ICLP - Taiwan

[7jason7]

I'm apply to ICLP. Does anyone have any experience with the program? Are the instructors or materials good? How rigorous was the program?

Thanks for your help.

[7jason7]

Why no replies about Taiwan? It's supposed to be a great place to study.

[creztor]

Im studying in Taiwan but have no idea what ICLP is sorry

[roddy]

This might be worth asking at Forumosa - we have a few people on here with study experience in Taiwan though, so you might yet get an answer.

[Harvey]

ICLP http://ccms.ntu.edu.tw/~iclp/

Looks like an intense program similar to Beijing IUP from what I have read. I wonder though, seems you would meet many more English speakers living in Taiwan than in Beijing which may take away from the outside of classroom learning experience... Not sure.

[Jive Turkey]

The ICLP used to be the IUP before the IUP moved to Tsinghua in Beijing. The structure of the programs look similar on paper, but my guess is that one may be able to get more out of the IUP than the ICLP because of improvements in material development and teacher training on the mainland in the past decade. In these two areas, Taiwan is now pretty far behind and inward looking. That said, I would prefer Taipei over Beijing as far as social interraction is concerned. In my experience, Taiwanese are less likely to treat me as the token foreigner.

[hughitt1]

ICLP is great.Teachers are good, classes are very intense, and location is a lovely (not to mention taipei's very attractive city mayor, Ma Ying-Jeou).

For people considering taiwan, there are two main options i would consider:

(a) An intensive chinese program with wonderful teachers and small-sized classes, and a very steep tuition (about $3000-3500/ semester), ICLP .

(B) A slower-paced program with larger classes (i believe 7-15 students, although not positive on that), and fairly cheap tuition (around $600/semester U.S.), National Taiwan Normal University.

I've been at ICLP for 11 months now, and have had a wonderful experience. I would not say you should rule out 師大 (Nation Taiwan Normal University) either-- If you are either trying to save money, just starting to study chinese, or plan to work a lot, or do other things on the side, i would say it is much more appropriate than ICLP.

As for ICLP v.s. IUP (Beijing), i'd say it's more of a personal choice- i've met people who have done both programs, and some liked beijing more, some liked iclp more.

Hope this helps for anyone considering,

Keith

[devi9]

hughitt1-- What was your level going into ICLP? Where would you say you are now?

[hughitt1]

It's hard to say what my level was when i started, i took chinese starting in high school all the way up to chin 309 (business chinese) at university, and even pulled off an A in the class, but i didn't pay attention much in class, so my level was ability was still pretty bad- when i came to iclp i place at 1st semester / 2nd semester level classes.

After a year, (working hard) i'm doing a lot more advanced reading- novels and news, and am able to communicate pretty easily, granted the discussion topic isn't something like astrophysics. My reading ability improved a lot, and i can now read books, comics, or the news and at minimum, understand whats going on. listening also much better- can watch tv shows, and listen to radio or news with reasonable success.

If you are serious about improving your ability, and can afford the time/ money i would reccomend going abroad for a year (or more), regardless of whether at ICLP or Beijing or what ever other place, i think just being in the environment for an extended period of time is a very huge help (as you might have guessed).

Hope this help,

Keith

[devi9]

Thanks for your feedback!

Maybe now I'll finally come to some kind of conclusion as to where I should go from here!

[Guest]

It's interesting to see a discussion here about the only two Chinese schools that Blakemore Freeman Fellowship students can attend, ICLP and IUP. There is a comparison of the two institutions. It appears that overall, ICLP is a bit better, but for some students in some situations IUP may be the better choice.

[StealthyBurrito]

weixiaoma, that was a great article. Thanks for the link.

[PaulRoberts]

Having been in Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei, gotta say that one of the best things about Taiwan is that it's warm and the air is relatively clean. No dust storms, no thousands of factories, and if you want to get away, there's the amazingly beautiful East Coast just 1-3 hours away from Taipei. According to Wikipedia, the International Chinese Language Program (ICLP) aka the former IUP is now a part of National Taiwan University. I was at ICLP for one year and never knew that ICLP wasn't a part of NTU--there's tons of opportunities to explore there with student groups and you can even sit in on classes. Having lived in both China and Taiwan, I gotta say that there's a huge advantage to living in a free society where all sorts of viewpoints are aired out and considered. At ICLP, my Chinese went from basically saying short sentences and knowing maybe 500-1000 characters to being able to read editorials, newspapers, listen to the news, and have deep conversations with people on anything from politics to startups. I still work on my Chinese everyday and my Chinese still needs improvement, but it is vastly improved.

[mi3gai4rui4]

I really recommend this blog about ICLP.