Which School in Beijing to go to? (Beginner)

[zhongguo2020]

I decided to go to Beijing to study Mandarin for 3-12 months (hopefully 12 - lets see how it goes)

there are a few threads regarding chinese schools on here, which I read, but it is a big step for me and the advice on here has been very helpful so far, so I thought I post another thread, all advice is very welcome.

I am a first timer, no Chinese, no China experience, so I am looking both for a good Chinese course and a school that is reliable and can help me to find my way around there, especially with visa, accommodation, daily life and maybe a bit of social life wouldnt be bad either. I dont want to be lost in the middle of China...

Based on the recommendations I found on the internet and in this forum I basically narrowed it down to 3 choices:

Global Village, http://www.diqiucunschool.co.kr/:

they seem very cheap and have been around for a long time it seems (indicates some reliability?). However they do not seem to have an English Language website - all information I have about them is from this forum. Which makes me worry a little bit. In fact I wouldnt know how to contact them even - I dont understand a word on their website. Are they good? Does anyone speak English there?

Ltl Mandarin School, http://www.livethelanguage.cn:

more expensive than Global Village, but from reviews about them around the internet, they look very good. I sent them an email and they have been very helpful in answering my questions, the website looks good and they seem ligit from what I read about them, but then that could be misleading?

Mandarin House, http://www.mandarinhouse.cn/:

nice website and they seem to be pretty big and have been around for a while. I wouldnt mind having a student community, which by being so big they probably would have? The most expensive (a lot more than Global Village and a little bit more than Ltl). Some good and some not so good reviews on the internet, but if a school has been around for a long time, I think thats normal. Havent emailed them yet.

Any big No's or Yes for those three? Ideas, suggestions? Ways to ask for discounts?

Thanks for all the help - I know I am not the first one to ask. I hope I will be able to contribute my experiences later and help other here too.

[Christophe13]

Never went tot Ltl Mandarin School and Mandarin House. But i went to global village, they can help you with the visa, depending which country are you from. They can make you a study visa for 3 months, 6 months or 1year, you just need to come with your tourist visa and show them your passport and they will tell you what to do.

Global village actually have their website in English, I forgot what was the website. It used to be a Chinese school for Koreans but now its more international. I'm pretty familiar with the staff there. But if your objective is to study Chinese, I would recommend you to go to BLCU or to other unis since you don't know any Chinese.

From my point of view, I think Global village is a place where you can brush up your Chinese, you will have to choose what you want to study, Unis have programs specially prepared for beginners.

[zhongguo2020]

@Christophe13 thanks! Any way to find out that english website address? I cant find it via google....

I looked at some unis (emailed some of them, never got a reply though) and I am not a big fan of state run institutions - looking for something that is a bit smaller and personal.

[hibicc]

Zhongguo2020 : Global Village is the English name of Di Qiu Cun. Here is the link to their English site : http://gvschinese.com/

[roddy]

I don't think Global Village will do much in terms of accommodation and social activities though.

[edelweis]

their page at CUCAS claims they can arrange an appartment or hotel stay for you, may be a new feature.

[zhongguo2020]

ah, thanks - the English site is much easier to use ;)

Any other recommendations?

[cultureyard]

For 0-Level speakers Culture Yard is about to start an intensive Chinese study program for people coming to Beijing to study. Every level according to the HSK (the official Chinese language exam) is taught over 5 weeks, 50 hours, from Monday - Friday 10:00 - 12:00. Which means students can go from HSK 1 (complete beginner) to HSK 4 (high intermediate) in 6 months! The intensive program also includes Culture Yard's Chinese cultural activities and social events for all the students!

We are a foreign run school, all of us have done the move to Beijing on our own and know how hard it is sometimes to move to a completely new country and culture - so we will be able to help you with all the set up (apartment, police registration, day to day chores and put you in contact with a nice community here at Culture Yard!).

If you have any more questions, ask away!

have a good day

Mahira

[zhongguo2020]

@cultureyard - thanks for the info, but I was more looking for a comment from people who have been to schools ;)

[TailorMade Chinese Center]

Dear readers,

Please allow me to introduce the school I work for. TailorMade Chinese Center successfully provides Chinese language training to foreigners in Beijing since 2009. It is our mission to provide each student with the most appropriate tools to learn Chinese, and we believe the following assets represent our main strengths:

• Professional teachers, all university graduates. They were selected for their professionalism and then followed an intensive in house training.

