 Good evening Let me welcome you first to this this web map of this webinar about studying Chinese And so us and thank you all for having taken the time To be with us here today My name is Alan Cummings. I'm the admissions tutor for our BA Chinese and Tibetan undergraduate degrees this year And I'm here to I'm here today to give you a short talk to introduce the kind of degrees that we offer at so-as And to give you a little bit of a sense of what studying Chinese at sauce is like I'm sure that some of you will have Some questions about the about the degree Or about studying at sauce in general But please save save those questions for the end if you do have questions Just type them into the chat bar and then I will I will I will answer those questions I'll leave some time at the end to answer those questions So the first thing is, you know, why should you why should you come to so-as? I always say that academics make hopeless sales people But there are a few things that I could I could point to I think To give you a sense of why sauce would be a great place to come to study Chinese The first is that so-as offers a really amazing concentration of knowledge and expertise On the languages and cultures of Asia Africa in the Middle East There's nowhere else in the world that has as many specialists Over 350 us in the languages and the art the politics music economics politics and history Of these really important regions in the China and in the China section In the stage of the apartment we have at the moment six full-time Lectures who specialize in Chinese philology Chinese film in modern and pre-modern literature In underground theater and in linguistics We also have five full-time language teachers teaching teaching different aspects of Chinese language In addition, there are many other academics involved in the study of China in other departments around so-as In economics, for example in history in religions in art and archaeology So if you come to so-as you have a really amazing opportunity To take modules and study with some of the major scholars In their respective fields Asian studies at science has been recognized in the last research assessment exercises being the preeminent institution in the country for Asian studies So by coming here you're really getting an excellent chance to study with people who are working at the forefront of their different disciplines Who are expanding our understanding of ancient and contemporary China and its changing place in the world Another thing I would point to is the so-as library Maybe that's not going to be the first thing you think about when you're trying to think about which university you want to go to to study But as you progress in your degree As your ability to read Chinese increases You will find that the so-as library has a really amazing selection of Chinese books Academic journals and newspapers Things which are fun to read but things which will also be absolutely vital for your research and for your understanding of China So as you move further through your degree The so-as library is really a resource that you come to appreciate more and more It really is one of the best libraries in the country It's a really unique resource, a unique resource even in Europe And we have a vast range of works in Chinese but also in English and other languages on China related topics On almost anything you would think of wanting to investigate The final thing I'd point to is the atmosphere of so-as and its location If you've come here on an open day or you've been to see where we are You will notice that so-as is not a particularly big institution We just have a few thousand students But we are an intensely international university With students at so-as from over 130 different countries Somewhere between 45 and 50% of our student body is from outside the UK This means that when you come to so-as you have a really wonderful opportunity to meet and make friends With people from all sorts of different cultures And people who are involved in the study of all sorts of really interesting, sometimes bizarre things So I should move on and say a little bit about the degree programs that we offer So we currently offer two different types of degrees at undergraduate level And if you look on the website you can see that we have our BHNE's Modern and Classical And we have BHNE's Studies These are the main undergraduate degrees that we offer Just to explain how those degrees are different BHNE's is a four-year degree You spend one year of that, your second year, studying at a university in Beijing Beijing Normal University The BHNE's Studies degree on the other hand is a three-year degree So it's a three-year degree because it does not have that year abroad With both of those degrees it's possible to study them either as a single subject degree Or as a joint degree So you can combine them with some of the other subjects that SAS offers And if you go onto the website you'll be able to see a big list of the types of subjects that you can combine With BHNE's There's Development Studies, there's Economics, there's English History History of Art and Archaeology, Indonesian, International Relations Japanese Studies, Korean Studies, Law, Linguistics, Music, Politics Social Anthropology, Religions, Tibetan and World Philosophies So that's the range of degrees that we offer If anybody here is interested in Tibetan We do have a BA Tibetan degree, but it's only available as a joint degree Most of the subjects that you can combine Tibetan with will turn it into a three-year degree Unless you combine it with Chinese in which case it will become a four-year degree I should say a little bit about another aspect of how these two degrees are different And that is on the three-year degree there is a greater focus upon non-language courses So discipline courses, so courses which are about Chinese literature or Chinese film or Chinese history Whereas on BA Chinese there's a greater focus on the acquisition of the language So you spend a far greater amount of time trying to get your language, your Chinese language You're mountain it up to the highest level of proficiency that you can To give you a little bit of a sense of what studying Chinese at SOAS might be like I'll say a few things about structure and about course choices Each year you're at SOAS, you're required to take 120 credits each year Some of these will be chosen for you, so there will be compulsory modules Others you'll be able to choose for yourself And as you progress upwards into the third and fourth year you have more choice There will be more optional modules that you can choose from In your first year though, first if you're studying on BA Chinese You will spend that first year, about half your time will be spent working on language So there's an elementary modern Chinese language module that you will take Which aims to teach you basic speaking, listening, reading, writing and translation And on that module you're spending at the moment, it's 13 hours a week You spend studying grammar and conversation classes and writing classes and so on The other modules that you will take, there will be an introduction to the History of East Asia module That you will take, this is a new curriculum from next year And