'Learn Chinese in China' ↓

I once recommended in this blog Diqiucun (Global Village) Language Institute in Beijing as the choice of language school for studying Chinese in China. A primary reason is that its tuition fee is low. Given that its teaching doesn’t seem to be worse than, if not same as, that of the famous BLCU (Beijing Language and Culture University), the school looks like a fair choice.

The school’s students are predominately Korean and that explains why its website is in Korean only.

Two forum discussions here and here will give you more information about studying in Diqiucun, including the price, the teaching, the schedule, etc. You will find it very helpful.

But I have explained earlier that, don’t expect too much of a western approach to teaching in China. The teaching method in China is simply far from ideal, be it in BLCU or Diqiucun, or any other Chinese language school.

If you want to go to China to study Chinese, what matters most is not what you learn in the school/university, but how you can make use of the language environment to speak more and learn more. The school/university course will force you to learn a bit every day in a formal way, but what you can learn outside the classroom, such as conversation practice on the street, is ultimately what can get you somewhere in your endeavor to master Chinese language. 

The school housing provided by the Wuhu Chinese language school is unbelievably cheap, costing RMB280 per week only – you have your own room, and share a common room, kitchen, toilet with other people. The school has apartments onsite in the school in the city, and those away from the school in the suburbs. My friend stayed in the apartments in the suburbs, about 10-minute taxi ride from the city, costing RMB7. The apartment is very new and spacious, my friend added.

The School offers free lunch to its teachers. If you are students, you pay RMB3 for the lunch. The School hires a cook to prepare lunch for students and teachers.

If you look for some night life in Wuhu, that will be hard. The whole city probably has only one KTV, one bar and one club. And if you want to experience some cultural things, that is even harder.

Recently the city has built a very modern shopping mall featuring some national famous brands. My friend said he was shocked that the whole shopping mall was almost empty throughout the day. The possible explanation is that the local residents still can’t afford the high price that comes with famous brands and up-scale products. On the other hand, the WalMart nearby draws many of the residents for its wide choice of low price groceries and produce.

Wuhu is not a colorful and rich China city like Shanghai or Beijing, but if you want to have a taste of the life in an average China city that is friendly and has a well-run Chinese language school, then this is it.

Wuhu has a Chinese language school called “Aston Language Center”. It has a very familial atmosphere. Most of the students there are English teachers employed by the school to teach in schools in the surrounding area, or Chery Automobile, a fast growing domestic auto company. They are given free Chinese lessons as part of their work package.

There are foreign students going there just to Mandarin, but they are in the minority. When a friend of mine was there, only three such students were there, including one Polish and one American. So there was just one group class for beginners. If you are not at the beginner level and want to join a group class, this school may not suit you. 

The teachers are “very nice, clever and ambitious but lack experience”, my friend said. Most of the teachers are very young, 18 or 19, still studying in the university. Some of them come from the countryside, who make a living as a teacher for 1000RMB per month only. 

Generally speaking, my friend said, the teaching method and material is far from satisfactory. But he said he was quite happy with the school. He was taking one-on-one lessons and could have say in what and how he wanted to learn. Therefore, teachers’ experience did not matter that much. Since different teachers took turn to give him lessons, some of the teachers were actually quite good, he said. He was unhappy with the first teacher the School assigned, and he made a complaint. The School assigned other teachers to him afterward. 

My friend planned to enroll in the school for a week and he ended up studying there for two weeks. He paid 60RMB per hour for one-on-one lessons. The School was wonderful and offered him opportunity to join the beginner group class for free. 

The School was run by a female director who speaks excellent English.  It occupies a whole floor on 5/F in a building without an elevator (yeah, can see that Wuhu is not a modern and rich city). You have to climb 100 steps to reach the school. On the same floor, there are classrooms, facilities and reception area at one end, and student apartments at the other.   

Near the school, there is a lake and a park. When my friend was there, some teachers lived in the student apartment with students. They went out together for Tai Chi in the park before class. 

I will talk more about accommodation and living in Wuhu soon.  

Manda School of Chinese, the first Chinese language school in Hangzhou, has disappeared. Strictly speaking, it has not disappeared, but whose name has been changed to Chinesetown Language Institute. Obviously, there has been major management overhaul. I notice that its website is very confusing. Just to cite some examples. Is its official name Chinesetown Language Institute, or Chinestown School of Chinese, as shown on its contact page? And look at the title on the home page “lean chinese in china’s best Tourist city”. Does the visual look strange to you?

Onto another Chinese language school in Hangzhou. A new language school emerges and it is Mandarin Capital. It was first set up in Beijing and now expands to Hangzhou. If you know of the quality of teaching of the school, do drop a note here.

The TEFL Academy is a private company in China whose main business is teaching English. It now expands into teaching Mandarin at Hangzhou. I mentioned the school before in this blog. It recently set up a new website, call itself great wall mandarin.

There are Nova Language Training Centre, and Babel Language Centre. As TEFL, their main business is teaching English but now they also offer part-time Chinese language courses to expatriates.

All the schools mentioned above are located in the yellow dragon area of Hangzhou. Nova and TEFL are even located on the same floor, and in the same building. Except Babel, all other schools are in modern office buildings with nice classrooms.

Yellow Dragon is a prime business area in Hangzhou - no wonder all the Chinese language schools crowd into the area. It is about 10-minute bike to the famous West Lake, and the third Starbucks in Hangzhou opened there in May 2006, a testimony to the rising importance of the area. The first two Starbucks are in the West Lake area.

For the contact details of the schools, check out the listing here. As for the quality and atmosphere of the schools, then you have to do your own research. 

I always hold the view that Chinese language teaching to foreigners in China falls short of professionalism and training. The authoritarian political system constrains the sort of teachers trained.

Another reason is probably because the emerging Chinese language schools do not want to pay attractive salaries to recruit good teachers.

Do you have any idea how much a teacher earns in a Chinese language school? If the teacher is a fresh graduate from a teacher college, say in Hangzhou, a wealthy coastal city near Shanghai, their monthly salary is less than 2,000 RMB - about 1,800 RMB. And the schools are happy to hire these fresh graduates rather than more experienced teachers. The reason is obvious. Fresh graduates’ salary is low and they will work hard just to keep the jobs offered - after all there are not many vacancies in the field of teaching Chinese to foreigners yet.

Well, to keep the school’s reputation, the school will also hire some experienced teachers. But I can assure you, there must be some fresh graduates as teaching staff just to keep the cost down and the profit high.

I know in person some school management lie to foreign students about the qualities and experience of their teachers. And as foreign students, you tend to just listen and trust what is being told.

I have known and experienced so many lies living in China. Maybe you are more lucky than me. 

If you are looking to study Chinese in China for a few months, consider not to enrol in a Chinese language school, but in a university programme. I raise this issue here because I was asked about the topic and think it may be helpful to weigh in on the topic a little bit more.

The rational is, speaking from my experience and observation, the Chinese language schools in China are mostly very new, meaning that a constructive and customized curriculum for short-term study is far from ready, not to mention a carefully designed curriculum for long-term study. On the other hand, the university programmes have much longer history and are better developed, especially for long-term study.

Onto curriculum - to know more about the quality of chinese programmes at the Chinese school or uinversity, it is important to enquire about their curriculum in details, and how they implement it. Well, most likely they will just tell you they are following this or that book - if you know of one school/university which says they are developing their own curriculum by combing materials in an appropriate and creative way, it might just well be worth your attention.