Beijing Language and Culture University Q&A (2014): Thomas Longrigg

This fantastic and extensive Q&A with Tommy Longrigg is one of the most in-depth interviews that The BLCU Blog has done to date, and we are very excited to share it with you all. Although you may initially be put off by the sheer amount of words offered here by Tommy (who was very generous with his time), for anyone serious about getting to know the Beijing Language and Culture University, and for advice from someone who has been extremely successful in leading a life in Beijing after graduating, you would be wise to learn a thing or two from what he has to say.

Remember that you can find all our previous Q&A posts here, but for now let's jump straight into this interview with Tommy.

Could you share with us briefly your background and why you ended up at BLCU?

I was a transfer student from Dalian University of Foreign Languages in 2011. I won a scholarship in Dalian and gained the attention of BLCU who offered me a place there. I wanted to transfer because I was thinking about leaving Dalian, and BLCU is a great school. A better place to have one's degree from, especially in Chinese education.

So, I was finishing my degree there. I was ban zhang for a couple of terms, I was also in the Hanyu Qiao competition in 2009, as well as in the business sketch we did when Liu Yandong from the Central Government came to visit I graduated in top 10 of class of 2011, one of only two europeans in the list. I now work for an international school in the marketing and admissions offices.

You mention that you spent some time at Dalian University of Foreign Languages. It may be the case that some of our readers have heard about that university and considered it as an alternative to BLCU. Could you go into what you think the main differences are, and why particularly you would recommend BLCU over Dalian (if that is indeed the case)?

To be honest, Dalian University of Foreign Languages (Dawai) was an OK school. The main thing is that it's not cheaper than BLCU and nowhere near as prestigious for Chinese learning. If you are doing a degree program, then in my view there's only one school to seriously consider if you're willing or wanting to be in Beijing, and that is BLCU. If you do want to be in Dalian, then Dawai is good, as is Dalian University of Technology and Liaoning Normal University. I also did the short-term (3 month) speed-up Chinese course at Dawai, which was great fun. The teachers were decent and I had lots of fun with my classmates (mostly Koreans).

Related: 10 Reasons To Study Chinese At BLCU

Differences? With BLCU you get the guarantee of experienced teachers, a mature program that is more than 5 decades in the making, a school with authority in Chinese teaching, and a degree at the end in Chinese language that is really worth a lot. By the time I graduated, my Chinese was at the level where I was writing my thesis, defending it, watching movies, TV shows without subtitles, understanding humour, and basically living here with the confidence in Chinese that I feel one needs to truly enjoy this place.

At Dawai you get a good place to live (although the campus has now been moved further out of the city, which is a nice location but kinda sucks if you wanna live downtown), a coastal location, smaller city, cheaper cost of living. But your tuition fees won't be a lot cheaper.

Dalian is a more liveable city than Beijing. It has a pleasant enough climate; is by the sea; is a manageable size and isn't as affected by pollution. People there are friendly, and the city has everything you could need. It's got a good airport too that's not far from the city centre, and if you end up making lots of Korean friends, then Korea is only 1 hour or less flight away direct from Dalian!

You say you won a scholarship at Dalian. Did that include going to study at BLCU on scholarship? I met some scholarship students when I was in BLCU myself, and sometimes got the impression they were having to survive on a much tighter budget than the other international students. However, they were always hard working and dedicated to their studies. In what ways did being a scholarship student affect your experience? And can you briefly go into what the scholarship offered in terms of support, classes, and so on?

I won the scholarship in Dalian, at Dawai. It was worth about 15,000 RMB (a huge sum for me, it equated to nearly all my remaining tuition) but after being offered the place at BLCU and me accepting it, the university decided to not give me that money and instead kept it for themselves. That money was awarded by the city government, not the university, it was NOT theirs to keep. It was a very negative way for me to leave a place I had otherwise enjoyed.

Unfortunately, I wasn't offered a scholarship at BLCU initially. I raised the money for my first year there, but won several scholarships over my 2.5 years there, which contributed a good chunk of my tuition fees and living costs. I wasn't a full scholarship student, and had to find other ways to pay my remaining fees. I got a bit from home, some from tutoring and some from a fund I had raised from a sponsor in Dalian.

Related: Earn Money Teaching English While At BLCU

The scholarships I got from BLCU helped me pay rent and living expenses. I wasn't an impoverished student though, I was a well-known tutor for others at BLCU, and the uni found me other interesting gigs that made me extra money. I had a very good relationship with the student support office in the school of Chinese.

