Confucius Summer Camp

[AaronUK]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have been fortunate enough to be invited on a short cultural experience in China by Hanban where I will go to Beijing Dance Academy for 1 week and Jiangsu University for 1 week as part of a tour.

 

I am due to engage in some Language learning during this time, I was just wondering if anyone had any experiences they could share of doing a similar tour and what they got out of it? Currently around level 3 HSK but not sure I would really expect to advance much in my language on such a short trip.

 

Thanks,

 

Aaron

 

[Kherith]

What do you expect from a two weeks trip where learning language is not even the main focus... ? Sometimes I feel that people create topics because they are bored ^^

[Flickserve]

It's what you make of it.

 

You must have pleco to look things up.

 

you must observe very carefully what people do and what people say.

 

aim to be able to understand easy things like 请让一下

[sindy123]

@AaronUK I also did a cultural experience/chinese language camp at Hanban in 2014.

 

We explored Beijing for three days and then "studied" Chinese at a university in Xian for one and a half week. The trips in Beijing was well organized, but in Xian it was a bit different. Just as you said: you won't be able to learn much Chinese. What they did in my case was basically dividing the group into two classes, one for people who never learned Chinese before and all the others were put into the other class. So some could just say 我，你，他 and others who had HSK 3/4/5 were in the same class, so it was really useless for them. And at the end, everyone had to do the HSK1 test and most people in the first class failed.

 

But what makes the experience incredible is the local Chinese students that you will meet there (they were voluntarily helping the Hanban students, so they were there during all the activities). They are really friendly and you will be able to understand their mindset, it is different then the traditional/older generations' and your opinion about rude Chinese people will definitely change. Most of their English were good. We were not allowed to leave the campus by ourselves, so basically we had to "sneak out" at night to go out and the volunteers helped us and even partied with us. Also if I remembered correctly Hanban gives scholarships/discount to all participants and it's cheaper than any camps out there, so it is definitely worth it! 

 

Have fun

[AaronUK]

 

@Kherith I searched the forums for information about people who have been on this program since it is something commonly offered by Confucius Institutes but there was nothing listed at all.

 

@sindy123 Thanks, glad to know you had a positive experience regardless of the limited learning available. I think there are local students I will be interacting with too so I might focus my attention on speaking with them for practice.

 

Fortunately I was invited by a local Confucius institute so Hanban has heavily discounted the experience I'm visiting 4 different cities and I am just paying for my flights in and out of china..

[dumpling98]

Usually in this kind of short programs it is more about visiting and culture than learning languages. Anyway, congrats for getting this opportunity and have fun!

[Lu]

I agree, don't expect too much serious language learning. If that is something you want very badly, perhaps you can try asking the universities where you will be studying for some kind of special short program, but I don't think you'll have much luck. Instead, just enjoy your stay there and try to meet as many interesting people as you can. That is the main value of such tours. Have fun, and come back here to tell us your experiences!

[Flickserve]

15 hours ago, sindy123 said:

Most of their English were good.

 

That's a bummer. That means less Chinese language opportunity.

 

I might be wrong but any student chosen or who volunteer to help overseas students will have been selected for their English skills.

 

[AaronUK]

Hi again,

 

I don't like it when people ask questions and then don't post updates 'i.e. i'm going to do X in China, can you help me with X' but then they never come back to share how they found their way around things.

 

For the benefit of anyone searching summer Confucius Institute cultural visits to China I thought I would post some of my photos in case it was interesting.

 

The Confucius Institute was a very good host, treating us to banquet meals and paying for theatre tickets, attraction tickets, intercity rail tickets and accommodation, we started in Beijing(hosted by Beijing Dance Academy) and visited the Great Wall and forbidden city. I took some language classes and culture classes including some traditional Chinese dance (sword dance included).  I would say while I didn't learn a massive amount in language over 2 weeks, it did give me a sense of confidence which I have built on after returning. I also made a point to go out gay bars in Beijing and Shanghai and speak to locals after some alcohol was fun to practice my Chinese (at least I found it fun). I was surprised A) how much alcohol Chinese people drink (surprisingly good whiskey mixed with ice tea) and also B) how good the DJs were everywhere I went.

 

I visited Jiangsu University for a few days for some very good language classes and looking around, I was featured in ChinaDaily newspaper for learning some Chinese painting. We then went onto Suzhou to visit the gardens and then to Shanghai for a few days to look around.

 

Feel free to ask any questions, I have uploaded photos in case its of any interest to people

 

 

 

 

 

[Lu]

Thanks for coming back and telling us about how it was! Good to hear that you got some language classes into it and that you had the opportunity to practice your Chinese.

[Flickserve]

Looks like a great trip. Side trip to HK included 

[happiness47]

Hi @aaronuk 

I wonder if i can take both of the confucius summer scholarship and one-academic-year-scholarship in the same year(2018)? Can i apply for both of the scholarship?