Friday, December 14, 2012
Study Abroad in Hong Kong or Shanghai?
Study Abroad in Hong Kong or Shanghai?
Next year I want to study abroad in China, and I'm debating between Hong Kong and Shanghai. Which city would be better for a college student, and why? Which is more fun? Also, if there is another city that would fit the criteria, plz let me know. BTW I only speak English... Thanks
Studying Abroad - 3 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
the education of hk is much better than shanghai, and english is more popular in hk than shanghai. shanghai is larger city, but she is not good at edu. in mainland, beijing uni, tsinghwa, and ustc are good options. but universities in hk is better.
2 :
If you have no desire to learn Chinese, then definitely study in Hong Kong. You will have no problem communicating with the educated public there, as most residents are at least bilingual and many people speak four languages: Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, English, and a dialect of Portuguese spoken officially in Macao. I lived for almost six years right outside of Shanghai and went to Hong Kong twice. Local residents are bi-cultural in the sense that they are native to British lifeways while at the same time are thoroughly Chinese. However, if you would like to learn Chinese, I would suggest that you study in Shanghai, as Hong Kong utilizes traditional characters, which are more complex than the mainland's simplified characters. Mandarin Chinese is spoken in the vast majority of mainland China and is now mandatory in the public school system throughout China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. At the same time, native residents of Shanghai also speak Wu dialect, which is actually one of the five language groups in China. A person from Beijing could understand someone from Shanghai only because of Mandarin Chinese and would understand absolutely nothing upon hearing anything in Wu dialect. Likewise, neither person from Beijing or Shanghai would understand anything in Cantonese... although everyone would understand the written scripts utilized throughout China. Education-wise, you would be better off studying in Hong Kong, as the education system follows the British mainstream. Communist China, on the other hand, utilizes rote memory (memorization) as their primary learning and teaching methodology, which works great with Science and Mathematics, but is a poor language-learning strategy. Given that the best universities in mainland China are in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an, I would strongly advise you to study in Shanghai since even though Beijing is the political capital, Shanghai is the economic powerhouse. You would be able to network much more effectively in Shanghai for mainland China. The bottom line is if you are not planning on learning Chinese, study in Hong Kong.
3 :
eric paul monroe's answer was really accurate. however, keep in mind that you CAN learn chinese - cantonese, to be exact - in hong kong. the difference is not just that they use traditional characters while the mainland uses simplified. they actually are different langauges - cantonese and mandarin (which is an oversimplification but gets my point across). so yes, you can still learn chinese in hong kong, but it will be cantonese. also, personally i would choose hong kong. my ex is from there and he's told me crazy stories about how much there is to do, the nightlife, the food, the shopping, the views, etc.
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