Very short courses but efficient?

[atitarev]

Hi all,

I am looking for inexpensive very short brush up intensive courses or similar programs in anywhere in Dongbei.

Duration: 2 to 6 weeks, hard to be more precise.

Time: November 2007 to August 2008.

Any advise or offer, please?

About myself:

I am 40 y/o, Russian male living in Australia. Married.

Will also consider language exchange (your Mandarin for my English or Russian).

Please share your experiences about efficient short classes you attended.

[atitarev]

Hm, no-one wants to share experiences?

I am also interested in Home Stay.

[onebir]

I liked TLI (Taipei Language Institute) - there are a couple of threads on it. Not cheap, but they got me fluent in 50 contact hours (from a good grounding)

[atitarev]

Thanks

Wow, but that's in Taipei! I was thinking of going to Dongbei area.

What was the cost, Onebir? I am interested in conversational classes, first of all.

Because I am not so good with traditional characters, I wonder how the material was presented. Did you have texts and vocabularies? Did you have to use Bopomofo?

[onebir]

Atitarev - search this forum &/google for TLI (&/Taipei Language Institute) & you'll find all your info

[leosmith]

Dalian?

http://www.chinese-in-china.com/?gclid=CNaQydm_mIwCFQGPWAodwm8k5w

http://www.educasian.com/location/dalian.html

http://dutsice.dlut.edu.cn/e/chinese/

[gato]

Taipei Language Institute (TLI) has campuses all across the mainland, including Beijing, Dalian, and Suzhou.

http://www.tli.com.tw/tli/eng/en/4-1.asp?class=4

Class size and course contents are flexibly offered at TLI Dalian, including different levels of courses for Individual Classes and Group Classes (2 or more students).

Individual Classes provide a highly intensive, personalized form of instruction, which enable students to learn Chinese at the pace suitable to individual needs and abilities. Individual Class schedule can be flexible.

[palindrome]

I will second the awesomeness of TLI. The methods they use really gets the language in your head. They work you hard and are very professional. I was there for two months in the fall and went from stuttering-with-tiny-vocab to conversational.

[leosmith]

FYI

TLI's Dalian office is closed.

[roddy]

FYI

TLI's Dalian office is closed.

As in closed for good, or on holiday or something?

[leosmith]

Maybe I'm wrong. I wrote to TLI Dalian site 1 and got an email back saying their school was closed, but would I like to try another one of their locations, etc, etc. That's when I made may last post.

Shortly after, I got an email from TLI Dalian site 2 encouraging me to sign up. Needless to say, I was confused. I thought the second site might be a scam. so I wrote to both of them, asking to explain the other's email.

I got a letter back from site 1, saying they think that Dalian accidentally got my email. That's when I got a clue, re-read the first email, and saw that it was the Shenzhen site that closed. So it looks like Shenzen got my email by accident.

Anyway, I'm a little skeptical about site 2, since they never wrote back. Can someone confirm that it's legit, or sugest how I can confirm? Another question, they are quoting me 99RMB/hr. Does that sound right?

Thanks.

[onebir]

Anyway, I'm a little skeptical about site 2, since they never wrote back. Can someone confirm that it's legit, or sugest how I can confirm?

Ask the TLI head office, perhaps? Anyway, unless you're going to go for more than 3 months, you can get a tourist visa & won't need to pay anything up front, so there's no chance of being ripped off.

Another question, they are quoting me 99RMB/hr. Does that sound right?

For one-to-one? Sounds about right - slightly cheaper than I paid in Beijing.

[badr]

with the heavy competition in Beijing, especially the JianWai SOHO area, it's not uncommon to find good quality classes for less than 80RMB/h one-on-one!

Mandaren was running a special for 25RMB per person per class for any level and they were ready to make it 50RMB/h for 1-1... this was just a few months ago.

[IndhuRen]

According to the website of the TLI Dalian, the actual cost is 110 kuai but the they have brought down the cost to 99 kuai to celebrate the opening of their new school......

[leosmith]

I got a letter from site 2. They sound legit, so I'll probably go with them. I'll have to stay in a hotel I guess; still checking on that. Seems hard to find a homestay in China for a short period. Thanks for all your help.

[heymister]

I'm studying at TLI Dalian at the moment. They're quite legit - although I was also worried about going with a private school. Very responsive and very honest about money and such.

But you're right, finding a place to stay was tough and in Dalian they don't have that part organized enough yet.

I would check out www.dalianxpat.com and www.daliandalian.com to hook up with other expats and find roommates apartments. I should have done that to start.

[atitarev]

Dalian sounds good, thanks, guys.

[daliantli]

Hello,everyone:

I am the director of TLI Dalian Chinese Language Center.I'm sorry.There're something wrong with our Email.So if you want to send e-mail to us,please use this address: dltli@yahoo.com.cn

Thank you very much!!

Dalian TLI

September,11,2007

[atitarev]

Daliantli

I have replied to your email, thanks.

I will contact you when I am ready to go

[Josh2007]

Someone wrote they achieved fluency after 50 contact hours with a good previous foundation. What does fluent mean? It TLI an intensive course? Do they have a language pledge? Are classes one to one?