Sichuan University Chinese Language program

Posted in: Forums > Study • 15 posts • Newest

• • danlessor
    March 19, 2012
    1 post
  • Okay, so my name is Daniel. I'm a 22 year old American business student. I'm considering coming to China to learn Chinese. My budget is only 10,000 USD per year, so I have to budget carefully, or get a part time job.

    I am considering Sichuan University, and I have some questions.

    First, do you think 10,000 or 63,000 RMB per year is enough to pay for tuition, dorms, and food?

    Second, do the dorms have western style toilets? Do they have air conditioning and heat? Do they charge for electricty? Do they offer wireless internet? Can you swim in the pool anytime?

    3rd, are their many foreigners in chengdu? Does the college get many foreign studends who want to learn chinese? Can foreign students participate in college sports?

    4th, how is the air quality? Is the water safe? Is the food cheap?

    5th, about the colllege. Are the students learning chinese places close to normal chinese students taking other majors? The reason is that i would like to make friends and meet people who with are normal chinese. It wouldn't help me learn to practice my chinese with a russian you know? Also, are the dorms near the normal norms? Is it one campus or multiple buildings spread throughout the city?

    6th, are the people welcoming? Do they like westerns or foregners? Are foreign commoners pretty common? Are they going to raise their prices whereever I go? Are they pretty open and confident?

    Please be in as much detail are you can, I want to be as prepared as I can. I've lived in China for 3 months last year, but this will be my first time going to a college with people my age, and actually learning chinese.

    Thanks!

• • xiesh_dabid
    March 19, 2012
    1 post
  • haha, 63000 RMB

• • Dragon Expeditions
    March 19, 2012
    162 posts
  • 1. Yes, just about. IIRC fees for a year are around 20,000 RMB all in, leaving you about 3500 RMB a month for everything else. Definitely very doable but you're not going to be rich.

    2. Someone who's actually stayed in them will have to answer that. You could also choose to live off campus which is a bit pricier but means you get all of that.

    3. Loads, and increasing every year. I think something like 15,000 foreigners in Chengdu and I was once told there are over 1000 foreign students studying at Sichuan University, no idea how accurate either of those figures are, but they should be in the right sort of ballpark. Foreign students should be able to participate in college sports — they can at most universities, but again I'll let someone who's studied there answer that.

    4. The worst thing about Chengdu is the weather (although it's finally been looking like Spring for the last couple of days). The city is surrounded by hills so clouds and pollution sit here for months without clearing. Not terrible air quality compared to a lot of cities, but don't expect too many clear blue skys. The water is treated and so is fine for washing vegetables in, brushing teeth etc, but everyone (including the locals) drinks boiled or bottled water. Food's a lot more expensive than it was a few years ago. I'd guess I'd budget 10 - 25 rmb a head for a reasonable budget meal these days.

    5. There's a couple of campuses, but the main campus with the foreign students has plenty of local students as well, albeit less undergraduates than it used to.

    6. Yes, most people are welcoming and tend to treat foreigners reasonably well. Of course there are exceptions, but then we sometimes get treated better than the locals as well.

• • ukululu
    March 25, 2012
    4 posts
  • we chinese people dont like western style toilets hahah

• • Yeming
    March 25, 2012
    48 posts
  • I'd like to second question number 2. Im intrested to know how the dorms are like. I heard there are three possibilities, Single room with Bathroom, Single room with shared bathroom and Shared room with/shared bathroom (not sure which one). I'd like to know if the shared bathroom has western style toilets ? :P and what other facilities are there ?

• • invisible
    March 26, 2012
    817 posts
  • a bit on the scu dorms

    http://www.gochengdoo.com/[...]

• • hapatofu
    March 26, 2012
    124 posts
  • I studied at SU one semester but visited the dorms only once. All I can remember thinking is they were charging a lot for what the students got. That was five years ago, though, and rental prices around the city have gone up, while I don't know if the dorm prices have. Maybe it's a better deal now, but at that time I think it was RMB1,000 for a small shared room with en suite bathroom and only one kitchen facility for the whole floor or something like that. The whole place seemed a bit grubby as well. I'd rather live off campus, personally, but I am and always have been old and crotchety.

• • invisible
    March 31, 2012
    817 posts
  • 1. more than enough for a student, you can rent your own place, eat (and drink) outside daily

    2. no comment

    3. Chengdu's foreign population is still growing, it's where Shanghai was like 13 years ago.

    SCU is packed with foreigners and the number is growing every year, it should be several hundred foreign students just for the Chinese language program (maybe half of them Westerners). And yes

    4. air quality is improving, but a lot of foreigners can't handle it. some drink the tab water, which I wouldn't do. Produce is cheap.

    5. Same campus, but different building. SCU is several campuses, but you'll just stay in one

    6. People are usually indifferent, some are welcoming, some not. Some prices may vary for waidiren non-locals, regardless if you are foreign or just Chinese from another city.

