Language Programs offering a Bachelor's Degree

[icebear]

A number of reasons, though most are merely personal. On a practical level, I want to eventually enter into linguistics and having a solid (near fluent) understanding and control of Chinese will help form a different perspective then most people. I know I probably won't be going into as much theory as I would in the US, but I also wouldn't gain the level of usage (and whatever knowledge comes with that). I have a bunch of more theoretical linguistic books that I plan to read on the side.

As to the personal reasons, I find Mandarin, both spoken and written, to be very beautiful and that alone is a strong enough reason to learn the language. I want to be able to read Chinese literature and poetry with no problem at all.

Thanks for the response, I suspected academic linguists would be another likely reason. Although it still surprises me that there is enough demand for this to warrant bachelor degrees in Chinese for foreigners; is it typically the case that one would study Chinese for several years and then join a standard bachelor's program in Chinese (linguistics) intended for native speakers? That makes more sense to me...

[roddy]

I can think of no more efficient way to stop finding Chinese beautiful than to spend four years in a Chinese university classroom learning it. Is this your first BA?

[xuefang]

Out of curiosity, what is the motivation for majoring in Chinese? What advantage does it confer over majoring in a more standard major (business, liberal arts, science, engineering) while minoring in Chinese and then investing 1-2 years full time in an immersive language program? I'm just wondering what the motivation is for pursuing this kind of education.

Well, first of all living in China have been my dream since I was a kid and already back in high school I was dreaming about studying a degree in China. It took a few years longer to get here, but finally I'm doing what I've always wanted. Someone's calling is to become a doctor, my calling was to come to China.

I also want to be fluent in China in order to better understand this country and it's people. I also want to use my Chinese skills for work. Which kind of work? I'm not sure yet even though I graduate in two years. One option would be to start my own business offering services to Finnish companies in China or those who want to buy from China. For the latter there is already some demand even I'm not even graduated yet and are on a student visa here. I could also teach in the future, but I think I don't want to be a fulltime teacher.

[Steingletscher]

I can think of no more efficient way to stop finding Chinese beautiful than to spend four years in a Chinese university classroom learning it. Is this your first BA?

Hopefully the literary tradition and social interactions will change that. The same is probably true with all languages though. Anyone trying to learn English as a second language will probably say that English is not pretty. However' date=' give them a copy of Lolita or Absalom, Absalom!, have them read it, and then ask if English is pretty--that is if they have a high enough ability to read it (if they do, then they spent the time and effort to get through the boring stuff). I'm willing to trudge through the boring stuff before I can fully appreciate the beauty of the language. Also since I'm interested in grammar, I probably won't find it all that boring (though all grammar books in any language tend to dilute the language's beauty).

is it typically the case that one would study Chinese for several years and then join a standard bachelor's program in Chinese (linguistics) intended for native speakers? That makes more sense to me...

I'm replying to both Roddy & Icebear. This is my first BA and I've already spent 2 years studying the great books and am currently in a year off to figure out a new direction. As it is, I would like to get my degree as soon as possible. I am willing to take 4 more years to get my degree, but 6 seems too much since I want to spend a few years in the workforce (most likely in China, doing something in the English industry) before going onto grad school. Chinese is not the only language I really want to learn (Arabic and Finnish are two others). But I'll still consider the option of spending 2 years doing an intensive Chinese course before going onto Chinese linguistics. I most confess, I no experience in Chinese as a language, so I fear that path would be too much for me.

[panpan86]

Brilliant, another CUCAS employee. We'll see how long you last . . .

Haha, thanks for the warm welcome! Seriously though, I've been a fan of this forum for quite a while now - there's always something interesting to read and there are some very talented people here - I've just been too busy/lazy to sign up for an account until now . So whether or not I'm working at CUCAS (though I'm not planning on going anywhere), I hope I can be a helpful community member and share any knowledge or tips I might have as a Chinese learner and as an expat in Beijing (and of course mention CUCAS every now and then, because it really is a great database of courses. Whether you apply through us or through the university admission office is of course totally up to you!)

In terms of the overall debate above, my 2 cents are that unless you are interested in studying Chinese from an academic standpoint or perhaps going into teaching, doing a bachelor's degree in Chinese is probably not your best bet. As Icebear suggested, you might be better off majoring in something more useful (?), and studying Chinese either as a minor or dedicating some time towards a language program. What I wish I had done is come to China right after high school, studied the language for a year or two and had the time of my life, while using the time to work out what major I wanted to study back home.

The other thing to consider is that, if your end goal is to come to China to work, it might be a good idea to have some skills up your sleeve other than Chinese (as this is one thing that everyone here can do better than you!), otherwise you are likely to be relegated to the positions of English teacher or.. er.. editor.. both jobs I have experience with ^_^

Cheers

Peter

[gato]

This is my first BA and I've already spent 2 years studying the great books

What major are you in right now? Are you considering dropping out? Why?

You might be interested in this thread:

http://www.chinese-f...erature-at-bnu/

Studying Chinese literature at BNU

[panpan86]

is it typically the case that one would study Chinese for several years and then join a standard bachelor's program in Chinese (linguistics) intended for native speakers? That makes more sense to me...

