Shanghai University

[andres]

I am planning to go to China on September for a 1 year course, I want to know which is the best place to learn mandarin in Shanghai, I am deciding between Jiaotong and Sisu, but I am not sure yet... Anyone can help me??

Thanks,

[ameliasj]

SISU as Shanghai International Studies University, teaches language only.

While Jiao tong University is a multiversity.

I think SISU is better, since it's professional. Jiaotong is a famous university with perfect language training insititute while it is too comercial. I mean if you learn Chinese only for passing HSK, Jiaotong is the place you should go. But for professional learning, SISU is the place.

I am Shanghainese, but I didn't study in either of these two universities, so my opinion may not complete.

[woliveri]

I'm at SISU now. If you are planning to come here I can give you big insights to this University.

[Saturday]

I am intending to go to Shanghai and study chinese this autumn. But I have no previous experiance in the mandarin language... So my question is; is it possible to go to SISU and study chinese from scratch?

Is it easy to get admission even though I can't speak a single word of chinese?

Or maybe Fudan is a better university for people like me?

[woliveri]

yes, there are plenty of people here learning Chinese from scratch. SISU has students starting with absolutely no previous Chinese language on up to advanced language studies.

I don't know about Fudan so I can't comment on it.

[Saturday]

Ah, that's good to hear. Is it possible to learn to speak mandarin fluently after one year of studies in China?

How many months does it require before you can "interact" with oter chinese people? Maybe a stupid question 'cause it differs from person to person, but I am reffering to the average.

[woliveri]

Your questions are dependant on your ability to advance since everyone is different. I think it's very doubtful for someone to speak fluently after only one year. Even Da Shan didn't do that. And, again, it depends on how well you advance if you want to interact with Chinese in the area.

The classes are not only about speaking but Reading, Speaking, Writing, etc so you need to consider this when thinking how fast you will advance.

The make up of the foreigners here are mostly Asian (Korean, Japanese, Thai) and after that European (French, German, Italian), then Russian and surrounding areas. Then there are U.S, Canada, and South American. (these are from my observations during my time here. Of course each semester will be different in the percentages but I think not by much)

Also, since SISU is a Foreign Language school there are students from all over China studing other languages here. Many Chinese are studying Japanese. My roomate who is Korean is studying German (from Chinese teachers so his Chinese is really good).

The entry requirements are very low. I think the main requirement is Age and Money. If you are old enough and have the money then I don't think there would be a problem.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

[youpii]

you can start from scratch at Fudan too

but I think you get more for your studies here if you have at least some basics in Chinese

starting from scratch you can expect to get HSK level 3 or 4 after the 1st year, 6 to 8 after the 2nd year and 9 to 11 after the 3rd one

[Saturday]

Thanks for all the answers chap!

And off course have I more questions for ya:

How big are the groups at each class at SISU? Are they small? 'Cause it's much better to study in a class with few people so you can get a lot of help from the teachers. Especially when studying a foreign language such as chinese.

Are the teachers good at speaking english? Or do they go through all the classes speaking english, even to beginners?

And how long are the days at SISU? And is it monday to friday - weekends off?

Cheers!

[woliveri]

At my level (1st year 3rd level beginning) classes are all in Chinese, no English. I've sat in on a level just below me and it is also all in Chinese. The beginning classes will try to use as much Chinese as possible as well.

There is a reason for this. Remember that this is an international school where students come from all over the world and so not every student who comes here can speak English so the teachers must try to use Chinese as the teaching language.

My classes are Monday through Friday from 8am to 11:20 with a 20 minute break in between so I have 10 classes a week, 2 classes each morning.

The classes are divided amoung 4 subjects, Main Text, Spoken Chinese, Listening, and Reading.

The class sizes range I guess.. When I started the class size was about 25 or so students which has dwindled now to about 10 or so attending (the others are still here but some are blowing off the classes). Also, we had some students start the semester for a 4 week stint and returned to their country after that thus freeing up more class space.

One suggestion I can make since you are beginning is to take advantage of a language coach after class if you can afford it. It's not that expensive relatively and can help a lot.

One of the students in our class has one every day, every week, through out the semester and he has advanced much better than I but then he is much younger where I need a bit of rest and self study during that time.

Also, regarding living arrangements. They offer 3 places around campus to stay. I am staying at the one on campus. The living is not bad but the internet speed is poor because everyone is sharing the same line. I've heard if you're off campus then you can have your own private connection and get good speeds.

Also, living here there are little things like doing laundry. Everything here works on Cards. You buy a phone card, you buy a Washing Machine Card, etc.... But Drying clothes we hang them up in the window.

all for now.....

[Cirrus888]

I was lucky enough to come over for 2 weeks first to check out the universities here in shanghai, there are many that offer the same HSK standard course.

