Better Late than Never Post: Back to School - Beijing

How many considerations you had or reviews you have to read before making a decision? Some of us might more careful than others, some would love to know a lot about the details before making a decision, especially a big one. For me, I'm a 'go with the flow' kind of person. I don't criticize a lot and I tend to take whatever that's on the table. That is also how I decide on which school I attend. :D What I'm talking about is how I decide to choose Beijing Open University 北京广播电视大学/北京开放大学 to study Mandarin at their Chinese Center for two semesters.

Actually I asked a few agencies and few persons before I choose which school I'm going to, and my friend who is also my roommate then in Beijing also searched for some information regarding some school in Beijing. I can say that my roommate likes to search and browse for information and I am the opposite (hohoho). When I went to an agency in Pluit, they suggest Beijing Open University, I didn't remember exactly what are the reasons why they suggest BJOU to me, but they also gave me list of some universities and the total expenses for one year study. I knew that I want to study at Beijing, and in a place where they don't have a lot of Indonesian people in hopes that it would improve my language skill faster and they say this school didn't have a lot of Indonesian people study there. When my roommate and I checked their website, they put an Indonesian contact person there. We decided to contact Ms. Huang directly instead of using agency. Surprisingly, Ms. Huang was giving us a prompt and informative reply regarding what we need to enroll to BJOU. We also applied for the full scholarship offered, and we got it! HA! Lucky us. It's a RMB 8,000 worth of scholarship per year.

Based on the list that the agency gave me, it is cheaper to study at BJOU compared to other universities in Beijing. The Chinese Center itself only had around 100-ish students per semester. It is a small school compared to others, but I like that in one class, they were only around 10 persons so the class was more private. It gives a lot of benefit for students improvement. They also provide a one on one class or group class based on request- but I took the regular class. If never learned Chinese before, don't worry, they will teach you from the very basic. 

For the school fee itself, during my period of study: Autumn 2012 and Spring 2013, each semester is RMB 8,000/semester/4 months. As for the dorm fee, it was RMB 5,600/4 months/shared room (special price for scholarship student). For living fee in Beijing, it depends on your lifestyle. During my stay there, the standard meal would cost around RMB15/ meal. You can find a lot of cheaper food than that, and you'll save more if you cook yourself! The public transportation is also very affordable and quite reliable (exclude the rush hour- you better stay at home). The bus' fare starts from RMB0.40 and for the subway, it only costs RMB2.00 to any station. - those price were only valid till the last day I was in Beijing, July 10th 2013, and the exchange rate was still RMB1= IDR 1,600.

I heard that the living cost and the school fee at a non-big city in China is more cheap, so I believe that you can save more by choosing other a smaller city. The one thing I know for sure is, after learning for two semesters in Beijing, it didn't only improve my language skill, but it also opened my eyes and my mind about the world. Being able to meet friends from all over the world, helpful teachers and experiencing a Chinese culture. It something that I wouldn't trade with anything in this world. In fact, writing all of the details above makes me missing them more :(

The Indonesian Girls in front of at BJOU, Ms. Huang is also in the picture :)

Anyway I might not being to detailed about what I write in here but feel free to contact me if you had any questions regarding my experience back then. If you ever had a dream about studying in China (like I did), you should take the chance!

Good luck!


Abeth