And yes, students on full scholarships to BLCU either from China or overseas were always on very tight budgets compared to others. Many of the regular students there are there and being totally paid for by family, so they live very low-pressure lives. Scholarship students often have to try and take tutoring gigs to make enough money to get by properly.

You said that by the time you graduated your Chinese level was so high that you could write a thesis in the language. What was the secret ingredient in becoming so proficient in such a short term? Hard work, mixing with the locals, a certain study routine? I’m sure all this and more played a role, but perhaps you could go into some details about what study habits paid off the best for you in learning Chinese, specifically at BLCU (though I’m sure the same habits are applicable anywhere)?

I could just say it was all down to hard work and my extraordinary talent :-P but in fact the real "secret weapon" I had over many people learning Chinese in Beijing is that I had a 2-year period before university where I was just living and working in a city where virtually NO ONE speaks English --- Dalian.

I lived in a neighborhood that still was shocked/surprised to see westerners, and where the only people with any English were the kids I was teaching. This was a fantastic "dropped in the deep end" approach that proved incredibly effective. I found myself dedicating a lot of my time to learning the language so that I could communicate with those around me, and I had ample opportunity every day to learn it.

With that foundation, studying in BLCU was really a matter of turning my rough-and-tumble, unrefined Dalian-ese into a more standard and formal language. As for studying habits at BLCU, I'll say that the library is a bit overrated. I honestly didn't even know where it was until my 4th year. Language learning is about experiencing and using the language, not reading about it in books.

If you want to do well at BLCU, then take advantage of the incredible faculty there that are all around you! My second-year speaking teacher had more than 30 years' experience! By comparison, my Dawai teacher was a Masters student still 2 years away from graduation. Go to the teachers, ask them questions, they are always so happy to help students with questions they have.

Related: Learn Chinese From The Locals At BLCU

You mention some of the differences between Beijing and Dalian. Notably, you mention that Dalian is a “more liveable city”. What do you say to foreign students who would like to study at BLCU (be it short or long term), but are just so put off by Beijing’s reputation for terrible air quality? I think there are at least some people out there for whom it is a serious concern in choosing a Chinese city to study in. For example, I am asthmatic and I definitely felt the Beijing smog creeping into my lungs day after day. Because of that, it’s not a city I would choose to remain in long term. Any thoughts on this with regards to choosing BLCU in the face of such arguments against it?

I'm a Yorkshireman, so I'm afraid I'll sound rather blunt here, but that's just the way I am. If you want to study Mandarin, the best places for it are all in Northern China, because you get not only good universities like BLCU, but a fully Mandarin-speaking environment (certainly compared to southern China) to practice in. These areas are also ALL the most polluted in China. That's a sad reality, but a reality nonetheless. The fact is, as things are at the moment, you have to make a choice.

Many people whinge and whine about Beijing's pollution, but also insist that they have a right to go somewhere like BLCU – I say DEAL WITH IT. There are solutions to Beijing's polluted life. BLCU is by the NW Fourth Ring Road, with a good Subway link at Wudaokou. I know people who opt to live further away in order to escape pollution as much as possible, and then commute to BLCU each day. I had Russian friends who drove miles and miles to uni every day for the same reason.

Related: BLCU Social #1: Beijing Weather

Most cities in the world have something to contend with. Beijing has its pollution, which sucks. But then again, other countries/cities in the world have high crime rates, astronomical rents, a lack of amenities, a savage legal system that persecutes you for being Gay (for example). People are too quick to forget the MANY advantages and opportunities that living in Beijing presents.

Pollution is NOT a catch-all indictment against the great city of Beijing, it's just one of those things that one deals with by being here. Wearing an effective mask can remove some 90+ percent of those harmful particles, and effective air filtering at home can remove 80+ percent. I work in a school in Beijing where we remove on overage 85% of all harmful particles from the air in our buildings.

I guess the final thing on this would be that no expat is ever forced to stay in Beijing. If you don't wanna stay in the long term, then don't. I can see you are aware of that choice, and are prepared to make it. For that I commend you. Polluted or not – Beijing is home to the finest single institution of Chinese language learning in China, and indeed the world. If you want to go to that university, then you have to be in Beijing. Simple as that. If Beijing isn't for you in the long term, then that's fine. These people are free to go anywhere they want.

One last thing...

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