Best Small School with Private One-on-One Teachers in Wudaokou?

[nubcakes]

Hi everyone!

Was wondering if any of you had one-on-one teachers during your time in Beijing. I am contemplating trying out these private tutorial sessions to improve my Mandarin. Currently I've only found ads for BC (besttychinese) and Global Village (diqiucun). Can anyone recommend any other schools that offer such a service and attest to the quality of their teachers?

Thanks in advance.

[thechamp]

When I went to Diqiucun it was only for top up evening classes....I'm not sure they do 1 to 1 but I could be wrong. It was good. Those classes are hard to teach badly or well though. Advantage was that a lot of people who do those evening classes are korean or japanese professionals and their employer are paying - they'll often have to skip class if they work late or can't be @rsed that night, so you sometimes have small classes of 2 or 3.

I've been to 'that's mandarin' and 'purple bamboo' too. 2 of the teachers from purple bamboo actually quit that's mandarin and enterprisingly set up their own school (purple bamboo). They're really good actually. Bai Laoshi was my teacher. She's fun and also a very effective teacher. Their method is cool they just chat and as you pick up new words they write them down on a laptop and at the end of each lesson print them out and you have 20/30 new words - used in a sentence. They don't use textbooks but if you're using your own textbook as well I think that's fine. I have a file of all these lessons and new words.

That's mandarin is basically the same. I would go with whichever one was cheaper although I thought the purple bamboo teachers were really nice.

[thechamp]

I should also mention that Diqiucun is obscenely cheap. Can't remember exactly but it's very very good value for those evening classes

[muirm]

My wife used 1-on-1 Mandarin recently, which is also right in WuDaoKou. It was decent, although her particular teacher wasn't very experienced (had just gotten a Master's from BCLU). I spoke briefly to the owner/manager and he seemed like a good guy, although it wasn't too encouraging to hear that 1-on-1 Mandarin used to be a much bigger operation with many teachers, but has had to downsize recently due to increased competition (i.e. not enough students). As many have pointed out, though, it all really just depends on the teacher, and every place has more experienced teachers and less experienced teachers. If you are trying different places looking for the right learning experience then I would also go see about 1-on-1 Mandarin as well.

As a side note, my wife switched to Capital Mandarin in ChaoYang and liked it much more (but it was just because she got a teacher she liked better).

We also tried to check out "That's Mandarin", but their WuDaoKou office was closed and when we called their dongzhimen office it didn't seem like the WuDaoKou office was going to reopen any time soon (this was late 2011).

[Brian US]

Took classes at Diqiucun for 1-2 months and the teacher was good. Not sure on 1 on 1 teaching, but my class was farely large with 5-6 people that showed up.

Dashan at the Xijiao Hotel behind BLCU had some of the best teachers and some of the worst. One teacher was a college student that was so tired showing up to class she basically spent the time trying not to nod off. Yet, I had the best teacher ever that was a nazi on pronunciation, but she left to teach at BLCU. That school had smaller classes of 2-3 students for the same price of 600RMB per month.

I'm currently taking classes at a school in the neighborhood behind all the bars next to the subway station. I'll get back on the name, but it was started by some Chinese friends I've known since coming to China a few years ago. Not sure on group class rates, but they charge 100RMB for a 1.5 hour class. Mainly only two 30 year old female teachers, and they are more consistent than the odd recent graduate that some schools might give you. Laid back environment, so don't be surprised if your class starts 15 minutes late and you just sit around talking for an extra 30 minutes.

I'm bias, because they are my friends, but also because it's flexible. More like tutors, so I could pick the time and meet with them 3 times a week instead of the weekend/every night classes at the bigger schools.

[Brian US]

The school I mentioned is called Weixiao Language School. I think they are in the process of changing websites, so it's not up currently.

Tel: 010-82867653

Address: Weixiao Language School, Room 2002, Building Jia 5, Huaqing Jiayuan Community, Wudaokou, Haidian Disrict,Beijing.

[driftman]

I am taking classes at ltl, www.livethelanguage.cn they are not based in wudaokou, but have teachers who go up there I think. I had two teachers and both were excellent. They are definitely more expensive than diqiucun though.

[aussiebec]

Re:1on1mandarin in Wudaokou, my husband and I have just finished a year there. I had 2 teachers during my time there, both of whom were excellent. A few years ago I studied at Juncheng School (in Chaoyang) and also at a university, but having done 1on1, I wouldn't look back, the improvement I've had in this one year eclipses my previous progress.

The teachers are well-trained and professional. My first teacher helped me get hold of my fluency, encouraging me to get comfortable speaking. When it was time for me to move on (actually I ended up studying together with my husband), my second teacher really understood what my and my husband's language needs were in particular, and helped us work on them. She made me work and work and work on my tones -- I have finally gotten it! Hurrah! No more calling my mother a horse!

Actually they are right next door to diqiucun so you should check them out if you are there already, I would say the main difference is probably the care-factor, second being the quality of teaching. In my opinion you get what you pay for.

[Purple Bamboo]

你好，谢谢你的肯定与支持。Thank you the champ for your recognition and support! We are delighted that you had a great time at “PurpleBamboo” school.

Purple Bamboo is actually expanding its activities this year: we will offer more social events, accommodation, travels… the idea is to help you experience Chinese culture and sharing experiences with Chinese people. We are of course also happy to offer new students a free trial class.

If you want more information, please drop us an email at info@purplebambooschool.com or send us a message on Facebook at Facebook.com/PurpleBambooBeijing with your name in it. Also you can add our WeChat: Purple-Bamboo-Shchool.

 

Looking forward to meeting you!