BLCU Intensive vs PKU Chinese language course

Hi all!

I'm deciding which course to take to study Chinese for one semester. The BLCU Intensive course caught my eye, because it's 30 h per week, so I suspect I'll learn more in a shorter period — this is my main priority. 

At the same time, I've read that PKU course is quite good as well, its reputation is better than BLCU's (at least for Chinese), and there is a higher chance of finding a language partner. And the crowd seems different too, from what I've seen in some reviews, there are more motivated people around. But It's 20 h per week, like most regular courses, so I'm not sure if there's any real difference besides the reputation. It seems they don't have intensive courses.

I've gone through detailed posts about the BLCU Intensive course from BLCU_Simon and some others, but haven't found much information about the PKU language course here. I'd really appreciate if someone could share their perspective. 

My main goal, as mentioned, to learn as much as possible in a shorter time. Not interested in the party life. 

TL;DR: which is better for learning as much as possible in 1 semester — the BLCU intensive course or the PKU regular course? 

Thanks!

I know someone who did the intense Chinese course in Beijing (IUP) and someone who did the same one they offer in Taipei (ICLP).

One is a Taiwanese American girl so clearly had a massive advantage and bizarrely she went to IUP over ICLP, one is an American guy who had lived in Taiwan already for a few years so had 'good' Chinese at the point he entered the program.

To be honest they sound pretty similar to any other Chinese course just more hours whereas in Taipei you're studying from traditional Chinese materials obviously. 

I took HSK5 in China in 2015 and never studied at either of those (they are very very expensive) but pretty much at any of these institutions you get out what you put in. No one is ever really going to look at your CV and wonder about the quality of the institution at which you studied Chinese. They're all kind of irrelevant for this sort of thing. It's probably best to just take the highest HSK level you can get to after a semester (not really a long time to spend learning Chinese tbh).

HSK5 is generally considered to be 'working proficiency' and lets you into a university to take a degree at a chinese university with a significant linguistic component in any subject (eg History or Literature but not maths or physics for which the bar is lower) but you would really really struggle if you only had HSK5 and HSK6 is probably not even enough for that realistically. Someone else with more specific knowledge of these institutions can correct me but I think there will not be much difference in them outside of just the teaching hours.

And by the way the 'party life' can be pretty helpful if you're with Chinese people because you learn a lot of slang etc or just random Chengyu. Not advising you to become a party monster just saying socializing with young Chinese will help a fair bit.

Also Chinese is a pretty long game really so don't be disappointed if you don't get where you want to in one semester

'Arsa longa vita brevis' (The craft is long and life is short)!

Good luck!

Thanks, @thechamp! I didn't consider IUP, because it’s insanely expensive. I thought about ICLP, but then I realised it’d just be way too much to pay. Anyway, both programs are pretty pricey.

I don’t mind hanging out with Chinese people, ofc, sorry, I didn’t use the right words before. I just don’t want to party, drink, skip classes, be lazy, and all that stuff. That’s why I looked into PKU: there are more Chinese students there, so it’d probably be easier to find a language partner. But honestly, people coming out of BLCU also seem to have a solid level of Chinese, depending on their effort and starting point. So maybe it doesn’t make that much of a difference.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I’ve been learning for a few years without a proper system (so my level is quite low) but I want to make real progress. I did it after that one semester in the language program. I understand that another semester will not make me a genius of Chinese, but I want to build a solid foundation, that would help me to become a more self-sustaining leaner.