Best University / Langauge school in Shanghai for upper level chinese studies

[shivan]

Greetings all!

I just graduated my bachelor of science in Asian Langauges, Buisness and Culture with Chinese. I studied chinese for 4 years, one of those years being full time.

I was the best in my class at the time of graduation. I speak relatively fluent chinese, but i still need the last to go to get to level where it any use for buisness and employment.

I got awarded a scholarship to go and study for one year in Shanghai. Can anyone recommend or share their experiences with universities or language school in Shanghai when it comes to advanced studies?

My goal for the following year is to pass the highest level HSK to get that as a certification.

best

Emil

[xidi]

Hi there, congratulations on your accomplishments. I wish I had the right answer for you, it's just that I am in a similar position, I am most likely going to be in Shanghai starting this August on a scholarship for a year. According to my Shanghainese teachers Fudan is the top university and has a good international division, they take good consideration of foreigners needs, of course there are general rules which by the way most universities have such as a prohibitation on people from outside visiting your room, I think it's okay, it depends really on your purpose for going to the school. For me I will be just going to focus on my Chinese study and whoever I will have to see I will see outside but so many people mind that rule. Another thing about Fudan is the price, apparently it's expensive (accomodation) but good if you are a scholarship student. So from what I have gathered I would go for Fudan University.

However, I didn't quite get;

Your scholarship, what type of scholarship is it because with most Chinese scholarships you have to be admitted first..hence if you got it you have to have a school already.

[jiacheng]

I am a former student of ECNU (华东师范大学) and I felt that their 2nd year (intermediate) program was pretty decent overall. The only issue I had with the 2nd year was that the listening material was really beyond our ability. They used lots of vocabulary we had never encountered before and the authors could not be bothered to list the new words. It's my understanding that they are re-evaluating those materials, so that may change. I felt very frustrated with the 3rd year (advanced) program. While it did have some redeeming features, I don't feel that I learned as much as I could, much of the vocabulary that we did learn was low frequency and not that beneficial to our overall Chinese level. As a result, I will be changing to Jiaotong Univeristy this coming semester, which I understand allows you to select individual courses at the Advanced level.

[Tiana]

Shivan, this may not be something you've thought of but I've experienced personally (with another language) with great results: since your Chinese is at a decent level now, go and enrol for any academic subject taught in Chinese that takes your fancy or that you think would be useful. You'll then find that you're actually using your Chinese for a very concrete purpose instead of just learning it the way you used to do at a lower level. You should find the change of approach makes the learning process stimulating.

[shivan]

thanks for the answers so far.

xidi: I dont intend to stay in any kind of Uni dorm. Probably going to roommate with a another friend of mine who got the scholarship last year.

tiana: thanks for the tip but it might be a bit much. I think i need just to study a bit (and get a chinese girlfriend). But then i might take a subject. Always wanted to take statistics....