going to BLCU? Introduce yourself here!

[ps345]

hi everyone

let me introduce..

I'm kai ( Thai-Chinese)

age:24

Location:BKK Thailand

I've already found this forum 2 days ago and i think it's great because I can get some useful info to living and studying at BLCU. I've enrolled for Feb semester and It will begin on 23th.

Nice to meet all of u in this forum and I hope to see U in class .

[chiahuei]

hi everyone... i'm hopefully heading to blcu for the march 30 start (12 weeks)... still waiting for them to send my admissions letter.

name: tan chia huei (chen2 jia1 hui4 in pinyin)

age: 22

nationality: malaysian

i'm chinese, but was educated in english and don't speak chinese at home so i can't keep up with my chinese-speaking friends........ hence why i am going to beijing - sink or swim.

do contact me if you're coming to beijing around the same time....

and thx everyone for all the tips particularly with accommodation... i'll check out the foreign students activity centre... it sounds decent. more advice welcome!!!!

[maximus103185]

Hey,

My name is Max, I currently live in San Diego, CA USA.

I am planning on sending in my application to study at BLCU in the next month or so.

I plan to take two-four week sessions back to back. (end of june to end of august)

does anyone know if that is possible? or if that is a good idea?

Also, i keep hearing mixed reviews about living in the BLCU dorms.

Anyone with recent recent info know if it is worth living there???

ALright, i guess ill jsut stop questions there untill i find out people actually (well hopefully) respond to posts!

best,

max

[got_no_jaffas]

call me cheng...

british chinese from london.

parents from singapore but i was brought up as a typical south london boy

i'm already here at blcu awaiting the start of the feb semester, currently staying at the conference centre hotel for a month. the hotel is basic but nice, i have no problems with it. interestingly there still seems to be a lot of renovation going on & it's pretty quiet at the moment.

got here early to try to get adjusted to a new environment & i certainly need it. i have no chinese language skills at all & the first few days are a huge laugh trying to get anything done. but that's normal when moving to a new environment

most worrying thing is trying to cross the road. for some peculiar reason we brits drive on the different side of the road & not only does nobody in beijing seem to pay attention to road etiquette but i'm always looking the bloody wrong way!

my best advice from anyone coming to beijing for the first time is to cross roads with a group of beijingers, that way when a bus or a car doesn't stop, the beijingers either side of you get hit first. or so the theory goes!! and yes i have seen beijingers get knocked over already!!

i used an agent to help me with things & i don't think i could have survived if i hadn't.

[roddy]

got_no_jaffas - [subtle hint]if you fancy writing up a post on the agent you used and how good / useful you found the service, I'm sure a lot of people would be grateful. [/subtle hint]

Roddy

[amandagmu]

"I plan to take two-four week sessions back to back. (end of june to end of august)"

I don't think it's possible since they overlap. You could try and no one would probably do anything about it since you're a foreigner. If that were possible I would do both back to back as well. Actually, if you do figure out how to do this ahead of time, could you post and let me (and others) know? Then I might do it too.

[maximus103185]

so yeah, look at this link, then Down load the first link on the page...

http://www.blcu.edu.cn/lzb/lx/english/index.htm

[stephanhodges]

Rather than "first link", perhaps you mean click on the second link across (from left to right) labeled "Download"?

That leads to another page with a downloadable DOC of the 2006 schedule, admissions forms, and handbook.

[lizbitz]

hi my name is Lauren from Charleston, SC USA.

I arrive March 28th for a 12 week session. I don't know any mandarin. I bought a book but haven't been able to really look at it. I am planning on staying at the Conference Center. Accessmandarin.com is supposed to be handling it...

How is everyone doing there?

How often can you get away and travel? and does anyone have anything planned?

Getting anxious,

Lauren

[TETSU]

Hi, my name's Tetsu and I'll be attending BLCU in the Feb. 27 to Jul 7 program.

Chinese was one of my majors in college, but I haven't had the chance to use it much

back in Japan after I graduated, so I wanted to refresh and brush up on all the Chinese

I've forgotten.

Chinese name: Gongmu

(I'm actually Japanese so this is my family name.

My name gets a little too long to say everytime so I just use my family name all the time)

Age: 27

From: Japan

Program: I'll be taking the 12 week program.

Why learn Chinese: Well, I speak English pretty fluently since I've been living overseas like 60-70% of my life, so I thought it would be fun to learn Chinese as well.

(The truth is, the very first reason for wanting to learn Chinese is because I love

Chinese food, and I've always wanted to be able to read the Chinese menu...)

[got_no_jaffas]

lizbitz:

roddy:

access mandarin have a really friendly guy called tony who is a chinese student at blcu majoring in english who will help you with a lot of things. i'm not sure if the conference centre takes credit cards so be prepared to have the money in cash in a huge wad of 100 kuai bills!!

the rooms at cc are quite reasonable, i'm very happy with it, it's like a dorm room with your own tv & bathroom & mini fridge. when i stayed in dorms at london university there was only a sink & no tv or mini-fridge.

i don't know any chinese as well & the first week will be an interesting laugh like others have said. it took me 5 days to finally work out how to get proper hot food on campus! hahaha! with virtually no english being spoken, you're forced to learn chinese very fast.

i'll have to see what the service is like with access mandarin over time to make a judgement on whether it is money well spent, if anything it's simply a peace of mind policy for when you get into difficulties in a new environment.

everyone gets anxious doing something like this the first time & on their own so you're not alone.

