Advanced chinese, where

[ilprincipe]

Hello to all and happy new year

I am planning to do an intensive chinese course this coming spring. My level is upper intermediate, i can read about 70% of newspapers, know about 2000 charcters etc. but need to take this to almost fluency level.

My questions are.

Do universities course offer this level of classes, or do they stop at somewhere below this.

From your experience, is university a good place, or best to find some private school . My experience with private schoolhas been awful, except at the the very beginning..classes have no structure, there is no separation between listeing, writing, grammar, reading..it is all a big cloud.

Place. Any city where the oreence of foreigners is omewhat limited, but still pleasant, good entertainment,nightlife.even small cipties, it hink would be accaptable.

Budget is not a big problem

Thanks for your advices

[jiasen]

I've heard from a couple of people that the IUP program is really good (if you don't mind spending the money). The website link is http://ieas.berkeley.edu/iup/

It sounds fairly intensive. Coursework all day and homework all night. The people that made the recommendation had only done a year in this course, but spoke really good Chinese. I've personally never studied there and I'm not affliated with it.

The main problem, based on your OP, is that I think it is only located in Beijing. Entry is also competitive, but you should be fine judging by your stated Chinese level.

[ilprincipe]

thanks Jiasen.

I will check the school you suggested, although, yes, beijing is not ideal

perhaps, I should think about one-to-one teachers...difficult to find good ones, though...almost impossible (any recs?)

[icebear]

I'm at an intermediate level and was pleased with the tutors at:

http://www.ambassadormandarin.com/

last summer, and other friends at higher levels have been as well. I think basic rates were 120RMB per hour, and there might be some discounting if you book a large block of hours ahead of time (a semesters worth). I think when booking far ahead private language schools are also able to make some arrangements on visas (I didn't need this service so I can't say).

Even without any discounts, if I recall correctly IUP is around USD14,000 a year; over two semesters that could instead pay for around 25 hours a week of 1 on 1 at a school like mentioned above. That amount of 1 on 1 from a good teacher is incredibly intensive, and if structured properly should leave you extremely busy in the remainder of your day with writing practice and consolidating what has already been learned.

This private school is in Beijing, so that might be a hang up for you; surely there are recommended private schools in other cities also (probably cheaper). I just wanted to highlight that if money is no issue you might get better returns from an intensive 1 on 1 schedule than a intensive classroom one. Good tutors will be able to design a structured schedule around your goals/needs.

[jkhsu]

beijing is not ideal

Why not? Where are you located?

[Ludens]

I've got a somewhat related question... Although I'm not at an upper-intermediate level myself, I would like to know up to what level Chinese universities generally teach Chinese as a second language. Any thoughts?