Peking University

[BanZhiYun]

@Napkat I think I know a girl who did that. First year in France, second year in China, right?

[BanZhiYun]

I have already done 2 years of undergraduate studies at the Dept. of Chinese Language and Literature, and here are the classes I've taken so far:
 

First Sem:

中国古代史（上）

阅读与写作（初级）

高级汉语口（上）

文科计算机基础 -- a compulsory class for the humanities students. xD
中国古代文化

 

Second Sem:

中国古代史（下）

阅读与写作（中级上）

高级汉语口（下）

现代汉语（上）

汉字书法

排球

自杀社会问题研究

地震概论

古文选读

 

Third Sem:

中国古代文学 （一）

现代汉语（下）

古代汉语（上）

中国民俗与社会生活

阅读与写作（中级下）

中国神话研究

20世纪西方音乐

 

Fourth Sem:

中国古代文学（二）

古代汉语（下）

《论语》选读

中文工具书使用

唐宋诗词名篇精读

秦汉魏晋南北朝政治历程

阅读与写作（高级）

 

These are the classes I am thinking of choosing for next sem:

中国古代文学（三）

《汉书》导读

实用汉语修辞

静园学术讲座

中国名著导读

医学发展概论

留学生学术汉语写作

网球

汉语语音学基础

文字音韵训诂基础（上）

 

There are some excellent teachers, and there are some simply said, terrible ones. If you guys have any questions about any of the classes I've taken so far, feel free to ask. For next semester, I am basically picking classes based on who the teacher is, lol.

[Guest]

4 hours ago, BanZhiYun said:

I think I know a girl who did that. First year in France, second year in China, right?

 

Yep, that's the one!

[jobm]

Nice subjects, @BanZhiYun, I hope the following semester will be smooth for you!

 

I would love to know which material you are going to read on you 留学生学术汉语写作~

[hifsa]

I have applied at peking university under bilateral exchange scholarship, can anyone let me know how competitive admission for masters in finance is at Peking University?

[BanZhiYun]

Before I came to China, I thought PKU should be the best school at teaching Chinese. Right now, I would recommend Columbia University, Taiwan Normal University （國文系） if you wanted to study Chinese at Undergrad. I even applied to change my majors, but I am pretty sure it won't happen. Oh well.

[jobm]

@BanZhiYun May I know what happened?

[BanZhiYun]

Not sure if I can upload this or not, but you should start with this. When I have more time, I will post more.

廖可斌 《中国大学文化》.pdf

I forgot to mention, L廖可斌 is a professor @ Department of Chinese Language and Literature.

[Angelina]

I remember you were not satisfied with your course where they were supposed to teach you 阅读与写作. @BanZhiYun

We can put the opinions expressed by that professor aside.

Have you attended a course he taught? 

Were you able to complete your homework assignments? Especially when it comes to writing.

 

Mentorship is important.

I think it is better to have a degree in Chinese philology or linguistics and applied linguistics taught in Chinese than to have it taught in English. If this is possible.

Are there any professors there ready to act as your mentors? 

 

[BanZhiYun]

Yes, I have attended a course he taught, 《中国古代文化》.

Yeah, at the end, I stopped caring about their "quality", just focused on finishing them.

 

I agree about mentorship, but, a Master degree in China has way too many courses I feel. As some of my friends have joked, Undergrad is an extension of High School, and Graduate is an extension of Undergrad.

 

I do think so, but they are mainly teachers of 《中国古代文学》and 《古代汉语》. I would prefer to do research on Chinese grammar/syntax, so yeah, that won't work with these teachers.

 

I heard a lecture about Academic Chinese one week about, from Liu Lening, a professor @ Columbia University. I would recommend 《汉语书面用语初编》by 冯胜利, if you are feeling difficulty with formal/academic writing, it has quite good advices. 

 

[Angelina]

I have tried that book, a Chinese classmate recommended it to me. 

 

A lot of times when choosing a school, it depends on the people there. For example, if the people who made that university of department famous are no longer there, you should go somewhere else. Make sure you check before applying. 

 

I wanted to focus on linguistics too, that's why I picked linguistics and applied linguistics over Chinese philology. 

 

I am happy with the content, but I don't think that writing was easy. 

 

I consider myself lucky to have been able to consult Hilary Chappell on the difficulties of doing research in linguistics. She was not able to help me much though. She said that she was only an exchange student at Peking University and all the actual degree programs she attended were taught in English. She also said she is getting a lot of help from her Chinese students when she needs to write something in Chinese. 

 

 

 

 

[Maria Wolters]

Everyone, @BanZhiYun, I will be at Peking University next week to talk to the students there about a dual degree programme that my University (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh) has with 北大。 If you'd like to meet for lunch or dinner, give me a shout! Here is the web page where they are advertising me doing something similar in Guangzhou the same week; it has my contact details. 

 

 

Edited October 17, 2017 at 04:41 PM by Maria Wolters
ETA proper @

[hoshinoumi]

Hi guys! Quick question here. Do you know how difficult is it to get the Confucius Scholarship for Beida? Specifically the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language masters. My Confucius Institute has a partnership with Beida and my GPA is 3.5/4. Any kind of info will be really useful! Thanks

[jobm]

@hoshinoumi I also want to apply to that program in Beida~~~ I am waiting for my HSK and HSKK results to be announced around early January and if I pass the language requirement of Beida, I will apply. 

[hoshinoumi]

@jobm Do you know if already having a masters is something desirable or something we shouldn't tell them?

 

[jobm]

@hoshinoumi I am unsure. Do you have one already? I think they might feel it weird or might suggest you to take a PhD instead.

 

However, most students who study abroad from our country actually take some MA units here before applying to any graduate school abroad (including me haha). Maybe because we used to have a 10-year basic education (compared to 12 years by other countries) and if we take some MA units here, we can in a way 补充 those years and we can also tell the MA screening committee that we have experienced taking graduate courses and we know what to expect in graduate school more or less. Most graduate students who receive foreign scholarships in our country actually had taken a few MA courses.

[hoshinoumi]

@jobmThank you! I'll take everything into consideration. The thing is that, even though by the time I apply I'll have a double MA, my Chinese isn't still high enough to take a PhD, which I'd do otherwise :(. I'll consider telling them I have the MAs risking them telling me to take a PhD

 

[tooironic]

Hi guys. I'm applying to do my doctorate this year at BeiDa. (Relevant post here.) Anyone active on the forums who is (or was) doing their postgrad studies there? I may have some questions to ask if I do get in (will know for sure in about two weeks). Thanks.

[Angelina]

12 hours ago, tooironic said:

Hi guys. I'm applying to do my doctorate this year at BeiDa. (Relevant post here.) Anyone active on the forums who is (or was) doing their postgrad studies there? I may have some questions to ask if I do get in (will know for sure in about two weeks). Thanks.

 

I am doing my postgrad studies at Zhejiang, not BeiDa. I am, however, still very interested in academic writing in Chinese. If you have any questions about things like completing your homework assignments and writing your dissertation, feel free to ask. 

 

Angelina 

 

 

 

[tooironic]

@Angelina Thanks! I might just take you up on that one day. Are you doing your Master's or doctorate? And what's your subject and research direction?