BLCU, Beijing Language and Culture University, Housing Info, and more

[GustavM]

@olivia, when you've recieved the admission notice from BLCU you can call the dorm offices and book a room.

[AlexanderH]

Gustav, can you be a scholarship student and still choose to be in Dorm 17, or are you obligated to be in the other ones ?

[GustavM]

sorry cant help you there...

[greenarcher]

No you can't stay in Dorm 17 unless there are absolutely zero rooms in all the other dorms.

AFAIK they still won't allow you to stay there even if you pay for the remainder of the fee.

[_GBF_]

Hi everyone!

It's been six month now that I'm in China, at BLCU. If you are interested to see some pictures of BLCU, I have a photo blog full of them and other stuff about China. After six month of writing and publishing my blog has a lot of useful informations about China. There is also plenty of pictures of wudaokou, other places around Beijing and other cities that are very hard to find on the web and that many of members are looking for. So if you're interested it's here to be shared!

This id this the link for the BLCU and Wudaokou pictures: here

Hope you'll find it usefull

[crisgee]

Great pictures GBF! I wish i could understand French though!

[Brian US]

Great pictures GBF!

Yea, I think I'll appreciate the snow covered pictures when it starts to get over 30 degrees in the summer.

[JonBI]

Can anybody exactly, or to a rough extent tell me what exactly the intermediate © class requirement is here, and what sort of vocabulary preparation they are looking for?

[Brian US]

Can anybody exactly, or to a rough extent tell me what exactly the intermediate © class requirement is here, and what sort of vocabulary preparation they are looking for?

Turning over the back of my book it appears intermediate level starts at about 2000 words. This is equivalent of over one year study at BLCU if you started from scratch. Upper intermediate is at 3000 words, or you can hop in upper elementary at around 1200 words. Keep in mind that this comes with a lot of grammar.

[greenarcher]

It's hard to say but I did start in C. You should know most of the basic chinese words and be able to construct a coherent sentence without taking too much time thinking what you will say. The actual level of students in every level varies also, some are always better than others. C class helps boost your vocabulary with often-used chinese words, grammar / sentence construction is also improved.

What you should be after C: Fluent or close to fluent for everyday conversations.

[superskunk]

Greetings,

seriously considering to enrol in BLCU either fall 2010 or spring 2011

about the fees structure i've seen on http://www.blcu.org/fees.html does that include accomodation and course fees? for example the '1 Semester Int*' which is $7000 for single occupancy includes both mentioned earlier?

on another matter, just wanted to know if there are malaysians studying there ?

[roddy]

BLCU.org is not the university's site, it's run by a study-in-China agency. BLCU's official site is www.blcu.edu.cn. See here for more info.

[Supercris]

Dear colleagues,

Next September I will be in Beijing studying Mandarin. I have been recommended to join BLCU as their Mandarin Language programs are very good, but I would like to ask in this forum. Has anybody studied Mandarin at BLCU? How was it? Was it worthy (did you learn a lot)?

I am going to make a big effort (economically and personally) by leaving everything in my country and studying for one year in Beijing, so my aim is : LEARNING AS MUCH AS I CAN.

I think BLCU can help you to take the HSK exam in Beijing, which is also one of my targets.

I have studied Mandarin for 2 years already so I know the basics.

Could someone tell me if BLCU is a good choice?

Thank you!

[amandagmu]

I would recommend a stronger program than BLCU if you really want to take the HSK and pass with flying colors... Also, why did you choose Beijing? Just curious. There are a TON of threads on here about BLCU already, including ones started by me.

Here's my general feeling, but I could further qualify on a specific program or aspect in a future post if you'd like (or just read the other posts I have already written):

- BLCU summer 2005 after studying 1 year at an American university: ehhhh I learned enough to start actually speaking, and I learned lots of new vocab (e.g. how to say "the internet doesn't work" and "the a/c is broken" and "how much for one month at the gym?"). Beyond that, the environment was overridden with foreigners at BLCU, the classes too larger (12-18 students, although only 10 showed up on a regular basis thereby dragging down the rest of the class when they DID show up) and one of my two teachers virtually worthless.

- Dalian summer 2006, after studying a second year at the American uni (upper intermediate/low advanced): well, at least I could now string together basic sentences, but in Dalian I learned how to CONVERSE with people because all my classmates were Korean, Japanese, and one Russian. I literally COULD NOT use English.