• • paul justin
    April 13, 2012
    3 posts
  • If you come to SCU,I can be your free guide,and I am a student of SCU. I am a normal chinese,I am willing to help you on your chinese.cell phone number： 186 1572 7792

• • Miss Guo
    April 30, 2012
    1 post
  • hello Daniel:

    I am a Chinese teacher,I can help you learn Chinese,This is my Mall: xiaoguoaimh@yahoo.com.cn .If you want to learn more, give me mail.Very glad to help you.Tal : Miss Zhou 13540364565

• • JT8900
    May 22, 2012
    8 posts
  • Hey, I've been studying at SCU for the past year. I can answer all of these questions pretty accurately, I think.

    1) You should be fine with that budget. It's about 5k yuan/month which should get you through the month without much problem. If you're super worried about money, either get an apartment off-campus (often cheaper) or apply for the Chinese Government Scholarship. I'm here on that scholarship and it gives you a free room, tuition, and 1700 kuai/month. Not bad at all.

    2) Ok, here's the bad news. SCU's campus and accommodations are extremely Chinese. Last semester we (foreign students) were given rooms in the "Western Dorms" which is essentially a hotel and accommodations were very nice. Since the Foreigner dorms were refurbished we've been in those and quite frankly they suck. Public squat toilets, paid electricity, paid wireless, and I don't know what you're talking about with the pool lol. There's an outdoor one but it has hours that need to be observed. Again, you're better off renting an apartment off campus. Personally I just sleep on my good friend's couch these days. The dorms were just not worth it.

    3) We have, and I quote from the most recent report, "A shit ton" of foreign students. There are over 100 on the Wangjiang campus which is where I study. There are also a bunch at Huaxi which is where they study medicine and they like. Non-students are also pretty numerous, but a lot of them tend to be old middle-aged white men who are here for business and chasing Chinese women at the bars. Not to say we students don't do a good bit of chasing ourselves, but we tend to keep it within our own age-bracket -_-

    4) The air's fine compared to Beijing and Shanghai, though you don't really see the sun. Do yourself a favor and don't drink the tap water. You can get bottled water for so cheap there's no point in risking it. Food is extremely cheap. Think American prices and then divide it by the current exchange rate. That's right, about $1 for a meal as long as you're not looking for anything fancy.

    5) This one's an interesting question with an interesting answer. See, the thing is that the school kind of goes out of its way to keep us physically distant from the Chinese students. I don't really know why that is, but that's certainly how it seems. That being said, friends are easy to make. Don't sweat the physical distance to the classrooms. Second, practicing Chinese with a Russian will absolutely help your Chinese, especially if you haven't been studying long. Until your listening gets up to par, it helps a lot to speak with someone who A) is sure to speak Mandarin instead of a god-awful dialect, B) speaks clearly, and C) speaks slowly. You can believe it or not, but I know from experience. I also know that speaking with a good Chinese friend is even better and that is easy to do here, just don't blow off practice with foreigners. It helps whether you think it will or not. The foreign dorms are, as I said, pretty far from the Chinese dorms, but that's a good thing. This way you don't have to smell the public baths. Lastly, there are 3 campuses that I'm aware of. There's one at Wangjiang, one at Jiangan, and one at Huaxi. The Jiangan and Huaxi campuses are nicest, but you'll wind up with us at Wangjiang. It's still kind of a cool campus, and really close to the nightlife so it has its benefits.

    6) They love foreigners to the point of being a little annoying. I swear, if I have one more Chinese shop-owner yell "Hellol!" at me I'm going to punch him in the mouth. (Exaggeration, but you get the point) Besides the random hellos and "Hey, look at the white guy!" expressions, Chengdu's hospitality is pretty nice and I think most people like it pretty well. Also, you'll have absolutely no problem finding a girlfriend as long as you're a decent looking foreigner (if that's even on your radar). As far as prices go, yeah they'll be raised occassionally, but you'll figure out what they should be soon enough and as long as you know that you'll be fine. As far as being open and confident, the Chinese people as a rule are pretty reserved and introverted. Don't be expecting hugs... I was going to say "on the street", but frankly you shouldn't expect them at all, but they're all quite friendly once you get past the wall....Great Wall.... China jokes.....

    Hope that helps! If you need a hand with anything give me a call 18224445904. My name's Jake and I'll be happy to help.

• • Yeming
    May 23, 2012
    48 posts
  • Hello Jake,

    Thanks for taking the time to answer the TS. These answers are really helpful for me aswell, since I applied at SU couple of weeks ago. I also applied for the Chinese Government Scholarship. Hopefully they will grant it to me, but I dont think that will be a too big of a hassle. I wonder what study you do. Also Chinese Language Program ? And for how long ? Is a free room, tuition, and 1700 kuai/month what you get when you do a Chinese Language Program for a year, like I will ? I could never find this answer the only thing i got was that you get free tuition, room and 1400 kuai a month... not sure if that was for undergraduate students only...

• • JT8900
    May 23, 2012
    8 posts
  • No problem, Yeming. I'm happy to help. Glad to hear you applied to study here, maybe I'll see you next semester! As for me, I've been here for a year studying Chinese Language. The free tuition/room/money every month is just because I have the Chinese Government Scholarship. I think the difference between the 1400 kuai and 1700 is just because your information is old. This year it's 1700/month.

• • Yeming
    May 23, 2012
    48 posts
  • Alright I can live with that haha

• • JT8900
    May 24, 2012
    8 posts
  • Yeah, it's a pretty sweet deal

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