BeiDa vs. BLCU

[sargx]

I haven't seen much discussion on Chinese Instruction at BeiDa on the forums. I'm curious how their (Short-term/1-semester) program is compared to the BNU/BLCU which most people seem to comment on.

[adrianlondon]

I've been looking at this. A friend has faxed me through some information. The course sounds good, the campus is great (albeit a bit far out - distance wise I mean rather than some hippy thing), and it has the best reputation.

However, finding a decent review from a past student is proving difficult. Also, it costs 2000RMB more, per term (whoops, semester for you non-UKers) than BLCU. I'd consider 2000RMB extra to say you went to "Bei Da" instead of "BLCU" money well spent. However, it all comes down to the quality of the course and, of that, I have no idea.

[Sophia_Shang]

Well, Beijing University (BeiDa) is the BEST university in China, Beijing Normal University is an exellent place, too. As to BLCU... I'm afraid most Chinese have seldom heard of it.

[adrianlondon]

Yes, that's true, but I think this thread was all about teaching Mandarin to foreigners. Yes, Beida is the best University for standard degrees and above, and many chinese won't have heard of BLCU, but then not many chinese don't speak Mandarin and want to learn the language with loads of foreigners

If someone asked me where to study in the UK, I'd start reeling off red-brick University names such as Oxford, Cambridge, Durham etc. but they're probably not the best places to learn English. And they'd be very expensive.

[imron]

I studied at Beida from 2002-2003. The teaching was great and when placing you in classes, written and spoken Chinese were tested separately, so even if your reading/writing is poor you can still be in a higher level class for spoken Chinese.

As far as location, both BLCU and Beida (and most other Universities) are out of the way if you're talking about downtown Beijing, and compared to BLCU, Beida probably isn't that much further away from the Wudaokou train station. And, if you end up living off campus you'll probably end up somewhere around Wudaokou anyway, making this a moot point. I used to live between the Forestry University and BLCU, and it'd take me 10 mintues to cycle in everyday.

BLCU has a higher ratio of foreign students on campus, and it also has things like bars on campus too - something Beida didn't when I was studying there. Due to this Beida and BLCU tend to attract different crowds. In my own highly subjective opinion, I would say BLCU is a better place for socialising and Beida a better place for studying, but again all of this was 3-4 years ago now and things have quite possibly changed.

Given the opportunity, I would go to Beida again, and if I had to choose now between the two of these schools, Beida would be my choice.

[adrianlondon]

Is it possible to study for less than a whole year at Beida?

[imron]

Yes, they also do a 1 semester course and various other short-term programmes.

[deezy]

^ What about 1 month courses?

BeiDa have those? Or just BLCU and BNU (BeiShiDa)?

[Celso Pin]

whats the website of beida and bnu?

[imron]

beida's website is www.oir.pku.edu.cn. They also do 1 month programmes, but I don't what they are like. I'm not sure about BNU.

[deezy]

^ Hmm, their enrollment qualifications include:

master a vocabulary of over 800 Chinese characters or have studied Mandarin over 80 class hours altogether.

Doh. How fast do y'all think I can learn 800 HSK characters autodidactically?