REVIEW - Beijing International Chinese College - Summer Camp 2015

[LiMo]

Since I first became interested in China and Chinese over 2 years ago I’ve been waiting for my opportunity to finally visit the magical place where it all came from  . Many thanks to Tianjin42 for posting about this free summer camp for foreign students of Chinese. Never one to turn down a free lunch I leapt at the opportunity and was lucky enough to be accepted. The following is a review of the summer camp which already has a few successful years behind and seems to be going from strength to strength. After the camp I used the remaining time on my visa (regrettably short due to extremely poor service at the London Visa Centre, I may vent more in another post) to see friends and travel but to save the moderators any hassle I shall here limit myself to discussion of the summer camp experience itself. I hope it’s OK if it’s semi-blog format and long winded. I’d like to write up as much of my experiences as possible while they’re still relatively fresh in my mind. Right, here we go then!

 

Never one to waste money on unnecessary luxuries I took a cheap flight with LOT Polish Airlines that connected through Warsaw. Waiting at the gate to board was my first experience of what China might be like as almost all the passengers were Chinese (or at least from East Asia). One little girl was racing up and down doing cartwheels and making an adorable nuisance of herself while everyone fawned over her. In duty free I lingered by a pair of Chinese women who seemed to be unable to decide on what kind of vodka to buy. Naturally I was tempted to try out my Chinese but, even more naturally, I was too shy to try. When were finally called to board I found myself stood in front of a group of old Chinese; 3 women and two men. I caught them discussing me, something about black people and white people. Doubtless some comparative anatomy, perhaps even phrenology, was being discussed. I had to chuckle to myself. At which point one of the women lent over and whispered in the others ear and the conversation turned to other matters that I was abysmally ill-equipped to decipher.

 

After 8 hours, a terrible historical romance drama where 13^th Prince married a palace maid, as well as other attempts to prime my language skills, we touched down in Beijing in the early hours of a Sunday morning. My first sight of China was a sickly yellow haze that limited visibility to a few hundred metres at the most. A good start!

 

We traipsed the long distance from the gate to immigration. On the way I stopped at the loo and took my first picture of a squat toilet for posterity (tourist level over 9000!!!!). After the mandatory queuing that never seems to end and gruff and efficient document verification that is the same the world over I passed between two massive reprints of traditional Chinese paintings and boarded the train that runs the unaccountably large distance from the gates to the actual exit and pick up area. The people from the school were all wearing white BICC t-shirts that were easy to identify. They were very friendly and helped me drag all my luggage over to meet the rest of the students who had already arrived and were sitting in one of the circular rest areas at the edge of the arrivals hall. Despite saying that shuttle buses would be running all day most people had been waiting there for a few hours already and we waited at least 4 hours more after I arrived. The school had hired large coaches and so they were only taking people once the coaches could be filled. This was reasonable in many ways but we felt a little misled. It’s annoying to have to hang around in an airport for several hours longer than expected. On the plus side they bought us McDonalds!

 

Once we were finally on the bus they requested our passports and said they would be returned in a few days. If I guessed right this was so they could provide photocopies for the local security office as all foreign nationals must be registered. This was no surprise for me and I think they told us about it before but one of the girls said it almost ruined her trip because she was so stressed by having to give up such an important document for such a long period of time.

 

While the summer camp is run by BICC it is hosted at the Gengdan Institute of the Beijing University of Technology at their campus in Shunyi District. It’s on the outskirts of Beijing and is even beyond the subway system so casual trips into town during free time aren’t easy (in fact they strongly discouraged us from leaving the campus and even from playing football, this didn’t last long though). Having attended a university in the middle of London, with nothing like the idyllic surroundings that epitomise college as it is depicted in American movies, I could really appreciate the verdant school grounds with fruit trees, swings, tennis, basketball, and badminton courts, and a full sized running track to boot. As summer camp students we were lodged in the International Centre which is situated at the back of the campus and seems to be intended to function independently from the rest of the school as it has its own classrooms, laundry facilities and canteen, café and karaoke machine. To be honest washing machines were limited, some were broken so we had 3 machines between over 300 people if you include the “Foreign Teachers Summer Camp” participants who arrived soon after us, this was pretty annoying. Also, if you’re American and used to serious drying machines then give up, the driers are just for show. The toilets in the rooms were all of western design and it was very comfortable, much like living in a holiday apartment block. There is also a campus shop that sells most all goods that a student could need, including some bad tasting alcopops. The school buildings are all freshly painted, they have art installations scattered liberally about campus that light up at night and half the buildings have slogans in traditional characters that contain pearls of wisdom and exhortations of excellence in burnished brass. All in all it’s a slick operation and nothing like what I imagined a Chinese university to be like.

 

Daily life was pretty easy. They furnished each of us with a campus card loaded with cash to use as we pleased. I was there for a proper China experience so I used the main canteen every day and ate what the regular students ate. Situated in one massive hall there was a lot of choice at the canteen and much of it was very tasty and very affordable. For the weaker students the café next door served western food but at much higher prices when compared with the canteen. The staff at both were generally quite nice although the café “waitresses” seemed to be two little girls on their summer holidays who, far from being excited or intrigued by the sudden influx of exotic foreigners, couldn’t be less impressed and I never once saw a smile cross their lips. Poor things. It’s not what I’d want to do for my summer break either.

