International Student Office Huazhong University of Science and Technology
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Address:1037 Luoyu Road, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430074, P.R.China
Telphone:0086-27-87542457 Fax:0086-27-87547833
WUHAN: THE OLD AND THE NEW
Published February 25, 2016 by build contributors in BUiLD Abroad
My time spent in Wuhan at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) was a greet experience. Wuhan is one of the major cities within Central China. Because of this, less foreigners frequent the city as they would Beijing or Shanghai. This means what I was exposed to was a very traditional Chinese culture, free from many more Westernised influences.
The Chinese themselves were very friendly. Perhaps it was due to the fact that there were not too many foreigners in their city. Regardless, the citizens were always patient to listen to my broken Chinese and were very generous and welcoming in restaurants and bars.
Plenty of train lines intersect in Wuhan because of it’s location in Central China. Due to this they say that Wuhan is the best city for catching long distance trains. A great place which was only about 1 hour away by train was the Three Gorges Dam, the biggest dam in the world.
If any other student does come to Wuhan it is important to know that there are not many native English speakers there. And by not many I mean during my whole 5 months on Wuhan I only met 2 Americans – they were the only native English speakers I had seen. The rest of the students in my class at least we’re South American, French, Russian and German. For me this was great as I was able to practice my Spanish a lot and a little Portuguese with my South American friends. So if you want to practice a European language whilst also learning some Chinese then I highly recommend Wuhan for that purpose.
And also if you do study Chinese language at HUST then be prepared that the course is pretty intense. By the end you will have achieved HSK 3 (The Chinese language proficiency test.
All in all I had a very fun experience in Wuhan and I highly recommend others to interested in language and culture to visit there.
By Henry Birtwistle
武汉:传统与现代的交融
我在武汉的华中科技大学度过了一段十分美好的时光。多数外国人对武汉并没有对北京、上海那么熟悉,因为武汉位于中国中部,是区域主要城市之一。正因为如此,武汉并没有过多地被西方文化浸染,使我在那里看到了更加原汁原味的中国文化。
中国人对外国人非常友好,这可能是因为在他们生活的地方外国人并不多见。不管在餐厅、酒吧或其他场合,人们都很热情大方,并且相当耐心地去听我蹩脚的汉语表达。
地处华中使得武汉成为众多铁路线的枢纽,因此武汉也被认为是长途乘坐火车的首选地,这里距离世界第一大坝——三峡——只有一个小时的车程。
即将到中国留学的学生必须要了解,在武汉母语为英语的人很少,少到在我五个月的留学生活中,我只认识两个美国人。我的班级里其他的学生至少还有南美人、法国人、俄罗斯人和德国人。对我来说这真是太棒了,因为我可以跟南美的同学练习西班牙语和葡萄牙语。所以如果你既想要练习欧洲语言,又想学汉语,那么我强烈推荐你选择武汉。
另外,如果你选择在华中科技大学学汉语,那么你需要做好心理准备,那里的汉语课程十分密集。总而言之,我在武汉的经历非常有趣。因此如果你想要学习语言和文化,我强烈建议,去武汉吧!
作者:Henry Birtwistle (华中科技大学汉语生,毕业于2016年1月)
2016年2月25日发表于Build Abroad