I'm afraid I can't really answer your question, as the statistics I have access at the moment don't differentiate between those who studied Chinese major degrees targeted to foreigners and those targeted towards locals. But I would estimate that there are at least 20,000 foreigners studying Chinese major degree programs in China at present (including both streams), with 5-6 times that number studying Chinese as a non-degree seeking student (i.e. short-term language courses).

[Steingletscher]

This is my first BA and I've already spent 2 years studying the great books

What major are you in right now? Are you considering dropping out? Why?

You might be interested in this thread:

http://www.chinese-f...erature-at-bnu/

Studying Chinese literature at BNU

Thanks for the link. According to the thread, it is mentioned that the average Chinese student takes on average 30 credits. Is that because there are so many classes required for each degree?

Perhaps I'm judging too early, but the Chinese program intended for native speakers seem almost counter-productive to me? I'm assuming that they study their language on a more theoretical level (plus learning more characters). Due to the quality of higher education in China, wouldn't it be better if I simply spent a few years in China learning a working understanding of the language and then return to the US to receive a better theoretical education (my Chinese friends have said that you don't learn anything in college in China unless you are studying hard math and science, which is why they came to study in the US).

I was attending St. John's College, a small liberal arts school based on the Great Books (the curriculum is set and the only degree offered is the liberal arts), and dropped out. Just wiki it if you can (since Wikipedia is blocked in China). I had to leave when I decided I wanted to take a new path.

[yialanliu]

The way Peking University worked for foreigners who wanted to enroll full time and be immersed was you applied as a foreigner with HSK level 6 for any major you wanted.

Once accepted, you take the required courses(exactly the same as a local student) and graduate with a degree(exactly the same). This degree however is worth a lot if your a foreigner as wow that's something most people couldn't do.

The problem is that Chinese rules would apply to you. Changing majors is not something you can do easily, and oftentimes impossible. For instance, you could transfer out of Guanghua, but no one could transfer in.

This is something that might be worth your time as you can major in anything you wanted provided you could take everything a local student can. Keep in mind this is 18 credits minimum standard 24 a semester at PKU(I had a good amount of work(much more than US university) at 16 credits last semester and I was only taking 1 class that was taught for the local students and those are harder), Keep in mind that you'll be expected to perform close to a local high school graduate and no one in Guanghua was outside of top 20 in the entire province with the exception of maybe a few Beijing residents.

Now, if that option is too hard(HSK requirement) then you could do the learn chinese method. However, that just isn't that special in my opinion. Oftentimes, you're limited to studying rudimentary chinese without a second appliable major. At the graduate level, there are much more options such as JHU/NJU joint IAF/IR program or any of the MBA programs taught in english etc.

Lastly, I wanted to make a plug for Ningbo Nottingham University. This is the England Nottingham University campus in China. I do believe the classes are taught in english however, the students are mostly chinese and that could be a good place to study.

[gato]

I was attending St. John's College, a small liberal arts school based on the Great Books (the curriculum is set and the only degree offered is the liberal arts), and dropped out. Just wiki it if you can (since Wikipedia is blocked in China). I had to leave when I decided I wanted to take a new path.

I just looked at St. John's curriculum. I love the concept. It's like the Cal Tech of liberal arts program, but in practice, I think you need Caltech-caliber students to make it work and there are so many such students to go around.

What are you looking for in a program? If linguistics is what you want to do, why not go for an undergrad linguistic major at another university, and maybe spend a year or so in China somewhere along the way for the immersion effect?

Given what you've said so far (about your love for literature), it is highly likely that you'll hate the Chinese approach to language learning, or education more generally. It's a lot of rote learning and very little discussion or debate.

[mholona]

 

 

I'm the girl in Guangzhou Roddy referred to. I study undergraduate degree in Chinese as a foreign language in the Sun Yat-Sen University. Like Roddy said you can skip a year or two if you have studied Chinese before. And old HSK 5 got me to 本二下 (second half of the second year) and with a new HSK5 with a good scores you can start from 本三上 (first half of the year three). Two years is the maximum you can skip. On the third year you can choose Business Chinese or Teaching Chinese, but in the end your major is Chinese Language.

If you want to know more about the degree I'm doing, I'm happy to answer your questions. 

Hello i'm aware that i'm bringing up something from a really old post but I'd still like to take you up on your offer of answering queries  My plan is to leave this fall-year for china and my intention of studying in China is to a get my bachelor's degree + learning Chinese and reaching max proficiency in the language so I figured why not take the undergraduate degree in Chinese as a foreign language that a lot of universities(almost all) seems to be offering. Apart from reading from  the outline modules and threading through forums for info, I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be putting myself into. I would say judging from the outline courses that the classes and materials taught wouldn't be that much different from the non-degree chinese courses, except for a few "business vocabulary" lectures thrown in and getting a degree to show for it at the end of 4 years. Im skeptical that this undergraduate course wont be worth my buck.Can you shed more light on the matter?Like what sort of things are you taught in the lectures? How many lecture hours per day do you get? What textbooks/teaching materials do you use for learning and more important,how is it different from taking a non-degree regular course? Any other information you'd like to add on top of  that would be much appreciated. I would need all the information before I make a decision.  Thanks a bunch