Kunming Mandarin private school comparisons

[drungood]

If anyone can give me feedback for the schools below (or any other private Mandarin school), I would greatly appreciate it.

Keats School (www.keatsschool.com)

This is the school I see mentioned the most. I have checked the prices on their website, and frankly they seem way too high. However, I have heard of students paying 4000rmb/semester for group classes, but I don't see this offer anywhere on the site.

KCEL (www.learnchineseinkunming.com)

This school offers cheap tuition, but the reviews are very mixed. On gokunming.com there have been reports of the school lying about tuition costs and other problems. On the other hand, there seem to be students that went multiple semesters and had no problems.

Mei's Mandarin (www.meismandarin.com)

Does anyone have experience with this school? Their tuition pricing is good, and they claim to be able to take care of student visas, but I've searched and haven't been able to find any feedback from students. Their pricing is ~4000rmb for 20 weeks at 10 lessons a week, or ~6000rmb for 20 weeks at 15 lessons a week.

Yunnan Longwen Mandarin Chinese School (yunnanmandarinchineseschool.com)

Another school I can't find any feedback for. The site doesn't even give the prices, and asks you to contact them. They say they can offer student visas.

Again, I would appreciate any feedback. Thank you!

[putonghua73]

Hi drungood,

More and more people are heading to Kunming, so I am not surprised that language schools are starting to flower (and wilt) to cater for the growing demand.

Couple of disclaimers:

1. I spent 6 months studying at Keats last year
   
2. I left Kunming 11 months ago
   

I replied in a thread a little more than a year ago, and a bunch of us provided a few more options (as well as kindly correcting some of my lapses in concentration with school names;)) in this thread.

If you're going private, then like most things in life, the choices boil down to Gold, Silver or Bronze service. As a former Keats pupil, I'm hardly impartial. Aside from my frustrations at the vegetarian options (I was one of two vegetarians during my 6 months so not surprising that sometimes the choice left a little to be desired), I was extremely happy during my stay at Keats. Yes, it is expensive but then you are receiving the Gold service. The set-up is absolutely perfect if you only have a short-stay or you're not an old China hand i.e. can find accommodation by yourself. The cost on the website is the cost that includes accommodation and food. You can just study and find your own accommodation, so feel free to pop in or email and ask for costs for a price comparison. The Keats thread is here.

Abcdefg is an old KCELC hand and has provided his experiences in the KCELC thread.

You are right to be suspicious. I called-out a language school very publicly last year on GoKunming because the school ripped every bit of content from the Keats website and essentially changed the image on the webpage (and made it a bit more flashy than the former Keats website ). I believe it was run by the boyfriend of one of the former teachers. Rather than cast aspersions (you can guess what I am getting at as I recognise one of the contact names for one of the sites that you listed from last year ...), drop-in to the language schools and see for yourself. Ask pertinent questions; ask if you can drop into lessons; grab students and ask them (in private) their opinions. I was/am open and honest with my views on Keats - I liked it and it offered exactly what I needed but I also inform people that not everyone needs the Gold service.

One of my friends whom I met at Keats last year, recently went to a language school in Guilin that charged the same prices as Keats near enough (and whose website promised a similar level of service). She made the school-girl error of ponying all the money up front - rather than a week - and it was nothing like as advertised. In fact, of her teachers privately informed her that she was being ripped off and that he didn't have any teaching / linguistic qualification. I've asked her to post her experiences on this site, to alert people who may be interested in that school (and also allow the school a right of reply) but I'm not sure if she did so. I'll prompt her when I next speak to her.

Even though for reasons mentioned elsewhere, I will not be returning to Kunming when I next take a sabbatical / relocate to China to study towards the HSK, I'm still very, very fond of Kunming and am interested in news on language schools. So it would be really helpful for others if you could post your experiences if you do decide to drop-in on a couple of schools, as well as which school you eventually choose and your observations.

Cheers!

Edited August 29, 2011 at 07:55 PM by putonghua73

[abcdefg]

I've been to both Keats and KCEL several times. This year I chose Keats and was pleased to find that their service and teaching were still excellent. Last year I attended KCEL and found them to be honest and diligent as well, though as @Putonghua said, Keats goes the extra mile.

I usually don't take the lodging or meals option; I rent my own apartment and arrange for my own food. Both schools offer one to one and both offer small group classes. I prefer one-to-one, but that's an individual matter. So much depends on the actual teacher and how much effort you invest. In either school, you will need to define and communicate your goals and then work with the staff actively to help them deliver what you need. You cannot be passive about the educational process and expect it to all work out well.

As to the costs, be sure you are not comparing apples and oranges; it is easy to misread the data.

I don't have any information on the other two Kunming schools you mentioned.

[drungood]

Oops, I forgot about this topic...thank you for your detailed responses! They are very helpful.

Because of all the positive feedback I have seen for Keats, I think that is the school I will choose if possible. I just emailed them to see if they have some option for me to join them mid-semester, or if I will need to wait until next semester to get appropriate visa/classes etc. I also emailed KCEL to see their available options.