For further research, visit the sites:
www.fso.fudan.edu.cn
www.fao.fudan.edu.cn
Here you can find out about registration processes, rooms and booking, subject information etc.
How much Mandarin did you know? How much did your Mandarin improve by after the exchange?
I am a fluent speaker of mandarin. Although you don’t have to be, because there is an english program, and many foreign students can’t speak any mandarin. And the Shanghainese know more English than you think =]. My Mandarin did not improve.
I have a very basic level of Mandarin and the reason why I want to go on exchange is to improve it. The other thing is, I look Chinese, so people would expect me to jabber away in Mandarin- will that be a struggle?
If you live in the foreign students’ dormitory (found on this site www.fso.fudan.edu.cn), people are very used to Chinese looking people with basic level mandarin. It is fine. Just speak English to them if they talk to you in Chinese.
What course did you do over there? How was the teaching? Do they teach all subjects in English?
I did a business, marketing course. But it was basically a course made of random commerce subjects. They teach a lot of subjects in English. My goal for going on exchange was so that i could go on exchange, it wasn’t for learning any courses.
I’d also like to do French there, but I wasn’t sure if they taught in
English.
I’m not so sure if they teach French in English there, you may need to do some research.
Did you organise the exchange primarily by yourself or did you find
help? If so, where do you find help?
Research was a bit frustrating for me. Basically what happened was that some of the research done before i left, i found, was incorrect after i got there e.g. the subjects had changed last minute, or they didn’t offer a particular subject anymore. The most important research is to get your subjects approved first by your subject coordinators at melbourne. The next step is to go to Fudan and actually finalize and figure out everything – after you finish your semester in Fudan, you can still approve subjects for credit.
Why did you choose Fudan over Peking university?
I chose Fudan at first because of the scholarship offered. I received
$3500 from the Australian Government, a further 1000RMB/month from the Chinese government, as well as free accommodation for 6 months.
Also, i heard that Shanghai was a more flourishing city than Beijing. And that it has more life. But Beijing is still very good.