that module does what it says on the tin, so you study the history of China But you study that history of China alongside the histories of Korea and Japan So it's there to give you a sense about the interconnections, the commonalities The different exchanges, the differences between those states Throughout history and right up to the contemporary period But as I said, about half your time, so about half the modules you take in first year Will be language modules And I do have to give you one word of warning here And that is, for every R that you spend in a language class Our language teachers say that you need to spend maybe two or maybe three hours Revising, self-studying, so doing your homework, memorizing characters, practicing characters Learning new vocab, preparing for tests and so on and so forth So the reason why I always say this at this point is Chinese is not an easy language to learn And to begin with, at least it does require a serious commitment of time and effort So you need to think, okay, in my first year, third year, second year, third year I'll be working maybe 30 hours a week, maybe more than that Just on the language, just trying to get your reading and your writing And your listening and your speaking skills up to the level where you want to go Our language teachers, our Chinese language teachers are wonderful They're really warm, very helpful They're constantly helping you to do the best that you can do But they need that you put in the time and the effort And if you do so, then you will be very much rewarded It's a very rigorous course We aim to get you up to a level of reading and writing and speaking and listening Where you can function in China, where you can read newspapers Where you can read literary texts and you can read academic texts So it means that over the four years that you're at so much on that B.A. Chinese degree You will have to be highly committed to the study of language And that sense of commitment and enthusiasm for China is something that we definitely look for In the applications As you move further through the programme As I said before, your second year is spent abroad Studying at Beijing Normal University As you kind of go there, you're mostly studying Chinese language It's a fairly intensive course When you come back in your third and fourth year The modules of the game be divided up Kind of half language modules and then half what we call discipline modules So modules which are about Chinese history or post-war society Modern classical literature, classical language, Chinese linguistics There's a full list of all the modules that we have available on the website And as you progress through the degree Your later years become much more about using your language skills You will have acquired the basic grammar and vocabulary in the earlier years But the later years are more about applying the language skills that you have developed So you start reading Chinese historical texts Or you start reading modern or pre-modern literary texts in their original versions So you're beginning to kind of puzzle on it Your high Chinese is working, you're beginning to use real life materials So that's the basic structure of the degree If you want to see more detail on that, go on to the website If you roll down, you can see the structure for the degree Where it comes out each year, which modules you'll be taking in If you click through on each of those, you can get an insight into the content of each of those modules You would be able to learn about the assessment, what percentage is exam Versus what percentage is continuous assessment or essays and so on So there's lots and lots of detail on the website If you want to look through these modules, you'll probably also see that we do offer some additional language courses as well So it's possible to study Hokkien, for example Or it's possible to study Cantonese So there are additional Chinese languages that you can learn while you're here I should say a couple of things about the year abroad As I say, that year abroad is compulsory for students who are on the four-year degree You spend one year studying in Beijing in your second year And you spend it at the moment, all of the students go to Beijing Normal University So that year abroad is compulsory, so that's definitely worth thinking about When you're choosing whether to go for Japanese studies or whether you're choosing Chinese studies Or whether you're choosing who with BA Chinese It's a fantastic opportunity to go and live and study in China for a year Allows you to improve your language skills and your understanding of the culture Of course you'll have lots of wonderful experiences while you're there The chance to meet and make friends and lots of different things that you will experience while you're there I know that lots of people often ask about entry requirements And really when I come to look at your applications, there are really three things that I look for Particularly in the personal statement And those three things are, do you have the ability to handle the language side of the degree? So have you studied language before? That's very important If you've studied language at GCSE or if you've studied at A level Or if you've studied language in some other kind of context If you've taken a short course somewhere, if you've taken evening lessons or whatever it is Please tell us about that because we want to know that you have a very good idea of what studying language involves Some people have this idea that if you haven't studied language before You think it's kind of a magical process where you just sit in a language classroom And somehow magically the ability to speak it will appear in your brain Those of you who have studied language, you know that that isn't true That you need to put a lot of effort into building up your vocabulary In learning how to read and write And something that requires a constant and consistent effort to become good at The other thing I like to see is do you have the ability to handle the academic demands of the course? Lots of the modules that you take will be about Chinese literature or about Chinese history So that really has to do with your grades And finally the thing that we want to see is some sort of passion or enthusiasm For studying China in an academic context So tell us why, tell us why you're interested in China Tell us what kind of books you've been reading about China, tell us what you thought about them The reason why we ask to see that passion or enthusiasm Is that if you study a language Sometimes it will feel wonderful, it will feel easy Vocabulary will just kind of appear in your brain and you'll be able to remember it easily Characters will stick and then there will be other times where it will feel difficult There will be times where you're having to write out a character 50 times or 100 times And it's just not getting into your brain, it's just not registering with you So there will be times when it feels a bit depressing to study language And at those times you need to have something within you Something that when you ask that question, why did I choose to do Chinese You've got to have some answer for yourself So that's why we like to see that passion or that enthusiasm Okay, I think