 

They camp staff were a little strict regarding our activities. Officially we had to be in our rooms by 8 and weren’t allowed to leave after 11pm. To go off campus we needed a signed note from our teacher. We were not allowed to drink or involve ourselves in any other mischievous activities. I hear this is pretty standard even for regular Chinese students but some people were a little disgruntled. Nevertheless, it turned out that the guards at the gate were pretty lax and a number of people *walked out at noon* to get proper vodka to wash down the alcopops. Once, while taking a call in the hallway, a nice young lady adamantly insisted that I give here my phone. She then proceeded to tell my mother what an upstanding and well behaved lad I am and how everything here in China is absolutely amazing. She repeated it several times for clarity and then, after handing my phone back, stumbled away down the corridor. Good times, eh 

 

This year the camp had 8 classes. Classes 1-4 were elementary.  Classes 5-7 were intermediate and  Class 8 was advanced. Each class had two teachers from BICC as well as volunteer teaching assistants who were students at Gengdan, most were majoring in teaching Chinese as a second language. Students were allocated based on how many class hours of Chinese they had already taken. Having taken a few lessons but self-studied a lot this meant that I ended up in a class far below my ability and had to move up. My class 4 teacher was so nice I felt bad leaving but it had to be done. From speaking to the other students I gathered that there was too large a gap between the elementary classes and the intermediate. Class four reviewed pinyin in the first lesson, definitely not something the people who moved down needed, however they said that intermediate classes were all in Chinese and too difficult to follow. Hopefully this will be improved upon next year. I moved up to class 8 which was a lot more stimulating. It was all in Chinese and we moved at a faster pace. I can’t say I learned all that much Chinese due to the classes but this is probably because the summer camp was too hectic and too much of a holiday to facilitate serious learning (or maybe I was too lazy to make the best of it  ). We played games in class which was fun but not all of them were useful. Perhaps the best thing was the debate because you really have to use all the Chinese you know to build an argument and respond to rebuttals.

 

Beyond the spoken Chinese classes there were also cultural classes on Chinese history and music. We got to try our hands at calligraphy, paper cutting, Tai Chi and Wushu. These were good fun and we met some real characters. One guy was clearly into KTV a lot because he would randomly burst into song during the intervals and he was really good at it too. He also managed to ruin three white boards with permanent marker. Great fun   In addition, the teachers also organised sporting competitions such as badminton and ping pong. These were really nice and helped us all bond with even more.

 

The tourist trips were a mixed bag. I can say I’ve been to the Forbidden City now, however, we rushed through so fast and without any real explanation of the history that I’ll definitely have to go again to appreciate it more. The Great Wall was nice but we went on a Saturday in the height of summer. I spent more time navigating crowds and looking at other peoples backs than enjoying the scenery and appreciating the history. A real shame. In fact I can honestly say I don’t feel like I’ve truly visited either of those places. This is something that they could perhaps change but I suppose it would require a lot more work from the teachers who would have to do a lot of reading to act as tour guides for the students.

 

One of the pros of the university setting is the student volunteers and all that that might entail. Let’s just say some people will be staying in China and, although Beijing has some cold winters, their nights will be pretty steamy regardless. Can’t say I'm not livid with jealousy   
(If you’re thinking a bunch of guys got lucky with some pretty Chinese girls think again. Blondes do have more fun, even in China )

 

As is only fair, considering the entire camp was free, the staff made some efforts to advertise BICC’s paid courses as well as Gengdan. We even took a short trip to see BICC’s Sanlitun campus although this was actually requested by the students. Some people signed up on the spot. From what I could see they've managed to employ some really nice and enthusiastic people at BICC, certainly all the staff who handled the summer camp were very friendly and welcoming. They offer simultaneous intership and study courses that I’m looking into but I’m not interested in working in a hotel to add a touch of the exotic and welcome English speaking guests. I’m actually interested in teaching Chinese as a second language so I’m going to ask if I can do an internship directly with them. Not sure what my chances are but perhaps I could offer my skills as a native English speaker in some capacity as well. I’ve noticed that sometimes teachers will have trouble explaining things or understanding questions which, as a second language learner, I can understand and could probably explain better. Hopefully I can work that all into my pitch without making it sound like an attack on their teaching skills.

 

Overall I would give the summer camp experience 8/10. I haven’t been to any summer camps before so I have no real frame of reference but I know I had an awesome time so that’s what counts. Due to the aforementioned visa issues I only stayed for 2 of the 3 weeks and I can tell you I was really gutted to be leaving early. They had us practicing a flash mob dance to the latest teeny bopper pop song which, while initially annoying and embarrassing, has now become a fond memory and I almost teared up when I heard it again recently. On my return to Beijing I picked up a very nice leather (?) bound certificate to commemorate my time at the summer camp. I would definitely go again and will apply for it again next year!

 

The flashmob. Unfortunately I missed most of this joy :/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnUP4Zpv62k&feature=share

[edelweis]

what was the age range of the participants?

