where to study chinese for 6 months?

[Valeria]

Hi everybody!!

I'm Valeria, an italian student and I'd like to spend 6 months in China for improving my chinese.

I studied it for 3 years at the uni, but the classes weren't very good so my chinese is a kind of lower-intermediate level.

My goal is to really learn chinese and having a real chinese experience and maybe get Hsk, possibly 4 or 5.

My experience at the uni and at BLCU made me think that traditional learning doesn't suit me: I learn faster with more modern methods, like one-to-one lessons, working groups etc. Despite this, I've been only looking for some university courses: the accomodation it's easier to find and it's easiest to get visas etc.

Cities and climate: I'd like better first or second-tier cities, but the impotant thing is that the mainly spoken laguage is putonghua, I prefer colder climates to humidity and hot temperatures but I can adapt easilly if it's worth it.

Actually I thought about choosing beijing and spending the spring semester at qingua university, but I don't know if it's the right choice: I really loved beijing but I'm afraid I'll spend more time in sanlitun than studying chinese

Hope you can help me!!

Valeria

[jasoninchina]

There is an entire subsection to this forum which would be worth reading through. Having read through it myself, I've noticed that Dalian gets a lot of good things said about it. I would recommend choosing a mid-sized city with a small to medium sized foreign community. That way, you can emerse yourself in Chinese life but still have that foreign community to rely on.

[Saxondale]

if you want quite a balanced city (amount of westerners, climate, price, quality of universities etc), i highly recommend Qingdao. I've only been here for a month, but i've spent 6 months in Shanghai and i already prefer Qingdao; it's just so relaxed, has great weather and is very easy to get around.

I'm currently at ocean university of china, which is currently in the process of moving the international part to their new modern campus; so if you come next summer, then you'll be able to benefit from the better facilities and environment.

[Valeria]

After some reading, I really liked qingdao...I'm planning to start my course in spring, are you attending any course at OUC?

[Saxondale]

Yep, i'm on the Chinese Language course feel free to ask any questions.

[roddy]

Would be good if you could ask those in the existing Ocean University topic.

[Valeria]

you're right, I'll do it!

meanwhile:any suggestion about choosing between private school and university course?

[putonghua73]

Hi Valeria,

I studied 6 months at a private language school in Kunming 1-21 tuition, so cannot offer personal experience on a university course. Consensus seems to be (Cliff notes version):

Private language school

• more expensive
  
• more teacher-pupil time
  
• personalised study plan
  

University course

• much cheaper
  
• variable teacher quality
  
• much less teacher-pupil time
  
• University credits i.e. if you are still studying and it's a requirement for your education
  

Joshuawbb wrote a wonderful piece on Xiamen, that includes his experiences of studying chinese at a university. From what I've read on these forums and from talking to other people, his observations are pretty much spot on.