Chinese language program

Hi how are you? My name is Jean and im 19years old. I am interested in learning mandarin in China for the next semester 2007 but for a affordable price max $600 monthly. I have been surfing in that net and found interesting programs in several universities. This are the ones that I found:

BLCU, from what I read in this froum, its very good but I am a total beginner so maybe this option is discarded?

Also, another interesting options I found are Jinan University in Guagndong and Guangzhou University which are very affordable but they are located in a Cantonese speaking province and I dont know if that will affect my learning? Also, I dont know if they are good at teaching as others universities.

Another optiion is Manda http://www.mandacenter.com/index.php?id=welcome it seems that this school is not very reowned or is it? Their teaching methods seems decent and Hangzhou from what I read is a very good city to study. Feel free to post any other place where one can learn mandarin in a good environment, affordable, etc.

Hope that you can help me sort out my doubts. Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Jean

Shanxi Normal University in Shanxi Province have a six month or year long program. It will run $1200 for the semester including apartment/utilities and tuition +food and phone. If you stay for a year your tuition fee covers your summer/winter housing & utilities.

to be clear, I receive no bennefit what-so-ever from talking about this program. I teach at the school and so I am familiar witht he program, and only offer this information to be helpful.

Bewolff, have you ever heard of Manda Center? If someone has ever heard of that center, please give me your opinions about it.

I don't know the Manda Center...I've heard of some program in Hangzhou that was popular and some things in Beijing. I understand Manda is in Hangzhou. I will tell you the truth, you will learn double the Chinese if you avoid cities that that size. In Hangzhou there is little need to speak Chinese...no pressure to speak. My learning always jumps when I am on a train somewhere because ｔｏ　ｓｐｅａｋ　Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ． My advice to you, find a smallish city with a school that has language classes, be prepared for not having a McDonalds or a Starbucks to go to, and your Chinese will take off.　

You are out shopping or you want to get lunch. You go into a shop. The girls welcomes you and asks what she can do for you. You look around a bit, and when your are ready to ask for something you delve into Chinese. But because you are a beginner your tones are rough --you are not understood well. She immediately asks you something in English...you try to stick with Chinese but she does not want to do the work it takes to understand you. So she stays with her borken English, trying to push the sale. ...you've lost your meaningful Chinese put that you need to be exposed to every single day if you want to get better.

Away from cities where their English isn't quite as practiced they will stay with Chinese because they have no confidence, and they will keep talking because they want your money. You keep your meaningful input and your Chinese ability grows.

so you are stating that big cities like Hanzhou and Beijing (BLCU) will be less better to learn chinese than remote places because of total inmersion? If yes, then can you recommend me some collegues for learning mandarin?

regards,

Jean