[quote=“Gringo Starr”]Hi,
I plan to get back to Taiwan at the end of the year to study Chinese in a language centre for one year, but got a hard time deciding where to go.
After browsing through a bunch of website, I pretty much narrowed my choice to the following 2:
_ Feng Chia University (FCU) in Taichung.
_ National Cheng Kung University in Tainan.
I don’ t really want to live in Taipei so that helped me a lot for selection, but still…
Anyone who studied in these programs have any info, comments, feedbacks (number of students, books used, teachers, atmosphere of the Uni…).
NCKU program looks good but it’s a bit weird that 2 of the quarters last 8 weeks only, whereas all other language centres go for 12.
Alternatively anybody tried to learn Chinese in Hualian or Kaoshiung (Gaoxiong) ?
Any thoughts, experience you can share is welcome,
Many thanks[/quote]
I’m a student at NCKU. The use the popular Shi Da series (Practical Audio Visual Chinese). You can choose between small group classes and private classes. Private classes are more expensive and I recommend the small group classes, even if only because of a greater range of conversational possibilities.
The class I’m in has ten people (including myself). One Thai lady, four Americans, three Koreans, one Indonesian and myself (South African). The entire class is conducted in Chinese, which is easier than I thought it would be because our teacher explains everything clearly and concisely. But as these things go, so teachers are better than others and perhaps I’m just lucky this semester.
The year is divided into four semesters: Currently we’re in the Fall/Autumn semester (12 weeks), followed by Winter (8 weeks), Spring (12 weeks) and Summer (8 weeks), with about two weeks off in between each semester…
I like it at NCKU, but I’ve lived in Tainan for six years and in reality, it’s my hometown. I love it here and NCKU is the only option in Tainan. So, that’s the biggest reason I’m a student there. Also, I have plans to pursue an MA at NCKU in the future.
So, I guess it really depends where you want to live. As with most programs, I think you get out of it what you put into it.