ACLS or Hutong School?

[travelfanatic]

Has anyone had any experience, good or bad, at either the ACLS or the Hutong School?

These are their websites:

ACLS: http://www.acls.com.cn/)

Hutong: http://www.hutong-school.com/)

I've got 40 weeks to work on my elementary Mandarin and I want quality teachers, small group classes and value for money. If you know of any other reputable schools I'd be grateful if you could let me know.

Thanks!

Tam

[gato]

A number of people on this forum have had good experiences with Boomerang Language Institute (BLI) in Beijing. A number of their teachers used to work for US university-sponsored programs like IUP and Princeton in China:

http://www.blichina.com/main/team.html

See these threads for some discussions

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/13011-bli-boomerang-language-institute-beijing&highlight=bli

BLI (Beijing Language Institute)

http://www.chinese-forums.com/showthread.php?p=199524#post199524

Learning Chinese through a self-found tutor or a school in Beijing/Nanjing?

[crjcrj]

I looked at ACLS when I was researching language schools and I did like them. At the time they used NPCR, and probably still do.

But in the end, I chose CLE because it was a bit more flexible and focused more on reading and writing. It is also a bit cheaper. I have been there for a year now (albeit with a few family related breaks), and still think it is a great school.

http://chinaledu.com/

Now, I am the SLOWEST student in the universe, because I have two toddlers at home and don't have time to do homework, etc... the students I have seen come to the school who are super focused, do the 6 hours a day of classes, spend more money to stay with a host family (rather than flat share with other foreigners or rent their own flat) seem to progress soo fast! But of course, it depends most on your discipline and motivation!!

Hope this helps, please feel free to contact me for more details, or look at a I wrote up about a few schools here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17670-language-schools-in-chaoyang-park-lido-cbd-share-information

Good luck and hope you enjoy your studies!