Need help! Best university for Chinese language in Shanghai...

Are you set on Shanghai, or willing to consider other parts of China? What sort of living/studying environment do you want to be in?

rickaby, check this link: http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?t=17457 I miss spoke, it should be East China Normal Univeristy: http://www.ecnu.edu.cn/ not Shanghai East Normal University

hello,i living in Chengdu.Sichuan.What you need suggestions? Perhaps I can help you.

I´ve heard that Fudan university is the best one in shanghai.

I think where you go should also largely reflect your goals. If you're looking for a "fun" year abroad and don't care much about learning the language to fluency then moving to a city in which Mandarin isn't spoken as the mother tongue, and would therefore be negatively influenced / accented by native Wu speakers wouldn't be a big deal. If your goal is to learn Mandarin to fluency, and you want to have a good accent (not saying that those studying in Shanghai can't achieve this, I just assume it would take much more work and self-scrutiny) then a city in the NE would be a better option. First things first would be to state your goals: What do you want out of your year here? What types of sacrifices are you willing to make to achieve these goals? etc.

Thanks for your help....I have a hard choice to make now. I love Shanghai but really want to get fluent as quickly and efficiently as possible! aahhhh

how good is your Chinese now? I am going to Zheda next year which is 2 hours from shanghai. I love the fact that thee is a local hangzhou hua that I can pick up because I am am trying to learn some of the local languages. My Chinese is fluent in speaking and I might pick up an accent on some words but for the most part I still speak like a foreigner. In my opinion learning the way people in different regions differ from the standard in Beijing is half the fun of learning. I have a friend from Sichuan and I can now under stand like 75 % of what she says in her local dialect.

Thats the trouble. I know Shanghai hua is like almost another language altogether and some people have told me I should go to Beijing so that I can be better immersed in the language. But I've been to both Shanghai and Beijing, I must say I prefer Shanghai. If Ive gotta live in the place for a year I should be sure about the environment. What other place do you recommend/have in mind?

Brilliant. Thanks for the information. I've been trying to find out from my friends what universities are the top ones but they are always very vague. So you say Fudan is maybe 3rd best. But does this mean it is third best in teaching Chinese? The website for the Tongji university looks alot more professional and appealing as it gives lots of information on its courses in English. But the Fudan website does not really say much apart from how much it will cost and that there are 20 hours a week. Fudan also works out cheaper than Tongji; But does this mean that Tongji give more quality or just that they are over priced. It is a shame that Fudan university really lets itself down with the website; I have also e-mailed them and they were really unhelpful. So do you think it is the safest bet going for Fudan University if I want to study in Shanghai?

I think that every langauge course at these universities is basically the same. It dosen't matter if it is Beida or so small school. You really get what you put into it. for me the bigger universities will give me access to more archival resources in Chinese that I want to use for my grad studies but just for language i think the best place to go is where you feel the program fits you best.

So, if one speaks like a foreigner, then one level below to XinJiang speech. It takes a long time to be able to not speak like a foreigner. I've not met too many that can speak fluently, no matter not long they have been speaking. Guys like John Pasden are few and far between. But, keep trying.

Great; thanks for all your help! I think I'm more inclined to go with Fudan now. Kitty - I will try my best to be the next Pasden ;)

Hi Rickaby, I have another suggestion you might consider. I'm living in Shanghai now for more than a year, I've attended Shanghai International Studies University and looked at many other universities including Fudan. For my money, if I were to attend class here again, I would go with Shanghai East Normal University. First, it's a teacher's college so the quality of instruction is better than most (when I was at sisu our teachers were not professional teachers but rather, were students taking classes and working at the school). Second, when I looked at the school the class sizes were small and the campus was not over sized. Anyway, I suggest you give it consideration and ask around. Personally, I would not go to Fudan unless I were going to attend higher level classes taught in Chinese.

oh and I forgot to mention that ibowfornoman is right and fudan is the best ranked in Shanghai. It and zheda are always fighting for 3rd and 4th behind Beida and Qinghua.