Intensive Mandarin Course

[Greenleaf]

Hi. I am looking for an intensive, as in extremely intensive course to study Mandarin in China (preferably Beijing or Shanghai) for approximately 6 months, beginning in Jan/Feb 2009. I have no clue which universities to look for as I have no experience whatsoever. I can converse in extremely simple Mandarin conversations and I can write and read a little as well. I'm hoping to be able to fully converse in Mandarin, hopefully to write and read more characters by the end of the 6 months.

I'm looking for the better universities out there, preferably managed by foreigners or with more international students, also locals. If you guys have any suggestions for me, please do leave a post. thanks.

[crjcrj]

This post might help you:

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17670-language-schools-in-chaoyang-park-lido-cbd-share-information

The schools that do 4 hours a day in the morning, also can provide more hours with a private tutor in the afternoon, or you can find one outside of the school.

They can also help arrange a homestay family, which will increase your exposure even more.

Good luck!!

[Greenleaf]

Thanks, that was extremely useful. However, I am not really tied to to being near ChaoYang Park or whatsoever ( don't really know beijing, have never been there ). I don't mind being in a university or truly intensive course as my main purpose going there is ONLY learning Mandarin.

Do you have any thoughts/comments on unniversities such as BLCU/tsinghua etc?

[blink]

From what I've read here and seen online IUP has a very intense program, but I think you have to be at an intermediate level to get in so it might be a no go for you.

IUP link

There are a lot of posts here comparing programs. I suggest browsing more of them. The right school choice depends on a lot of factors, like your budget, which make it hard for people who don't know your circumstances to be of much help.

Are you planning to direct enroll in a Chinese University or go through a study abroad program? CET runs programs focused on language study in both Beijing and Shanghai. They have one on one tutor sessions in addition to classes and seem to focus less on the tourist side of study abroad.

here's the link to the CET Beijing program

[eddie9684]

just look for regular courses, and try to make as many chinese friends as possible in ur afternoon time.....

or also look for language exchanges... in an intensive class all u will get is more review i think... not that much of spoken mandarin.

[Greenleaf]

thanks guys for replies. i prefer enrolling directly into a university, hence more interaction with international students. i'm hoping as well the intensive courses cover spoken mandarin as i'm hoping to master it in hopefully 4-5 months. I can already speak in simple conversations, but I'm hoping to read/write as well in that period of that as I have the basics.

[xiaohu]

hey Greenleaf. I'm also in the same position, already elementary-level student, looking for a intensive course from Feb 2009 for 1 semester. I did look at Beijing institutions before, but now just focusing on Shanghai because of the more temperate weather and (likely) better job opportunities once I'm done with the course.

What I've found out is that most of the top universities in Shanghai (Fudan, JiaoTong) have mandarin courses, but how many hours a day you are allocated depends on your proficiency level - if you're at Elementary B, you only get 2 hrs/day, Elementary C, 3 hrs/day and so on, which I think is simply not intensive enough. If you look at their websites, you'll find that there is only 1 listed price for their single-semester intakes. Alternatively, in the top Beijing unis, you can either enroll for 20 or 30 hrs a week for the semester. If you must enroll in a university, I'd suggest Beijing instead of Shanghai as there are plenty that offer the intensive course (BLCU, BeiDa, Tsinghua etc).

If you are open to non-university language institutions, I've found that most of the Shanghainese ones are either ridiculously expensive, or only sell language classes in hour blocks (10,25,50,100 hrs etc). Not sure about the Beijing ones.

What I'm most likely to choose in the end is ACLS in Shanghai (they have 2 Beijing campuses) http://www.aclc-cn.com/ as they do provide intensive courses (30hrs/wk, 1 sem, 25130RMB).

Have you made your decision yet? If not, hope my info helps. Let me know what you go for in the end, and why.