Does Soochow(Suzhou) university teach in Wu or Mandarin?

[optical]

I've applied for the study program here and I came to the realization that Suzhou falls in the wu dialect family, similar but a tiny bit different from Shanghainese or so I've read. So if I apply for the Chinese language program at Soochow, would the classes be teaching Mandarin Chinese or Wu Chinese? Do the people in Suzhou only speak Wu mostly, or do most people know both Wu and Mandarin?

I'm totally in the dark on this one.

[dan ni er]

Don't worry they email speak Mandarin, albeit with a local accent.

[pijiu]

They teach in mandarin with a Suzhou accent, but you will find out on the streets in the local markets and such they will speak Suzhou dialect.

Some information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzhou_dialect

[Mugi]

The classes will be Mandarin (although in the past I think the university has offered special classes on Soochowese/Shanghainese for those interested - not sure if they still do).

As for local people, only very old people would have any problem speaking Mandarin. I spent a week in Suzhou about a year ago and was dismayed at how little of the local dialect I heard. A significant portion of the city's population is made up of people from the surrounding areas whose own dialect (although it might belong to the Wu family) is different enough from Soochowese that the common language is Mandarin. And their accents don't tend to be very strong - you'll probably find it easier to converse in Mandarin with someone from Suzhou than from Beijing!

[pijiu]

I spent 3 months living in Suzhou with my best friends family and what I noticed (I don't know if this is the case with a lot of families) but when at home they spoke in the local dialect, and when they went outside they spoke mandarin. Even if we went to dinner at a restaurant and it was just the family, they would speak mandarin not the local dialect.