3 Months in China - what do you suggest?

[Amyishere]

Hi all, I've been reading a lot on here and I'd love if some people with more experience could give me advice or opinions on how I could make the most of an opportunity I have to go to China for approximately 3 months.  I've probably given about 10x more information than needed here, so feel free to skip some of it if you simply don't care.

 

My Background

I'm a 19 year old Australian currently living in Vienna, Austria.  I'm working here as an Au Pair (child care and language tutoring) while also doing other English and French tutoring.  I speak French to about a C1 level (through a 3 month exchange in France in high school and lots of self-studying), German to about a B1+/B2- level (through lots of self studying over a 6 month period and then 2 months currently in Austria), and hope to have C1 German by the time I leave Austria next July.  Of course Mandarin is a completely different ball-game to these European languages which share so much with English, but it does mean that I do have experience learning languages and have the motivation to do it.

 

I have been studying Mandarin by myself on and off at a very slow and not at all commited pace for about 2 years now, since I've had other priorities and mostly just been doing it for fun when I have lots of free time, and although I really haven't picked up much in the way of active skills, I think I have laid a reasonable base for serious study - I have a pretty good intuition for stroke order at this point, I probably could write out about 150 characters from memory and can recognise or have a vague recollection of a few hundred more, I can read pinyin fairly accurately and even if I don't always produce it perfectly, I know which parts I find hard and make mistakes with.  I know a few basic sentence structures.  So pretty much not a huge amount, but enough that I'll be able to jump right in when I start studying seriously with a good idea of what I need to do without being overwhelmed by a heap of stuff I've never heard of before.

 

I do however have quite a bit of time to go until I would go to China ~9 months, so once I have a clear plan to go to China I will be able to study a lot more so I will hopefully have a much better level before I go.  But German will still take a priority most of the time while I'm in Vienna.

 

TL;DR: I'm living in Vienna for 12 months, I have quite successfully already learnt French and German, I know some basics in Mandarin although I've never studied it super seriously.  I will learn more before I go though.

 

Why I'm Going to China:

1. I have a 7 month block from July 2016 (finishing in Vienna) - February 2017 (starting university) where I have no concrete plans.

2. Splitting my home journey into Vienna - Beijing and then Beijing - Melbourne isn't actually much more expensive than doing it in one go.

3. I'm really interested in China and would absolutely love to experience it - and to be able to study Chinese in country with native speakers and be able to really use it.

4. I'm planning on doing my second major in Mandarin when I start studying (otherwise studying Biology/Statistics/Bioinformatics), so I want to go to China to make sure that it's definitely what I want to do, plus hopefully it'll help my motivation later on.

 

TL;DR: I have the opportunity to go to China with the getting there costing very little, and I want to see China and see if Mandarin something I'd like to continue to study in a very serious way.

 

My Goals:

My main goals for my time there would be to learn Mandarin as much as possible.  I would like to do this through a combination of self-study and working with either a teacher or a tutor, and using it in my daily life.  I also want to do some travelling while I'm there (maybe a total of 1 month out of the three, or a bit less) and to be able to 'experience' as much of China in this short time. (Both of these to help confirm whether study Mandarin at university is something I want to do seriously).

 

TL;DR: I want to learn Mandarin as much as possibly and see China.

 

My Limitations:

1.  I am a young person about to start university - I really don't have much money to spare.   I have enough savings that I could do a huge amount in China - but every dollar that I spend in China is one I won't have for university.  Realistically I could probably spend about AU$3000-4000 ( ~16000 yuan) all up, but if at all possible I'd love to spend less.  If that's unrealistic I could possibly spend more, but I'd really have to weigh up whether it's worth it for me.

2. I only have about 3 months in China because after that I would need to go back to Australia to work and save more for university, and I feel like any longer might start to be cost prohibitive.  I also don't know how possible it would be to get a visa for any longer than that.  As with what I'm doing in Vienna, I may end up staying longer than I planed, but I'd still like to plan properly to stay for a shorter time, then work it out later if I decide to stay longer.

 

TL;DR: I haven't got a huge amount of money and only 3 months.

 

My Preferences:

1. I'd love to stay with a host family where we speak pretty much exclusively in Mandarin at some point in my time there (not the whole time though), because I've found this to be a really great experience both linguistically and culturally in the past.

2. I would like to travel at some point, maybe in two two-week blocks throughout my time there.  I'm happy to travel as cheaply as possible.

3. I'd love to have language tutoring or a language class for at least half of my time.  It doesn't have to be *the absolute best* language school, if that's going to raise the price dramatically, in fact, I can't say I've ever been to a language school, or even had a language tutor that I would consider *really good* in any of the languages I've learnt so far and it turned out fine.  I just want somewhere that can help provide a second dimension to my self studying, and isn't a waste of money.