- ICLP Taipei Taiwan 2007-2008 (one year/three quarters): holy crap, I learned a lot. This program pushed me like hell and I am super competitive, which helps (if you're not then it won't help you). More importantly, this was the program where I learned how to READ. After my first class in the fall quarter I no longer had books with stupid little dialogs in them. I had books that spoke/read like academics and newspaper reading books. Most of all, the books contained relevant information and vocabulary for my research (modern Chinese history and sports). The huge downside to this program --- I hate to say it --- is that I do not think it is worth the cost, unless you can find a scholarship to pay for it. Furthermore, I've written about this elsewhere on here, but the basic speaking method taught to IUP/ICLP students doesn't work for me. On the other hand, I ended up bitching enough for them to set me up with group classes (3 students or fewer) and a decent 单班棵 (one on one every day). In other words, I made it know n quickly who I wanted and/or liked for my classes based on what other people told me. I supplemented my classroom experience with out-of-class spoken practice a bit (Taipei is also overridden with people who want to speak English) but on the whole, I do not feel like my colloquial/street Chinese is any good. People laugh and say I speak like an academic. (I also lack confidence when I speak, still.)

By the time I left ICLP I could read about my research topic with much less dictionary usage, and understand enough to get the gist right away (even if certain nouns threw me off) and I could attend lectures on campus in Chinese and understand about 75% of an undergrad lecture. I could also start meeting professors in Taipei related to my research and found I could actually conduct the conversation in Chinese (!).

Next year, I'll be back in Beijing and I'm mostly worried at this point about re-adjusting after two years off from the language while I prepare my other PhD work. So in some ways, I'm back to square one. I'd like to find a tutor, professor, or research student (PhD student) to work with on the side. I still can't read academic journal articles in Chinese, although I realize in part it's because the structure of the argument differs significantly from academic writing in the Euro-American scholarship....

[greenarcher]

The program in Peking University and Tsinghua University are more rigorous and forces you to study. You can survive BLCU without studying, teacher's don't care and you only have midterms and finals to worry about.

BUT if you really want to learn, you WILL learn. I am in my 2nd semester in BLCU and my 1st semester was simply fantastic. It really depends on the person. There are a lot of english speakers in our class now but we still opt to use chinese to communicate instead.

[Supercris]

Dear Amanda and Greenarcher, thank you both for your answers, which are very useful.

Let me explain my situation as I would like to hear your opinion, please: I am applying for a Scholarship to go to Taipei and I have a lot of chances to get it (I will know this week). The University I would go is "National Taiwan Uni" (where the ICLP program is held) although I have applied for a "lighter" program called CLD as I do not think my level of chinese is good enough to join ICLP.

At this moment I have studied Mandarin for 2 years (5 hours per week only) so I may know no more than 700 chinese characters (simplified).

@Amanda: What do you think about this?

On the other side, my current chinese teachers told me that Beijing is the best place to study Mandarin as it is the official language (no dialects). I was literally told "Beijing is better although Taipei is not bad". (And some of my teachers are from Taipei).

I was particularly recommended BLCU. I entered their website and saw there are a lot of foreigners who study Mandarin there, so I thought their program had to be good. And also I read they can prepare you to take HSK exam which is one of my targets. (I have also applied for a scholarship for BLCU but I will not know the results until the summer).

Finally, as far as I know, in Taiwan you are not taught pinyin (which is the only method I know at the moment) and in Taiwan you are taught Traditional Mandarin which is more difficult and I do not find it useful as in the rest of China it is Simplified Mandarin the one that is used.

I am a 32 years old proffessional who is going to quit her job and invest one year studying Mandarin, so I am going to work hard to learn, and also I admit that I feel much more attracted by China than by Taiwan (for travelling purposes, although this is secondary).

Hope you can help me to decide!!

Thank you guys, and have a nice day.

[greenarcher]

I totally forgot that Taiwan still uses Traditional Chinese and they still do not use pinyin, I now remember how their athletes' names are translated into english, definitely not pinyin. If you ask me, it's impractical to study at Taiwan now that China is dominating the world. It's hard to switch to traditional once you've started with simplified. Pinyin is also makes learning chinese very easy.

I wouldn't say Beijing is the best because there's no other dialect because for me their "-er" accent is sufficient to make you not understand what they are saying. However this only applies to the old folks and most blue collared workers like taxi drivers and security guards. I personally find southern mandarin (shanghai, xiamen, etc) to be the easiest to understand because they don't have the -er accent.

I would study in Beijing because it feels very China and there's simply a lot to see, both old and new.

[amandagmu]

You have a good point about the traditional/simplified thing. At the beginning levels at ICLP you are given a choice to have one or the other, but by the second quarter you will be reading traditional. By the way, in my case I did feel frustrated the first month because I needed to adjust to traditional, even though my books sometimes had traditional next to simplified (and they will never ever make you write or type traditional, but you will need to learn how to read it for the upper level courses). But in retrospect I am very glad to have this skill. Honestly, it really is not terribly difficult once you start doing it, and you will be able to read both without a problem (at least, that's what happened to me). The characters (with a few exceptions) are really not so different that you won't be able to get the hang of this.

I don't know who told you they don't use pinyin in those books or in the classroom, but they do. True, pinyin is a disaster with street names and such, but pinyin is the accepted form for teaching and that is what you will learn in the classroom in Taipei.