I'm presently studying in Shanghai University as I felt the campus was the cleanest and the classrooms newer. Textbooks are also important, I didn't like the textbooks over at SISU or jiatong as they looked old and "boring". Shanghai University is also very close to the city centre and is only 5 stops away by Metro. The student halls is also relatively clean and well managed.

Nearby shops offer very cheap food and there is a mcdonalds and KFC nearby. 5 student canteens but the food is always only so so.

[youpii]

Cirrus888 which book do you use ?

Fudan's foreign dormitory had both "do it yourself" washing (no drying) machines and a laundry where you can have a bag of clothes cleaned and dried

Internet is quite fast

But most of the students live outside campus because the rents are cheaper

[woliveri]

For my classes I have found the books used are not bad. Perhaps the ones you saw were different.

For Main Text and Ting Li we are using the books from BLCU, again I find they are pretty good. However, I have not seen the books used at SU and they could be better than the ones I'm using.

Shanghai University is close to the Metro? What line? SISU is right next to Line 3 but I usually walk through the park and catch bus 18 to People's square for 2 kuai.

I've ridden the bus and have walked "by" Shanghai University which is close to a large park (GuangZhong) and found the area I went by very "boring" from the street (GuangZhong) meaning not many stores, etc. Of course, this is on the north side. The other sides or areas of the campus are proably different. I should go in and take a look.

Cirrus888, How do you like the classes? Are you giving a lot of chances to speak or are the classes made up of a lot of lecture.

[Cirrus888]

Lets see I'm doing level 1 (A), I'm using 3 books:

The best one is called 40 lessons for basic chinese course published by the East China Normal University.

2nd one is called short term spoken chinese published by beijing language and culture university press

3rd one (worst) is called Hanyu Tingli jiacheng published by beijing language university which is what I think I saw at the other universities but it was used for all courses.

woliveri - your right the north side of the university is just one big construction site. The south side is where all the shops are. The closest Metro is Yanchang Lu Metro Line 1 and Its closer to the university than Hong Kou stadium metro is to SISU.

The rent here is 1800/month Yuan.

I find that intereaction between people in classes depend on the make up of nationalities. My class is made up of people from all over Europe, while the other classes are mainly people from Japan. The japanese classes are very quiet but they learn faster. My classes are a laugh but we learn at a lot slower pace.

Classes are divided into 1.Listening, 2. Reading and writing and 3. Speaking. although all classes tend to cover similar ground.

I personally like learning new words the most, how to speak and write them. At the end of the course (level 1) we are expected to know around 2000 characters but I know many will only know about 1000.

[youpii]

Thanks Cirrus888

woliveri which BLCU books are you using ?

[woliveri]

I might mention that for beginning texts I will have to agree with Cirrus888. When I came in and got tested I was given a choice between two levels. When I looked at the level lower than me I was not quite satisfied with the content of the books. However, at my level I feel the books are very good. Even though I won't take the next level I will buy the next level books.

Main text: ISBN 7-5619-0764-8

http://www.yesbuy.cn/list.asp?id=5627

Ting Li: ISBN 7-5619-0875-X

http://www.yesbuy.cn/list.asp?id=5643

[youpii]

how good are your teachers ?

I think Fudan has too many young teachers, many still are grad students

[woliveri]

3 out of the 4 teachers I had were not professional teachers but were Graduate Students.

Some were good, some were not.

[danieljp]

Thanks for all the info on this thread. I am considering to study at any of the universities or language schools in Shanghai for 1-2 years. I would like to have a good level of fluency after this time, meaning I could read Chinese newspapers, understand the evening news, and discuss on virtually any topic.

From looking at the information on various schools' websites, it seems that courses are split into levels like beginners, intermediate and advanced. But I would like to know whether this is split up into further levels within each of those categories. Also, how long does it take to complete each level in general?

I am also concerned about whether the first beginners course starts with reading and writing from day 1, or whether students acquire some conversational ability first. The reason is that I currently have basic conversational ability (meaning I could talk about how I spent my day or some background about myself), but I can not read or write. So I would not want to start from the very beginners course just to catch up on the reading and writing. Mr. Chen Quan Sheng from SISU told me that students learn reading and writing only from the intermediate level. Is that accurate, and are other schools designed this way as well?

I would also like to know, if classes are only for a few hours per day each morning, how do you spend the rest of your day? Is there much homework to do? Finally, do you know any schools that start a bit later in the day? 8 AM sounds very early to me...haha

[youpii]

In Fudan you have a written & oral placement test.

Classes are divided in 10 levels, from level A to J, plus a few "special" classes like economics & chinese culture

Beginners (A-D) have 22 hours per week, intermediate (E-H) 20 and advanced (I-J) 12 (plus elective classes)

You're supposed to study 2 levels per semester

Beginners focus on speaking but you also study how to read & write

There is a lot of homework, but it's up to you to decide if you do it or not ;)