User Comments - bodawei

Posted on: Do You Like Shanghai?

Just like Shanghai. For me, Shanghai and Hong Kong are sister cities. I was going to say that the harbour is nicer than the 黃浦江 Huang-Pu (sorry Jenny) but your comeback is 'Yes, but we also have the 长江 Yangtze!'. Shanghai and Hong Kong are closer to each other on a number of dimensions than any other two Chinese cities.

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

'even by someone that only finished 9th grade in China?'

That is hard to imagine, unless we are talking about some of the old codgers. They may get mature age admission based on work experience and some sort of competency test - that is pure speculation based on what is possible in Australia.

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

Thanks Baba for keeping my feet on the ground. These (old) levels applied where I taught last year. On Wikipaedia is says a range of 3 - 8 in the old scale. I am trying to imagine what kind of university course you could complete with an HSK of 3. You might have trouble in the lectures. But an old student of mine admitted that he didn't understand 'anything' in class - he spent the time reading the textbook. Actually one of my brightest students often slept during my class. (Now why did that not come out right?)

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

Which kind of reminds me of something else - speaking of foreigners doing English in China - significant numbers of mainlanders come to Australia to study Chinese. University of Sydney for example has a program designed for native speakers.

I recently came across an English language school in Sydney that has a policy of not employing native-English speakers as teachers. All teachers are native Chinese speakers. I guess there is a market for everything - a lot of Chinese people feel more comfortable with a Chinese teacher. And the Chinese education system is supposed to be stronger than the Australian education system on English grammar.

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

'Can I retire to China and get a degree in English, or some such?'

Yes you can. :) In fact there are quite a lot of foreigners earning degrees in China. From my experience the majority are from Asia and Africa, but I have come across quite a few from lets say non-Asia/Africa. You need an HSK 6 for an undergraduate, 7 for a Masters. There are of course English majors.

There are lots of private universities that confer degrees. And there are six tiers of 'Government' tertiary institutions. Plenty of scope for snobbery. :)

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

Hi podster, maybe the 已经 here is critical. People may have been hired years ago before the stricter rules were applied. Business would typically 'grandfather' the rules, not get rid of good people just because they don't have a degree from a recognised institution.

Posted on: Self-Taught Degrees in China

Hi pretzl

There are technical colleges, and a range of options in the private sector both for bachelor degrees and for vocational qualifications. So you can learn to be a motor mechanic, a cook or a computer technician etc. Rather like in Australia. I'm not sure, however, how the trades for example are regulated - in Australia you need insurance. In China I have had our hot water system fixed, and a room painted, by people who I would think held no qualifications. Both did a pretty good job but that would not always be the case. And there are universities for old codgers - after you retire you could enrol for a degree course. Keeps them off the streets.

Posted on: 孔子拜访老子 1：道可道非常道

可以阿。是不是柏树的种子？阴和阳？ 是芝麻街性格演员吧?

Posted on: An Improved Understanding of Improve

Great show guys, excellent Qing Wen. 

'以前中国人的家都很小，然后现在要买大房子，改善居住条件。'

I wonder how true this statement is - I mean as a relative statement, small compared to what? 

In 2008 the average Chinese house is around 120 sm compared to about 70 sm in the UK - in the past few decades Chinese houses have not been small on world standards. (Approx. figures from the Internet and leaving aside data issues.) 

The reason I ask is that traditionally Chinese houses were occupied by extended families - how small could they be? 

My personal experience of houses in the countryside (Zhejiang, Yunnan - a rich province and a poor province) - where we might expect the houses to be small because of levels of wealth and income - is that houses are surprisingly large. 

I'd hazard a guess that Chinese houses, on average, have always been fairly large, but that persons per dwelling have also been high on world standards. 

Incidentally it is possibly a 'well known myth' in the West that Chinese houses are small - I found this opinion in the US. American universities used to offer Asian students with family smaller apartments because they are used to smaller apartments (not sure if that is still the case but was my personal experience in the 1980s.)

What is also interesting is that the Chinese people themselves possibly perpetuate the myth; they might be surprised that even now the average Chinese house is nearly twice the floor area of the average UK dwelling.   

Posted on: Choosing a Room

Hey Bill, you could go and enjoy the 厉害 view from the 88th floor bar and then go and stay next door in the hostel for 30 rmb. Unless someone else was paying of course. :)

This reminds me that I like to relax in the Shangri-La hotels even when I travel in youth hostels - go down by bus for a newspaper, a pastry (in the days when I ate pastries), spot of lunch, a coffee maybe, then go back to the real world.

And of course the 五星级酒店 are useful for toilet stops.