Schools for beginners

[l.marsili]

Hello,

I am a begginer in Mandarin (jus know approx 400 characters) and I have four weeks between and of June and end of July to study Mandarin in Beijing.

I gather that schools like the Global Village have a good reputation on this forum - but are they as good for beginners? It seems to me some basic knowledge of the language was necessary to orientate oneself in that school.

If so, what other institutions would you suggest?

I think it is now too late for me to apply to "real university" programs.

thanks for your help!

lorenzo

[Nathan]

I hear Diquicun (Global Village) is a school aimed more towards intermediate and advanced Chinese learners.

I've received some advice which was to take a semester at BLCU to start, and then another semester at Diquicun. Search these forums for more information on it.

Have a look at this thread for more information.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/2200-global-village-language-institute-diqiucun-%e5%9c%b0%e7%90%83%e6%9d%91

[bj_lankaman]

Hi lorenzo! I suppose you're from Italy like me...

well, I'm in a similar situation: 400 characters and only one month available for studying in China!

I'm coming to Beijing in August... so I wonder what did you find at Global Village!

Is it easy for beginners?

Please, could you tell me if there are two week courses in August as well?

Did you try out another solution instead?

Thank you for any suggestions

Manuel

[adrianlondon]

You could try some of the bigger language schools, such as BNU, BLCU (and maybe Tsinghua, PKU) but I think their Summer programs are fixed and run through August rather than July.

It won't be too late to apply to them; as a single person I'm sure they'd squeeze you in somewhere.

Global Village etc are much more informal and will probably try to put you on a 4 week July program with other beginners. Only thing you can do is ring them up and ask.