What things would you prioritize when choosing a city?

[hoshinoumi]

Hi everyone!!

 

I would like to emphasize that this topic is not meant to talk about any specific cities. My question is:

Which aspects should be the most important to consider when choosing a city for a year/two year/one semester in China?

I am applying for the Confucius Scholarship this year, so I intent to live in China for the next academic year. I still don't know how to choose where I want to live. I know I should ask myself a couple of questions (there's a great topic with this info here):

-How is the accent? Is this an important matter to me?

-How big/small is the city?Much or little pollution?

-Where is it located? Will I be able to travel around easily?

-How cheap/expensive is it?

-How good is the university you want to apply to?

-What is the weather like?

 

I know that some people will prioritize some of these aspects and other people, different ones. But, here comes my question: what is the most important to you??

 

I don't know what to prioritize for my first year in China. My proffessional ambitions are to eventually do a PhD program (back home) in Chinese Linguistics or Chinese-Spanish Translation (yeah, you can guess where I'm from). Keeping that in mind, what should be my main concerns when choosing a city? Should accent be important? University quality?

 

Sorry for the long post, I really hope this can help many other people too

[anonymoose]

It depends on what's important to you. Personally, if I were to spend an extended period in China, weather would be a prime consideration. The north of China can be bitterly cold, and winters long.

[歐博思]

Agree with anonymoose on the weather. I suppose I'm suitable for living in the tropics then, because Hangzhou hovers around 10c most of the winter which I find a bit cold.

 

For your future aspirations in Chinese Linguistics, I'd say go for a smaller-ish city where they don't speak super-standard mandarin. You can still get exposed to a ton of CCTV type mandarin on, well, CCTV. I think this would help you experience a broad variety of Chinese accents before you step into a linguistics classroom.

 

In my own view, I feel that job opportunities in xyz city outside of the teaching field are important considerations.

[H.Beno]

Good evenning Hoshinoumi!

 

I want to say above all, that I can only encourage you to step into this experience.   China is definitly a great experience for students. I am sure you will enjoy youre stay here.

 

I will try to clarify some points to you and try to guide you into a proper frame you can use for deciding which city you want to live in. I believe these advises are my personal point of view.

 

First of all, being in China, how matter the city or the university remain a very good thing. I believe anywhere will be a great learning experience for you, either if you will study the language or follow a master degree. The 2 most important things for me to choose are : The life cost, The position of the city in the map.

 

The life cost : Being in a small city will be very good for you, because you won't spend a lot of money and you will focus on your studies more. However, the life cost in China is very correct in all cities (Except Beinjing and Shanghai I think, especially if you will live outside the campus).

 

The position of the city in the map: For me it's the most important thing, if you choose a city near other bigg cities, you will enjoy it more, because you can travel easily. Personnaly I am in Jiangsu province and it's very cool , because I am 1 hour far from Shanghai, 40min from Wuxi, 20 min from Nanjing.

 

For the rest of the questions, I think that you will adapt depending on the situation you will be. Don't worry about the accent, or the pollution. Once you get in China, you will be fine! Actually, being in a place were accent is difficult may give you an opportunity to learn more Dialect.

 

The weather is cold in Winter and Hot in Summer.

 

To conclude, I really think that the university doesn't matter a lot, if you are open to live a new experience. I believe that you need to get your plane done for the next 5 years so you take advantage of this experience.

 

Hope That I helped you see clearer. If you have any other question, feel free!

 

再见  

[hoshinoumi]

Being from a 10°C-winter city, I guess weather is kind of important haha.

So, keeping in mind my future idea of Linguistics, would you say that being in smaller cities like Xi'an or Hangzhou would be a good idea? My chinese is still very basic so I don't really know if accents are that bad.

Thank you again for any help I greatly appreciate it

[msittig]

- What is the % of English-speaking foreigners at the school or in the city?

 

I would think this question would be important.

[hoshinoumi]

- What is the % of English-speaking foreigners at the school or in the city?

Even more than how big or small the city is? Or quality of the university itself? I had thought of this question but I assume that there's no difference between 10 or 100 if I'm gonna be attending Chinese for foreigners classes...

[Tianjin42]

As stated, extremely dependent on personal preferences. Someone I met when in China with very high level Chinese had one of his most successful years at a little university in the south. Didn't hear much Mandarin when out and about but the university was well-organised and he progressed well. 

 

Thinking back - I was happy in Tianjin for the following reasons:

 - Whilst there is 天津话, you will hear mostly fairly standard Mandarin.

 - From previous visits, I felt that the people in Tianjin were particularly friendly. 

 - Weather is crucial but for me that meant favouring somewhere with hot summers, cold winters (and central heating). Great to experience such different seasons.

