tianjin and shenyang school experiences?

[conrad]

does anyone have any experiences they can share about studying at either

shenyang normal university (shenyang)

liaoning university (shenyang)

or

new century (tianjin)

[kaifaqu crue]

The school where I worked paid for me to attend Liaoning University for a semester in the fall of 2002. Like most Universities in the north-east, and possibly other parts of China as well, the overwhelming majority of foreign students are Korean, with the remainder being Japanese and Russian with the occasional European, American, Australian, etc. In fact, the opening convocation was translated into Russian, Korean, and Japanese, but not English.

Because my Chinese was pretty poor at the time, I just kind of showed up the first day and wandered into classes until I ended up in one that I wasn't kicked out of. All I know was that it was an F-ban class. The class was all in Chinese and was primarily focused on writing, which wasn't what I was looking for so much, so I ended up failing every test but learned a lot anyway, due to the immersion aspect of the whole situation.

The teachers there were attentive and generally helpful. My grammar teacher (Wang Laoshi) was older, dealt with most of the writing instruction, and was pretty good. My reading teacher (Du Laoshi) was very young, quiet, and seemed pretty overwhelmed by the whole situation. My tingli (listening comprehension) teacher was my favorite (I can't remember her name, though) and she helped so much with my pronouciation, which alleviated a lot of frustration once I switched to just learning on my own. By the mid point of the semester, most of the students in my class stopped showing up (including our class president/monitor), so it was good for individual attention.

I have no idea about the more advanced classes, but I can find out from some other people who went there. I had a good time and learned a lot there, but, since it was my first extensive time in Mainland China, that would have probably been the case anywhere.

I hope this helped. Good luck.

[conrad]

since your class mates were korean etc.. I have a question. were your books in english and chinese and did your professor(s) speak english?

Thanks

[kaifaqu crue]

I had English versions of all the texts. I'm pretty sure my Korean classmates had the same books but with Korean instead of English. None of the professors could speak English, as far as I knew, and all of the classroom instruction was done in Chinese. I had taken a Chinese class before going there, but it was still really confusing at times. I'd imagine it would be really difficult with no Chinese language ability, even though it is a course for beginners.

[sariayu]

This thread is already some years old...

I am also planning to study Chinese in Shenyang, beginning of next year 2010.

Can anybody recommend me a university?

e.g. Shenyang University or Liaoning University? Or another university?

Thanks for your help!

Sariayu

[NateM]

New Century in Tianjin, I'm guessing, would be a lot different than the other two universities you mentioned. New Century is meant to be a training school primarily for Westerners. It is quite expensive, and focuses more on spoken Chinese than written. Personally, I think it is probably overpriced, but if you've got the bling and don't care much about written, they are supposed to be pretty good at what they do.

[NateM]

Wow, just noticed this was a 4 year old thread.

[zhouhaochen]

yes...there doesnt seem to be going on a lot in the Tianjin section here. Where are all the Tiajiners?

[Rubjar]

I have been in Tianjin for 4 moths so far, but I'm studying at Tianjin University 天津大学 so I have no Idea about whats going on with other mentioned universities

[rohityankee]

This summer I am going to shenyang Univ to learn chinese

so please let me know who will be there with me

[Nabsturr]

"Rubjar I have been in Tianjin for 4 moths so far, but I'm studying at Tianjin University 天津大学 so I have no Idea about whats going on with other mentioned universities

I am looking to go to China in the great Tianjin area in september 2010. Originally i was thinking of going to a school in beijing (tsinghua univ) but ive dont a bit of research and it seems that there are too many foreigners to be fully immersed in the chinese language. Is this true? Does anyone know of any good universities in the tianjin area? The reason i want to stay in this area is becuaes i have some family about 45 min away from tianjin in a city called Teda. My goal is to spend 2 semesters in china and learn AS MUCH chinese as possible.

thanks