Saturday, 17 May 2014

NCCT(Nanjing College of Chemical Technology) - Review

So it’s almost a year I’ve been living in china and studying Chinese language in NCCT, so I think I’d like to give my own review about my school, NCCT.

So basically NCCT just established a new major which is Chinese language course which only INDONESIAN citizen can apply. When I just graduated from my university, my friend informed me that there was an affordable language school in china, so I decided to give it a try, and yes after doing some research  I found out that the tuition for 1 year is extremely cheap (compared to other language school in China), Approximately around 15000RMB(around 20M rupiahs) a year including 1 year tuition fees,  and 1 year dorm accommodation (water, electricity and internet fees covered by school).

The facilities and everything is really good so I think with that school and dorm fees, studying and living here is totally worth it. Because NCCT claims that this year having Indonesian students studying here is a great success and an achievement, so they would like to open the second batch as soon as my batch is graduated (this June). So the purpose of this blog is probably to help you guys (Indonesian) who in case are willing to enroll to NCCT and want to know more about NCCT, here I’ll give some brief explanation about NCCT.

What is NCCT?

NCCT(Nanjing College of Chemical Technology) is located in Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, Nanjing used to be the capital city of china in ancient times before it is moved to Beijing. This school has been established 60 years ago and recently they decided to spread their wings by inviting foreign students to their college to study Chinese language and introducing Chinese culture, so luckily they choose Indonesia as the first country they’d like to invite.
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Because the enrollment for new international students is on September. at that time, Nanjing is currently in autumn and going to be winter soon. The weather is slightly cold but in September wearing a normal jacket would be okay. From the weather wise in china, If the location is to the northern side it tends to be colder than the southern side. Nanjing is located in the center part of china (neither southern nor northern) but when the winter comes, it’s still so damn cold. After a year staying in Nanjing, I can conclude that Nanjing is generally always cold and I only get to experience 1 month of summer(even though sometimes the summer a bit cool though). But during winter (November until February)  so the wearing winter jacket is a MUST(the temperature is mostly below 0 degree celcius) ~

The first time I came here, It took around 10 hours to get to NCCT from Jakarta by flight. When I arrived at the school I saw that the school is so huge, but before seeing school environment what I love the first time I arrived was the dormitory! So basically they did separate the dormitory between Chinese and International student, Here are some pictures that I have:









After we saw the dormitory, our teacher brought us to see the classroom and introduced us the lessons that we are going to learn.

The subjects are:
  • Core Courses: Chinese Listening, Chinese Speaking and Pronounciation, Chinese Character Writing, and Chinese Reading.
  • Optional Courses: HSK training, Chinese Tourism, Chinese Culture, Chinese Caligraphy, Chinese Martial Arts and Chinese Painting.

So basically I attend the classes from 8AM until 3PM from Monday until Friday. School also provides us  with night class with this “student buddies” where the local Chinese students will help you study Chinese but it is not compulsory though so I have to arrange the meeting myself with them. The night class period is from 7PM until 9PM.

Off class activity:

Besides studying NCCT also have off class session where our lecturer will bring us to take a break from class! They often bring us to historical Chinese museum, the other beautiful attraction places and also the other cities in china such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and soon we are going to Beijing for our farewell later. 

After that we also have some events with local Chinese student such as participating in new student celebration where Indonesian students sing on stage, and sometimes we go to local Chinese student classroom to exchange our cultural, culinary and tourism about Indonesia and China.

Winter Break

How about the holiday? Of course NCCT have some holidays~ it’s not like we are going to work our ass off studying! So our holidays are on winter holiday and Chinese new year. Because winter holiday and Chinese New Year are always on the same time so NCCT will have this one month full holiday. 

In China, Chinese new year is the time when everyone is going back to their hometown so Nanjing would be less crowded, less people than usual despite of that I’m recommending you guys to go out of the town. Sometimes the local Chinese student will invite us to their hometown celebrating Chinese new year together and so does our lecturers. 

In winter break the weather will be so damn cold (especially for us Indonesian) so it is a MUST to wear slippers inside house, big buffy and thick winter jacket and gloves and I don’t think a trench coat will  be suitable in winter. I bought a trench coat but it can’t prevent cold as much as winter coat(with goose feathers inside because goose feather protects you from the freezing cold wind) trench coat suitable around mid autumn.

Here is some photos that I have taken when I am in NCCT.
















So overall it is some brief explanation about my experience in Nanjing, in this 1 year I conclude that my Chinese is getting better (compared to the first time I came here and feels like an alien from another world because I understand nothing) Right now I am able to speak in daily conversation, shopping, doing daily stuff, etc. thanks to our lesson where I have to do a lot of presentations in Chinese. So I'm recommending you guys to study in here because this place is really adequate for studying chinese language.. why? because this is a new major and there are less international students and yet you have to deal with tons of chinese who can't speak english .So you are forced to speak in chinese language if you want to survive!

If there are some things you wanna ask me, please feel free to ask me on the comment box below J