 - I like that in Tianjin, unless you are in a small central part, you really feel in the sticks (that could be said of a lot of cities though). It was authentic for sure. 

 - As well as the above, there is just about a big enough expat community so that there is an international clinic etc, if required. 

 - I like "northern Chinese culture" (there is a certain stoicism I admire).

 

I didn't consider food too much but it might be important to some (狗不理 baozi honestly isn't all that). 

I would certainly place more emphasis on pollution were I going for an extended period again. If I was going essentially to improve Chinese then I would also consider this. We all have good intentions but I spoke a hell of a lot more Chinese when staying in featureless mid-range cities across northern China rather than central Beijing. 

 

So it depends very much on you:

Maybe you are committed to learning the language but you are comfortable you will be disciplined living in a first tier city. Perhaps you can't take cold and want a year in Sanya. 

 

Think carefully about all the things that are important to you. 

[hoshinoumi]

I was thinking of staying in a smaller city for the reasons you guys have stated. I can bear some cold, but somewhere around Beijing would actually be quite cold for me. I like the idea of some mid-range city in the center-northern part of China, but my main concern is the accent, whether it would be a good or bad idea, regarding my professional intentions with Chinese.

 

By the way, these comments you are giving me are precisely what I was looking for! Keep them coming please

[889]

" . . . smaller cities like Xi'an or Hangzhou . . ."

Those are big cities to my mind, provincial capitals with metros. When I think of decent smaller cities I think of places like Suzhou and Yangzhou.

[hoshinoumi]

I will research a bit about those two optiongs too!

[Guest realmayo]

I would say most important is quality of teaching, but that can be hard to assess from afar and in many cases there may not be much difference. But I would avoid the universities which act as farms for Year 1 language students.

 

What I mean by this is: students with scholarships to study non-language degrees, and who will be taught in Chinese, must first study Chinese language for a year and are drilled to pass a certain HSK level. I don't know if this is still the case, but a few years ago certain universities were designated as centres to provide this one-year language course, after which the students left to go to whatever university it was that they would be studying their main degree at for the next four years.

 

My sense was that these students' HSK exam results could become the main priority for those universities which were designated as the centres of this training. So other students, perhaps such as people in your position, weren't the priority.

 

So that for me would be the main factor when choosing a city -- trying to make sure that the teaching you'll receive will be okay.

[hoshinoumi]

I hadn't thought of that but it is know definitely a priority when choosing. Do those universitiea usually tell that somewhere around their website? Should I as well look for top universities in rankings? (I was thinking of xi'an jiaotong University, which is around 10-15th place). Thanks again

[roddy]

I wouldn't choose a university for Chinese study by overall rankings. The uni might be ranked very highly as it has a long history and outstanding reputation in teaching aerospace engineering. Doesn't mean they know how to teach Chinese. 

 

Obviously if you're planning to go on to do a degree at the same uni, that's a different story. 

[Tianjin42]

Seconded, in fact this same issue came up a few years ago (here). Back then I wrote:

 

"One thing I would add is that you should be careful with rankings. In my experience the quality of the university Chinese course for foreigners doesn't necessarily match up with the university's reputation in relation to the courses proper (for predominantly Chinese students). Perhaps you could consider researching universities you would be interested attending and cross referencing with universities offering possible scholarships. Cucas would be a good starting point."

 

In fact some of the strongest universities may indeed be fairly weak in the field of teaching Chinese as a second language (and vice-versa). Things seem to change fairly rapidly with the flow of teachers so you'd do well to speak to people who are on, or have recently been on such courses. If you get a strong recommendation from a current student or recent student then you have a lead. 

[roddy]

Also, generally and not necessarily all the time, certain universities seem to do a bit better. Normal (ie, teacher-training) universities, foreign language universities, drama / broadcasting schools - these places tend to have the type of staff and expertise you need to teach languages. 

[Lu]

In my experience the quality of the university Chinese course for foreigners doesn't necessarily match up with the university's reputation in relation to the courses proper (for predominantly Chinese students).

Back in the day (2002-3) a foreign student at Tsinghua explained to me that since Tsinghua gets the best students and ample money from its engineering (and related) programs targeted at Chinese students, it felt no pressing need to provide a good Chinese-for-foreigners program. That's just not its selling point. And hence BLCU, which for Chinese students is not all that great, was actually better at teaching foreigners Chinese than the much-hailed Tsinghua or Beida.

[hoshinoumi]

I think I will then choose some mid or lower-range cities that I like and then do as much research as possible about the universities. A big thank you to everyone, there are some things only an experienced person can tell you

[anonymoose]

Another thing to consider is location of the university within the city. Sometimes they can be far from the city centre, and the Chinese classes may not be at the main campus, so clarify this before you commit yourself.

[roddy]

Sounds like a sensible approach - so many options, you have to narrow it down somehow.