Study in Japan or China

[Guest viktortse]

Haven't really written here before but I'm reading quite a lot. Anyway, I'm going to apply for exchange studies through my university and I’d like people to comment on the alternatives I’ve got to chose from. I don't speak japanese, cantonese nor mandrarin so the language doesn't matter at the moment. In Tokyo i can chose from: Waseda University, Keio University and Sophia University. Other Japanese cities i can chose are Fukuoka (Kyushu University) and Kyoto (Kyoto university). In China i can chose from Hong Kong University, Chinese university of Hong Kong and Fudan University in Shanghai. I also can study at National University in Taipei (Taiwan) and in Singapore (don't remember the name of University right now). I'm most interested in Tokyo and Hong Kong at the moment but its quite hard to decide which city to rank first and which university.

Tokyo has a lot of really cool stuff but it also seems to be the far most expensive.

I really appreciate all information about how the universities are to study at and how the cities are to live in.

[englandmj7]

Hong Kong is pretty damn expensive as well.

City-wise I would definitely choose Tokyo. School-wise, I can't help you much as I am not specifically familiar with most of the schools. I will say, however, that I know someone who got their MBA from Keio and they liked it alot. From what I have heard, it is very reputable. Can't say much for the location though.

[DaBestSpoona]

didn't Hard Gay graduated from Keio

Keio is a pretty good school btw

[chromesquared]

Japan. Chinese is a tonal language (forget if cantonese or mandrin has more... I think cantonese has 7 and mandrin 5, but...) and thus harder to learn (assuming you are a NS... native speaker of English and no other languages with a tonal system). I studied in Kobe and had a blast. Im going for a ride now, so Ill write more later.

BTW< all of the schools that you listed for JPN are good schools. Cant comment on the CHN ones though.

[iamsexzy]

I think it depends on what your budget is...

if money aint a concern, then Tokyo all the way............

If you are on budget, Hong Kong is a much cheaper place to live in.

both universities you listed are A graded in Hong Kong...

Another thing about Hong Kong is that the city is bilingual. Majority of the people there understand English, so language barrier shouldn't be a problem.

you won't go wrong with either.... both cities are amazing.

[xcoldricex]

CUHK and HKU are both good schools. CUHK is all the way out in the new territories though and on a hill- so getting down to Kowloon/HK Island is a trip- but its doable. I stayed on that campus for about a week while I was looking for an apartment.

HKU is on HK island- someone told me the campus is beautiful... meant to check it out but didn't have the time. Not sure who has the better language program.. but I'm guessing CUHK?

Hong Kong is expensive but not as expensive as Japan for sure.... much more expensive than China though. This is also probably the easiest place to get by with English only. That might be a good thing or a bad thing for you.

Fudan University - went out there once to dance. Shanghai is an alright city- it's a sprawling city, but the "actual" city feels small. Nothing much to do except go to clubs- there's not that many, and the expat population is pretty tight knit and incestuous i presume. Despite HK'ers obsession with Shanghainese food- I never found it amazing (the cuisine is much better 45 minutes away in Hangzhou). This will be the cheapest place to live out of all your choices... oh, if you're trying to learn mandarin- you should go to Beijing and not here- you mostly hear Shanghainese on the streets...

Kyoto is a pretty dope city- basically what foreigners think of when they think Japan (ryokans, temples, geisha's, zen gardens, etc.). It's close to Osaka which has more to do (at least that's my impression) - a 20 minute bullet train or an hour train ride gets you there.

Fukuoka has good ramen. Only stayed there a day/night so I can't say much about it.

Don't know where any of the Universities are in Tokyo... so can't help you there.

[Landy]

Business-wise, forget Japanese. Learning Mandarin will you give an edge over everything in the next 10 years. China is a juggernaut. With that said, I'd say go to Shanghai. It's a hotbed for development plus it would be cheaper. I know the school there does a joint program with Chicago's Kellogg school of business. Shanghai is pretty much the place to for business right now. My second choice would be Hong Kong, but you'd probably pick up more Cantonese there.

[xcoldricex]

yeah it depends on why you're going. are you going to learn? are you going to experience x country? are you going into business? etc.

chinese is great- it got me by in korea and japan. in korea, there's some similar words, and if you're really in a bind and write chinese and show it to an older person they should understand it... in japan, it was useful for reading kanji since the meanings are basically the same - so you have an easier time navigating and reading random shit. the thing i hate about chinese (mandarin) is that a shitload of people don't understand it in china... haha.

[Guest viktortse]

Hey guys, thanks for all the answer.

Yeah I'm kind on a limited budget, I guess I will have around 2000-2500 $(us) a month for everything. Will that be enough to live pretty good in Tokyo or is Hong Kong to prefer? I've also heard that you can work as an English teacher over there for pretty good money, even thou I'm Swedish. (from friends ive been told that if you are lucky you can work as a Swedish teacher for even more money ) I'm Swedish but I've lived in London for about one year so my English will be sufficient I’d say.

