Other than Beijing

[Harvey]

Hey guys,

I'm like 98% confident that either BNU or BCLU is the place for me. And I'm leaning towards starting short term in August, and going on to the Intensive program in Sept, and staying for a year.

BUT!!!

Something inside me says, going to Beijing is too EASY. EVERYONE goes to Beijing. There must be some other place with a decent school, and where the dialect is close enough to Mandarin, that would be just a bit more adventurous than Beijing.

Is it true? Is there such a place!? My kingdom for th wild wild east.

- Harvey

[JohnSmith1980]

hey Harvey!

Cant really help ya too much, but I went for a drink with some friends the other day and I remember them saying that Dalian and Qingdao are nice places to study because of the crisp putonghua they speak, as well as nice cities to live in.

Just a starter....hope someone else can be more helpful.

Chris

[AlexBrit]

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. I've got time to waste, having just returned from China, and looking for work in the UK. In answer to your query, I should say I am totally down with going to Dalian. It was just right - not too big, not too small. There were ugly, dirty parts but hey it's a developing country. There is a cluster of universities outside the centre, to the Southwest of the 'Bohai peninsula' - including the Maritime University, the uni of Tech, the uni of finance and eco, and the institute of IT.

Alex

[Lu]

Harvey: Please don't worry, not EVERYONE is going to Beijing. In fact, most people never get there, and never learn Chinese. Going to China to learn Chinese is pretty adventurous in itself.

I don't know about Dalian, but I do know Shandongnese is a lot like Mandarin but with the tones mixed up.

[stephanhodges]

If you do settle on somewhere outside of Beijing, please do return and post about it or send me private email. I'm currently about 10 months "behind you" in my plans. If I recall, you're over 50? I'm 54. I'd like to keep in touch to learn from you.

Here's some links I've been collecting on Dalian, if it helps.

http://www.educasian.com/university/dalianforeignstudies.html

http://www.educasian.com/searchresults.asp?program=chinese+language&location=Dalian

Pricing through Educasian: http://www.educasian.com/info/schedprice.html

Official site has many schools: http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/Study/default.htm

Dalian University English Page: http://www.dlscs.com/english/dl_jianjie.htm

Message board at Dalian (not much activity): http://www.dlscs.com/english/liuyanban.asp?currentpage=1

[Celso Pin]

When i ve start to learn english, the first place i though was OXFORD.... and I think there are more adventure in learning Chinese in Beijing than English in Oxford....

p.s. Next year i will be at BLCU!

[Harvey]

You know... I think I could get a job in an IT company in Dalien if I really tried...

[Harvey]

If I recall, you're over 50? I'm 54. I'd like to keep in touch to learn from you.

Nonnononono. I'm not over 50! I'm only 26!

These links are interesting thanks a lot! There are a lot of people where I work now from Dailan, as I work for a mostly Japanese company in Japan that takes in a lot of IT work from China. I'm going to ask them more about Dailan this week! Interesting

Thanks!

[Harvey]

Hi guys. I'm new to this forum. I've got time to waste, having just returned from China, and looking for work in the UK.

What were you doing in China?

[snarfer]

A girl at my school in Beijing studied for 5 months in Dalian and really liked it. She was able to pay all of her expenses by teaching a few English classes. And she now communicates quite well in Chinese. A distinct advantage was that the vast majority of fellow students there were Korean.

[stephanhodges]

Some questions, please.

1) How well did she speak/read Chinese before going to the school

2) Could you provide some contact information for the school, and also what is the name of the school? (web site, email, etc)

3) Does the school accept people over 50 years old? (i.e. me )

If she is willing, could you also send me her email so I could ask some questions.

Thanks

Stephan Hodges

[stephanhodges]

Would you have web page and email contact information for each of them. Also, their actual names (for searches, etc)?

Thanks much!

[Harvey]

A girl at my school in Beijing studied for 5 months in Dalian and really liked it.

No kidding! What school is this?

[kaifaqu crue]

I can also put in a recommendation for Dalian. The local accent has its unique characteristics, but they are not nearly as strong as many other places and pretty easy to get used to. The city itself is relatively clean and modern, though it gets pretty cold in the winter. If by ‘EVERYONE’ you mean westerners, Dalian still has a rather small population of English-speaking western foreigners. The vast majority of your classmates would be Russian or Korean which means you would usually be speaking Chinese to communicate, helping you learn more quickly. I never went to university there, but I know people who have gone or are currently going to Dawai (Dalian University of Foreign Languages) and Dalian Normal University and all of their experiences have been positive. Another interesting thing about Dalian is that it’s a popular summer tourist destination for Russians from Irkusk and Vladavostok, so it gets pretty wild around that time of year. I lived there for over a year and had a really great experience there, so if you or anyone else has any questions, let me know. There is more Dongbei school info in this thread.

[Harvey]

Do you have a link for Dalian Normal University?