Mandarin School for foreigners?

[Denverx25]

Hi, I've heard only talks about Tian Jin from my friend but don't really know how to check for schools online. 
 

Can anyone recommend me a mandarin school for foreigners with no mandarin background? I'm looking to be studying there for 6 months next year. 

Homestay is a bonus! I would love to immerse myself. 

If anyone has other places to recommend, please do tell!

Appreciating the answers. 

[Shelley]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

If you would like homestay then may I suggest having a look at LTL (Living the Language) https://ltl-school.com/

 

Hope this helps.

[889]

Particularly if you go the homestay route, you should be someplace where more-or-less Putonghua is the lingua franca, and Tianjin does fit that bill. But "Tianjin" covers a vast area, so study maps and look carefully at location when picking both your school and housing. You want to be as central as possible.

[abcdefg]

20 hours ago, Denverx25 said:

Hi, I've heard only talks about Tian Jin from my friend but don't really know how to check for schools online. 

 

Have you tried a Google search? Type "China Mandarin schools" into a Google search box and you will get hundreds of hits (hundreds of results.) 

[道艺]

lol how dare he ask a Chinese learning forum tips on where to learn Chinese, poor guy

[mungouk]

@abcdefg's point is valid I think — if you can't even do a basic search to come up with some cities and schools you like the look of, so that you can come to the forums and ask more specific or answerable questions about coming to somewhere as enormous as China, then do you really have the necessary life skills to plan, organise and move to a foreign country, and then live/study/survive there for 6 months?

@Denverx25 — welcome to the forums. Do some searches here using the search bar at the top of the page and you'll find plenty of discussions that will give you some ideas. Think about your criteria... what's most important to you?  Price?  Location?  Getting a qualification like HSK?  Opportunities for travel or experiencing culture?

 

btw all schools will cater for learners who are starting from absolute scratch.

 

[Flickserve]

I would also agree with @abcdefg and @mungouk

 

I am a bit concerned for the OP. I know China is a safe place but......

[abcdefg]

@Denverx25 -- I did not intend to come across as mean or critical. We will all be glad to help you after you lay some of the groundwork. 

 

In addition to Google, you might get some useful ideas by searching this forum for past discussions of this topic. Use the search box in the top right corner of the page. Searching works best if you do it on a laptop computer instead of on a mobile phone. 

 

Also, 6 months is a long time for a private school with home stay. It will cost a lot of money. It would probably be wise to consider financial factors early on since they will have a large impact on what study options will be suitable for you.

[道艺]

Maybe it was just me misjudging the tone.

[mungouk]

@道艺黄帝 you don't have to be here for long before you notice that certain senior members have automated bots running... 

 

@abcdefg has one to tell people to search the forums when they ask basic questions, @Shelley has one that monitors for people asking about tattoos and tells them to "think before you ink", etc.    It frees up a lot of time to answer more sensible questions...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lu]

The only 'bot' I am aware of (and which is probably the one that prompts Shelley) is the system we have that assigns every newly registered member to an established member for the new member's first few posts. The established member is then responsible for saying hi to the new member and making sure their question is not ignored and snowed under. This is to make sure that a first, tentative quesion by a new member is not, well, ignored and snowed under, so that the new member feels welcome and hopefully in time turns into an established member.

 

A lot of new members are tattoo-searchers, so yah, one tends to repeat oneself. I do it too. (Most of the tattoo-searchers don't turn into long-term members, and that is fine too.)

 

If you (general you) notice another member using a snarky or mean tone, please call them out politely instead of getting snarky or mean yourself. If that fails, feel free to flag the issue for one of us moderators. You can use the 'Report' button, which can be found on every post. Nothing nefarious happens when you do that, people don't get automatically banned or anything, it just brings the post to the attention of the moderators.

 

Here ends my public service announcement. Please continue your discussion.

[mungouk]

16 hours ago, Lu said:

please call them out politely instead of getting snarky or mean yourself.

 

Snarky?  I thought using 3 smiley emojis would make it pretty clear that I was using humour... 

 

[Shelley]

@mungouk I don't think the remark about being snarky was direct at you. It specifically says 

19 hours ago, Lu said:

If you (general you) notice

 

So not aimed at you but people in general.

 

I didn't think your comment was snarky, just interesting to see how things look to other people. Bots, I wouldn't know how to set that up