Private Schools in Haidian District

[ginnjuice]

Hello!

So I've been attending Beijing Foreign Studies University (北外）for about 7 weeks now, and overall it's been a good experience. I plan to study in China for a year, so I really want to make the most of it and get as much exposure, training, and practice that I can so that I can be as conversationally fluent as possible. However, I only have 16hrs of class/week, which I think is too small of an amount to really improve rapidly. I know a lot of my progress will depend on myself and how I spend my time outside of class, so besides studying the lessons, I use Anki flash cards to build up new vocab and have a language exchange partner that I meet up with almost everyday. But still, I feel like I'm not making the most of my time, and am thinking about supplementing my learning by going to a private school part-time (and maybe full-time during the semester breaks).

Lately, I've been doing some research and searching the forums on Private Schools in Beijing (which is a lot!). There was a great thread here http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/17670-language-schools-in-chaoyang-park-lido-cbd-share-information with really helpful information and advice, but it was for schools near the Chaoyang district. I also really want to focus on improving my speaking and listening, since being conversationally fluent is my main goal. So I think going to private school, with a small class size would benefit me greatly. Completing a textbook in a required amount of time is not as important to me as really being able to express myself and have a conversation with people.

So to wrap things up, here is what I'm looking for:

- a private school in Haidian, preferably close to weigongcun station (where my school is near). I'm willing to go to wudaoko and I know there are a few schools there (That's Mandarin, Sinoland...).

- a school that really focuses on speaking and listening, so that I can improve these aspects rapidly.

- small class sizes (3-5) or 1:1 attention if cheap enough.

- classes that fit my level - I've studied for a year in the states, and am in lower intermediate classes here in BFSU.

- a reasonable price, not too expensive, but not deceptively cheap.

- flexible hours to accommodate my university schedule.

Sorry for the long thread. Any information, advice, tips, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again!

[njcheng]

Hey!

I went through a private language program (East-West Connection, http://www.east-westconnection.com) before I started Chinese classes at University. EWC was really good and they offer private lessons. They're at Zhichunlu which isn't too far from you I think, but they also do on-site instruction too. The thing that makes me think that it's a good fit for you is that their signature One-Month Mandarin program is very focused on communicating verbally with people and not on memorization of a ton of characters. Also, my teacher was simply amazing.

Hope that helps!

-NC

PS: In full disclosure, I enjoyed the program so much I just re-did their website...