Central South University

[roddy]

This topic is for discussion and reviews of Central South University. Accommodation, courses, on-campus facilities and activities - anything to do with Central South University goes in here. If there's a lot of discussion about any one particular topic we might split it into a new thread and leave a link here.

[morison20]

First of all, Changsha is a relatively small city(comparing to Beijing, Shanghai etc). But it's beautiful city. The random change in the weather is the only problem I have felt trouble so far. People are very friendly, foods are a little spicy. As someone mentioned before, in small cities you have less chance to use English and thus you will learn Chinese quickly.

About learning language- the learning facility is good in here. I don't want to compare with BLCU, which is considered as the best institution for language in China. But the quality of teaching in here is up to the mark. Changsha hua (Changsha dialect) is strong, different from Mandarin (not completely different though). But it is also considered as an advantage to learn the language relatively quickly. And of course, in city, most of the people can speak Mandarin.

About the dormitory- All the facilities are up to the mark. Air-conditioned single room for each student (1 bathroom, living room, veranda for every 2 rooms). Also there is 1 kitchen for every 2 floors. As a scholarship student, you will get electricity and water for free. Again, the facilities vary a lot from university to university. Personally I am comfortable here.

"and I also have an interview for an internship in Beijing tonight.

Wow! You are not even here in China, and you started applying for internship?! Interesting... If you are interested in earning money, you can find job (English teaching job) far easier than you would get in big cities like Beijing or Shanghai. Specially, if you are white and/or have US passport, you don't have to worry about your quality or capability.

If you have any further question, don't hesitate to ask. I will try to answer.

regards.

[tcvu]

I just sent you a PM morison! I am not white - I am Vietnamese... Is it still possible to get a job teaching English or will it be more difficult as I do look Chinese?

I was hoping to work at a migrant school. I had an internship with Compassion for Migrant Children in Beijing and was applying for one with the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing as well. I don't know what opportunities exist in Changsha. I can find very little about the internship opportunities available in the area. I'd love a job teaching, editing, or researching.

[morison20]

I am not white - I am Vietnamese... Is it still possible to get a job teaching English or will it be more difficult as I do look Chinese?

You are Vietnamese-American? An US citizen? Or do you just live/study in US?

It is a question that I am not able to answer to. My little experience says that, in many places (but not all) they prefer your look more than your quality here. The reason is, most of the jobs for foreigners are to teach English to kids in private elementary schools. So, your appearance and friendly behavior is important more than your quality to them. Also some schools hires foreigners for publicity and advertise using their photos and interviews etc.

But nothing to worry about. There are lots of places where your quality matters. And you are a native English speaker, right? You are carrying an US passport,right? So, hopefully you should not have any trouble finding jobs in here.

Some other opportunities include- private tutoring (one-to-one English teaching), translating for companies, Chinese-English interpreter (very good salary), participating in TV shows (Hunan TV is famous all over China) bla bla bla.

You just need to learn Chinese fast, communicate with people , make some Chinese friends and then life will be easier and smoother.

May be I can not think of all the things people should know about or want to know. So, if you ask me questions, I will answer accordingly.

regards.

[morison20]

so ,that is to say , you will be hard to find some guys speaking good Mandarin around you. in Beijing almost everyone can speak perfect Mandarin. I know many friends who are from the North china and they all begin to speak poor Mandarin due to the influence of surrounding .that is why i am so worry about you. changsha is not beijing and shanghai. it is just a capital of a province , its public order, people quality and education quality is suly worse than beijing shanghai even guangdong.

Well, it is true. Even if they (Hunan people) speak Mandarin, they have a little tone (and it's natural). And Changsha is obviously not Beijing or Shanghai. BLCU is of course the first choice for Chinese language students. And in terms of standard of Mandarin, Beijing is of course the best place to learn Mandarin. Also people in the northern part of China speak better and standard Mandarin than people in southern part. But not all can participate in there. And all the language teachers are supposed to speak in standard Mandarin (and so they do). Also CSU is one of the national key universities in China. Students from all over the country, with different accents, different dialects come here to study. So, lots of students (if not all) communicate in standard Mandarin. And when you will start learning, you will try to use easy words, easy sentences which any student (anyone) can understand and reply to in standard Mandarin.

