Winter/Spring Break Intensive Chinese Study

[michael289]

I am currently studying Chinese at Yunnan Shifan Daxue in Kunming. Our winter break starts January 8 until the end of February, and I am interested in spending this time in another Chinese city and enrolling in a short, intensive language course before coming back to Kunming for the next semester.

Has anyone here done this before? What kind of programs are available?

I have heard about courses where speaking anything other than Chinese is prohibited, the location is fairly boring and the classes very intense. So it is easy to concentrate on studying and get the most out of the winter break. I'm still considering my options and would be interested to hear about any experiences of short-term winter study in China!

[Scoobyqueen]

I have done short intensive courses in Beijing quite a few times. Usually 2-3 weeks with 4-6 one-to-one lessons every day. One-to-one lessons work well for an intensive course. I have chosen Beijing as I can combine my such course with work. However, I have invested some time in finding the right teachers who can cater for my needs which include lessons at weekends.

[abcdefg]

It will be difficult if not impossible to find a class. Suggest you concentrate on finding a tutor for intensive one-to-one, as Scoobyqueen suggested. I've done this a couple times. The trick is to find a teacher who can't go home for Spring Festival and figures you can be their "part time job" during the break. Put a classified ad in GoKunming for starters.

http://www.gokunming.com/en/

[roddy]

Sounds like something like this might suit, but I can't see Winter 2010 dates up yet.

[dali3927]

yeah, for short term intensive, one on one class would work better, you will be able to focus on areas you want to improve. I know some people are doing 4 hrs a day, 2 hrs in the morning, 2hrs in the afternoon, personally, 6 hrs a day would be too much, you probably won't get that much last two hours.

[jess.ylz]

if you're up for the cold, it appears the uni i'm at in harbin offers a short-term winter intensive program: http://www.studyathlju.com/en/detail_5.asp