Any my motivation to go there is mostly to have a really cool year, I'm studying business home in Sweden and see this as an opportunity to live in totally different part of the world and learn new language and culture. I want to learn the language where I'm going to stay but I'm realistic about that one year will probably not be enough learn it very good. Got friends who studied mandarine for 2 years before they went to China but they still couldn't communicate at all(maybe bad students...)I guess mandarin would be the best language to learn if you look for business, but then maybe Taiwan would be a good choice? Or maybe that would be quite bad if I'm going to work in mainland China in the future?

I've been visiting Shanghai before and its really dynamic but I think i will prefer other cities to live in for longer time, I'm probably going to have it as an alternative if I don't get my first choices.

[elle]

going to taiwan for school would not be bad for business with china. it would be very good for business with china, actually, because taiwan and china do business. duh.

the hku campus is tiny, there's a tiny tower and quaint little brick and stone buildings. it looks kind of like a liberal arts college, except kids there are incredibly intense and goodie goodie. it's the kind of place where you can't skate if you didn't like the curriculum. personally, i find their range of programs too narrow.

with languages, it depends on who you roll with more than anything. hong kong isn't so good for learning mandarin.

why do you not prefer to stay in shanghai for an extended period?

[PAND]

I'm sorry, but this is such a pointless thread. This is like "i want to go on holiday to a, b or c... but i dont like rain. Which one shall i go to?"

Comparing Mainland, HK, JP altogether is stupid. Why don't you throw Seoul and Bangkok for the sake of it?

[Kasper]

i was a student at Waseda last year and had many friends at Keio, Sophia and Kyodai so i might be able to help you out. first of all, it's kind of hard to answer your question cause i'm not so sure what you are looking for. do you want to learn an asian language or just spent a cool year on exchange somewhere? like you have mentioned, a year of either japanese or mandarin won't get you very far so i would factor this into my choice. if you choose a japanese university, you are required to take about 10 hours of japanese language classes every week so you can only take so many other classes and if you cannot get credit for the languages classes, you might have to take an extra semester (something that happened with some business exchange students at Waseda). another thing you have to know about japanese university is that classes are a fucking joke. where you went to university basically will determine your whole life so companies don't give a shit about grades of stuff people might have learned at university. At Waseda for exemple, i was extremely impressed with the pedigree of my teachers (i'm also a business student) where many of my teachers were quite famous in their field (which was also interresting cause we got to meet many business exec from top japanese compagnies, field trips to corporate office and diners with vice-presidents and private visit of the Diet, the japanese parliement as well as the LDP headquarters and meeting with various ministers) so it was really good in that sense. but on an academic level, it was a joke, i barelly learned anything, never studied more than 2 hours for any exams and got straight A.

Waseda, Keio and Sophia are all extremely well situated in central Tokyo. the big advantage Waseda has over the other is that the dorms are across the street from campus while for the other schools, they are 30-60 min train rides away and students are split into different dorms (unless they choose a home stay) so it's harder to meet up and do stuff. Waseda and Keio pretty much compete as the second best universities in Japan after Todai while Kyodai is right behing, Sophia is also a top school. Something that sets Sophia apart from the other 2 is that the ratio guy/girls is much much better (there about a girl for 3 guys at Keio and Waseda) and they have the coolest parties.

Tokyo is much more expensive than the other cities you have in mind, but i'd say that apart from housing (and it shouldn't be a problem for you cause residence are relatively cheap) everything else is not that expensive, cheaper than sweden. you should be fine with 2000-2500$ a month (not to mention that you might get a scholarship) and it's real easy to find a part-time job teaching english (you're allowed to work in Japan with a student visa) and it's really well payed, usually 3000-3500 yen an hour. Tokyo is an amazing city (by far my favorite in the world, i really miss it there), but it's not really english friendly and you might kind of "miss" something if you are unable to speak japanese.

Hong Kong on the other hand is extremely english friendly like others say. from what i can remember, there's is much more classes given in english and you don't have to pick up language classes (you might want to make sure about that). i don't know much about school there though. Hong Kong is also an amazing city, much much more international than Tokyo and a dream location for food (i rank the city second after Paris). It's also much easier to find real ethnic (meaning non-chinese) that it is in Tokyo, something i really appreciated when i was there. it's also really easy and cheap to fly to other south-east asian destinations so if you want to travel around, you'll be able to see quite a lot. flying ouside of Tokyo on the other hand is more expensive so you will probably limit more your travelling inside Japan, which is amazing to see, but much more expensive. Shopping in Hong Kong is nowhere as good as in Tokyo, but it's still really good. for me, the biggest downside of Hong Kong would be the temperature, i visited in late april and it was already unbearable so i would find it hard to have to spend 5-6 months in 30+ degrees with 100% humidity. the pollution is also quite bad.

I've never been to either Shangai or Taipei so i can't really comment, but some friends of mine studied at Beijing University and they really liked it, not to mention that there's just so many opportunities for work there. with minimum networking, they all got many good job offers there.

in the end, it all come down to what kind of experience you are looking to get. don' hesitate and if you have any question and well, i think i deserve some rep with such a long post

[Pandemonium]

I'd go for Tokyo. The list that you provided are among the highest rated universities in the region continents of Asia and Australiasia.

