Christmas Break Study Holiday, Recommendations?

[Charles Barkley]

I would like to go on a study holiday this christmas break for between 1.5 and 2.5 weeks. Does anyone have any recommendations? So far I am thinking about going to Taiwan and studying at the Taipei Language Institute, but maybe there are other places out there that I haven't thought of.

The criteria would be:

-flexibility of lesson hours (I would probably start on a thursday of one week and end on a tuesday of another)

-nice weather

-cost of a plane ticket in from Tokyo (since it won't be that long, standard of living won't matter nearly as much as there being cheap international flights into the city).

Last winter I took a month-long study vacation to Kunming and that was a blast. It definitely beats a tourist trip...

[Meng Lelan]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a study holiday. Are those organized by some agency or what? Do they exist in mainland Chinese and during summers?

[roddy]

Just google 'China summer course' or something, there'll be a ton of them.

How about Dalian? There's a TLI there which has had good reports, very good links with Japan, and while it's not the most interesting city it's by the sea and very livable. Only caveat would be that the TLI there is in the development zone, which is a bit out of the city proper.

[chinadude2006]

I think most winter programs run for about 4 weeks, For the length of time you are planning on coming here you are better off just joining a tour group.

[Mouseneb]

I'm an English teacher in a small training school in Haikou, Hainan. They have Mandarin classes too, very small and flexible.

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

You can email me if you'd like to know more about it.

[morningdew]

study tours are definitely an awesome way to experience china. last year i went on a 12 day pre-semester seminar to beijing, shanghai and xi'an and it was a blast. good luck with this winter's tour!

[Charles Barkley]

I didn't even know there was such a thing as a study holiday. Are those organized by some agency or what? Do they exist in mainland Chinese and during summers?

Nothing officially called a study tour. Its just a general way of speaking about a certain kind of trip and the kind of goals and expectations that accompanies it. For example, I will be taking a vacation during the Christmas holiday at my school here in Japan, but since its a mid semester break, I won't really have the time to become a full-fledged student. Also, since I'll be going in with a bid of the vacation mindset, traveling around and absorbing the culture, as opposed to building a life in the local community, will be the focus.

I think most winter programs run for about 4 weeks, For the length of time you are planning on coming here you are better off just joining a tour group.

I'm not really a tour group person myself. The key, I think, will be only doing individual lessons, as schools tend to be very flexible with them as long as you pay them a chunk of money and show up. That's one thing I liked about the aforementioned program in Taiwan, as well as the school I studied in Kunming.

Mouseneb: thanks for posting the link, I'll check it out.