I’m planning to apply for the scholarship for the summer semester. I really wish I could stay longer but I can’t afford to take too much time off my undergraduate studies.
I have some questions that I’m hoping can be answered by successful applicants.
What are the grades you need to maintain the scholarship?
Are the grades hard to get/maintain? I’m planning to go to MTC if I get it since it’s way cheaper than some other ones I saw.
Are the intensive classes hard at MTC? I heard the final is timed but regular is not.
Will the money be given earlier since I’m only there for a short 2 months?
Any other useful information and tips are appreciated.
I did it like eight years ago so others may have more current info.
The grades are very easy to get if you do the work, don’t fall behind, show up to class, and are a halfway decent language learner.
The intensive classes are not harder than the regular ones, you just have to keep up with more work condensed into a shorter time.
Might have changed by now but when I did it I got the money at the end of each month. I needed to use some savings to get thru to the first payment, then a week before leaving I got the last payment (and changed it into USD).
You’re only there for one semester, grades don’t really matter. It’s not like they send every single grade you get to the government. Only the final one at the end of each semester. Although if you were to skip classes completely they might revoke it.
I’m not at MTC but at NTU’s CLD and had the scholarship for 3 months in the fall. It varies by school, so please just take this as a general idea, but at least here, you do have to keep 80/100 for the scholarship. I think being below that would cost you 1 month’s scholarship. At NTU the money would not be given earlier, in fact it takes about 2 months for it to start coming (again, this isn’t MTC) but you’d have to withdraw the final payment after you leave.
I believe the intensive classes cover the same material, just faster. So that means more homework per day, more vocab per week, etc.
I agree that if you don’t skip class, pay attention in class and do your homework you should be able to keep the grades needed for the scholarship. If you are at the lower levels, in order to keep the scholarship on the intensive classes I’d think you’d need 2-3 hours of homework/studying per day, depending on how quickly/slowly you learn.
I was just wondering if you could comment on what your Chinese ability was when you started and how your Chinese ability has grown since. How long have you been at CLD now. Although its not relevant to MTC, the books used are the same so I am just wondering how well you feel the classes help you to progress with your language fluency?
(A little off topic so if mods/anyone thinks it should be moved, I’m happy to do so.)
Hi Aaron,
When I arrived I had self-studied very slowly over the course of about a two years and had passed the TOCFL level 1 reading/listening test. Despite passing the listening test, my listening/speaking ability was very bad when I arrived. The first few days I could pick up almost nothing of what they said, even picking out prices were still hard despite knowing all the numbers reasonably well. My placement test (accurately) put me in a class starting at the first book, first lesson, but with other people who learned before so we ended up about 3 weeks’ worth of classes ahead of the other classes that started at the same point.
I have been at CLD for about 7 months (corresponding to book 3 lesson 6 out of 14) and I can usually get through daily life without needing too much English or pointing. However, things outside the norm and conversations with locals are still really challenging, especially those that aren’t used to speaking to someone with the vocabulary of a 4-year old. I think my language proficiency now would be suitable for doing something like going on a hike with a group of locals. I can manage to have short conversations here and there, and on the off chance I understand what everyone else is talking about I can participate briefly in that conversation, but extended 1 on 1 conversations would be pretty hard to manage without a huge amount of patience and just giving up on certain topics.
I think the highlight of my language ability came this week when I had a nearly 2 hour conversation with another student from CLD (who doesn’t speak much English) using only about 6 English words. I don’t think we precisely understood each other, but generally I think we understood enough to keep the conversation going. But it is much easier to communicate with someone closer to your level, as unlike native speakers, Chinese learners are much more likely to use words in your vocab.
As for how the classes have helped me progress, I think they have been indispensable. I think Chinese is harder to pick up by just living in the country as learning a spoken word doesn’t mean you know how to read it and learning a written word doesn’t mean you can speak it. In my opinion, these Practical Audio Visual Chinese books are not well suited to self-study, my teachers have added a great deal of clarity and explanation beyond what the book provides. Especially in some places the book is really light on explanation. I also think the initial classes help a lot with pronunciation which I think would be hard to get right from just listening.
That said, to the best of my knowledge, MTC has actually switched books to “A Course in Contemporary Chinese” since late 2015/early 2016. I think these books are significantly better in terms of explanations, but I don’t know if they’d be good enough to self-study from.
Let me know if you have any more questions, feel free to PM me or start a new thread if that is appropriate.