A course for absolute beginner?

[marco-polo]

Hi everyone - I just came across this website and am delighted and amazed to find a whole community of people interested in studying Chinese in China.

I'm an absolute beginner who would like to spend a year - or possibly more - studying Chinese in Beijing. I would prefer to be in a university environment if possible (as opposed to a private school). I'm looking at Beijing because I've been there before and liked it. I also have several supportive friends living there. My goal is to become proficient enough in Chinese to be able to conduct business and to have a good time living in Beijing while I'm at it.

So far the Tsinghua Chinese Language Program looks the most attractive. Incidentally, I see that they have a separate application date for the Spring Semester: December 15th, which I would think means that it should be possible to begin a program in the Spring - does anyone know if this is correct or what the dates of the semesters are?

I've been unable to find any information in English regarding similar programs at Beida - that's another place I would love to study. If anyone has a link, I'd appreciate it if they could post it. I gather that BLCU doesn't accept absolute beginners, so that rules that one out. Are there other good programs in Beijing?

I was also looking into the Chinese government scholarships and trying to figure out how that might work with a Spring start date. It sounds like the deadlines (at least for EU citizens) are in the Spring, so that might be tricky.

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated!

[marco-polo]

After posting my note above I noticed that there were a lot of relevant archived posts, which I've been going through for the past couple of hours. I now realize that my post should have been in the 'Studying Chinese in Beijing' sub-forum for starters. If there are any mods reading this, could you move this thread over?

I'm still very interested in feedback on good courses for absolute beginners. I think I'm able to answer my own question regarding the Chinese Government Scholarships, though - it only makes sense for people planning to start a program in the fall (one year from now!). Please correct me if I'm wrong about this.

[yueni]

I gather that BLCU doesn't accept absolute beginners, so that rules that one out.

I can't recommend you any good beginner schools, but BLCU does accept complete beginners in their courses (they have classes for people with little to no Chinese skills). I don't know how good they are, but they're the ones whose teachers apparently author a lot of the Chinese language textbooks being used.

[marco-polo]

Hi - thanks for the reply. I got the idea that BCLU didn't have anything for absolute beginners from the description of their BA programs, not the Chinese language program!

7、How to apply for BA program?

a)The applicant for BA program should submit the HSK Level Three Certificate; BLCU does not accept applicants with no knowledge of Chinese language.

http://www.blcu.edu.cn/lzb/lx/english/questions.htm

Is it just me, or are the websites of these Chinese universities incredibly difficult to navigate? I'm having a very hard time locating even basic information about these courses.

[Lu]

I think Beiwai also has Chinese courses for foreigners, you might want to have a look at that too. And I think BLCU/Beiyu does accept absolute beginners.

For scholarships, I don't know which country you are from? Holland has the Nuffic, an organization that knows everything about scholarships. Perhaps your country has something similar, and you can ask there.

[imron]

After posting my note above I noticed that there were a lot of relevant archived posts

Haha, I was going to mention something when I first saw your post this morning. It's good to see at least one new user figure this out, without needing grumpy admins to come along and tell you use the search function

[marco-polo]

Thanks for the replies - I'll check out the offerings at Beiwai, which wasn't on my radar before. It's good to have options.

I'm an Irish citizen, currently living in the US. I think this means that I would be subject to same policies as other EU members (for Chinese Government scholarships, etc.) and that I might need to make a trip back to Dublin to visit the Chinese embassy at some point.

There's a lot of good material on the forums, but the view that's available to non-members doesn't reveal a whole lot. I think this may have something to do with the repeated questions from newbies

[yueni]

Marco,

You could probably try to apply through them via email/telephone, which was what I did. (Singapore citizen in the US). And yes, you are subject to EU rules and the earlier EU deadline.

[marco-polo]

Hi Yueni - thanks for posting. Do you mean that you applied for the Chinese government scholarship by e-mail / telephone or are you talking about applying to the universities?

Congratulations on getting the scholarship, by the way. BLCU is a really nice campus - hope you have a great time studying there.

[yueni]

Oops, sorry. I should have clarified. I contacted them via email & telephone before I mailed in my application to the Chinese Embassy in Singapore. This is for the scholarship.

There is no restrictions on how you can apply to the schools.