4. I'd like to also have 'something to do' at some point too.  Given the fact that I don't have a degree so can't really get a work visa as far as I know, I feel like this mostly leaves volunteer work?

5. I'm likely going to do a semester abroad later on during my degree, so studying at a university and staying in dorms wouldn't be my first pick as it's something I'll have the opportunity to do later on. (And the Chinese version of what I'd be doing for the next 4 years in Australia).

6. Having never lived in a huge city and having no immediate plans to (Vienna is the biggest I've ever lived in and has 2 million hahaha), I think it'd be a really good opportunity to have this experience, living in a big city like Beijing, or anywhere that is similarly amazingly-huge-city-like.  However I would equally consider other places if there's a particular reason why it's good.

 

TL;DR: A mixture of host family, travel, language study and something else would be good.

 

My Vague Ideas:

Based on a small amount of research, I've found language schools that offer host families, but the ones I'm finding with a quick google search seem to be very expensive.  I've also looked at volunteer English teaching (I have no degree and a short time so I don't think I could do this professionally), because I've considered going into teaching later and I've enjoyed my tutoring so far.  However, anything that can be found with an English google search seems to be quite expensive also, with IVHQ at US$1000 for a month.  I feel this is a bit too much to pay to do work.  But in general, I think it could give me an interesting insight into China.  As for travelling, I'm happy to plan that out later, possibly even waiting until I'm in country.

So essentially I'm thinking 4 weeks intensive mandarin study + 2 weeks travel + 4 weeks volunteering + 2 weeks travel.

 

My Questions:

Visas:

1. If I can show my plans for 3 months, should I be able to get a three month tourist visa for 3 months in Vienna as an Australian/German citizen?  

2. Is it possible for this to be granted if I hadn't yet booked an onward flight?  I got stuck with this here, thinking I would only be here for 6 months and buying a return ticket, then deciding to stay longer and losing a reasonable amount of money on the return ticket I'm not using.  If not, what would be my options?

3. Am I right in thinking that I simply can't get any kind of work visa, so English teaching/tutoring for pay is out of the question? 

 

Money:

1.  Is my budget at all possible?  Is it realistic?  Am I in a fantasy land?  I'm willing to go without western things for this time to save money, but I don't want to be completely undermining my experience and Mandarin studies.

2. Does anyone know about language schools and/or host family programs that aren't ridiculously expensive?  What are my best options here?

3. Ditto for volunteering.

 

Places:

1. Where would be a good place in China to go considering my criteria? I'd love to experience a huge city, but an area that's also quite authentic would be quite interesting.  I'd love to be somewhere where I could meet Chinese people.   Also somewhere where I can use Mandarin in my day-to-day life.

 

Please tell me of any suggestions, comments, anything!

[roddy]

Bump for amy's unanswered questions!

[ILikeBigWalls]

Places

I think Beijing is quite authentic; you will get to suffer the smog and other unpleasantness on your way to discovering some beautiful things.  Whatever 'authentic' China should mean in modern times is something, in my opinion, Chinese people are still working out, mostly in their cities.  In Beijing you will definitely meet Chinese people and have the chance to try out your Mandarin everyday, you won't have much choice.  A couple years ago I took some savings and tried it out there for 6-7 months.  I was happy.  I only left so that I could return to school elsewhere.  So I just have one reservation about recommending Beijing...that is, I had been there once before that 6-7 month stay, for a short work deployment with expense account and support from the staff, so, in other words, I had a soft introduction to Beijing.  When I came back for a longer stay, I was on my own, but I had some idea of what I was headed for.

 

Money

You might try this school 'Mandarin Zone'.  It is a private school so they won't be helping with a visa.  But their prices were reasonable, I think because their facilities were rather spartan.  However, I found the best Chinese teacher anyone could hope for and learned a lot (I know that teacher isn't there any longer, but they have others).   At that time they would also arrange excursions and such, maybe they still do.  So for a soft introduction, that might be a way to start.  I also recall something about the manager arranging home-stays, well, just ask.

 

Visas

Are you asking if you need to show a plane ticket out of China before you can get a visa or enter China?  I never had to.  I arrived on a one-way ticket.

 

Finally, if you do opt for a 1st tier city like Beijing or Shanghai, be sure you don't get stuck living out in the suburbs.  You will waste a lot of time trying to get back to the city all the time.  I have heard that the home-stay for English teaching arrangement is sometimes a case of a well-to-do Chinese family with a villa (because it has the extra bedroom for you) in the suburbs needing someone to tutor their child.  Before you sign up for something like that just try to understand where on the map you will be living.