• A clear, practical, and up-to-date method developed by our team focusing on modern Mandarin.

• An efficient management of your training process: precise definition of your objectives, design of the most adapted program, and careful monitoring of your own progression so that real-time adjustments can be made.

• A total flexibility to adapt to your needs and always keep your training program going on.

To sign up for a free lesson or to get any complementary information please contact us by email: welcome@tailormadecc.net or by phone +86 10 5900 5420It is our mission to provide each student with the most appropriate tools to learn Chinese, and we believe the following assets represent our main strengths:

• Professional teachers, all university graduates. They were selected for their professionalism and then followed an intensive in house training.

• A clear, practical, and up-to-date method developed by our team focusing on modern Mandarin.

• An efficient management of your training process: precise definition of your objectives, design of the most adapted program, and careful monitoring of your own progression so that real-time adjustments can be made.

• A total flexibility to adapt to your needs and always keep your training program going on.

To sign up for a free lesson or to get any complementary information please contact us by email: welcome@tailormadecc.net or by phone +86 10 5900 5420

Sincerely yours,

TMCC-Team

[Friedrich]

I studied at www.livethelanguage.cn last year, dont know the other schools you mentioned.

Course: I studied 20 hours every week and we were three students most of the time in the class which was good for me. They a class lasts 55 minutes, but in reality the breaks turned out a bit longer.

Teacher: I had two teachers and both were very good. After the course I got a job and now have a private tutor and while she is very nice and helpful you can notice that she is not as professional when it comes to explaining grammar, tones and more difficult parts of the language. From my experience and what I heard the LTL teachers are more professional and better trained than what you find usually in Beijing.

Accommodation: I staid in a homestay with them and that was great. Very nice family and it helped me a lot with my spoken Chinese. It costs more than renting an apartment on your own though.

Service: Very good - felt a bit like home. And for the first couple of weeks for me it actually was, as I didnt know anyone else in Beijing. If you are looking for someone to take care of you when first getting here, I would recommend them.

Location: It is in the Central Business District, which is quite central for some things (if you like shopping...) but not for others. Takes about 25 minutes to cycle to Sanlitun (where the bars are).

I think I was in a position not to different from yours now a few years ago, whichever way you do it, dont worry it will be fun. It is very safe here, the people are mostly very friendly and it is an adventure every day. The only really bad choice you could make is not to come to China

[zhongguo2020]

thanks for the replies.

Will organise it all in the next few weeks, looking forward to China :clap

[wenmang]

I have a number of friends who studied at Mandarin House. General consensus is that they wish they had studied elsewhere.

Their housing options were also very expensive because you're staying in one of the priciest areas of Beijing. Do your own hunting and you can find a place for 2000-3000 RMB, half of what folks are paying for the school-supplied apartments at Dawang Lu.

[abcdefg]

I studied at Mandarin House, Beijing, Guomao Branch in Spring 2007 as a beginner. Was pleased with the teaching. No complaints about administration. Arranged my own housing and social life. From reading your first post, it seems possible that your needs might be more comprehensive than mine were at the time.

[roddy]

I have a number of friends who studied at Mandarin House.

Invite them to come along and post then. Vague second-hand comments aren't a great deal of use.

[icebear]

To the OP:

I've used Ambassador Mandarin (write-up here) several times over the past 5 years, and always been pleased with the quality of teachers. One advantage over those other schools, in particular Global Village, is that wouldn't have to live around Wudaokou which has a lot of temptation to speak English (I think), and also wouldn't be interacting with so many other foreign students in the school since it primarily focuses on 1 on 1 courses. Main disadvantage, again against Global Village, is that the prices will be higher (Global Village is hard to beat).

Regarding discounts, typically if you buy in blocks of 100 hours or more you can start to see some decent (say 20%) discounts on the advertised hourly rate - push hard for this if they don't offer it explicitly.

[zhongguo2020]

I finished my my half year in China ant it was an awesome experience. Thanks to everyone for helping me to choose a school on here, the one I went to was great (review here), all the help with planning (there is SO MUCH information on this forum), and just in general helping to relieve anxiety before coming. As soon as I have the money, I will be back in China. 希望尽快可以再见面。