Again, the worst problem in learning language in Beijing and Shanghai is, there are too many foreigners in those cities. So, may be you will not push yourself hard to communicate with other people in Chinese. Also people got used to foreigners in those cities. So people will not be that interested to talk to you comparing to people in small cities. This part is very important in learning language.

of course the central south china university is a good university but you know what ? it is actually a technology university does not perform well in the liberal art field. so why not choose hunan normal university or hunan university at least one is an art university and the other is a comprehensive university.

Well, you are not here to learn liberal arts, but Chinese language. And language department is good enough to guide you the way. May be language department in Hunan University is a little better than CSU, but it does not vary that much.

Any input would be appreciated!

About university change-

If you are determined to change your university, rather try for universities in the North, in Beijing or in cities around Beijing. Not only BLCU, try for other universities in Beijing. It will be a lot easier to try from Beijing and through your embassy. But once you settle down in a university, it is almost impossible to change.

If you are serious about learning hard and HSK exam-

Here, foreign students do not start to learn Chinese hard from the very beginning. They start looking for girlfriends, party, club, tour, earning money , getting attention bla bla bla. So, they suffer at the very last moment. This year the overall HSK result was very poor (at least in CSU) and I personally blame students’ negligence. I found many students who did not even know the scoring system of HSK, or did not even know about the test structure one month before the test. Also they thought they would do good just because they can speak Chinese well, which was completely wrong concept. One year is not enough to learn a language (especially Chinese). So, be aware of your target and behave accordingly from the very first moment. If your target is to do well in HSK, You must to be regular from the very first day and start learning regularly. The teachers often do not push students because if they do, students stop attending classes. So, do not only follow the classes, neither the crowd (fellow students), but force yourself to learn hard and more. Trust me, you will find yourself in better place at the end.

regards.

Edited August 3, 2010 at 02:22 AM by morison20

[GotJack]

I have been accepted to do one years Language Learning at Central South University via a Scholarship

Im personally very interested about the dorms

"About the dormitory- All the facilities are up to the mark. Air-conditioned single room for each student (1 bathroom, living room, veranda for every 2 rooms). Also there is 1 kitchen for every 2 floors. As a scholarship student, you will get electricity and water for free. Again, the facilities vary a lot from university to university. Personally I am comfortable here."

This sounds excellent, compared to Zhejiang and BLCU (where I researched). At these uni's it was double rooms , shared toilets between floors and no kitchens. Could anyone take pictures of there apartments? Im just so shocked to hear you get a single air con room, with a living room and your own bathroom, (this is incredible if true!)

Also can enquire what the sporting options are? is there a good standard gym for lifting weights? are there easily accesible sports clubs (perhaps football, boxing, jiu jitsu?

Jack

[xray_UG]

Hi guys I am joining Central South Univesity for my master's. I seem to only find old information on the university. I have been looking for current (2014+) reviews about the univesity from foreign students but can't seem to get any. I've watched all those propaganda videos and read info from websites but would love to know from someone studying there. how is the life in and around campus. in the dorms, street food aroud there, is there a supermarket, bank on campus ?

In a couple of week after I get there I will also write a review.

thanks.

[NINA Awe]

I m a master student in Central South University,majoring in medicine.I m in XiangYa medical college(fu san 附三) now.I will be in fu er(附二，the 2nd hospital ) next  month. Im learning medicine English,for this sake,I urgently need a foreigner friend whom I can study with.I can also help you  deal with your problems  in either  life or  school  here .My wechat is 707232562@qq.com.I  m looking forward to meeting you soon.

[xray_UG]

Hi, I couldn't find you on either qq or Wechat. my wechat ID is osolo98