For your level, it's hard to tell if ICLP would even accept you... the easier program at NTU (in the same building as ICLP) is not worth joining imo. On the other hand, if you receive a scholarship to study at ICLP (doubtful for this late in the year but possible) TAKE IT AND GO TO ICLP. I don't say that lightly. I would tell someone who got a scholarship to Middlebury, CET, or IUP the same thing. When I said it was too much $ to pay out of pocket, I meant that -- but it's also the best program I've ever been to, hands down. You know that big huge ridiculous hump everyone needs to get over in Chinese? Well, maybe you aren't there yet, but I was after Dalian and in my first year of the grad program. I desperately needed to be able to function in archives, libraries, and converse with professors/ scholars--basically I needed to be able to discuss and read about my research topic very quickly. True, I still read much slower than I would like to, but the fact that I could scan microfilms at the library by February (started in September) and could interview people by March-April in Chinese was huge. Some people (most people) never make it over that hump, and many people are not disciplined enough to train on their own to do it. In my case I frankly don't have the time when I'm in the PhD program because I'm required to balance 40,000 other things. I took the year off and wanted to maximize my time. These programs do that for you, and the environment is competitive. You'll have lots of homework, small classes, and everyone is pretty much on the ball 100% of the time. You will be expected to do your part. For example, my final project involved a speech in Chinese on French nationalism in the European Union. I spoke for 15 minutes. You can imagine the amount of time I put into that! (My teacher for that class was probably the best teacher I've ever had, and I'd say I've had about 12 Chinese teachers. She read, corrected, discussed my drafts with me, and she offered optional tone classes to the whole school each week at no extra cost.)

Furthermore, based on the other info you told me about yourself, I think you might find ICLP to be a better environment than BLCU. The average age the year I was at ICLP was late 20s->mid 30s, with a handful of people younger (just got bachelor's), a bunch of slightly older people, and above all people who were serious about learning the language. To give you an idea of who goes to these programs, I'm a doctoral student in history who needs the language to do primary source research and conduct interviews in Chinese (I was able to start this after one quarter at ICLP). Australian and New Zealand send their diplomats to ICLP for Chinese training. I met two separate people, both business professionals (one mid-30s, one late-30s) who came from Shanghai and Beijing where they had spent YEARS working and trying to learn Chinese unsuccessfully. They both admitted that in terms of colloquial language they knew enough to do their jobs after having lived in China, respectively, 4 and 5 years, but that neither felt comfortable enough to read and write Chinese well enough to pass HSK 7. (One of them had passed level 5 or 6 before going to ICLP.)

On the other hand, if you don't get the scholarship, you should go to China. It's much cheaper, and perhaps at your level it'll be fine for the next year. I would consider the other programs and re-applying for scholarship money to go to the others in the future.

Edited May 5, 2010 at 06:23 AM by amandagmu

[amandagmu]

BTW Have you considered CET or IUP programs for using the scholarship money? I don't know as much about those since I didn't go to them, but I have been told that the structure is similar to ICLP. I know for a fact that the students in the IUP program probably come closer to the description I've provided on ICLP, but the deadlines are earlier and for some reason it's more rigorous to get into that one -- even though I have been told it's the same curriculum. Likely it's just because it's at Tsinghua.

[greenarcher]

Hello greenarcher' date='

In one of your posts you said Tsinghua University has a Mandarin Language Program which is more rigurous for the than the one at BLCU.

As I am still thinking where to go, I may apply for Tsinghua instead of BLCU, but I wanted to ask for your opinion.

I have seen that Tsinghua program is much cheaper than BLCU and in their webpage, it seems that it is a very good place....

Would you recommend Tsinghua? Do you have any information?

Even their accommodation in University Dorms looks quite nice and cheap!

Thank you.[/quote']

My BLCU teachers recommended Peking University if I decided not to return to BLCU. I have friends from both Tsinghua and Peking, their stories seem to project that their curriculum forces you to study by regularly giving quizzes and tons of homework. In BLCU you can get by without studying. But if you are really in Beijing to learn, I see no problem with the lack of pressure in BLCU. I know a guy who rarely goes to class in Tsinghua. Only downside of BLCU curriculum-wise is that you are stuck in the same level for all subjects. Meaning if your oral skills is better than your reading skills, you can't go to a harder oral class. In Peking you can have varying levels for each subject. Tsinghua uses Peking University books just so you know.

The big number of foreigners in BLCU is both good and bad. You get to meet a lot of new friends from different countries. But if you stick to an english-speaking group, then your improvement will not be as fast. It's like a double-edged sword. There are also a lot of local students in BLCU, easy to make friends with them too.

Campus-wise both of them are humongous even when compared to universities in the USA. BLCU is tiny when compared to them but it makes it very easy to walk around the campus; very convenient too. There are also more commercial establishments within walking distance, including the subway station.

Dorm-wise I haven't seen the dorms in Tsinghua or Peking but from the stories, I think BLCU has better dorms; that's why they are also more expensive.

I go to BLCU so I'm biased towards it. Personally, I believe it all lies with the person and not so much with the school.