[RY101]

Could you share more about the academic bits?

 

How heavy was the courseload?

What was the typical daily routine looked like in classroom?

Is there a outline of the course you could share? Perhaps, a course syllabus?

What textbook series did you guys use?

 

I'd like to see another post that answers questions more on that line.

[Tianjin42]

I'm glad you enjoyed this. We just got word of it without knowing a great deal so I posted it up. Good to know that you had a nice time. 

[LiMo]

@edelweis

The age range was probably from around 18-25, maybe a little wider, some people were a little bit older or a little bit younger but most were in university. There were large groups that all came from the same Chinese class at the same university. 

 

@Ronan Yi

 

The course load was pretty light for me although it differed between classes. We had a few bits of homework now and then, e.g. write a 500 character report on our home visit to see Chinese families. People in my original class said they had quite a few pieces of homework to do.

 

The textbooks were different depending on the level of the class. The advanced class used Short-Term Spoken Chinese (Elementary). I'm not sure what the other classes used but I know that they had different text books.

 

I'm afraid there's no syllabus. We had a schedule but the lessons are all just called "Spoken Chinese". I know that class 7, and so presumably the rest of the intermediate classes, started at the beginning of the textbook I mentioned above and class 8 started somewhere in the middle. We would often start off by reciting the vocabulary list for the current chapter of the textbook. Then we would go on to independently do one or two exercises and go through the answers. Sometimes our teacher would have us memorise a passage and then test us on it. Although this was intimidating at first it was actually not too bad and, as much as I'm against rote memorisation, I may try it out for myself.

 

I'm not sure what your level is but if you're looking for a full immersion experience it would be very difficult simply because there's such a wide range of abilities represented, even in the most advanced levels. I got some really good practice from making friends with the student volunteers and, unsurprisingly, many of us were approached by other students for language exchange. If you're really serious and you have/can find a friend who is willing then you can probably try to develop immersion for yourselves. Someone who got the most practice was an American girl who made friends with a Japanese girl who didn't speak English but she was the exception. Personally I didn't find the environment that conducive to learning (but that might be because I was travelling light, didn't bring my laptop and my usual study materials) it's four to a room and if no one else is working and there are people walking in and out then it can be a bit difficult.

I would say perhaps the biggest benefit for many people was that it helped make Chinese real for them, something they can really use even if it's just a few words. The workers at the canteen didn't speak English, neither did people at shops outside of campus so if you wanted to do anything you had to open your mouth and speak. If you're already past that stage then maybe you should look elsewhere. As I said before, considering it's free it's well worth it, it's only 3 weeks and it's good fun. You get out what you put in. If you're really determined to learn then I think you could still manage despite the lack of rigour in the course.

[edelweis]

thanks Limo. You mentioned photos?

[Lu]

Thanks for the extensive write-up, sounds like you had a great time!

I can’t say I learned all that much Chinese due to the classes but this is probably because the summer camp was too hectic and too much of a holiday to facilitate serious learning

This sounds rather disappointing. Of course a summer camp is not the same as an intensive course, but still it would be nice if you would actually make good progress when you spend three (or even two) weeks entirely devoted to Chinese. I can understand the 'Chinese became real' part though, there's this point where one day you find that Chinese is not just words in the textbook but a real thing that you can use to order food (or chat up hot student volunteers, I suppose), and then you actually get the food (or the hot student volunteer). That's a good point to reach and spending time in China is a great way to get there.

[芮贝卡]

As a classmate of the OP, his review was thorough and fair. That said, my overall impression was less positive.

The camp was good if you want a sampler course of Chinese culture or if you're a beginner looking for a mix of language courses and a taste of China to spur on your studies back home. The excursions are well organized and it was fun to try calligraphy, mask painting, and taiqi.

That said, if you are a fairly serious, intermediate-advanced Chinese language learner, don't come here for the language class. The highest level only covered 3 chapters (~60 words) during the entire camp. Furthermore, for many in our class, of those 60 words,many words (足球，太极拳) were review. Opportunities to speak Chinese are very limited although a determined student can find some. Nothing close to immersion is possible because internet is too slow to watch Chinese movies, the average Chinese level is too low for much conversation, and afternoon lectures are in English.

The camp is supposed to be speaking focused but I felt like our class time was largely spent doing simple drills with too few exercises or activities requiring more than a few word answer. Exceptions to this include a debate which was fairly good (except when the teacher allowed students to speak in English extensively mid-debate) and when we had to teach new vocabulary and grammar to our classmates.

Although I appreciated the free price tag, I wouldn't have gone if I knew how easy and slow the advanced level Chinese class would be and how few opportunities there were for exposure to Chinese. This is the perfect chance to get a quick intro to pinyin and see the Great Wall. If you're only going for the class, I'd suggest looking elsewhere.

[titing]

HI, LImo. 

 

Just found your post. Your words bring me back to there amazing memories we made there. Perhaps you forgetting me, and so do I (who knows) but yes, we are in same event, same hotel, same activity. Since you're using anonymous. I am Titing from class 4. 

 

Hope your day cheers up like 6 years back. Xo