that's about all that I wanted to say Do you have any questions? If you have a question feel free to just type it into the chat bar And I'm happy to take those questions Okay, so Lucian has just asked about the syllabus for the year abroad When you're in Beijing it's essentially, it's mostly Chinese language That you will spend most of your time studying At the moment we also have a project, a sinological project that we ask you to do while you're on the year abroad And that is finding out about some aspect of China that interests you And it's writing a fairly lengthy essay on that But in terms of the formal classes that you have at Beijing Normal they're mostly Laura has asked about classical Chinese We believe that classical and modern, they're all part of the same spectrum At the moment we have, there's a 30 credit classical Chinese course that students take in the first year That module is currently under revision So we think it will probably be reduced to a 15 credit module But there will still be a compulsory classical Chinese element that you do as part of the degree China has such a long and fascinating history And learning classical, it opens up that history for you You just don't want to be focusing just on really recent texts So getting some classical on your belt is going to provide you a really firm foundation It's going to open up that vast fascinating history for you Mario has asked what are the differences between the three and four year degrees in terms of what you study And what kind of degree you get The major difference is really the amount of language that you're studying So the four year degree, you're spending about half your time on language And you have the year abroad So the level of Chinese language that you will come out with at the end of that degree Is going to be considerably higher than the level that you'll be able to reach on BH Chinese studies So in BH Chinese studies, you're spending three or four hours per week on language So a quarter of your modules are language modules Other modules then will be a broader range of disciplinary modules that you can take So it's really how much time do you want to put into the language And how good do you want your Mandarin to be at the end of the degree If you want to be as good as it can be, then choose the four year If you're less interested in language and more interested in other elements Then choose BH Chinese studies Let's see, so Lucy there's also, is it possible to combine Chinese with another subject later in our studies Even if we have enrolled for Chinese only Yes, there are moments where you can transfer to a joint degree Or moments when it's easier to do that than others For example, first year when you first arrive The first couple of weeks if you suddenly decide, oh I wanted to do Chinese in history It's then possible to ask the history department if they will accept you on a joint degree So it's easy enough to do it at that point Obviously once you get further into the term, you will have missed too many lectures for that to happen So degree transfer can only really happen at the beginning of a year Later on it would still be possible to switch to a joint degree But for example on those four year degrees you need to take a minimum of let's say 150 credits I think you have to take in your second subject So it would still be possible to transfer at the start of your third year Then you would need to take 60 credits and then you would need to take 90 credits In the second subject in the final year So it is possible to do that with most of the degrees But if you are thinking about a joint degree it would be better to think about it really from the start Or at the start of your first year Eleanor asked about accommodation at Beijing Normal Most students are staying in university accommodation there Work experience, that is something that can vary It depends upon the Chinese government and what they want to allow Holders of student visas to do In the past it has been possible for people to work a little bit A little bit of time each week But that is something that we don't have control over There are also of course less formal forms of work that people do when they are in China You can exchange conversation lessons with people There are various things you can do to earn a little bit of money Cheri has what she calls a really random question About whether there is anything related to kung fu in the curriculum Or any kung fu clubs Sauce dolls have quite a few martial arts clubs If you look up the Sauce Student Union And if you look under their societies You will be able to see a full list of all the different student societies Honestly I have no idea if there is a kung fu one But I know there is karate and taekwondo and there are different martial arts In the curriculum I don't think there is any module that deals directly with that But I think it is touched on in we have cinema modules So I think some of that material is touched on Yeah so Laura has asked about do our modules also cover Taiwanese literature and culture If you look on the list of modules that are available We do have some modules on Taiwanese cinema For example we have a Hokkien language module So you can learn Taiwanese We also have a specialist in Taiwanese politics Who works in the politics department So you may be able to take some modules in the politics department on Chinese politics If that grabs you Lucy and I asked about what the majority of graduates go on to do In the East Asia department as a whole It is a really complicated picture So we always have graduates who want to go and work in China or in Taiwan Maybe and some of those will go to work with Chinese or Taiwanese companies Some will work with Western companies that are interested in working in China There are people who go on to teach There are people who go on to work in industry or in media There are some people yes who go on who are interested in taking an MA Or maybe a PhD So it's a really difficult picture It's a really difficult one in which to generalise Because people go on to do such a vast array of different things And obviously the degree is preparing you On the one hand is giving you those language skills That you can use to work in China or in the Chinese context But we're also giving you lots of transferable skills that have to do with writing That have to do with research, that have to do with thinking And these are skills that you can use in all sorts of different areas So not just in China or something directly related to China So it's a very complex picture We do have a list on the website of some of the recent destinations That our students have gone to And there's some recent job titles that people have gone into So if you want you can check them out And see some of the different areas that people have gone into Okay, I think we're just about time So thank you all for coming to join us this evening If there's anything I haven't covered Or anything you really want to know about that you just thought of now So if you think of later, please feel free to drop an email My email is ac50andsoas.ac.uk It's also on the website So if you've got any questions, please feel free to let us know And we hope to see applications from you very soon Thank you