Need your opinion to make a choice - Where to go?

[Toby]

Aims: 

For start - to have at least HSK 4 (ideally HSK 6) by the end of the first academic year

Main - to get a bachelor in a Chinese university (Possible majors - Sociology, HR or Project Management)

 

Budget: 5000$ for tuition, accommodation (half year in dormitory, the other half in apartment) and other personal expanses.

Planning to cook and eat at home or cheap outside.

 

Chinese Learning: 

Mainly self-education, with feedback talks with a teacher by attending classes; pressing on reading and writing; getting into native speakers community and talking as much as possible.

I have learned English in this way in home-country, where there was a little community of friends learning the language.

 

Environment:

The ideal city would be one of second-tier cities, with fairly good comfort and little foreigners presence.

Preferred is spring weather, and tolerable a bit cold and rainy one either.

Having now two options: Wuhan and Dalian, basing on read reviews and comments of this and other forums.

University options: 

Dalian - 

Dalian University of Technology, Nuesoft Institute of Information

Wuhan - 

Central China Normal University, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Zhongnan University of Economics and Law

 

Any recommendations are welcome.

 

 

Personal Info:

I am from a little country near Russia. Want to have a bachelor degree in a foreign country where it will be comfortable and peaceful to learn. Willing to accept and overcome hardships and difficulties

Chinese Proficieny: Complete Zero (may learn some till departure in August)

Had recently been abroad, and did learn some lessons about searching and getting an apartment, about foreign university life and education, getting on with locals.

However reading the posts of the forum, here is a lot to learn from all of you.

So, your help to decide which place to go to would be very useful.

By the way, We are moving together with a relative brother (the same situation with him).

 

Questions:

- What are we overlooking? Problems, mistakes, lack of information about smth?

- Is the HSK 4 (ideally HSK 6) in one year an achievable aim? What course is recommended to take (intensive, stand classes, HSK classes, individual classes)?

- What resources do you recommend to read and take a look at to have a better understanding of the situation?

- Is it possible to get admitted to a Chinese-taught bachelor programm without knowing Chinese, and with further conditional agreement that instead of the first undergrad year, we will learn chinese? 

(Like this http://sie.whut.edu.cn/english/ShowArticle.asp?ArticleID=3415)

- Is it possible to study and work at the same time (after about 6-7 months there)? Skills possessed: Russian language, IELTS, Public Speaking and Essay Writing instructoring.

 

 

Ahh, I may have forgotten some.

 

P.S. 

This all writing seems very weird to me, too academic and serious, and if I missed something, any comments and advises on all these are very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Toby 

 

P.S.S. btw is it a good name to use in China?

 

 

 

 

[Pokarface]

Worst case scenario, you have a similar outcome as our forum member, Sujeto, although your perspective in life tends to shape your quality of life.

The lowest HSK score you need to get in a none-language related degree is 4 (for science and engineering. Probably business management as well). So you might want to enroll in Mandarin classes before even applying to the program of your choice. Note: some programs require you to have at least an HSK 5 such as, social sciences, law, and I'm not sure what else. I don't know which course is recommended to achieve this level the fastest.

I'm not sure about employment and student visas, but there's more experienced people around :-)

[889]

In terms of the city itself, I'd choose Dalian over Wuhan. It's more pleasant, has an international character -- though heavily Japanese and Korean international -- and the weather there isn't truly bad anytime of the year. Not to say that Wuhan is dreadful, just that Dalian's a bit better.

 

On the other hand, if you want to explore China during your time there, Wuhan has the perfect, central location. You can go to a vast number of China's famous sites pretty quickly and conveniently, especially with HSR. Dalian is down at the southern end of the Liaodong Peninsula and somewhat isolated, at least by comparison with Wuhan.

[JustinJJ]

HSK level 5 is very achievable. I think HSK 6 is achievable if you are get good at learning Chinese And spend most of your time learning, but it won't be easy and you'll probably have to spend lots of time specifically cramming for that exam to pass it.

I didn't do university in China, but I'd imagine you would need to be at HSK 6 level to have enough vocab to understand any course, even the ones that only require HSK 4 to be admitted. The vocab in HSK 4 is only around 1000 words so the level of complexity won't be high enough for academic comprehension and expression. Think about it this way - young Chinese children would have a vocab level far in access of HSK 4 but they only reach university level in their mother tongue when they are say 18 (and might have a vocab level of say 15,000+ words), so that's the standard you are up against, HSK 4 won't cut it.

