in search of a 3 month program Mandarin in Beijing

[mramsterdam]

Hi all,

I want to study the language in Beijing for a period of 3 months in the spring of 2013. After some research i found out most schools only offer full semester course or sumemr courses. The ones I did found were some private schools which are a lot more expensive. Any recommandations for what to do? tips? or just enroll in a semester programme and quit after three months?

Thanks in advance

[muhrose]

Hi mramsterdam!

BICC http://www.hibicc.com/index.php offers very flexible courses, from one week up to an entire year. You can extend your classes for as long as you want, so could easily begin on a one or two week program even just to try it out. It is a private language school but the prices are very reasonable in comparison to some of the language schools in Beijing. What's more, BICC are able to help you out with your visa which I know helped me out a lot.

I hope this helps!

[lanzhoumian]

I think if there is a university that offers short programs then it would be one of the "big" ones, which I assume you checked already, so I it would probably the choice between paying for a full semester and leaving early or a private school.

When I chose how to come to China to study Chinese I also compared universities and schools, though the timing was less of an issue for me. If you would really end up paying for a full semester and loose part of the course, I would suggest considering the option of studying at a private school though.

I studied a similar course (twenty hours group class per week) to what the universities offer at LTL Mandarin School and for me it was well worth it. Studying in a small class of four students instead of fifteen and not living on a campus with another 5.000 European language speakers plus what I found a very easy sign up process were worth it for me. Also from the feedback I heard from two friends who studied at Tsinghua the teachers we had at LTL actually seemed a lot better - certainly more motivated. The service definitely was, as one would expect from a private institution.

I think a 12 week course at a private school would still work out more expensive than a semester at a university, but if you pick the right one (I loved studying at LTL and would recommend them - but there are others, search the forum) it might be worth the extra money.

[mramsterdam]

Thanks for the information guys! I only think these are a bit out of my price range. If anybody knows cheaper ones I would love to hear it. What did you guys do for accomodation? (price, location etc.)

[lanzhoumian]

The cheapest way for accommodation is usually to share an apartment but check what the school offers. Alternatively, get a hotel for the first few days and then find a shared apartment. For Beijing, you can have a look at www.thebeijinger.com in the classified section to get an idea of what pricing might be like. Keep in mind though that you might end up paying a bit more than on there, as most people on there look for flatmates for a bit longer than 3 months - but you also might just get lucky. If pricing is your main concern, I would suggest not studying in Beijing or Shanghai, as living and accommodation costs are significantly more expensive there than other cities. The cost of a few thousand RMB in tuition difference for different schools is not much compared to what you probably will end up paying for accommodation and living expenses in those two cities.

[lanzhoumian]

PS: for adverts on the Beijing, I would not suggest to decide or pay for anything before you have seen it. Some of the apartments on there are a bit sub standard.

[Pengyou]

There also used to be a school called Diqiu cun (global village) started by Koreans for Koreans. It was not the easiest program to work because most Koreans can read some Chinese to begin with but I liked it because when I talked to my classmates we had to use Chinese because most of them could not speak English. Their classes are two months long and can be mixed and matched to do what you need.