Study in the UK or China (CGS) ?

[Angelina]

In the end, it is about your life, the people you meet, the things you do.

Do what makes you happy! You can create your own success. If communication and building bridges makes you happy, then do it. You can find your own path.

[Flickserve]

Being happy now is one thing. Trying to work to be happy in the future is another.

 

That's why I think the best compromise is taking a gap year, trying out China for nearly a year and seeing if it suits yourself. What does one have to lose by taking a gap year? Given the information here, I think this sounds like a reasonable option of a compromise.

 

I do think what the others have said about a skill and just a language is true.

 

Angelina, one has to consider what you get from networking. Yes, I agree it can help but how targetted are you. I found that post grad programs are very strong (and therefore efficient) but undergrad....well, so long as you don't go to a mediocre University, it's like, well, if you act like a dickhead with a big chip on your shoulder, you don't get no respect.

[geraldc]

I would be intrigued to see how a non Chinese from a non developing nation handles life as an undergraduate in China. I know lots of post grads/language students cope, but they tend to have bigger budgets and don't live in undergraduate dorms. A language course and an undergraduate course would be at least 4 years. 4 years of not much access to cheese...Hope you like basketball. Do they still play basketball?

[Angelina]

4 years of not much access to cheese...Hope you like basketball. Do they still play basketball?

the Inter(Intra)net is still free (of charge)

[Tianjin42]

As already pointed out - there are many factors here - consider carefully. You are probably going going to have regrets whichever you choose so choose your regrets. This is why I like Roddy's idea of securing a place at Notts to fall back on if you do go to China.

I'm currently a post grad at Notts so I'll try to provide some useful information. If your Chinese is good then you could start at level 4a - proficiency in Chinese in the first year, moving to Chinese for Research in the second and Translation in the third. The translation course is typically 90% Chinese students and tough. Combined with a period on the Notts ningbo campus you'd develop a decent technical mandarin level. Generally the Chinese language training is good but not excellent - however there area some teachers like Wang Weiqun and Xu Sujing - great Chinese teachers.

There is also a Confucius Institute so you'd get additional Chinese classes from that if you like. Your course would mean some classes on Jubilee Campus and some on UP campus. Jubilee has a massive Chinese population (more Chinese than British) so if you live there as I did (I lived in Cottonmills student accommodation during my MA as it was cheap) + request to live with Chinese, you do end up with a very Chinese environment though obviously, I was using Chinese more when at Tianjin University.

Obviously I might be bias here but in terms of academic rigour, I strongly suspect Nottingham is the better option, but the importance of this factor depends on your goals. I enjoyed my time in the Chinese university system but through my own experience at Tianjin uni and that of friends at Tsinghua & Jiaotong, I still believe there is a gulf, depending on the subject. Nottingham offers some very strong courses in terms of academic analysis of China - Andreas Fulda's Contemporary Chinese Society and EU/China relations modules for example; Jon Sullivan, Sarah Dauncey, Chun-yi Lee, these members of staff all offer exceptional China expertise and modules that demonstrate a level of rigour and analysis that I felt was missing during my time in the education system on the mainland.

Living in China would be a wonderful experience and I recommend you do that at some point. I loved my time in China and learnt a lot. However in strictly academic terms I went to China for the language but to a British uni for an academic qualification. I have no regrets about that choice.

Final point - remember that what you put in is crucial here. A distinction at Nottingham in that course is brilliant but you'd have to work hard to get it.

If you've got further Notts questions feel free to message.

[Angelina]

Can you please share what you have learned from Chinese for Research?

 

Here is BanZhiYun's experience from Peking University, Department of Chinese, undergraduate studies:

 

#56

 

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/35817-peking-university/?p=399219

 

 

 

It was the worst class among the other classes. We had it twice a week for 2 hours, the first time the teacher was "teaching" a different type of 文体 (that my "foreign" classmates have already studied in chinese HS), and then we had to write next class. The following week, she'd return our "essays" and she'd pick some student's sentences and make a PPT, then discuss them with us etc. The only useful thing that I learnt in this class (after I basically 勉强 the teacher to do it, god, I hated that goddamn teacher. She was totally 西化. Worst type of Chinese people I've ever seen.) was the 成语 have a grammatical structure (主谓，述宾，述补 etc. etc, the same gramatical structure as a simple sentence) and according to that, we can define how to use them correctly in a sentence. E.g. 祸不单行 is a 主谓结构, so it's a 谓词性短语, therefore in a sentence it can be anything, but 主语 or 宾语. E.g. 我最近总是碰晦气，再说祸不单行，这段日子简直太难熬了. etc.

I liked my 口语 class much more than 《阅读与写作》. But these 2 classes were my least favorite, The teachers were non-stop “你们要达到中国人的表达水平" which is an absolute 伪命题, and 100% bullshit for real foreigners. But at the same time, 99% of my foreign classmates were born and raised in China, so maybe they can achieve it.

 

 

 

 

 

Ideally, you can start a new thread. Thank you. 

[thechamp]

The China experience would be great and very interesting but it might not be what you want from the educational perspective and for employment later. You'd definitely stand out but that's not always a good thing. Your CV would raise a few eyebrows but I would say 99.9% of recruiters have never heard of universities like Tsinghua. I have also heard anecdotally of people who've done undergrad degrees at Chinese universities, being rejected for Chinese related masters back in the UK, even though their Chinese would be way more advanced than that of their UK undergraduate peers.

 

Like the guy above said, it's often not about your language skills that you'll get a job. There are so many other requirements and interview variables and just right-place-right-time stuff to factor in. Also, if you're applying in the UK.....you might want to be in the UK for your final year of university so you can easily attend interviews. 

 

I actually know a guy in the foreign office who has the Oxford Chinese MSc (but studied maths at undergrad!) and he is hardly ever in China. He seems to have spent about 5 years of a 15 year career in the FCO, in China. Many international careers will look like that, so just go for the most reputable university you can and get onto as good a job as you can in the UK when you graduate (this will also look better if you want to move to China later).

[davoosh]

If you already have a BA, I think the MSci would be more advantageous career/academia wise.