I think that for beginners anki is a good way to kick start vocab learning until the point that you can understand native materials (when I think you should drop anki and just learn by reading). My recommendation would be to try to learn 10 words a day really well until until you get to HSK 5 level (c.250 days or 2500 words), then try to read / acquire vocab pertaining to your major after that. I'd also suggest googling a list of the top 3000 most commonly learned characters and learn them over the course of a year. Have one on one tutoring from the beginning to learn pronunciation to prevent acquiring bad habits / foreigner accent and then spend the rest of your time listening to whatever Chinese material you find interesting. I think that if you spend time acquiring the vocab and practising listening skills for the equivalent amount of time as a full one job, then you should be at a good level after a year. Enrol in classes if you find it motivating or need to for visa requirements, but one on one tutoring for pronunciation and self study will be the most efficient use of your time. Good luck

[Lu]

Have you looked around for scholarships? Both China and Taiwan offer some. And have you considered Taipei? Several good universities, very friendly people, nice weather (unless you really need winters), great place. The Ministry of Education offers scholarships for not only learning Chinese but also studying for a bacherlor's or master's degree.

[Angelina]

I wrote a long post that got lost.

Be realistic above all!

Try to find a scholarship! I have heard Wuhan gets too hot in summer. Taipei is a much better option.

Please try to learn Chinese before deciding to go to China! What JustinJJ said is only the beginning. When you memorize characters. Then you have to read a bunch of books in Chinese. My program is taught in Chinese, this is not a joke.

[Pokarface]

Hey Toby. I was wondering if you've looked into free university education in Germany and its requirements + costs of living. There's a lot of jobs in central Europe, and a degree from a developed country has more recognition in general.

[Toby]

Hello every one here

 

Reading all those old posts it seemed like here no people writing at all nowadays, but ...

@Pokerface - Yeah, I have looked over those places, but to my current situation and interest, and aims, China is looking pretty decent a choice. But, really, I will be taking a look at central Europe either.

@899 - Yeah, that is being a dilemma for us too, environment and place, you know, but the real thing is about what we get out of the courses compared to what we pay for.

@JustinJJ - I do see what you are saying, the same happens with English and IELTS. You are right, saying that univ course admission is mainly for the visa requirements, and after going there we plan to look around and change something after 2-3 months, like getting into 1-1 course or tutors and all that. To get the admission level HSK and then to catch up with the real to-understand-the-course level, I guess. And your suggestions about learning, thank you for that, will be applying.

@Lu - I thought to look at scholarships after deciding the place, because it seemed like there are different scholarships in different universities, or no? Then, I am looking at Tapei, once again. If any info about scholarships, PM me please.

@Angelina - Your advice is going to be the motto for China-preparation for me. Please, give some recommendations on what to do before I go to China? (learning the specific word list, reading some books, articles, or smth)

 

Answers to questions are very much welcome ))

 

Thank You all for investing time to write,

Looking forward to more discussion,

Toby

[Angelina]

 

 

Your advice is going to be the motto for China-preparation for me. Please, give some recommendations on what to do before I go to China? (learning the specific word list, reading some books, articles, or smth)

 

Try to find some movies or similar and see if you like the way the language sounds. 

 

Try to learn some characters. There are no Chinese language courses in your hometown, right? 

[889]

I'm not that much a fan of a lot of self-study before heading to China. It's so easy to get bad habits locked in, of pronunciation especially, that are hard to break. Of course if you're working with a teacher, that's a different matter.

[JustinJJ]

Just get a tutor for pronunciation

[emmanuel]

HSK 6 is not achivable in one year. HSK 5 is more realistic aim, if you focus only on it and change your mind about job. 

Universities often offer intensive chinese courses for CSC students, any other students can attend it as well, you only need to pay.

[Lu]

@Lu - I thought to look at scholarships after deciding the place, because it seemed like there are different scholarships in different universities, or no? Then, I am looking at Tapei, once again. If any info about scholarships, PM me please.

I don't have any information here, I'm afraid, and if I did I wouldn't PM you - I would post in this thread, so others can see it too. But I suggest you start by googling and looking around the forums. I know Taiwan's Ministry of Education has scholarships, so look around there a bit. Perhaps ask the advice of your local Confucius Institute, Chinese embassy or Taiwanese representative office. Good luck!

[zhouhaochen]

In a year, anything from HSK 3 to 6 is possible, depending on how you study and how you immerse yourself. If you are going with your brother, there is a big risk that you will speak to him a lot and there will not be much immersion, so unless you have a very good immersion program, I would put my expectations at the lower end of that band though.

With your budget for one year of 5000 (thats about 2500 CNY/month, which is basically minimum wage in China and that is for someone who does not have to pay a Chinese course), money is going to be the main issue. I think you are going to struggle to study, live and rent accommodation on that even in Wuhan or Dalian. In general, the smaller the city the cheaper. You will want to avoid traveling or anything that even puts a small dent into that budget as you will be needing every yuan.

 

Personally, I would try to study in your home country and then use the 5000 USD to come to China for only a semester, so you can afford a better program and a bit of quality of life as well. You can get to HSK 4 in a semester too, but you would need to be properly immersed for it (probably should not be living with your brother for that).