Where to study (and why)? What distance from Beijing?

[gaidal]

Hello! I'm new to the forum.

I'm going to China in July on a one-month trip (to Beijing), and have decided that staying there for a year (and then more if I feel like it) and studying Mandarin would be an excellent idea.

I started reading about China and thought Chengdu seemed like a nice place, so I contacted all the universities I could find there and have now applied to one of them. (The only one that ever replied)

However, some people tell me distant areas like this might not be a very good place to start learning Mandarin, as I will not be able to use what I learn at school as efficiently when meeting locals. I do like dialects - I bet no foreigner could match my Japanese Mikawa-ben! - and wouldn't mind learning Mandarin with a Sichuanese accent, but if it makes it alot more difficult for me to learn any Chinese, I agree it's not a good idea. What do you think about this?

Let's say I should go for a city closer to Beijing - then which one? Of course I want to go to China no matter what, but if I got to choose I would prefer a smaller, more relaxed city to a huge one with lots of westernisation and ghetto culture and stuff. Because of this I have avoided Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an, and searched for universities in places like Dalian, Zhengzhou, Wuhan, Ji'nan and such. Don't know if there's really any difference though.

Any recommendations, suggestions, corrections, anything? If you still think a popular university in Beijing or Shanghai would be the best choice, please tell me anyway!

Another problem is that I won't get my high school diploma before June 10th, which is usually too late for applying, but I'll try to deal with that in one way or another...

Thanks for your attention.

[charlie_z]

Have a look at this:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=370715

[gaidal]

Thank you!

That's interesting. It doesn't say much about the "pure mandarin VS mandadrin plus dialect" issue, though...

Five months, huh. Cool.

[Green Pea]

I wouldn't worry about the dialect no matter where you go. A non-issue in my opinion. Other variables will impact your learning speed and competency to a greater degree. Pick a place you would like to live in and go there. Too many students worry about picking up the local dialect but still sound like a foreigner.

As long as you can hear the differences between standard Mandarin and the local accent/dialect then you speak whatever way you want. It's pretty easy, actually.

[gaidal]

Thanks. I like that way of thinking!

No, it's not like I want to learn "perfect" Chinese or anything, I just didn't want to put myself in a situation I couldn't handle. But it sounds cool, so I'll go there and do my best!

[sunpixy]

Here's some information I just posted for Dan Bang. Hope the links are more or less useful to you as well. All of them are unis in Tianjin, though.

Nankai University

http://www.nankai.edu.cn/english/exchanges.htm

Tianjin University

http://ico.tju.cn/TjuIcoEV/TjuIcoEV.cfm

Tianjin Foreign Studies University

http://xibu.tjfsu.edu.cn/other/waishi/

Tianjin Normal University

http://202.113.96.10/departments/hanyuan/index.htm

Tianjin Polytechnic University

http://www.tjpu.edu.cn/

(Where I graduated from, hehe. The International Office used to have an English version, I don't know why it is not available now... :-)

PS: Even myself cannot find enough information about the courses and fees. Guess we would have to email them to ask in detail if we want to get some really useful information. Just have a look.

[hipposherman]

langue is communication tool, but accent will be huge enemy. western German cannot understand Bavarian, it's the same Northern part Chinese really difficult to communiate with southern part chinese. when i was 8, my mother sent me to learn Chinese in Peking. The best place for learn chinese is beijin international studies university. http://www.erwai.edu.cn/english/

if u wanna study a langue trip,i suggest u to start from Yunnan to Sichuang and final is Beijin. it's really different culture shock.

good luck