help wanted: Learning Chinese - Winter 09-10 in 6-8 weeks?

[mmmarius]

Hi guys,

my name is Marius, I am a 21 yr old German student at the University of Sydney and I am currently trying to figure out the following:

I have a semester break from Dec - early March and I wanted to pass by China on the way back to Australia and learn the language for 2 months from Jan - March. (I do not have any prior knowledge of the language.)

I know that I only have limited time to learn it, but I am committed and also quite good with languages in the first place. Furthermore, I am trying to prepare for a later exchange with my University.

I would like to know whether there are any offerings that you guys know about that cater to my needs: I basically need something that is really condensed (5-6 hrs per day) and also cheap enough to fit a flexible 1000 Euro budget (including accommodation if possible..)

I looked at various schools and venues, for example Beijing, Xi'an and so on, but I am quite lost, since only few information sources are available in English. Is there anything recommendable for my current situation?

Also: What about studying the language in Taiwan? (Taipei for example seems to have quite a few schools that offer basic, dialect-free mandarine courses)

In general: Should one prefer universities over the private institutions? One of my tutors is from China and he suggested to just pick the cheapest course possible, since there wouldn't be big differences and also pick a more remote, less frequented city to save some money and then travel accross the country for a bit - What do you guys think of that idea?

Thanks in advance,

Marius

[Mouseneb]

Hi Marius, I work at a school that might be what you are looking for. I'm just the English teacher there, so I don't have all the information on the Chinese courses, but here's the website where you can get more info:

http://www.omeca.cc/Article/Mandarin/200907/15.shtml

One word of caution: your proposed time frame includes the Chinese New Year holiday. You might have to take a week or so off of studying for that. I'm not sure if there are any schools that will offer classes during the holiday, or any Chinese teachers who would teach during that time.

~Nicki~

[lilbun]

this might not be within your budget, but Sinoland in beijing's zhongguancun area is quite good. everytime i have an extended holiday break, i always return to them for school. classes are a little pricey, but i think extremely worth it for the personal attention you get due to having at most 4 student in each class:

www.sinolandchinese.com

i'm also sure if you don't want to spend that much either, it is quite easy to find a tutor willing to cater to your needs. tutors are usually no more than 100rmb an hour or it can be negotiated.