Study Chinese in our small group program in Beijing or Shanghai

I contacted Go Abroad China after discovering them on the internet and decided to talk to them. IN the beginning communication was very quick with them so I was satisfied and thought the program they advised for me was decent enough.

Classes
I was learning Mandarin in a relatively small class, I still remember my school was in an area called Wudaokou in Beijing. My lessons were standard but at times it actually felt like they were intense just because I thought sometimes the pace was quick. But if you do a lot of extra studying after class its easy to keep up to speed with everyone else. Just don't think that its a holiday and you will learn only occasionally. But I guess on the bright side at least you will be getting your money's worth.

Living situation
I stayed in the homestay accommodation with a Chinese family. Everyone was super friendly and its great to see how an average Chinese family lives. But I have to admit that I realise living situation in Beijing is not as cheap as I had thought especially if you want a really nice place.

Do I think the program is useful?
For me yes, I came to further learn Chinese and I got exactly that. I personally know that I have great improvement especially with my conversation and proper way to pronounce words.

I was in China just last year learning Chinese in the small class program organized by Go Abroad China. I signed up for 6 months study and they helped me enroll at a school in Beijing. Of course I like learning Chinese but sometimes it wasn’t easy; I have to say that a big part of studying in China I noticed is going over what will be taught in class, then actually going to class, afterwards reviewing the lesson once more. Most lessons were about the grammar and word usage because Chinese has some very specific rules! I remember 2 times a week there were listening classes; in listening classes usually we listened to different tape recordings of people having a simple conversation, or children songs and learned new words that way. It was fun trying to recognize the words we had learnt already! I got assistance from Go Abroad China starting with registration at my school, they organized my accommodation like we had agreed and I got to stay in a shared apartment. Some weekends they also organized stuff and I met a few other people who came with Go Abroad China as well. Once you get used to it, Beijing is actually a nice city to be in, there was certainly more foreigners than I had imagined at first.