be taking the Chinese Language course there, starting September.

[marrible]

@MvB: Yep, I'm going to ChuanDa for 1 year with the Confucius Institute Scholarship...

[satine91]

Hi, My name is Daria (ms) and I'm from Poland.

I got CSC scholarship for studying Chinese language a year in ScU.

If you have more news about registration or whatsoever please contact with me

[somethingfunny]

Hello,

 

There hasn't been much activity on this for a while so I was wondering if anyone had anything new they'd like to add about Sichuan University.  I'm going to apply for a scholarship to study there this year, with a year of language study beforehand.  Is there anyone who is currently, or has previously been, in this situation?

 

I've been in email contact with a lady in the foreign admissions office and she's been very helpful but it would be nice to hear from someone 'on the ground' as it were...