goinabeijing

[owen]

first off, i am new to this forum so i should probably give a few reasons for my joining it.

i left my home in edmonton, alberta, canada in september of 2003 and headed to taiwan. i know that taiwan and china may be very different in many people's eyes but nonetheless i was pretty quickly caught up and intrigued by chinese culture. although i am still pretty fascinated i must admit there are times when there is a little bit of revulsion mixed in with the respect and interest.

i've invested a fair amount of time in learning the language. it was this that first brought me to this forum.

anyways, now i am posting because i am currently travelling around china (typing from xiamen). i am with a friend and we are making our way north to beijing. i have long been eagerly anticipating this trip and i want to make the most of it (which includes trying to improve my chinese language skills).

my friend and i are both thinking to make our way to beijing as soon as possible and spend most of our time there. i was wondering if anyone thinks it is very realistic to think that we could find an apartment in beijing for one or two months... say under 300 USD per month. one bedroom is fine.

also can someone suggest a good university or language school that would accept and intermediate student for only one or two months. failing that, i would want to hire some private instructor, which leads me to my next question. how much should i pay someone per hour to tutor me in chinese (i mean a chinese person)? i should add to all these questions that i haven't ruled out the possibility of settling more permanently in beijing if things go unexpectedly smoothly. i have taught english in taiwan for one year so i have some experience in that 'profession' ;)

anyways, apologies for the logorrhea. i'm not very efficient with language.

p.s. i also like to make new friends. ... and buy them things.

p.p.s. i don't use capital letters. i hope that is ok. perhaps if you tell me a sound reason that i should i will change my ways.

[chengdude]

I think this:

i have taught english in taiwan for one year so i have some experience in that 'profession' ;)

is a pretty good reason for this:

p.p.s. i don't use capital letters. i hope that is ok. perhaps if you tell me a sound reason that i should i will change my ways.

[Adam]

check out www.thatsbeijing.com for classifieds on apartments. Perhaps you could post an ad there for what your wanting.

As for the private tuition, price depends on your tutors qualifications. I saw an ad (thatsbeijing) for one guy asking for 20rmb/hour 1 on 1 tuition.

Some universities have short-term programs available, BFSU (北京外国语大学) charges, for short-term courses, us$270 for first 3 weeks and then us$70 each additional week. I think thats 4hrs class/day.

Anyway, goodluck! Hopefully someone else can give you more info.

[ChouDoufu]

For Short term classes it would probably be better to go to a private school that tutors HSK and that sort of thing. They are usually pretty cheap 24-30 kuai for each two hour class wich ends up being 300 for a two-week two hour class. (I only know the locations of these types of schools in the Wudaokou area). The quality is pretty high as well because these schools have to give the students their money's worth or they'll just leave. Apartment is harder to find because of the time frame. you should be able to find something in that price range though.

[roddy]

I think finding cheap short-term apartments is tricky in any city. Try thatsbeijing.com as suggested and also think about negotiating a rate at a hotel / hostel. When you get here you can try checking out noticeboards in cafes and bars.

For the school, I think you should look at this - very easy to set up short term courses, and gets good reviews.

Roddy

[owen]

I think this:

Quote:

i have taught english in taiwan for one year so i have some experience in that 'profession' ;)

is a pretty good reason for this:

Quote:

p.p.s. i don't use capital letters. i hope that is ok. perhaps if you tell me a sound reason that i should i will change my ways.

that's not convincing, i.e. constructive, in the least,

though i am certain that uberteacher is proud of himself.