Also, if you're coming from an English background, Japanese isn't as tonal as Mandarin or Cantonese. And also, as a previous post stated, there are jobs for English-native speakers.

If you're reluctant to learn another language, Hong Kong would be by far your best bet. Hong Kong's pretty nice, it's the third place I'd want to go. (Tokyo, Seoul, HK).

Anyway, good luck. Studying in another country is a challenge and worthwhile nonetheless.

[ninjapie]

If you're studying international business, and you're serious about it, then you should definately pick China.

Like Landy said, Chinese is an economic juggernaut and just keeps on growing. Being able to speak a Chinese language will give you a great advantage, especially since you are located in Europe.

All over Europe tons of new schools are opening whom offer international business courses, mainly directed at at China. Not many of these schools offer their students a chance to actually go there for a year.

Consider these two thoughts: do you mainly want to have fun or do you want to combine pleasure and education?

[Tisswat]

I would go for Shanghai too. It's cheaper to live in and learning Mandarin is a very smart move. Tokyo might seem like the coolest city, but do not underestimate Shanghai. Furthermore, this is a turning point in China's economic development and unique opportunity to witness Shanghai's transformation to Asia's leading city from up close - you'll probably never get that chance again.

[ta3ng]

i am having to make pretty much the same decision as you. i am trying to choose between hong kong or shanghai to study business. like people said above, china is a juggernaut, but at the same time, hong kong is equal, if not bigger. i have been doing some research and hong kong is still projected to be the stronger economic center out of the two, for about the next ten years. with that said, i still haven't made my decision yet. shanghai seems to be the funner city but hong kong is better for shopping, and if you're on superfuture, you probably value that on some level.

i think shanghai may be better for entreunership (spelling?) but hong kong may be better for finance. just my two cents

[dutsukyampu]

fuck..,my school supposedly has the best study abroad department in the country..yet we don't have any programs at tokyo colleges.

i suggest tokyo..keio and waseda are one of the top private schools in japan.

[high_contrast]

i am having to make pretty much the same decision as you. i am trying to choose between hong kong or shanghai to study business. like people said above, china is a juggernaut, but at the same time, hong kong is equal, if not bigger. i have been doing some research and hong kong is still projected to be the stronger economic center out of the two, for about the next ten years. with that said, i still haven't made my decision yet. shanghai seems to be the funner city but hong kong is better for shopping, and if you're on superfuture, you probably value that on some level.

i think shanghai may be better for entreunership (spelling?) but hong kong may be better for finance. just my two cents

I don't know where you do your "research" but Hong Kong is far from equal with China in terms of economic power and growth. Many businessmen in Hong Kong are flocking over to the mainland because of the huge potential. Also, when schools in the U.S are swapping Spanish for Mandarin in their public education systems then you know China is gonna be BIG.

That said, I would choose Japan/HK for the experience and Shanghai for economic reasons/good preparation if you want to hit the hot Chinese market.

[poly800rock]

fuck..,my school supposedly has the best study abroad department in the country..yet we don't have any programs at tokyo colleges.

i suggest tokyo..keio and waseda are one of the top private schools in japan.

you know you can go through a different school right? you are no ways limited by your school in where you want to go, just need to apply to a different program through another school

[Kasper]

fuck..,my school supposedly has the best study abroad department in the country..yet we don't have any programs at tokyo colleges.

i suggest tokyo..keio and waseda are one of the top private schools in japan.

you know you can go through a different school right? you are no ways limited by your school in where you want to go, just need to apply to a different program through another school

yeah, just a head up, both Waseda and Keio accept "independent" student so you can apply to their exchange program even though they are not partner school of your uni as long as your university will recognize the credit you get there. there were quite a lot of student in that position at Waseda when i was there last year.

[ta3ng]

I don't know where you do your "research" but Hong Kong is far from equal with China in terms of economic power and growth. Many businessmen in Hong Kong are flocking over to the mainland because of the huge potential. Also, when schools in the U.S are swapping Spanish for Mandarin in their public education systems then you know China is gonna be BIG.

That said, I would choose Japan/HK for the experience and Shanghai for economic reasons/good preparation if you want to hit the hot Chinese market.

way to state the obvious. nobody's denying china's economic growth and the manufacturers that are flocking over there. but have you taken a look at the financial services that are available in hong kong? all the banking, all the finance industries, that reside there? it is far more developed in hong kong than in china

[xcoldricex]

so where are you going to go? why'd it take you 2 years to post?

[WINDman]

way to state the obvious. nobody's denying china's economic growth and the manufacturers that are flocking over there. but have you taken a look at the financial services that are available in hong kong? all the banking, all the finance industries, that reside there? it is far more developed in hong kong than in china

Hong Kong is still the most developed City compared to any Mainland City (for the moment), however cities like Beijing and Shanghai are growing extremely fast.

If it's education you are after, I would go to China instead of Japan, it's cheaper, bigger and less distractions.