| Hi everyone, I am currently living in Shanghai and have just finished one term of full-time Putongua program at Shanghai Jiaotong. I don't know if my comments will help anyone in particular but here they are :
Where to study?: Putonghua is putonghua after all. It is spoken by everyone in China. Only the accent in which it is spoken will be different (although quite a few "putonghua-nized" regional words do crop up where it is spoken). Certainly, the Beijing Putonghua is considered the standard, but they tend to add a strong "R" suffix/ending to many words which, for example, many Shanghainese consider distasteful and often associate it with being a country bumpkin. You have to realize that Shanghainese consider themselves to be the most cosmopolitan in China and, from my experience, rightfully so. They are the trendsetters of China. So, basically, it really should depend on what you are going to do or want to do after you have studied the language. For example, as a person with extensive financial background, my rationale for choosing Shanghai was that I believe Shanghai will be the commercial and financial capital of China and, perhaps, will surpass Tokyo as the financial center of Asia within 5 years. I think Shanghai will be like what New York City is to the US. (Beijing will be what Washington D.C. is to the US - i.e. a major political center.) If you are going back to your home country and deal mostly with companies or government agencies in Beijing, then you should go to Beijing to study. You should also go to Beijing to study if you plan to live and work there after language training. If your interest lies in the fields of finance (banking, insurance, etc.) or commerce (trading, manufacturing, marketing, etc.) and eventually wish to work in those fields in China or with China, then Shanghai will be a better bet. In either case, you will learn not only the language but also the "environment" of each respective city. When you meet in your home country a business prospect from, say, Shanghai, it would be a plus to be able to say that you studied at Jiatong (or Tongji or Fudan or whatever) and that you lived on Huai Hai Lu or in Pudong near the Carrefour supermarket. It personalizes the situation and should help to build rapport with that prospect. I hope I am getting my point across here. Which school to study at?: Since I live in Shanghai, I can only comment about my experience in Shanghai. As I mentioned, I just finished one term (elementary level) at Jiatong. I was not happy with it. I thought the program was not coordinated. Let me explain. There are three elements to the program: Jingdu (reading comprehension/ grammar), Tingli (listening) and Kouyu (speaking). Ideally, the three elements should be coordinated so that the new words, expressions and grammar learned in the Jingdu class (the backbone class) are listened to in "actual action" in the Tingli class and, then, their use practiced in the Kouyu class. The best approach in any language acquisition is to learn the pattern of usage and then reinforce it by constant repetition. You heard of "practice makes perfect," right? At Jiaotong, each part had a separate textbook taught by a separate teacher that/who did not coordinate with each other. Therefore, it was difficult to get reinforcement of what we learned in the Jingdu class in terms of listening and speaking. Oftentimes, we would come across grammar or usage in the Kouyu class that we had not learned in the Jingdu class. The problem is that since the Kouyu class focuses on speaking, the instructor did not explain the grammar or the usage in detail. For me, this was not acceptable. I made my feelings known to two instructors, who promised they will talk to the program supervisor. To date, I have not heard anything from the program supervisor. To me, language instruction, or for that matter education, is a business. I am therefore the consumer of the university's product. If a customer files a legitimate complaint and the product offeror does not respond to that, then, to me, it is a sign of very poor customer service. I have to conclude that customer satisfaction is very low on their priority list. My guess is that Jiatong may be more interested in making money than providing a quality language training program. It is really too bad because they are considered to be the second best university (not in language training but overall) in Shanghai after Fudan U. Because of all this, I am now considering the Putonghua program at Tongji U's International School JBC. They seem to have smaller classes (6-10) compared to Jiaotong's. In my class there were 15 although towards the end only about 8 showed up for classes. Does it say anything about the class itself, I wonder? One other point about the class itself. I don't know whether it is important for folks out there considering Chinese classes, but please bear in mind that up to 65% of the students in your class will be Koreans and up to 30% will be Japanese. The remainder are the students from other countries, including Europe, the USA, and the other Asian countries (Malaysia, Indonesia, India, etc.) For example, I was the only non-Asian in my class of 15. Granted, Jiaotong did have a class comprising Europeans and Americans only, but the unfortunate thing about this class was that everything was taught using pinyin only and not Chinese characters. So, many of you from Europe or the US should be prepared for a heavy dose of Korean and Japanese being spoken at the school. Hopefully, you will be able to find a few from your respective countries so that you will not feel too homesick. The factor of commuting: One other factor that was important to me was commuting. I originally thought of going to Fudan U., but decided not to because of its location. It was very inconvenient to go to from where I lived (I would have had to take a bus which I didn't want to) and I did not particularly like the dreary environment around the school. I chose Jiatong because I could hop on the great subway system here and get there very smoothly. Also, the Xujiahui area in which Jiatong is located is quite nice. It has 4 department stores, lots of restaurants of all types, and even the ubiquitous Starbucks, near the campus. Althoug the main campus of Tongji U is located nearer to Fudan and also somewhat inconvenient to get to, Tongji's JBC is located nearer to Jiaotong and more convenient to commute to via the subway system. Also, the nice drinking holes on Hengshan Lu are very near Jiaotong and Tongji's JBC for those who like to go pubbing. I don't know whether my comments were helpful, but I would like all of you who are considering to learn Putonghua, whether in Beijing or Shanghai or somewhere else here, to look at all angles, present and future, to make your final decision. Shanghai Richard |
Where to Study Chinese, Beijing or Shanghai?