[amandagmu]

Ah... so it seems it is possible to do back-to-back. I wonder how many people have had success doing this. I noticed that the more serious people tended to do the one 6-week long session -- a lot of people take 4 weeks and then go travel the rest of the summer. Now I'm very curious and would like to chat with someone who has actually done the 8 weeks of 2 separate 4 week sessions.

I'm also contemplating studying in France for the month before (all of June) and then coming to China. So I'd have to make a big decision. Although my budget would prefer China, my heart (and stomach) prefer France... I could eat all those pain au chocolats and tartes aux fraises and then go to China to lose the extra pounds that I will have inevitably put on

Amanda

[lizbitz]

cheng, tetsu:

thanks for the support.

I have emailed with tony, currently having trouble getting my passport and transcript small enough for their email (350kb) but with high enough resolution for them to print. Think I'll just go to Kinko's and have them work their magic.

what is a kuai bill? what is the difference between that and a yuan?

after the month is up eharer will you be staying cheng? and how about you tetsu?

[puja]

Although this doesn't belong into an Introduction thread.

First as a disclaimer I have to say that this is only my view of things out of what I (and others here) have experienced and may be viewed by some differently.

About my background: I'm taking the 1 year program scince sep 05 and before I came here I new virtually no chinese. I'm one of those who started this kind of thread.

1) You won't need any company like access mandarin, world link edu, etc. as it is quite easy do manage to get things done on your own and once you're here (at least at blcu) you meet so many people/foreigners that you won't feel the need for any of those companies. If you're not a complete social buff you'll never be alone once classes start.

IMHO the only things these companies are for is to take your fear and make you feel easy before you come here.

2) Conference Center (and even the dorms) are the most expensive (and not always best) ways to stay here. China is cheap so you can get pretty good accomodation outside of campus. for ppl who stay very short time or maybe even up to one semester it's not so bad a decision though.

3) 4 or even 8 weeks is more like a longer vacation (!) and way too short. I understand that many can't afford the time to stay longer so that's your decision, but from what I have seen:

I don't know many very short (< 1 semester) students, but of the 2 I know 1 is going for an additional semester program now.

Of the semester program ppl I know (and those are quite a lot) about 50% is staying for another semester (like my flatmate, who said it's even more in his class)

Even some 1 year folks extent their stay for either studying more or working here.

-> It's worth to stay for a little longer period here. Don't think to much about "losing" time

4) try to plan in a month (at least) for travelling around china, would be sad to come here and only be limited to BJ and surroundings. Once you're here travelling is dirt cheap.

@lizbitz: a "kuai" is a "yuan" only that you seldom say "yuan" on the street (at least not unless you're in a very touristy area)

Cheers,

Puja

[lizbitz]

Thank you so much Puja!

I am already thinking about extending my stay.

Would like to meet you and many others from this forum when I arrive...

Lauren

[puja]

Lauren, you're welcome.

regarding meeting ppl:

I've already organized 2 meetings back in september when we started here. The first one was a bit earlier so only 1 year students came. We were only 5, but it was nice. The second one 18 (!) ppl (nearly all of them semester students) attended and it was a big success. A lot of those ppl became good friends.

The thing is only, once classes start all ppl get to know so many new friends and have so many things todo that nobody will attend these kind of meetings again, so you should try to organize a little mieeting for you new ppl coming soon here. Just start a new thread with the date you ppl arrive and make out a date to meet (best place is usually in front of the lobby of Xi Jiao Hotel as many ppl know that location (near the chocolate fish man).

If you need any help feel free to contact me.

Warm regards (out of cold BJ),

Puja

[maximus103185]

Hey Puja, it seems like your the guy with all the answers....

I havent seen too many posts regarding the application process.

but i have some confusion.

I am supossed to T/T transfer the 75 bucks to the school and then AFTER THAT

send themmy application?

do you think you could explain to me in more of a "step by step" process on how to apply??

and also, is getting in pretty much guaranteed?

what can you tell me about course specific information??? woud love to know!

thanks!

max

[puja]

Max and others,

I opened a new thread for your questions:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=62964#post62964

[shadopup]

A new semester will be starting very soon, monday...anyway, for those who would like any help I'm here to offer some if possible. if you want my cell no. just send an email to davie dot chin @ gmail dot com

I don't check the forums too much as I do not have a computer and have to rely on visiting internet cafes.

To reiterate, I've been here for one semester at BLCU, I am a CBC (canadian born chinese) also the acronym for Canada's national TV station

davie

[little_lilacs]

I'm going for the 12 week program. I am Chinese and speak Hakka and Cantonese, but not mandarin (yet). I love the sound of the language; it's so pretty!